As a Maryknoller Missioner I hold the value of  being a ‘servant of the local church’, a value I heard of in the seminary and experienced with my elders in Maryknoll in our life together in Africa. This is quite a change from being the creators and leaders of the local church during colonial times. We are no longer driving the bus so to speak, instead we have seats toward the back.

The Archbishop of Mwanza is a Capuchin Franciscan named Yuda Thadea Ruwa’ichi. He is a forward looking Bishop with a unique pastoral sense for his people. In his letter of assignment to me to create the House of Prayer he wrote that he and I would be ‘co-founders’ of this new venture. So I find myself in the unique position of starting something very new for this local church of Mwanza, and doing it with the Archbishop.

It is not usual for an Archbishop to be interested in Silence, Solitude and Simplicity, the nature of their life’s work being necessarily very active in service to the people of God. So, it has/is been a wonder to me how the future will unfold. What shape of a House of Prayer can we create together?

Today Bishop Yuda Thadea came by to visit, as his custom. He brought me a book, “The Art of Prayer”. A book on the wisdom of the Eastern Church on the way of Silent Contemplation. Now  I am beginning to wonder, Is something special going on here?

Yesterday was an all day affair pouring the ring beam; after a couple of days of watering the beam we will lay three lines of bricks on which we will build our roof.

Today I went with the electrician through the entire house to confirm the electrical plan, switches where, how many, lights, what kind, where to put, etc.

Paying attention to the details is a challenging and important part of building. Something like prayer, one just needs to keep at it, constantly.

Today we had a visit from two government officials from the mayor’s office. We are going through a process to have the use of our land redrawn for institutional purposes, not residential and educational like the land permits state now. This could have been done before we started building, but I am thankful it is getting done now. Hopefully, we will get our Building Permit that we applied for one year ago.

The building though has continued along without any major problems to hurdle. This week we will be pour the ring beam (a thick cement column placed near the top of all our walls that will hold up the roof). It is turning into a unique and beautiful building which I hope will serve many people to retreat into the Solitude and Silence of God.

My legal status in the country is still be worked on with my papers at the Dept. of Works. I hope to have the Residence Permit something by next month.

I’m starting to call the Meditation Groups, Silent Prayer groups to give a sense of Christian Prayer that listens to God instead of the common prayer of doing all the talking to God. The group here at the House of Prayer is growing from a low of one attending to over 20 the last two meetings. The other group of mainly Missioners at the Society of Missions to Africa had 8 attending last night. I am grateful.

I am developing a Prayer Room in the house I am living in. We put up an African Crucifix craved in a nice white wood. Eventually I would like to make a round altar out of the same white wood.

One needs to accept the everyday reality of sickness as a major factor in the time it takes to get things done. For example, I hired someone to make some curtains for the house I am living in; after two days I get word she has malaria. A week goes by with no word from her, then I hear her eye is troubling her. Another week has gone by and I haven’t heard anything.

The woman who does my laundry(by hand) did not show up at the usually time. She came later with her sick child in her arms who had an infection on her neck. This mother told me she had another sick child at home. I haven’t heard from her since. She is a widow, alone and poor, it may be awhile till I hear from her.

Today my foreman, Ernesti sent me an SMS that his father is sick and he would be late if he came into work at all today. He did come in when his father refused to go to the hospital but it looks like this will be a chronic challenge for Ernesti to attend to his ailing father in the future.

Then of course, I can get sick. I am grateful that my health has been great since moving to the House of Prayer a few months ago. It is a challenge to keep a healthy attitude when sickness is always so close. One learns from the people to keep getting up and keep on going regardless of the sickness around you, after all one has to care for the sick.

 

The  last few weeks I have been working on personal and work validation from the government. First the  personal, to live and work in Tanzania an expatriate must have a two year Residence Permit which usually is not to hard to acquire. Now one has to go through the Dept. of Works then on to the Immigration Dept. It seems there a lot of people in the country without permits and the government is cracking down on them, which just makes it harder for those with permits. So, my permit expires 11 March at which time I hope I will have some kind of valid document that allows me to stay in country. If not, I go to Nairobi for a ‘vacation’ while I wait for the process to find an end.

We continue to build with a ‘receipt’ but not a building permit. We have been waiting one year for the building permit that has gotten stalled in the local government’s offices. I have asked the Bishop to get involved more to help us speed up the process. So hopefully, we can get the permit, perhaps around the same time I get my Residence Permit sometime next month before 11 March.

Either way, one learns to wait with a curious, wondering heart like Mary to see how life will unfold.

Walls going up!

Walls going up.