A Joyful Goodbye

Greetings from Tanzania!

Today we started our morning with a delicious breakfast provided by a congregation in Korogwe. Following that we headed out to teach a small group of preschoolers. They seemed to really enjoy all of our presentations and pictures. One was even playing with some of cutout characters from my lesson. Then we got back on the road to head to a school where we taught 70+ teenagers who found our lessons to be very fun despite the fact we were prepared for teaching younger children. Then we took a break for lunch where we received another very delicious meal from the congregation. Then we all, including some members of the congregation, piled into the van to go to one last location. It was a very packed van with 13 of us piled inside a 10 person van but we made it to the last location safe and sound. Here we taught close to 50 more very well behaved children. We ended our lessons with them by singing "Here is The Cross" as well as a few songs in Swahili. Then all the kids waved goodbye as we drove away.

We ended our day back with the Korogwe congregation who wanted to say goodbye. They presented us with songs of praise through their incredible singing voices. Their musical abilities are surely a gift from God that they joyfully use to praise His name. As they were singing one of their hymns, they presented us with gifts of fabric that they made for us to wear. We asured them that these gifts would always remind us of them and their wonderful singing. Then Pastor Ohlmann said a prayer for the congregation and gave them God's blessing before we headed back to our hotel for the night. It was a very busy day but one I'm sure none of us will forget.

-Valerie Barthels