We had nice group of children, women and men for our weekly Meditation Group at the House of Prayer. I usually give a short teaching, we sing a chant style song and meditate for 15 minutes. At the end I used a book called, ‘Praying with our Bodies’.

I guided the people in simple exercise of just standing up straight, bringing awareness to our breath, the Spirit within and our blessedness before God. I was uncertain how the folks would  respond, they loved it.

On another front, the building progresses on schedule. Next week we will pour the floor of the Core Community House and the top of the water tank.

As St. Teresa of Avila said, “We are not angels (we have a body)”. I am thankful we can also pay attention to the outer forms of vision and spirit as we bring awareness to our bodies and homes.

There are many questions for Missioners during this era. How do we move to the back of the bus so to speak and instead of leading the local church, be a servant of it. The Lake House of Prayer is an effort to bring something new to this local Church of Mwanza, Tanzania, as a servant, and not a leader.

The Church is pretty well established, with full churches, indigenous clergy and leadership in all areas. I feel the responsibility to offer something that the Church here needs, Silence, Solitude in the Contemplative Tradition of the Church.

The question to be lived into is, “Do the people want this, really?” After 15 months working on the House of Prayer, I would say, I’m not sure. Right now the challenges are explaining and doing Contemplation in a manner the people here can respond to it. After all it is something new, as far as what the Church has shared with the people. But within the African culture itself there are deep places of Silence and Solitude. This something new is really something very very old.

Putting in the Basement floor

As you can probably see from the pictures on the website the construction of our Core Community House is continuing pretty much on schedule. Because of the steep slope of the hill we’re building on we discovered room enough to add a basement (see picture) which costs more but thanks to donor support and Maryknoll, doable.

The water tank is also coming into shape (see picture). Now the big discussion is what kind of pump to put in, in the tank or outside? The water department actually came by the other day(we have not had water ever since had our system installed) to check on why we haven’t been getting water.

Through it all, we give thanks to God and your support.

 

Front of the Basement taking shape

Part of the Vision for the Lake House of Prayer is, simplicity. I hope we can provide an atmosphere that encourages our guests to return to the basics of being attentive to the natural needs of body-mind-spirit. Also, the simplicity of returning to a deep and personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the spreading of his Father’s Kingdom of Love, Justice and Peace on this earth.

One area in which I have been trying to simplify my life is food, shopping for it, cooking it, and eating it. I don’t have a refrigerator, and don’t intend to get one for now. I, in a way, have to shop more often(like the people do) to get what I need that day, fresh.

I usually eat beans, fish, pasta and a green vegetable called ‘mchicha'(like a spinach). I have someone help me with some of the preparation of my food, like mchicha. Yesterday I saw Anna(a worker) picking grass around my window. I went outside to ask her what she was doing. She said she went to the market but they did not have any mchicha so she was picking some mchicha that grows wild around my house. She went on to explain there are four kinds of mchicha that she was picking from our land (it all looked the same to me, green).

Later, for dinner, I mixed pinto beans with the ‘grass’ from my front yard. It was delicious. I never thought living more simply meant eating ‘grass’.

 

Working on basement

Working on the water tank

Getting ready to put the floor in at the House of Prayer

If I go a few days without blogging perhaps it because I don’t get an internet signal on the hill that the House of Prayer is on. This can be a blessing not to have to deal with THE SCREEN for a few days. It can also be a lack when important emails don’t get answered right away or I don’t get to write here and let you all know what’s going on with me.

It just starting raining, hard, with a possible thunder claps. I need to get off or the thunder will fry with computer. See you, maybe in a few days, or sooner I hope.