On March 20, 2009 our team hosted an authentic African dinner fund raiser for friends and family. We cooked for sixty people, and sixty people ate! Our guests were served a Tanzanian coconut bean soup and chapati as their first course. The main course was a delicious South African nut and raisin meatloaf accompanied with an East African squash-yam mixture and cabbage-pineapple salad. For desert the guests were served sweet coconut bread from Liberia which they enjoyed with spiced chai (tea) from East Africa. At each table there was plenty of fresh red papaya, mango, pineapple, passion fruit and sweet mini-banana's to complete the African dinning experience! Is your mouth watering?
Our program consisted of Kenyan vocalists almost refusing to leave the stage; they had so much fun singing in their native language. Trinity's mission intern, Sarah Switzer, spoke about our involvement in Tanzania last year. I (Daniel) picked up where she left off and introduced our vision and mission for this year. You can read about it in the first blog entry on this site!
We were so encouraged by our guests support! Derryl Friesen, the national coordinator for Wycliffe NextGen Mobilization, got up on the mic and poured out his heart in support for emerging young leaders and missionaries. Our team was blessed by his empowering encouragement. Following a profound and deeply relevant prayer over our team from an elder and best friend, Don Arnot, we could be nothing but extremely encouraged and blessed to have such friends and supporters!
We have reason to celebrate further, together our dear friends generously gave $3,000 towards the work which God has prepared for our team in Tanzania.
This fund raiser went exceedingly better than I had planned, which I believe is often the case when God has a hand in things. Thanks again and blessings to all those who were involved!
We came together and tasted delicious, exotic food - but our team left that evening tasting something different - God's goodness: Psalm 34: 8 "Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him."
Monday, March 30, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
What We're Doing!
Last year a Trinity Western mission’s team was serving a Tanzanian grassroots organization building a community library, and dirt roads to an Eco Village project that was underway. At the close of the missions trip, we rejoiced with most of the roads done and the library almost finished. God has continued to put the Tanzanian people on my heart. Two of the team members, Jamie and I were approached by the mission’s coordinator at TWU and we were encouraged to organize and lead a community development team of students to return again this year. With our team of six we will be involved in serving the community in Tanga through teaching ESL, Aids work, orphanages, health care, children’s programs, leading Bible studies etc. We have a strong connection with a Christian youth worker and local church in Tanga, which is seeking to partner with us on an ongoing basis. While we are serving this summer we would also like to meet with grassroots organizations already serving in this area and collaborate with them to serve the people each summer. This will involve doing a community assessment to discern pressing needs and issues which are not being adequately addressed
In Luke 18: 35-43 a blind man cried out to Jesus and caught his attention. The first thing Jesus did was ask the blind man, "How can I help you?" The blind man replied, "Lord, I want to see." Jesus then proceeded to meet the need of the suffering man, he healed him. After the man's felt need was met he and all those around him praised God. Essentially this is our vision of serving and development. We want to go into the Tanga community serving, collaborating with other agencies and listening. We believe this is the most effective way to address the needs and sufferings which the people are experiencing. Once the needs are understood, together we will target the specified area and implement a development project. Ultimately our aim is to soften hearts towards hearing the saving gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. Similar to the miracle story, praise and worship to God will be the fruit of our labour.
These six Trinity Western students have united together to go and serve. They are passionate about the long-term vision of this missions trip. Each team member is fund raising for a Tanzanian student ("counterpart") to join our team once we get there. Canadians and Tanzanians will pair up together. Each partner pair will stay in a separate host family for an entire month of the six week program. Essentially this counterpart bond will form the foundation of our partnership and will produce experienced Tanzanian agents of change in the community when we depart. Each pair will have a volunteer placement within the different sectors of the community: health care system (hospice), education system (teaching English), social services (home for victims of HIV/Aids; Street kid shelter) etc. Every week the counterparts will give a formal presentation to our team and local church and community officials regarding potential longer term projects. We will encourage them to begin preparations for a project that meets the identified issue, and Trinity will plan to lead a team back to support them the following year. As a representative of Trinity Western, our goal is to initiate a sustainable transformation of the community, not to own it and carry it out ourselves. Our team is centered in Christ, committing our service for His kingdom building purposes!
In Luke 18: 35-43 a blind man cried out to Jesus and caught his attention. The first thing Jesus did was ask the blind man, "How can I help you?" The blind man replied, "Lord, I want to see." Jesus then proceeded to meet the need of the suffering man, he healed him. After the man's felt need was met he and all those around him praised God. Essentially this is our vision of serving and development. We want to go into the Tanga community serving, collaborating with other agencies and listening. We believe this is the most effective way to address the needs and sufferings which the people are experiencing. Once the needs are understood, together we will target the specified area and implement a development project. Ultimately our aim is to soften hearts towards hearing the saving gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. Similar to the miracle story, praise and worship to God will be the fruit of our labour.
These six Trinity Western students have united together to go and serve. They are passionate about the long-term vision of this missions trip. Each team member is fund raising for a Tanzanian student ("counterpart") to join our team once we get there. Canadians and Tanzanians will pair up together. Each partner pair will stay in a separate host family for an entire month of the six week program. Essentially this counterpart bond will form the foundation of our partnership and will produce experienced Tanzanian agents of change in the community when we depart. Each pair will have a volunteer placement within the different sectors of the community: health care system (hospice), education system (teaching English), social services (home for victims of HIV/Aids; Street kid shelter) etc. Every week the counterparts will give a formal presentation to our team and local church and community officials regarding potential longer term projects. We will encourage them to begin preparations for a project that meets the identified issue, and Trinity will plan to lead a team back to support them the following year. As a representative of Trinity Western, our goal is to initiate a sustainable transformation of the community, not to own it and carry it out ourselves. Our team is centered in Christ, committing our service for His kingdom building purposes!
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