Church members leave on African mission

By GUY PRIEL

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Taking the spirit of fellowship and service around the globe is the goal of 14 New Ulm residents, who left Friday for Africa.

The group of residents, including a teenager, attend Our Savior's Lutheran Church. They are joined by two members of a sister congregation in Cottonwood.

The trip was coordinated by former New Ulm business owners Doug and Linda Dybsetter, who are the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America's (ELCA) mission coordinators to Tanzania.

"This all started when we heard about a lutheran secondary school in Kikatiti that would be closed, if it wasn't brought up to government standards," Our Savior's Lutheran Church Pastor Todd Olsen said.

The school needed approximately $8,500 to repair windows, doors, ceilings, and buy paint for the building. By January 1, 2000 the group had managed to raise $10,000 and began making preparations for the trip, he said.

"The Dybsetters were back in New Ulm in January and said they had the money for repairs, but needed the manpower," Olsen said. "This opened new doors of ministry for us."

The group will spend two weeks in Tanzania working, learning, praying, worshipping, and seeing a few sites.

Tanzania is a country of 37 million on the east coast of Africa.

"We will be matched up with someone else while we are there, which fits our goal of working together in ministry," Olsen said. "This gives us as a congregation, a different view of missions, and we will all be recipients of the gift in the end."

The Dybsetters, former owners of Fudge and Stuff and Horizon Gallery, have been missionaries for about six years, serving in Tanzania and New Guinea.

The theme for the trip is Pamoja, which is the Swahili word for "together". A variety of activities in addition to work on the school have been planned around that theme, Olsen said.

The trip is the first for the congregation, and those involved feel they have been called to the task. They will come back with many stories, and changed lives, he said.

"We are not taking 16 people to Africa, we are taking 1,400 people to Africa," he said. "The whole congregation goes with us. The church has changed because of this, and will change after we get back."

The school serves students from a wide area. Many walk five miles to get to school because there aren't many buses or cars. There are no books in the school and all the assignments are written on the board by teachers, group member Jim Thomas said.

"It's a stark setting for them," he said. "The students learn in English in four large classrooms. The enrollment consists of a high percentage of girls. It is a church run school. The next step is to build a dormitory that will help them grow."

Kikatiti is about 45 miles from the largest city, in what is mainly a male-dominated society. The tuition at the school is $130 per year, a lot when the average salary is $2 per day, he said.

"While there, in addition to working at the school, we will tour hospitals and dig into the culture," Thomas said. "School will be in session and we will be right in there with them. We have one seventh-grader going along, who will be the only white student there."

They will be joined on the trip by the ELCA's director of missions for East Africa, who will board the plane in Amsterdam, Olsen said.

"I was there last year," Thomas said. "It is so different than what any of us are used to."

To prepare for the trip, everyone had to take a series of immunizations and a crash course in basic Swahili, the native tongue of Tanzania. Olsen will also be preaching the two Sunday's the group is there.

"We received letters from the school there, which helped up develop some relationships already," Olsen said. "Within our Sunday School classes we have raised $400 worth of pennies that will be used to buy textbooks. This is a good thing for our congregation. This has also brewed excitement among a number of churches, helping us raise $2,000 toward construction of the dorm. The churches also helped with fund-raising for those going on the trip."

The symbol of the trip is a yellow T-shirt with a drawing of the African continent and hands joined, with the phrase Pamoja, Our Savior's Lutheran Church.

The group will fly from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, then on to Kilimanjaro, which is a 33-hour trip.

They will also visit with tribal councils, visit the church diocese office in the village of Meru, visit the market, drive across the Great Rift Valley, and attend a safari in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Serengeti National Park.

They will return Oct. 8.