Singida, Tanzania might be my favorite place so far. I can't exactly put my finger on the reason why. I loved the Arab flavor of the little town, which is 80% Muslim. And in a weird way, it kind of reminded me of some place in Arizona. There were huge rocks rising up out of the ground everywhere, and it was very arid and desert-like, with bright blue and orange lizards running around. We climbed the rocks overlooking the lake near our house a couple of times, both at sunset – once just to soak in the view and have a little dance party with local children who followed us up, and the other to worship and have Communion as a team.
We stayed at a house that's the headquarters of Youth Ambassadors Singida, an organization which assists street children. It is not affiliated with the church but Pastor is friends with the people who run it. It was really nice, and always a party in our house – one night, we celebrated Rama's 10th birthday (one of the children who lived in the house) with a cake fight. Too much fun.
Our house
Some of our family
Each day for ministry, we went to the church, where the finishing touches of the construction are being completed (primarily windows). It is located in the center of a Muslim community, where many of the children are orphans or street children who live in extreme poverty. We were able to visit their homes and pray for their families, as well as just spend time loving on them. Coloring, movie watching, and painting fingernails were huge hits with the kids.
Church building
Our team with a bunch of our kiddos
Painted fingernails
Watching movies
Me and little Baraka
Our family there consisted of Pastor Paul, Mama Janet, and their children Salum, Rosemary, Samuel, Seefa, and Rose. Pastor and Mama are 2 of the most selfless people I have ever encountered. It is very apparent that Pastor is extremely respected in the community, and rightfully so. He truly has God's heart for all of the people here, and goes to great lengths to help provide for widows and orphans and to improve the situations of the hopeless in Jesus's name through his foundation called Greater Grace. And I don't think there is anyone who can rival the love that overflows from Mama. I can't describe how much I love this family!
Pastor Paul and Mama Janet
The relationship between Muslims and Christians there in Singida was also very eye-opening to me. I suppose I always generalized that the two fundamentally couldn't get along, but that is not the case. There are families in Singida that include both Muslims and Christians who live in peace with each other. God has been stirring a passion for Muslims in my heart for a little while now, and my experience in Singida only strengthened that. During our time there, I read a book about Islam and how best to effectively minister to Muslims (written by my pastor in Chapel Hill, JD Greear). It was extremely helpful and I am praying that God will give me the opportunity at some point on this race to lead a Muslim (or many) to Him.
The influence of the occult was also very present there. As we were walking down the road one day, one of my Tanzanian friends grabbed me and redirected my path suddenly. That's because there was a smashed coconut in the middle of the intersection, which was apparently the work of a witch doctor. He explained that when a person has troubles, they visit the witch doctor who removes all the bad spirits from them, corrals them all into the coconut, and then smashes the coconut in a place that is well traveled. That way, the first person who walks through it receives the bad spirits (or something like that). Good thing I got Jesus to prevent any ill effects of my misstep. We also witnessed a demon being cast out of a woman at church for the first time. It was intense.
We finished off our month in Tanzania with a trip to Moshi, where we celebrated Thanksgiving with some of the other teams and I met the child I have sponsored through Compassion for the past 4 years (separate blog coming on that). Then some of us went on an overnight safari in the Ngorongoro Crater (most beautiful place ever), while the rest conquered Mt. Kilimanjaro.
