Southwood Builds Hope in Tanzania

 

Thank you for supporting the Tanzania Church Project!  To date, we have collected donations for 714 blocks and that number is still growing. We are almost halfway to reaching our goal of 1,500 blocks.  If you would still like to participate, please bring your donation of $12 to the Southwood Serves table in the Café or you can also donate online  by giving through Southwood's secure Online Giving and entering "Church Project" into the "Other" field.

These donations will help “Build Hope” for our brothers and sisters in Tanzania by helping to build this church in Nkiraawanga. It is in a remote area in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Members in that area walk hours to attend church and worship at Uswaa, our sister church, which is 4-5 miles up the mountain. For the elderly and the sick, it is too great a distance, which means they are rarely able to attend worship.

Can you imagine walking 4-5 miles each Sunday to attend worship? Can you imagine walking that far with young children or an elderly relative with you? A person in our congregation has been actively trying to imagine what this would be like:

Yesterday I walked four miles, partly to walk off my Easter dinner and partly to relate to the distance traveled in Nkiraawanga to attend worship. Since I live here in Lincoln, I took my cell phone with me, just in case I couldn't make it I could call my son to come pick me up. Good News, I did make it. But while I walked I thought about how often I would do this to attend worship, I thought of my mother and the fact that she could never walk this far and would not be able to attend worship. I thought about how much I admired the commitment of the people in Tanzania and their desire to worship. I am thankful for the opportunity to help these people build a place to worship closer to their homes. DeEtte Turgeon

To read more about our church in Nkiraawanga, click here.

Comments

[DeEtte Turgeon]

I am anxious to see this lego church grow! I have been walking to connect to this project and to fully realize what it would be like to walk 4-5 miles to worship. This week I changed my route and walked from my home @ 56th & Pine Lake West to 40th Street then South to Yankee Hill. As I came down Yankee Hill looking South I enjoyed the sight of the church where I worship, grow, serve but honestly don't often invite. I so appreciate having Southwood as my church home. I thought of those in Nkiraawanga that are anxiously awaiting the completion of their new church home. As I stood at the corner of 40th & Yankee Hill I realized that basically all I could see of Southwood was the ROOF:) Lord let us help to put a roof on that church that our friends in Tanzania can spend less time walking and more time in worship. So those that cannot walk 4-5 miles will still be able to attend worship. Lord bless us with the means to give.