2024 Synod Trip to our Companion Synod, the Ulanga Kilombero Diocese in Tanzania
For over 35 years, we have had a growing relationship with the people of the Ulanga Kilombero Diocese (UKD) of Tanzania. While our relationship is built on mutual support, prayer, and support of projects, it is best nurtured in face-to-face visits. Over the years, we have brought people from the UKD here for visits throughout our synod and people from here have traveled around the UKD. Through email and social media our relationship is nurtured – but nothing does more than when we are together in-person!
This July, a group of thirteen people from across our synod will travel to Tanzania to spend 2 weeks bathed in the hospitality of our siblings in Christ. Please keep this group in your prayers while they finish their preparations, during their travel, and as they return home. They will have wonderful stories to tell when they return. Consider inviting one of them (or one of the travelers from a previous trip) to come to your congregation to share about our companion synod. They will have information about how the UKD is rebuilding after the record floods earlier this year (and how our donations to them have made a difference). They will have stories about the girls at Tumaini Lutheran Secondary School who receive scholarships from our synod. They will be able to talk about Lugala Lutheran Hospital and how medical care is available to an extremely rural and far-flung area of the country. They will be able to share about the warmth and care that the people of the UKD offer. That is just the tip of the many stories they will bring back.
The group traveling is: Pr. Ethan Bergman, Janet Boyer, Ann Cooper, Cory English, Phil Gregg, Pr Emily Kuenker, Pr Liv Larson Andrews. Carla Lich, John McQuaig, Melanie McQuaig, Eric Merten, Wesley Showalter, and Mary Kay Tinker. Your prayers for their safety as they walk alongside our partners in the faith are appreciated.
Should you wish to receive more information about the UKD, please contact Deacon Heidi Cryer, chair of the Companion Synod Team, at hcryer@thelordoflife.org.