In September and October of this year, we will welcome two guests from the UKD. Pastor Wilson Nyakachewa is the Assistant to the Bishop of the UKD. Pastor Ezekiel Mwambungu is on the Diocese Leadership Team and is the Director of the UKD's Strobelt Pre and Primary School.

The Northwest Intermountain Synod has a Companion Synod in Tanzania, The Ulanga Kilombero Diocese (UKD). The Companion Synod Team is striving to have guests from the UKD with us every other year and to organize a trip to Tanzania every other year. This fall, two guests from the UKD will be with us for 6 weeks, traveling throughout the synod. And in June 2026, there will be a trip to the UKD.

Tanzania and Eastern Africa have again suffered from flooding and rains that have damaged roads, bridges and agriculture. The crops of maize and rice that the schools depend on have been wiped out. Some parts of the diocese are not easily accessed and the government resources to repair infrastructure will take a while.

Bwana Yesu, Asifiwe! (Praise Jesus! in Kiswahili) The Northwest Intermountain (NWIM) Synod has enjoyed and has been richly blessed by a 35-year relationship with our Companion Synod, the Ulanga Kilombero Diocese (UKD) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. In July 2024 a contingent of 13 pilgrims from the NWIM Synod traveled to Africa to visit the UKD.

Please watch a brief 5-minute video (below) of this trip which has been distributed to Region 1 of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America World Hunger Chairs.

St. Catherine of Sienna said, “All the way to heaven is heaven.” Most of the way from Dar es Salaam to Ifakara is bumpy and awkward, punctuated with roadside checks along freeways and unpaved paths of varying quality. But even this section of our two-and-half-week pilgrimage to the Ulanga Kilombero Diocese was heavenly, because we saw the face of God everywhere we looked. 

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.