Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Preparation for the "TRIP THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE"

The 2015 Tanzania Travelers have been planning our trip since the summer of 2014.  We have been meeting the second Wednesday of each month.  Our time together has been a wonderful time to  get to know one another and bond.  At each meeting we spend time "catching up on the events in our lives in the past month", we use a Bible Study;  Before You Pack Your Bags,Prepare Your Heart.  This study has guided our discussions on various topics including Traveling outside your comfort zone, Mission projects; "how" is more important than "what", Learning to listen to their story, Learning to tell ours.

In March we visited Trinity Lutheran Church in Minneapolis which has a Swahili worship every Sunday afternoon, all in Kiswahili. The day we visited was Women's Day, many people were dressed in African clothing. After the service we were invited to a Tanzanian dinner which was bountiful and gave us an opportunity to taste some of the food we may have while in Iringa.

The 2015 Tanzania Travelers are:
Mary Lillie, Dawn Jensen, Beth Jensen, Jim Wolf
Betty Wolf, Coan Milton, Jillian Tabaka, Amanda Urban
And Mark McKenzie who was canoeing at the time of this picture.


The Travelers will depart for Iringa at two different times.  Mary, Dawn, Beth and Amanda will leave on Sunday, July 5 so they can visit the Mt Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. They will tour the area and also go to several game parks.  Jim, Betty, Mark, Coan and Jillian will leave on Wednesday, July 8. We will all meet up at the airport in Dar Es Salaam on Thursday about 10 PM. We have heard via email that Pastor Himidi Sagga and Grace Nyagawa of Kihesa will be there to meet us, as will Ibrahim Liduke and Brighton Mkocha.  We all spend the night at a hotel and early the next morning, we board a bus, (our own private bus) and travel to Iringa, an 8-10 hour ride. The trip to Iringa is lengthy.