This Article was written by Jo Whiting, originally written on July 5.
Bwana Yesu Asifiwe! (“Praise the Lord Jesus”) God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good!
We greet you, friends, from half way around the world, with these traditional words of greeting among Lutherans here. We are in the southern highlands of Tanzania for eight weeks, working as office coordinators for Bega Kwa Bega (Swahili for “shoulder to shoulder”)(BKB), a partnership between the St. Paul Area Synod (SPAS) of the ELCA and the Iringa Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania. Each regional synod of the ELCA has a partnership with a synod or diocese somewhere else in the world; the partner of the New England Synod is Jordan and the Holy Land, for whom we pray each Sunday morning at Holy Trinity.
The SPAS/Iringa Diocese BKB partnership is recognized as among the most vibrant of the regional synods. For example, the SPAS bishop travelled here and preached at the installation of the current Iringa bishop and in September the Iringa bishop will travel to Minnesota for the installation of the new SPAS bishop.
But the most gratifying and inspiring aspect of the BKB synod/diocese collaboration may be the congregation-to-parish partnerships it oversees. More than 75 congregations in Minnesota are partnered with 83 parishes in Iringa (some have more than one partner). Three other American congregations—including Holy Trinity—are in partnership with a parish here, also, under the auspices of BKB.
The congregation/parish partnerships are based on three pillars: prayer, presence, and projects. These mean that the partners agree to pray for each other (as we do for Isimani each Sunday morning), to visit with each other (as HT members have done in 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2025), and to undertake projects together (scholarships, wells, schools, church buildings, clinics, etc.).
Needless to say, all of this takes a great deal of time, thought, planning, and coordination. Watch for more here in the Tidings about the work of BKB, the partnerships, and what we are doing here as coordinators.
Russ and Jo