Tuesday, November 4, 2008
We were back at the seminary today for the pre-graduation ceremony. Originally the graduation was set for Nov. 28. I was not able to stay that long, so I asked Pastor Angowi if there was a possibility of moving the date up a few weeks so that Pastor Naumann and I could be part of the service. He complied, but there was some confusion about the new date. He had set the graduation for the 14, but in the letter he sent me the 1 was missing, so I thought it was the 4th. We didn’t find this out until we talked three weeks ago at the conference in Nairobi. By then it was too late to make any changes because many preparations had already been made. So we decided to keep the date of the 4th as a pre-graduation ceremony that Bruce and I could be part of.
So that was set for today. But we had one other problem. There was an issue of a possible theft of some money and personal property from one of the seminary students. Before having the service we had to get to the bottom of that issue.
The graduation service was set to start at 10:00 but we were talking to the students about this issue and talking more with the student whose things had been stolen to get more information. We continued this until 1:00pm. In the end we found that the student had lied about the property which was stolen! It was very discouraging, but we were glad to have the matter resolved.
Because of the time we decided to have lunch which was ready, and then after lunch we would proceed with the graduation. The graduation finally started at 2:30pm. We met in the chapel at the seminary. The students were there, and many pastors were there. Bruce had brought his robes especially for this occasion. We put them on, the bell was rung and the service began. We sang a processional hymn, and continued with liturgical responses which were led by Pastor Angowi. We sang a few more familiar hymns. I am amazed at how many of their hymns we are familiar with. They are Swahili words but with German melodies found in our hymnal! The Swahili is fairly easy to read so it is pretty easy for us to sing along if we have the words in front of us. Of course, not everyone has a hymnal, so most of the people have many hymns memorized which is a great blessing. I preached on Acts 20 where Paul encouraged the leaders of the churches in Ephesus. There he spoke to them about what the ministry was all about and from where their strength would come. After another hymn Pastor Naumann preached on Joshua who took over leadership of the people of Israel after Moses. Then after another hymn we presented KINSHIP gifts to the eight graduates and wished them the Lord’s blessing on their future ministries serving His flocks. What a blessing these 8 men will be to the Lord’s work here in Tanzania! By the time words of thanks and other greetings were completed and a few more hymns were sung, the service stretched to about 2 hours in length. It was hot in our robes, but it was very enjoyable, and we were thankful to have had the opportunity to address the students in this way.
After the service we returned to the hotel in Moshi (about a 30 minute drive from the seminary). There we found Pastor Jeremiah from Arusha waiting for us. I had quite a few things I needed to talk with him about, so we talked for over an hour about matters in his congregations.
After Pastor Jeremiah returned home, Russ, Bruce and I sat down for some cards and some supper (it was Chinese night!). This is Bruce’s last night here. Tomorrow he and Charles will leave for Nairobi after a morning session at the seminary. Russ and I have a little more than a week left here, but it is starting to wind down. May the LORD continue to bless our work here!
In Christ,
Nathanael
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