With Hope, Comes Joy!

We went to Tanzania thus year before Christmas, (we usually go in January), and we traveled when many suggested we shouldn’t. But after much prayer and discussion, we decided to go because we felt God was calling us to go and to trust in his plan.  This was a different way of “going,” that we hadn’t experienced before.  We were going on a road “less traveled,” and that has made the difference.

Upon arrival, we were told that as always, many villagers in Bwambo had financial needs. But this time the needs were more desperate because the “trickle down” effect of Covid. It even effected the farmers and small business owners in Bwambo, a village that is atop of a mountain in East Africa. But we also saw so much being done because of our  generous donors.

~ St. Elizabeth’s Maternity Center was almost finished and is so beautifully constructed.  Men and women were fixing granite stones, taken straight from the mountain, to build paths and walls to prevent erosion.

• 180 elementary students at the new St. John the Baptist Academy were busily working in their new classrooms.(photo above)

• The newest staff at St. Lukes Health Center was in full swing, delivering babies, seeing emergency cases. Helping the elderly through Covid, and enjoying the new medical equipment donated by our sister parish last year.

• And the greatest surprise was Mark was asked by Fr. Dr. Beda to invite all the local midwives from around the South Pare Region to come for a three day course in obstetrics and infant resuscitation. 

I could write a book about all that we experienced this a trip, and the many joys of seeing so much accomplished in Bwambo Mission.  12 years ago, we came upon a village that felt like a ghost town.  People were poor and not employed.  Kids were not going to good schools, if any.  And the staff at St Luke’s was made up of two midwives and a security guard.  So much has profoundly changed and impacted the lives of those sands of people, once living in poverty. There’s still so much more to be done to help Bwambo Mission, but we (you and I) have planted thousands of SEEDS of HOPE and all I can say is be grateful for the chance to be a part of this “garden of hope”.

Praise God for generous hearts!

Molly