One of the many great things about The Lutheran Center in Iringa is that it is a place where you can meet the most wonderful people – not only the staff at the center, but also those fellow travelers through Tanzania. I had come to Iringa to teach for a term at Tumaini University, but when I arrived I learned that the school’s schedule had been changed, and classes would not begin for 2 weeks. Most of the University was away on vacation, and so I was all alone at the Center, wondering what I would do while I waited in Iringa for two weeks.
Well, in came the group from St. James Lutheran Church. Perhaps it was the sound of that familiar Minnesota accent that caught my attention. And for their part, they probably saw how lonely (and exhausted!) I looked, eating breakfast all by myself. Their invitation to join them was gracious; I mean that not just in the sense that it was polite, but in the deeper sense that it was an embodiment of God’s grace. They took this stranger in, and allowed me to accompany them as they learned about life and the work of the church in Tanzania. Because of their hospitality, and because of the amazing hospitality of the Tanzanians that we have enjoyed, I will hear with new appreciation God’s call to welcome the stranger among us.
Through prayer and song and worship, through listening quietly to one another, through working and caring and laughing together, through sharing our faith in the midst of joy and of struggle, God binds us together in new relationships as the church, and we learn, perhaps more profoundly than ever before, what it means to be the one body of Christ, whether we live in Minnesota, or South Carolina, or Tanzania.
Ed. Note: Brian is a professor at Southern Seminary. He is an Augie grad! He has been a wonderful addition to our activities. That's him on the left in the photo. kpo
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