The Eads to Tanzania

Pastors Meeting

I will link to Rob's blog today for an overview of our time in Sengerema with the pastors and some of the institute students today.

The Value of Ethnography as Preparation for Cross-Cultural Ministry, Part One

Wow, after typing that title, I realize that it sounds intimidating (or at least really long). It makes what I am going to say sound more weighty than it really is. 

That said, I thought that I would take a few blog posts to discuss the value of ethnography (describing, through writing, a new culture) as a part of preparing for cross-cultural ministry. I have now been engaged in language learning and culture study for just over a year now. Most of the first nine months were spent engaged in language acquisition. I got opportunities to use the language through visiting in the community, talking with language helpers, preparing sermons with the Bible Institute students, and praying, reading Scripture and teaching children at church. Studying the language was the primary focus and, through that, culture came with it.

But near the nine-month mark, I transitioned from Swahili study to Sukuma culture as my primary focus. Swahili became the medium for learning rather than simply the subject to be learned. While I had been observing culture and making lots of notes about those observations after the first three months of being here, I now began to start reflect on the connections between those observations. I started to look for patterns, contrasts, and unanswered questions. 

I began to write. And through writing, I had to start having to thinking hard about these observations, trying to figure out how I would try to describe these new concepts and categories to someone who has not had the opportunity to live here. I would imagine that I was trying to explain to someone new here (to myself one year ago) the meaning of gestures, the significance of repeated actions, the contrasts in life that I have become more sensitive to while living here. Ultimately, I am trying to highlight the presence of certain underlying beliefs that influence attitudes about God, man, and the world so that I can better understand the actions that flow from them. 

So, over a few posts, I would like to look at why this process of ethnography has been so valuable to me in my adjusting to living here, and how I hope it will bear fruit in my efforts to serve as a minister here.

Searching for Termites, Finding the Gospel

I had an unusual opportunity last Monday.

Monday is normally more low-key, around the house. But I got a call from a workman that got me to go to Shadi. While I was there at the new houses, waiting for the workman to arrive, Abeli (a Bible Institute student) approached me and told me that I should come out and see what was going on.

There was a small group that had gathered around a large termite mound that sits near the new houses on the property. I was told that the foreman of the building project had announced to all of the day-laborers the week before that if they knew anyone who could remove the termite mound and get rid of the termites, they should bring them.

When I approached the group around the mound, I found out that someone had come to look at the work.

There was a man standing on top of the mound (the one in the maroon shirt in the picture), holding a contraption that I had never seen before. He seemed to be concentrating and talking to himself as he held the object in his hands. It danced back and forth, and he became more and more focused on a particular spot. Then he climbed down from the mound. Abeli asked him if he could look at the contraption that he had been holding. The man agreed. I snapped this picture to show just what the thing looks like (Abeli is the one in the green shirt holding the item).

After taking the picture, I started into a conversation with the man (I believe that his name was James), asking him questions about his work and this "tool" that he was using. As soon as I had gotten close enough to take the picture, I knew that this was a kind of dawa (roughly translated "medicine") from the mganga ("witchdoctor"). The shell that was placed at the one end is one of the "ingredients" that are often used by the mganga. I had also overheard the man tell Abeli, after he agreed to let him hold it, that he should take it with both hands and hold it firmly.

My suspicions were confirmed as I heard some of the answers that James gave to me. He told me that he could figure out where snakes, monitor lizards, termites, and poisonous bugs lived by using using the kabagore (the name for this device). He said he asks the kabagore questions like he would a person, and it answers him by the movements it made. Through asking a series of yes-no questions, he would conclude where he should dig and what he would find. I asked him if he believed it was one of his mizimu (deceased ancestors) that was answering him through the kabagore, and he said yes. He explained that he had visited an mganga and received from him the kabagore and the training to use it.

After learning about James and his history, I took out my Bible, and Abeli and I began to explain the gospel. James quickly told us that he believed that the Bible was true. We shared that Bible teaches the dead do not participate in the things on earth after they have died (Eccl. 9:4-6). This means that his deceased ancestor could not be the one that he was asking through the kabagore. We asked him where he believed such a power could come from if it was not the mizimu who were behind it. He answered very directly that if it was not the mizimu, it must be Satan.

We told him the story of Satan's deception in the garden, of the Fall of Adam and Eve, and of humanity's severed relationship with God because of our sin. The deceiver is still deceiving today, convincing people that God is far away. They believe we cannot have a relationship with him nor does he want a relationship with us. They believe that if we are going to find solutions to the problems of our life, we must seek the favor of our ancestors and the protection of the mganga from uchawi (roughly translated "evil magic"). They do not understand that our greatest problem is that we are going to stand judged for our sins and that we have no relationship with God.

They also are not able to see the value of Christ and his death for us. We do not go to Jesus like we would go to the mganga, in order to get our problems solved, in order to try to make our lives better. We believe in Jesus and trust that his death paid for our sins so that we can find forgiveness for our sins and have a relationship with God.

From the questions that we asked, it appeared that James understood our message. Our conversation ended with a friendly goodbye and a restatement of the warning from Scripture that without a relationship with God and forgiveness of our sins, we are destined to eternal destruction.

We couldn't hire them to do the job. To do so would be to show agreement with deceptions of the traditional religion. But we could invite them to church and pray for their salvation. They came looking for termites, but we hope that they will find the gospel.

Baptisms, Communion, and Creation

These were the three things that occupied us this afternoon. In Sweya for the past two months, I had heard that Pastor Paulo had been teaching a class for those who were preparing to be baptized. Today, it was announced that there would be three youths that would be baptized. After the church service this morning, we all walked, as a congregation, down to the lake. Then we walked back to the church for a brief communion service.

I had enough time to go back home, eat lunch, and then I headed out to Shadi to teach the third lesson in the pre-institute course. My subject was God's creation of the world. We walked through each of the six days, emphasizing the uniqueness and power of God. Then, I returned quickly to Sweya to repeat the same lessons with the potential students there. It was a full, but fulfilling, day.

HIV

Someone made a comment on the blog today that was inappropriate (so I had to delete it), but the commenter highlighted a statement in a previous post about my visit to Bugando, a statement in that post that needed to be clarified and explained. So, while I removed the comment, I would like to address the concern. I made the statement that "HIV is the number one cause of death in Tanzania. Easily 30-40% of the patients that we saw were HIV patients." There are some ambiguities in that statement that may lead some to incorrect conclusions.

First, it is very difficult to determine the number one cause of death in any country. However, it is stated by the World Health Organization that the leading cause of death in the adult population of Tanzania is HIV/AIDS. The leading cause of death in children here is malaria, but that is the subject for another post.

The difficulty of estimating the prevalence rate of HIV in the national population is primarily trying to determine what pool of statistics to base the rate on. If the prevalence rate is determined based on the number of cases of HIV that are detected in blood donations, the prevalence rate is estimated to be 7-12%. If the rate is based on hospital admissions, the number is skewed. HIV patients are generally very sick, and because of that, they will have a higher admission rate in hospitals. 

This is the reason why I could say in my origional post that more than a third of the patients that we visited on a particular ward of Bugando on a particular day were HIV patients. This does not mean that a third of the entire population has HIV, like my statement may have implied.

The statistic given by the UNAIDS' Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic is that 6.2% of Tanzania's adult population (ages 15-45) is infected with HIV. The same report estimates that there are 1.4 million children and adults under the age of 49 with HIV, and that in the year of 2007 alone, there were nearly 100,000 AIDS deaths. This makes Tanzania the 12th most infected country in the world (according to the CIA World Factbook).

While I do not wish to overstate the seriousness of the problem, I thought that this statement on HIV/AIDS from the Tanzanian national government's website is telling: "The epidemic has evolved from being a rare and new disease to a common household problem, which has affected most Tanzania [sic] families."

If you would like to know what the American government has been doing in Africa to combat the spread of AIDS, you can read here about PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief).

Public Ministry in TZ Begins

One teaching opportunity became two today. I rejoiced in both.

This morning, I was in church at Sweya. When I arrived, I had talked with Pastor Paulo and let him know that we would maybe have to adjust our visiting schedule because I was going to be teaching the pre-institute course in Shadi at 3:00 PM. He told me that he also wanted to invite me to teach and that their plan was to have the course at 5:00 PM this evening. So, officially, my public ministry in Tanzania began with teaching these two classes today.

As promised, I would like to tell you a little bit more about the pre-institute courses and their role in the development of the church-planting movement. The Institute is intended to solidify the church leadership theologically and to equip new church leaders to be a part of continuing the expansion of the movement. Rob repeatedly states to the students that the Bible Institute is the servant of the churches. In order to see that perspective fleshed out, it is the pastoral leadership and, ultimately, the congregation who decide what potential students will enter the institute in a given year. 

The pre-institute course that I am having a part in teaching is being coordinated by the church leadership. It is a curriculum that Rob wrote that consists of 23 lessons, each of which deal with an aspect of the gospel which is presented chronologically. Today the lesson that I taught twice was on "The Bible is God's Word, The Foundation of Truth". The pastors are monitoring the faithfulness and the ability of the students as they receive these more basic teachings. There are several questions at the end of each lesson that are intended to be homework. By completing their lessons, following the instructions, and by having their character confirmed by the congregation, those students that succeed in the pre-institute course and are sent by their churches to receive the training will be accepted into the Bible Institute. However, the decision of who enters is made by the churches, not by us as the teachers.

One of the most vital ingredients in a church-planting philosophy is ownership. If the church-planting movement is to grow outside of the influence of the missionary, these churches must confidently rely on God to help them fulfill the task that is theirs. This means that the churches must be left to make their own decisions and find the solutions to their problems. The missionary should be serving of a counselor and teacher, rather than taking the position of power broker or referee. It is exciting to see how "leading from below" (to borrow a term that Rob uses often) encourages the churches in owning the work.

 In the coming weeks, please pray for: 

Those students who are wishing to enter the institute would grow and be changed through their time of reflection on the Word.

The pastors and the churches would have wisdom in selecting those who are qualified to receive the Institute's training.

The pastors and I, as we have the opportunity to be teaching in these coming weeks. 

Pastors Paulo and Samson have asked me to continue teaching the pre-institute courses in rotation with them. I will teach at both of the churches every Sunday afternoon, and they will be teaching the students on Wednesday evening. The classes should continue through mid-December. Exciting times!

I was asked today by

I was asked today by Pastor Samson at the church in Shadi to teach the first lesson in the introductory course for students from his church. I will be teaching tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 PM here (7:00 AM Central Time), and I am very excited about the opportunity. I will explain more about our team's strategy in these courses and their relationship to the indigeneity of the churches tomorrow as I give a report.
Please pray that I will be a blessing to these potential students through through my teaching.

Mizunguko

I try to take days like today as lessons in the intermediate level of culture learning.

Today was a town day. Most of my town days, as of late, have been mostly for the building project. This has involved contacting fundis (workmen) about their work. Specifically my job has been overseeing the solar installation for the water pump and for the houses.

I have been working on these solar projects for the last 6 weeks- planning, preparing, purchasing, etc.

I had talked with the fundis yesterday. I had explained to them that I was going into town today, and that if there were any other things that they needed I could get them for them and bring them in the afternoon when I was done with my town trip. They gave me that list. I prepared myself for town, and I went. 

Halfway through the morning I got a phone call from Shadi telling me that the workmen needed bolts and a drill in order to mount the panels. Being over 20 miles away and in the middle of several very involved errands, I could not help them and was frustrated. I explained to them that I would do what I could and I would come as soon as I was able to finish getting the other supplies.

By the time I finished all the other projects it was after 2:00. Jana, the kids, and Beth had finished with their errands in town. They left me behind in town and I met up with 2 of the fundis who had come into town for other things. I spent the next 3 hours with them going from shop to shop adding the other supplies to the list. 

I know I have explained this here before, but this major cultural difference always seems to be a part of life here: I always have the desire to plan everything first and then do it, and here in Africa that way of thinking does not appear possible. I can't plan what all I will need before I start, because I don't know that I will need it all, that it will be available when I need it, or if there will not be an entirely new project that will derail the initial plans completely. So, there is the delicate balance of planning enough to know what I am getting myself into and then expecting that I don't know what I am getting myself into. The expectations are often the difference between frustration and understanding.

By 5:00 pm, I was driving to the Tumaini property in Shadi with the fundis and the manager of the store that we bought the solar water pump from. Arriving out at the site, I could see that the workmen made progress on the project in spite of the apparent delays, and it was something for me to see the interactions of all the workers at the close of the day. They had all had their share of "mizunguko" ("goings around"). They were all tired, and so was I, but in reflection I could see some of the lessons of the day. I returned home about 7:30 to write this post.

These Days

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent near the office finishing up my rough draft for my ethnography and finalizing plans with the solar technicians. Today, I went to Shadi and spent my time between the first draft of my paper and the building project. Then, I walked home from Shadi to Sweya. 

I am starting to discreetly collect pictures for my ethnography paper. So, today as I walked I snapped a few. I will try to get some up here as I am able.

Also, pray for teaching opportunities that may materialize in this month in Sweya and Shadi. It sounds like I may be asked to alternate teaching with the pastors the pre-institute courses for potential students of next year's incoming class. Exciting!

Visiting with Mwanzalima

Sunday afternoon, after the church's visit to our house, Pastor Paulo was not able to go out visiting with me. So I headed out with Mwanzalima, one of the deacons in Sweya, to visit some people that had not been in church that morning. 

Our first stop was to visit Faustine, an older middle-aged man that has recently begun to attend church again. His wife had died around the time that we first arrived last year, and he was left with three children to parent alone. He has just recently remarried, and for the last two months or so has been a very faithful attender. We arrived to find out that he had had a rather bad case of malaria. Because of medication, he was already on the mend, but he had not been feeling well enough to come to church that morning. I took more of a lead role in driving the conversation, discussing with them the text that was preached for the day. Although I directed the conversation, Mwanzalima and Faustine contributed some great thoughts about application. It is good to hear what kind of applications they made from the text. Thinking here is much more concrete and much less abstract and theoretical than it is in America, so hearing a person give their own illustrations and applications of a text shows very clearly that they understand its meaning.

This kind of visitation, the interactive teaching of the Word, is a joy. May God use his word to accomplish his work here.