Something I Forgot From Wednesday

Sorry, but I forgot something very important from Wednesday! The days start to run together at times. Wednesday we met with the youth at Irente. It was such a nice afternoon. At first when they said we were meeting with the youth, we thought Aren't they in school? It wasn't until we were at the meeting that we realized that in Tanzania "Youth" is what we call "Young Adults." Their Youth are actually between the ages of 18-35. They were some of the most inspiring people we met while we were there and we were so moved by their motivation and committment to their church and to God. They get together and meet several times per week. They are motivated and driven. They do things such as handicrafts, and Aldred, our shepherd, comes in and works with them to learn woodworking skills. They have built many things, including many of the heavy wooden doors used at all the institutions at Irente. In addition to this, they also sing. Before I go any further, pretty much everyone in Tanzania can sing. We quickly realized that they assumed that everyone in the US can also sing.

Wrong.

Many times when we were visiting some place, Pastor Joyce would look at us and say "OK, and now you will sing a song for them."

Really?

We should have come with a warning label Don't ask us to sing unless it is to punish someone. I won't go into how good, or bad we were, I will just say that the next group to go to Tanzania will work with the choir director first. And good luck with that :)

So, the Irente Youth have a band and they are SO good. They sang for us and they did such a wonderful job. The only instrument they have is a keyboard, but they are so motivated and have goals they want to work towards with their music. They would like to actually record a CD, and purchase more instruments to make this happen. They raise their own funds to work towards this. We were very moved by them and are discussing some ways in which we may be able to help them achieve and more closer to this goal.

We also shared with the youth at Irente some of the things we are doing at LCR, including our new Coffee House ministry. We also explained that sometimes in America it is difficult to get people our age to come to church. We all made a connection with the youth at Irente, but especially our young adults that were traveling. We are happy to be able to call the youth at Irente our friends.

The youth are so giving and were so interested in the kinds of things we are doing in the US and about our lives. They asked us many questions about our life at LCR. One of us commented to one of the youth at Irente about how much they liked a piece of jewelry that person was wearing. The youth at Irente took it off immediately and gave it away. We saw that all over Tanzania when we were there. Just instant, unconditional giving. No matter what it was. Another one of the youth later gave one of us a picture she had of herself. When we were there we were asked by many people to take their picture, especially pictures of their families. These people don't own cameras and many of them have never seen a picture of themselves. This picture that was given to us, very likely, was the only picture that person had of themselves. Her reason for giving it away...So you remember me.

And, we will.