So…why do we go?

It is 330am local time, 630pm MN time, I am wide awake and my body does not know where it is or what day it is.  It has been a busy day traveling to Tanzania.  After arriving at the airport at noon on Sunday, we left at 3pm for a 8 hour flight to Amsterdam.  Then after a three hour layover another eight hour flight to Kilimanjaro airport followed by a couple of hours getting through customs and a long bumpy drive down a highway and what some might not even consider a road we arrived at our Hotel in Arusha. 

A lot of time to consider why are we doing this, why are we making the trip.  Yes we have come to build relationships and dedicate a school, but what difference will it make? I am reminded we have come because we were sent.  In Matthew 25, Jesus tells us to stand with the poor and the outcast, to care for the least of them.  We do so locally in our churches, standing with the hungry, those needing health care, our immigrant neighbors.  We do so globally working with our companion synods like the people of the Central Diocese of Tanzania, so we were sent.

In many parts of the world half of the population is considered less than, not worthy of dreams or able to achieve goals or given the opportunity to make a difference in their world.  So we have been sent to stand not only with the people of the Central Diocese but in particular with the women and girls by dedicating the Bishop Regina Girls Secondary School for girls.  A place for the young girls of the Central Diocese to get an education and to dream, to consider how they might make a difference in the lives of their families - or maybe the world.

Some have asked why it is being named for our bishop, Bishop Regina.   We all need role models to help us dream, to see the possibilities.  Women have been ordained and served as rostered ministers in the ELCA for many decades, but not so for the church of the Central Diocese.  While congregations within our synod and the Central Diocese partnered to build the school, Bishop Syprian Hilinti of the Central Diocese wanted to make a statement to the women and young girls. Putting Bishop Regina’s name on the school is a tangible sign for girls throughout the Central Diocese that they, too, could achieve their goals. Yet the question still remains: Will it make a difference? The hope is it will. After all, Bishop Regina set an example for them when she boldly said ‘Yes!’ to God’s call to ordained ministry, then again boldly said ‘Yes!’ in becoming our bishop in 2019. In the naming of the school, young girls in Tanzania will now have an example to follow, to boldly say ‘Yes’ to their own calling in life.

Yet the uncertainty remains: Will it make a difference? We ask if it will succeed or will her name just be letters on a building in Tanzania.  That is where our faith comes in as we are sent without guarantees that any of this will succeed. After the 25th chapter of Matthew, Jesus sends the disciples and ultimately us with instructions that we are to take the Gospel to the world baptizing in the name of the Triune God. So we have been sent, to experience the life we share as the Body of Christ, to stand with our brothers and sisters by offering hope -  especially to the youth of Tanzania.

Having taken part in the dedication of a school and a church in the past, I know it can feel a little like a baptism of sorts.  There will be prayers and promises and maybe a little water sprinkled about.  It was at Jesus’ baptism that Spirit descended upon him live a dove, just as the Spirit delivered us on the wings of a blue and white plane to the people of the Central Diocese. Now all we can do is to continue to walk with and beside them, to lift up their dreams, to support not only the Bishop Regina Girls Secondary School, but also the young girls who will attend the school so that they might not only grow in their life but in their dreams.  So we trust the Spirit who brought us to Tanzania to do her work for the sake of the gospel.