And the Trophy goes to!

What a celebration! We worshiped today at Mlendege Lutheran Church on the other end of town here in Iringa. Their choir was one of the competitors at yesterday's choir "battle" of the Iringa Diocese. Among the 40 choirs scheduled to compete they were the overall winner -- and clearly the most theatrical and musical of those we saw (or heard on the radio later in the day). The competition went from 10 AM to 7 PM on Saturday and only when Dale got to the church did we find out the winner.

We arrived for church just as the first service was wrapping up and the choir was just performing their program from the competition. It gives you goose bumps!. After tea and sambusas (meat filled pastries that you find everywhere in the world, but are especially good here), we were seated around the alter for the second service. Following Dale's sermon, the choir performed their winning program again. We must have looked like a bunch of statues up there because Tobie, Annica, Caleb, Carrie and I were just mesmerized as the choir entered with at traditional Maasi chant. I recorded all of the piece and will upload it to where you can hear it. Once the choir was formed in a large semi-circle at the front of the sanctuary, the pastor (who was going to be away this Sunday but came back for this celebration) held up the choir's winning trophy.

What a privilege to be part of a celebration! Following the service, the choir led us out to the front steps of the church and gave us one more short song. Here is most of the choir after all day at the competition and all morning still beaming from their victory.

For most churches, this is the traditional end of the service. The choir leads the congregation out to the front of the church. The congregation forms a large circle around the front steps and the pastor comes out for the final blessing: "Go in peace, serve the Lord", "Thanks be to God". Everyone shakes hands and wishes each other good health and the service is over. By the way, they don't have coffee hour and they don't run home to watch the Vikings. We are getting used to this routine, but miss our fellowship with all of you at Fish Lake Lutheran.

We Skyped with Sharon's children and grand children Sunday night. Brinn (14 months) is walking, Brooke and Hannah (6 years) read us from one of their books. It was great to see them, but hard on Sharon -- who really wants to be there for every one of these new events. Sharon cared for the 6 year olds for the past 5 years and Brinn for the past year. It is hard to watch them grow up from afar. She decided that 3 months is too long and wants to come home.

At 6 PM we started Skyping with the congregation at Fish Lake. They could see and hear us as we huddled around Carrie's laptop in the Stiles' living room. We all gave a little greeting and Dale gave the final blessing to the congregation. We then talked to many of them as they filed out (for coffee and treats, I am sure). It was great to see all of you and we miss you even more now that we can talk to you. Thanks to Paul Stewart for setting up the computer and projector in Minnesota. Thanks to Connie Warner for doing such a great job of caring for Fish Lake Lutheran. And thanks to Annalese for not letting the candle fall over.

We are back to Monday now and this will be another week of school and shopping at the market. Tom Nielsen will leave for Minnesota on Tuesday. He has been our Bega Kwa Bega coordinator since our arrival and has come here to Tanzania for 10 years to do his part helping visitors. The next coordinator will be the Fultzes who come in January so we will have to make it on our own. The Bega Kwa Bega office is staffed by locals so we are not totally rudderless, but we will miss Tom and his enthusiasm. Thanks Tom, you have done a great service to BKB and the folks who travel here.

We are counting the days. Keep those e-mails coming!