Trips to Toloha

 
Why is it that people go on mission trips? Some might say that it is because they want to experience another culture so that they can develop a more realistic understanding of how the rest of the world lives. Others may say their main purpose is to assist our fellow man in his struggles and eventually religiously convert him. I have struggled with this question for a while now and have mulled it over every summer for the past three years. I was raised with a heart to serve and believe that as a follower of Jesus, I am called to serve others for my whole life. Prior to my trip to Tanzania this past June, I thought that I had a basic idea of how most mission trips work. I thought that a good group of Christians would travel to wherever, whether down the street or across the world, and that they would partner with another good group of Christians and help to aid them in whatever way possible. The group might minister to people in their village or provide them with resources they were incapable of obtaining. That kind of mission work really is the most common and well known to me, and I perceived it was what the majority of mission work entailed. I knew that this was not the only way mission work was done, but the other way seemed fairly far-fetched to me and pretty obsolete, at least at the time.

This other way was the kind of missions you would only hear about at large conferences and on television. It was someone, or group of people, targeting a primarily unreached people group in order to aid them in some way and eventually convert them to Christ. Prior to this trip, I had been to the Dominican Republic a couple of times and had participated in numerous service projects in the United States, so I assumed that I had a pretty good feel for the mission field as I had seen many different scenarios play out in different kinds of situations. Before this trip our knowledge about Toloha village was pretty minimal. We had one real source of information on life in the village and, therefore, had very little to base our preconceptions of the conditions in which we were about to be immersed. Consequently, as I prepared, I fell back on previous experience to guide my preconception and didn’t think much of it.

But, despite the hundreds of examples of physical thirst that I saw, their thirst for something more than water was what struck me like those machetes hacking up the pipes. I saw a thirst for someone to care about them when adults and children alike would constantly barrage me with their stories of anything from their last trip to the market to their dream of obtaining an education and making it to America. I saw a thirst for knowledge, when person after person, young and old, would approach us and ask about the surveying technology, how it worked and what it did.  Finally, I saw a thirst for a purpose. These people want a reason to live; many of them spend all of their time trying to find a way to make any kind of money so they can provide for their family while others, most of the women and girls, simply worked and worried day after day to get “clean-enough”water. They are stuck in a continuous generational and circumstantial cycle of living just to get by, and they yearn for more than that, much more.

The villagers knew that we, the Americans, may be able to quench their physical thirsts, but they were unsure whether or not we could satisfy their thirst for the other intangible things. They seemed to pursue the answer to that question but came up short. Unfortunately, the other team members and I could not sit down and listen to every story, show every eager villager how we worked the GPS system, or provide those with the deepest thirst a purpose to live. This lack of provision on our part hurt me deeply because I knew that no matter how long we stayed and how much time or effort we gave, the end result of the problem would always churn out the same solution, disappointment. 

Once again God has rocked my world by allowing me to experience His marvelous kingdom and by providing me with a whole new perspective on missions and the Great Commission. Summed up: While comfort is appealing, its end leaves you lacking in knowledge and intended blessingsaffecting you, and those you encounter, eternally.

Josh serves as our Team Videographer and also assists in the engineering and planning aspects of our water project. He graduated from Arendell Parrott Academy in 2013 and will be pursuing a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University starting this Fall. His mother, Diane, is one of the first Toloha Partnership team members to share in Daniel’s vision for Toloha.

This is just the start — check back for updates and more pictures later this week!  

Sunday was an incredible and much anticipated day!  It was a day the Toloha Partnership team has anxiously awaited and a day Daniel has been longing for almost 12 years!  It was the day the first team departed from Kinston, NC to travel to Toloha Village in Tanzania to begin, what we hope to be, a long-term partnership.  

Perry, Daniel, Josh and Burt

The Assessment Team consists of Daniel Makoko (native of Toloha Village), Burt Rudolph (project engineer) and team members Perry Rudolph and Joshua Spear.

Sunday night at 11:25 pm the team flew out of Washington, DC to Istanbul,Turkey and then onto Dar es Salaam, the capital city of Tanzania. 

After many flights and hopefully a lot of sleep, the team arrived safely in Dar es Salaam.  The team spent a few days meeting with potential partners in the capital city and then traveled toward the village (10 hours + from the capital city).  On Thursday the team arrived in Toloha Village and were greeted with a joyous welcome from the villagers!

That is all the information I have for now but I can’t wait to get more updates, details and pictures.  I will post as soon as I hear more!

Please continue to pray for the following:

Last May we began meeting and actively seeking God’s face for how we could be a part of Daniel’s story and a part of what the Lord is doing in Toloha, TZ.  Now, just over a year since those prayer meetings, we are thrilled that an Assessment Team of four is leaving TOMORROW (Sunday June, 9th 2013) to go to Daniel’s home village of Toloha, TZ!

I think these words from Daniel truly sum up our team’s sentiments:

“Oh my Lord, it is real now!  I did not believe if someday this would happen.  A hope for getting clean water to my people in the village — I will always adore You (God) and testify to Your power before Your people wherever I go and you will always be my God.”

The Lord has been so sweet and so very present throughout this past year.  I would love to share all the ways we’ve seen the Lord and how He has truly led us step by step to get us to this point (maybe in a future blog post)!  A year ago we thought we’d drill a couple of boreholes and the village would have clean water within the year.  Now we are looking at repairing a mountain spring gravity feed system which is an extensive undertaking but one we know the Lord will see to the end.

There have been many times that it would have been easiest to give up, throw in the towel and believe it couldn’t be done.  But, the Lord keeps showing up — over and over and over again.  There is no denying that He has been the one leading this adventure and we can’t wait to see where He leads next.

Will you be praying for our team as they travel?  Here are a few specific things you can be praying for over the next two weeks:

• Safe travels, on-time flights, checked baggage to make it to TZ, accommodations and travel while in country
• Productive meetings/favor with government officials, non-governmental organizations (similar to non profits here in the USA), village leaders and village committees
• Health, good rest and energy
• Opportunities to share Jesus/encourage the church
• God’s leading/wisdom/discernment 

We hope to post multiple times over the coming weeks as we hear news from the team in Tanzania!  Please please please be praying!

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”  Ephesians 3:20-21