This saying is the meaning of “Mfumbuka” a name of honor given to a Missionary of Africa Priest named Fr. Clement for his life and work with the largest tribe in Tanzania, the Wasukuma. Fr. Clement truly entered the culture and life of the Wasukumu, so much so as much as it is possible for an outsider, to become one of them. He was able to do so because of his ability to be open to the mystery of the Sukumu people without prejudice or judgment. His imagination was open without mentally judging or labeling these people. My sisters Mary Ann and Patty came to visit me for the first time and we went to the Cultural Center founded by Mfumbuka, Fr. Clement here was where we learned about the man who had “Imagination without Expectation”

Perhaps we too can live our lives open to the Mystery of the other without expectation and be surprised by what we encounter.  Fr. Jim 

Lela is a 54yr old woman with cervical cancer. She is the mother of one of our workers at the House of Prayer. Anna, the worker, asked me to see her because her condition was getting worse (sounded like terminal stage cancer).

Lela was lying on a thin foam mattress, in a poorly lite room (no electricity), bare cement walls and floor with one small window to let in some light. A poor person’s home.

Lela gave birth to 13 children, two of whom have already died. She started experiencing pain awhile ago, went to the hospital to get checked but the hospital lost the results (happens a lot). So she went along without any treatment for a long while not knowing she had a problem. People have a tremendous capacity to absorb pain and can go a long time before going to the hospital.

When she finally got some decent service at another hospital they told her about the cancer and that she should just go home because there is nothing they can do about it. She explained all this to me just keeping to the facts with no hint of complaint

Hello Again,

It has been a very long time writing here. As a ‘primative’ on the internet when it got too complicated for me, I headed to the ‘villages’ of my mind. I hope I can get this out and get some confidence to start writing here again.

Just to say we are still very much in business here at the Lake House of Prayer on Lake Victoria (Lake Nyasa) in Tanzania. It’s been five years since we opened up for guests seeking rest, reflection, prayer. The blessings have been great and our heart is full of gratitude.

It has been since the later part of April since I wrote here, obviously many experiences along the way. Let me try to give a summary.

The Daughters of Mary an indigenous African group of Sisters have been coming to us for Directed Retreats, six sisters at a time. For all of them, now 20 have come, with a total of 73 will be coming when we reach Dec, this is the first time to have a Contemplative Directed Retreat.

We hosted the Society of Missions to Africa a Missionary group very much like Maryknoll. 25 SMA Missioners came, priests, a sister and lay enjoyed a reflection day at the House of Prayer.

In the beginning of May the Maryknoll Fathers/Brothers Superior General came for a visit. I was very encouraged by his support for our ministry; after all it is the not classical missionary work of action but more of one of silence and reflection.

We have a new Bishop who seems to be supportive of our Mission here at the House of Prayer. He is from the diocese; I knew him when I was in the parish. We are hoping for a good working relationship and understanding with him.

Four Franciscan Sisters spent a day of reflection and prayer twice during June. At the present moment I am giving a Contemplative Preached Retreat to 4 Sisters of Mary of the Poor. Two of the Sisters are from Indian and two from Tanzania. We also have Brother Francis from Kenya for a 7 day directed retreat.

So, we been very busy for May and June, stretching our capacity to the limit but still able to keep things simple to enhance an atmosphere of Silence, Simplicity and Solitude for our guests. This is a good challenge to have as our guests increase and we become more known: to keep to the saying, ‘Small is Beautiful’ so that we keep the ability to provide a ‘Good, Simple, Life’ for our guests and local community.

It has been months since writing here. In the beginning I was having trouble getting on to log, later I got lazy. I’ll try to give you some highlights of the last few months.

We made an agreement with the Daughters of Mary (Tanzanian Sisters) to a series of 13 Directed Retreats (6 at a time). Our first group has already come for retreat and all went well; hopefully this will be the case until Dec. 2019.

We also had a big test in receiving 11 guests for 5 days for a Directed Retreat. Judy and I split up meeting our guests for Spiritual Direction. But the main challenge was food, keeping enough good food on the table for 11 hungry Missioners. We are thankful for a great effort by our staff and God’s Grace.

We have a new Bishop who will be officially installed next month; his name is Bishop Renatus. He is a former priest of this diocese whom I know. I believe he will be supportive of our efforts and vision here at the House of Prayer.

We have added the Taize prayer service to our small group retreats. The beautiful chants, readings, prayers, silence and prayer at the Cross have really touched people.

We have also added “Mary Undoer of Knots” to our small group retreats. This prayer service was started in our Pope Francis’ diocese in Argentina while he was Archbishop there. The people really like the reflections and prayers; it helps them express what is bothering them deep inside.

We are completing a ‘house’ to place a picture of “Mary Undoer of Knots” from which people can to sit and pray. Along with this house we’ve built a “Stairway to Heaven” ladder up in front of our front entrance up to a patio area on our roof.

We continue our regular morning and evening meditations and Eucharist with our praying community of local Christians.

It has been almost three weeks since I returned to Tanzania from a 6 weeks vacation in the States. Slowly, ever so slowly my timing is coming back. Usually we think of timing in regards to sports but essentially, it is a life skill of engaging life in the rhythm that life demands. If a day is going slowly, go slow; if fast, pick up the pace. But mostly timing is about patience.

While the culture is changing, most of our people still know the timing of being patient. They have to, they do a lot of waiting. So knowing how to be still and wait is a vital aspect of timing; being away in a fast paced culture (USA), coming back to Africa at 600mph on a jet plane has thrown my timing off a bit. What do I need? Patience, the timing needed will come.

 

I’ve been away for the past six weeks on vacation, so the lack of blogs. Yesterday a mother and father brought their teenage daughter for counseling.

They explained that at school she is forgetting what she learnt in class when taking various tests. I’ve heard this before and wonder what’s going on. So, I asked the girl, Rosemary to come and see me the next day.

She related that she understands everything in the classroom but forgets everything when she is tested on the classroom information. What’s going on?

After listening to her I think two things are contributing to her forgetting. One is the extremely heavy emphasis on test taking and memorization. The second reason is anxiety and fear going into the test (she told me of these feelings before taking a test).

Perhaps the first reason for Rosemary’s forgetting during testing could be solved by a renewed Education vision-policy that would empower young people to grasp knowledge and retain it. The second, dealing with fear and anxiety is a psycho-spiritual question. Hopefully the House of Prayer can be helpful.

Last Saturday we played host to 26 Christians from my former parish Mabatini. Our guests live a hard life, of constant noise, no privacy, constant threat of crime, a hard life of daily struggle to get enough food to live.

One thing that happens in this environment is the traditional goodness of culture, the  basics of human living get twisted and lost by overt or subtle brutality.

To meet these challenges I am trying to form a teaching that renews the goodness of their culture so that they may guard themselves in the very midst of their hard lives.

They are hungry for this kind of teaching that focuses on health for body, mind and spirit. So during the retreat we meditated, prayed with scripture, exercise outside using movements that released the stresses in their bodies. We also slept, resting their tired bodies, ate in silence and offered prayers for each other during Eucharist.

The needs are great in creating a Good, Simple Life in the midst of a Hard, Hard Life. But God’s Love in Christ can overcome the human-made hardness with the gentle breeze of God’s Love renewing this Good Life in Africa.

Last week a researcher for the “Medical Research” department of the government asked to come for a quiet reflection day. I met with him once in a session which he shared his desire to deepen his spiritual search.

He told me the results of some of his research when I mentioned ‘desolation’ in the spiritual life. He said an alarmingly number of adults are suffering from high degrees of anxiety and depression. This concerned him. But he was even more alarmed at the same very high degrees of anxiety and depression in schools, that is in primary schools and secondary schools. This condition in schools was unheard of in the past.

What is happening? The pressure to past exams in great, one’s future depends on passing and continuing one’s education. But even if one succeeds to the highest level the pressure then becomes finding a job. There are other factors such as the speeded up rhythm of life and the distracting nature of daily existence.

What can we do to help at the House of Prayer? We can provide the Space in Silence, Solitude and Simplicity to help people to come back to themselves, selves created in the image and likeness of God. Then from that Sacred Space in freedom and peace one engages the world creatively.

Rafaeli died yesterday. He used to come into the early morning meditation with a flash light because his eyesight was so poor. He loved to sit in the silence. Still as a rock. Silent as a gentle breeze. Poor as the mud house that was his home.

He was probably ill for awhile but the illness finally made its appearance within this short period. My guess is he faced his death the way he meditated, still, silent and gently.