Excitement

Most of us traveling to Tanzania wrote and read a testimony for the congregation as to why we are excited to go to Tanzania and what this trip means to us. A few of these are below...

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Elizabeth Spencer and my family starting coming to this church when I was 5 years old. Eighteen years later I am now a registered nurse. I am part of the small group that will be travelling to Tanzania in a few short weeks. Years of planning and anticipation are finally coming to an end. I look forward to the learning opportunity that God has granted me. Visiting with our sister congregation Irente will allow us to appreciate each other for our similarities as well as our differences. I hope to bring back many great memories and plan to share my journey of faith when we return. I ask that you pray for our safe travels and that God guides us along the way. -Elizabeth Spencer

As many of you know my name is Chuck Spencer. I was asked to speak about what this upcoming trip to Tanzania means to me. Years of possibility and planning is about to reach fruition. It is under a month until a small group of us from LCR visits our partnership congregation Irente. What has been a thought is becoming a reality. I am excited for all that we will learn from the Tanzanians and what we hope to teach them. This trip is an opportunity to build relationships between people, congregations and nations. We may experience different styles of worship, outlooks on life as well as dramatically different circumstances of daily living. I also look forward to returning home, hopefully with many pictures and stories of our experiences to share with all of you. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we travel, visit, and return. -Chuck Spencer


I don't really know how to pack light.

Every time I leave the country I have in tow bags of crayons, scissors, pencils, soap, shampoo, bubbles and tiny clothing to name a few.

I haven't left the county in the last 3 years with less than 200 boxes of crayons and I have seen many priceless looks on the faces of baggage attendants when I confirm, that yes, that bag actually is full toothbrushes.

Every time I leave the country, my parents' last words to be before the "be safe and I love you" is "please do not bring home any children."

So in August, when we leave to go to Tanzania, I have been told to pack light. We're not taking bags of items. No crayons, no pencils, no toothpaste. Just maybe a few small items for the children at Irente. And it's not because we won't meet people who need it. It isn't because we won't be thrown into situations where our hearts won't bleed for those we meet.

It's because, that is not what this trip is about. It is not about filling bags. It is not about handing out. It isn't about making sure each child gets a box of un-broken crayons. We may not be packing our bags and getting everylast one of those 70 pounds in, but our hearts will be filled when we leave. Mine already is. Filled with excitement, I am sure anxiety, antipation, love, and a desire to meet our brothers and sisters in Christ. And I have no doubt that when we leave Tanzania and return to the US our hearts will be over-flowing.

This trip isn't about what to take. It's about taking the offering of ourselves and receiving the offering of the people we will meet. It is about understanding, that, regardless of where you live, whatever story is, no matter how much money you have, the color of your skin, we're all brothers and sisters in Christ.

The purpose of our partnership is just that--a partnership. It is about going to stregthen the bonds and relationships that we have already established with those in Tanzania. This is about sharing our stories and who we are. And it is about listening to those in Tanzania as they share their stories with us.

I can't wait. I can't wait to meet these people who I simply refer to as "Irente" right now. I can't wait to see them, and embrace their lives and their stories and who they are. I can't wait to make this journey of a partnership even more real. I can't wait to walk should to shoulder, literaly with our brothers and sisters in Christ. I can't wait to experience what this partnership is truly all about.

And as much as I love to see the look on a child's face when they receive their first, brand new box of crayons, I really hate to pack. -Kara Beardsell

When We Will Be Where

As many of you already know, we leave on Saturday for Tanzania. Well, technically we leave on Saturday for the hotel at the airport in Washington D.C. and on Sunday we leave for Tanzania. We will leave LCR at 2pm on Saturday. We are stopping at Barbara Spencer's sisters home. She has kindly offered to make dinner for us! We will then continue on to our hotel, which is a few minutes drive from the airport. On Sunday morning, at 10am, our flight departs Dulles Airport for Rome, Italy. A few people have commented that Rome is beautiful and we are so lucky to get to go there. We're not exactly going to Rome, but we will be able to tell you whether or not they have a nice runway :) Once we are done refueling in Rome, it is on to Addis Abba, Ethiopia. The entire duration of the flight from Dulles to Ethiopia is 15 hours and 15 minutes (YIKES!), including the stop in Rome. It's a long flight, please keep us in your prayers. From there we have a 4 hour trip to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. We will depart Addis Abba, stop in Nairobi, Kenya, and then head to our final destination. We arrive in Tanzania at 1:50 pm on Monday, August 3rd. That will be 6:50 am in Philadelphia on August 3rd. It will be over 24 hours of travel by the time we land.

Because Kilimanjaro is several hours away from Irente, we will not be making that drive upon our arrival in Tanzania. Instead, we will be staying in a hotel run and owned by another Lutheran Diocese in Tanzania. It is called Uhuru Hostel and it is located in Moshi, Tanzania. We will spend the night here and then make the journey by car to Irente on Tuesday, August 4th. We are very grateful that we will have this first night to rest and get a good nights sleep in Moshi before traveling the several hours to Irente. Pastor Joyce (the pastor from Irente) will be accompanying the driver to pick us up at Kilimanjaro.

From August 4th through the 13 we will be staying at Tumaini Hostel, which is only a few minutes from Irente. This hostel is run by the North Eastern Diocese of the Lutheran Church in Tanzania. We will go to Irente each day, spending time at both schools, the children's home and the farm. We will worship with them during their Sunday services and Pastor Sharon is even doing a baptism while we are there. We are also visiting SEKUCO, the University while we are there. Our time there is very flexible and will be very "go with the flow" as we spend time with our partner congregation.

From August 14-15 we are going on Safari. We will spend part of the day on August 16th in Arusha, just doing some sightseeing through the city. We depart Tanzania at 4:30 pm on 8/16 at 4:30 pm, which will be 9:30 am your time. We follow the same path home that we took to get there, and land in Washington DC at 7:55am on Monday 8/17.

Thank you for reading and journeying with us to Tanzania!