Pommern
-From the Mission House-It is the scent of Pine in the air that did it – that brought me back to my roots,
The dirt roads, lined with evergreens -imported from Europe with the faith, the meals cooked over wood fires, and the muffled sound of children playing and adults chatting in the distance caused me to relive summers spent at Firefly Lake in Northern Wisconsin in my childhood.
Further back, the brickwork and massive edifice of the Mission House - a solid German farmhouse built for the ages during the colonial era, and musty air and thatched roof of the ‘old church’ were somehow imprinted on my being before I ever saw them. In their presence, long-since dormant strains of my Northern European heritage were stirred up – sentiments and feelings that I had only been vaguely aware of.
This is the village of Pommern.
In 1899 it became the site of the first permanent Lutheran Presence in this region of Tanzania – at the time Tanganyika/ German East Africa.
Beyond the physical remains of the missionary era, it is also home to a rich living history. This morning I met with a one of the first women to be missionized in Ilula. She now lives with her daughter, a teacher here at the Lutheran Secondary School. Yesterday, it was Emmanuel Nyadwike, the first Evangelist to the Tungamalenga area. In the 1960’s he settled near Mapogoro and began tilling the soil, in two’s and three’s planting the seeds for a parish that now numbers in the thousands at 19 preaching points. Well into his 80s, he has returned home to Pommern for much needed rest.
In the present day, Pommern is a large parish with a dozen preaching points of its own. While administrative power in the region has shifted to Iringa [an hour or two to the North], it remains the head office for the Southern District of the Diocese, the location of a basic medical dispensary, and home to the 900 students enrolled at Pommern Secondary School.
Beyond its partnership with the Saint Paul Area Synod, Pommern has a healthy relationship with both Plymouth Church near Boston and Global Volunteers, a non-profit development organization.
It is in this environment –laced with a history both personal and institutional – that I have been walking these past five days. Next, I am off to the West and ‘my’ partner parish of Tungamalenga.
The dirt roads, lined with evergreens -imported from Europe with the faith, the meals cooked over wood fires, and the muffled sound of children playing and adults chatting in the distance caused me to relive summers spent at Firefly Lake in Northern Wisconsin in my childhood.
Further back, the brickwork and massive edifice of the Mission House - a solid German farmhouse built for the ages during the colonial era, and musty air and thatched roof of the ‘old church’ were somehow imprinted on my being before I ever saw them. In their presence, long-since dormant strains of my Northern European heritage were stirred up – sentiments and feelings that I had only been vaguely aware of.
This is the village of Pommern.
In 1899 it became the site of the first permanent Lutheran Presence in this region of Tanzania – at the time Tanganyika/ German East Africa.
Beyond the physical remains of the missionary era, it is also home to a rich living history. This morning I met with a one of the first women to be missionized in Ilula. She now lives with her daughter, a teacher here at the Lutheran Secondary School. Yesterday, it was Emmanuel Nyadwike, the first Evangelist to the Tungamalenga area. In the 1960’s he settled near Mapogoro and began tilling the soil, in two’s and three’s planting the seeds for a parish that now numbers in the thousands at 19 preaching points. Well into his 80s, he has returned home to Pommern for much needed rest.
In the present day, Pommern is a large parish with a dozen preaching points of its own. While administrative power in the region has shifted to Iringa [an hour or two to the North], it remains the head office for the Southern District of the Diocese, the location of a basic medical dispensary, and home to the 900 students enrolled at Pommern Secondary School.
Beyond its partnership with the Saint Paul Area Synod, Pommern has a healthy relationship with both Plymouth Church near Boston and Global Volunteers, a non-profit development organization.
It is in this environment –laced with a history both personal and institutional – that I have been walking these past five days. Next, I am off to the West and ‘my’ partner parish of Tungamalenga.
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