Here is the latest regarding Stephen, who is still in Tanzania:
Stephen remains at the Ark Hotel in Mpwapwa. Power comes and goes due to lack of water in the river producing hydro electricity! He is keeping well.
Sadly Archbishop Jacob’s uncle died last week so Stephen attended his funeral. He is working on computers at Queen Esther’s Girls Boarding School and preached there on Sunday. As a result of that, the girls were encouraged and empowered to pray for one another with one girl being healed of long term tummy problems, one girl no longer needs glasses and one girl has been miraculously transformed back to the gentle caring girls she used to be. He has been guest of honour at a college graduation service and has learned quite a bit about solar power from a visiting US team. He now understands what is needed at Nolini clinic to ensure their solar power system works, which will enable the nurses to use electric light instead of kerosene lights during night births! It may cost £500 but will give them power for 10 years.
He is also installing water filters at St Philip’s Bible College so the students can have clean water. He will be travelling there tomorrow. On Friday he travels to Dodoma, the capital, to meet with Father William Msaki, who is heading up our CCMP programme. He runs 15 such programmes in Tanzania and says ours is the most effective to date, and the villagers are responding so quickly to the empowering teaching, mainly due to the fact that a team took the time and trouble to visit. It was such a privilege to sit and hear their stories, see their projects and encourage them even more. On the last day in the villages we visited a school in Nolini where the buildings were falling down and the teacher’s office was unusable – they were sitting under a tree. On hearing how the villagers in Matongoro had got together to build new classrooms, they have decided – as a village – to do the same. Yesterday – only 12 days after our visit – work started on the foundations of 2 new classrooms. Each family will provide a bag of cement and 5 foundation bricks. These people are AMAZING! AND its all due to the CCMP programme St Stephen’s are funding!
Please pray for fair and peaceful elections this Sunday, and for when the results are announced. For the first time since independence, there is a strong Opposition to the Government. Stephen will return to Mpwapwa on Friday with a friend from Rochester Diocese and remain in Mpwapwa until they travel together to Dar es Salaam for their flight home on Tuesday.