A recap of the three-year partnership between St. Andrews in the Pines, the Foundation and the Msalato Theological College

“The people here deal with death, disease, drought or floods and in the same instance there is such love, joy, compassion and generosity,” wrote Jessica Mackay from Dodoma, Tanzania on January 1st, 2011. “They endure unspeakable conditions, yet have a sense of gratitude for things we take for granted. I do not take as much for granted any more. I used to get annoyed having to wait in a doctor’s office, or being stuck in traffic. Now I am grateful I have a doctor to go to, or a car to take me to a grocery store and money to buy food.” Jessica and her friend, the Reverend Tally Bandy, in 2008, after prayer and on faith, selected the Anglican Diocese of Central Tanganyika (DCT) as the place they would undertake a mission to offer support in Africa.

2012 Graduates

The Reverend Ayubu Chibago The Reverend Emmanuel Lukumay The Reverend Revocatus Gwihangwe

Dar es Salaam is the largest city in Tanzania, but the nominal capital of Dodoma is located in the center of the country. Dodoma is the home of DCT whose boundary covers Dodoma Urban and Rural with a population of over 1.2 million people, and a membership of over 500,000 Anglicans.

The late Tom Davenport, member of St. Andrews in the Pines, Pinedale, and friend of parishioners of St. John the Baptist, Big Piney (SJTB), knew Jessica and Tally, and their mentor in Africa, the Rev. Sandra McCann, MD, Director of Communications and teacher at Msalato Theological College (MTC) in Dodoma. Tom responded to requests for assistance from his friends in Africa and in November of 2008, brought a proposal to the Vestry of St. Andrews in the Pines. So began a loving relationship of trust, generosity, gratitude, and goodwill between two Wyoming congregations, two missionaries from North Carolina, and young, Tanzanian, Christian students from DCT.

MTC trains priests and often each priest serves several villages. “They are the ‘lifeline’ for their villages, often the only person to have ever been to a town,” explained Sandra. “They must not only preach the Good News and do the pastoral care, but they must also teach the community about AIDS, about malaria, about clean water, and the value of sending their children to school.” The three-year Bachelors of Applied Theology program costs $3,000.00 per year—the three-year Diploma in Applied Theology program $800. Under the leadership of the Canon Rev. Moses Matonya, MTC has undergone a recent accreditation process, and has transitioned from Swahili-based diploma education to English-based theology diploma and degree education.

“The cost of accreditation is high,” continued Sandra. “It is needed, however, for MTC to become a premier school in Africa whose African theologians can study under other African theologians without going abroad. Western theology does not adequately meet the needs of pastors in Africa who, daily, must face the complicated issues of spiritism, polygamy, patriarchalism and abject poverty…Among the clergy and those wanting to be fulltime Christian workers in DCT, MTC is called the ‘gateway to heaven.’”

Bishop Stanway Primary School (BSPS) is adjacent to MTC. It provides Christian education, and English language instruction, to 378 K-6 boys and girls from many villages and is led by Headmistress Lydia Kusa. The cost is $280 per year per pupil. The average income in Tanzania is about $200 per year. As a result, the parents of many children are unable to afford to send their children to school.

In early 2009 a grant proposal was prepared by Tom, Jessica, Tally and the new Tanzanian Connections Task Group from St. Andrew’s and SJTB: Dave Lankford, Jo Crandall, John Gibson, Gail Randall, Madeleine Murdock, Leanne Rellstab, Kenna Tanner, Jordan Vana, and Phil and Patty Washburn. Their request was for $50,000 to defray the cost of 21 scholarships for students to attend MTC, 59 scholarships for younger students to attend BSPS, and for 20 computers, a server upgrade, and a storage/backup system for MTC. In September 2009 the Foundation for the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming (FEDW) awarded the grant in full.

Mustard Seed Grant money from St. Andrew’s and SJTB had, just prior to that, provided Stephen Mnubi, from Dodoma, a full, 3-year scholarship to MTC. Wyoming Episcopalians were already being rewarded by a relationship with a scholarship beneficiary.

Tally Bandy, after the first, full, school-year of these scholarships, wrote in July, 2010, “we cried when we left chapel at MTC for the last time. It’s all about the people and relationships. They are happy; they love God/Jesus; they share what they have—sometimes I think they are ahead of us in relationships and giving…Jessie and I know we will and cannot change Africa but we believe in ‘one sip of water at a time.’ I do not feel we have wasted our money or our time. In fact, I have learned and am learning more than I teach.”

Just before Tally offered that reflection, and one year after the first grant, a second grant of $50,000 was awarded to the program by FEDW. In fact, Phil and Patty Washburn and fellow St. Andrew’s parishioner, Leanne Rellstab, were visiting MTC and BSPS when that grant announcement was made. Leanne wrote to Tom Davenport, “…yesterday I went with Stephen (Mnubi) to two villages for Sunday services. I was literally showered in gifts. They gave me gourds, bowls, baskets, a stool, and a chicken. Tom, these are starving people, and they gave me a real, live, clucking chicken. Just imagine how much that chicken meant to them. I, in turn, gave it to Stephen’s wife, but not publically. Stephen was the ONLY person there who could understand why I could not take the chicken home. It was explained to me that they are SO grateful for two reasons: they are very happy for what we have done for Stephen…They know!...and they feel they are not forgotten. In this little village, which many of them have never left, they know I will remember them and share their faces with St. Andrew’s.”

Earlier, on January 6, 2010, The Rev. Yusufu Mkunda had reported to Tom Davenport, “…it is gratifying to inform you that, finally, all twenty computers are in Msalato premises and the installment process is almost complete. I hereby attach some of the photos which we have taken.” For the first time students had consistent access to computers. Internal college communication improved as did external emailing, preparation of essays and assignments, and grading of papers. The savings on dollars spent on computer maintenance has been immeasurable.

“I would like to thank God so much for enabling you to assist me by paying my college fees in Msalato Theological College,” wrote Alex Mrombo Mwakio on September 20, 2009. “I am in first year and God willing I will complete the three year course in the year 2012.”

Emanuel Lukumay wrote on the same day, “I would like to encourage you that the material support that you helped us will not just end in our education here at the College, but it is going to manifest in the whole African continent in which we expect to minister after finishing our education here. I can say you are helping us to build the Kingdom of God in Africa.”

Also on the same day, Margaret Wanjiku Muriuki wrote to Tom Davenport, “I would like to thank you very much, sir, for your great and Godly kindness of assisting me for my college fees. Thank you for the amount that you have paid for me. Surely it is a unique miracle that God has done to me through you. May God bless you abundantly and I hope God will continue to open ways until I finish my course. Yours faithfully, Margaret.”

The following February, FEDW granted the third and final $50,000 grant to MTC and BSPS for continuing scholarships and 20 additional computers. Sandra had written earlier to Tom, “It is difficult to overestimate the value of an education in Tanzania, especially for pastors.” Then, upon learning of the third grant, she wrote, “God is really up to something here and he has graciously allowed us to be a part of it. I am crying as I write. It is really more than one could ask…and yet we did…and God heard us. Tom, you are a gem. Love, Sandy.”

“Well,” answered Tom, “I am not a gem, and I cried, too. But I do feel ‘gem-like’ as I begin to comprehend what it means to play a small role in doing the work God wants us to do. Thank you! Sincerely, Tom.”

The total of funding from Wyoming was $188,256. St. Andrews Episcopal Women had raised money for food and seed. SJTB youth raised funds for mosquito nets. Some of those dollars leveraged dollars which provided micro-financing, English lessons for priest’s wives, food for students, bicycles for priests, and bicycles for women in the community to use to transport water. A church was built in Zuzu. Mattresses were purchased for the new dormitory at MTC. A one-year secretarial course was funded at MTC for both men and women.

Tom Davenport traveled to Dodoma in September of 2011. He took with him, for the students at BSPS, soccer balls, pumps, and other sporting goods. “Since I first learned of the work of the Anglican Church in DCT in 2008,” he wrote, “my interest has grown from that of a casual observer who attended services on Sunday and occupied a church pew…to that of one who is committed to the cause of helping those who are poor, needy and yet hopeful in their faith.”

“The blessed rains have begun,” wrote Tally Bandy, still teaching at MTC in December of the year before. “The earth is being transformed before our eyes from a barren and dry land into a land blossoming with wild flowers and green grasses. Our one hundred students have finished their first semester exams and have gone home to begin planting. Please pray for us that this year the rains will come in the right amount and at the right time.”

Virginia Theological Seminary, recognizing the remarkable education provided by MTC, has entered into a five-year, theological partnership to exchange students and curriculums. Sandra McCann has established an endowment fund for MTC with the Diocese of Atlanta. Other Episcopalian congregations continue to lend support. “Before we came here,” wrote Leanne as she prepared to depart Dodoma after her June 2010 visit, “we gave some money to some very needy students. It was a great thing to do and made us feel good about ourselves. But now, Patty, Phil and I have met these students. They have touched our hearts with their gratitude. It has all become very real…The money is, simply, saving lives. And somehow, someway, it must continue.”

In March of 2012, Tom Davenport passed away from an aggressive form of pancreatic cancer. Just two months earlier he seemed only to have a bad backache. The sadness of his death remains painful to all of us. The time and treasure Tom committed to the Karibu Project is incalculable. Central Tanzania grieves, as do the communities of Pinedale, Big Piney, and Tom’s beloved Cora. Funds collected in memory of Tom are being directed to the MTC Endowment Fund.

Below is an early posting on this relationship that appeared in 2011.

Karibu Mission, Dodoma, Tanzania

Left: Mr. Tom Davenport, the Rev. Sandra McCann, and Mr. Phil Washburn

Communications from Tanzania:

In 2009, working with Episcopal churches and many others in the communities of Pinedale and Big Piney, the Foundation funded $50,000 for tuition of seminary students (21 scholars, $10,490), tuition of primary school students (59 youngsters, $8,260), and computer equipment ($12,520) at the Msalato Theological College and the Bishop Stanway Primary School in Dodoma, Tanzania, part of the Diocese of Central Tanganyika.

Here are letters of appreciation from our seminary students:

Taxon Mwakyambo

Stanley Myogoya

Simon Mwasenga

Simon Matonya Maloda

Onesmus Kilinga

Nikulamba Kibona

Margaret Wanjiku

Lameck Mgutwa

Isaka Bakari

I. A. Gwihaugwe

Gershon Maloda

Esther Mwasyoge

Ernest Chipuza

Emmanuel Lukumay

David Lubalisho

Daudi Chilemu

Ayubu Chibago

Anna Chimbwi

I. A. Gwihaugwe