June 20, 2008 by Stephen Day.

Below is an article that will hopefully be published in some form in my home diocese requesting additional support for projects here at Msalato. Feel free to distribute this as you wish.

Greetings from Tanzania,
I have been in Africa for eight months and will be here for another six months. I am serving as a computer technician and teacher at Msalato Theological College, which is located about ten kilometers outside of Dodoma, Tanzania.

Tanzania is located in east Africa and is directly south of Kenya and is on the Indian Ocean. To the west of Tanzania is Uganda (northwest) and Rwanda. This country was once part of the British Empire; therefore, the Anglican Church has a very large presence here. According to official figures the Diocese of Central Tanganyika (DCT), which includes Dodoma, has approximately 500,000 members and that is just one of more than a dozen dioceses in the Anglican Church of Tanzania.

Msalato Theological College is a diocesan school that trains pastors and other church leaders for DCT and other dioceses. Students come from around the country and several come from neighboring Kenya. There are three main academic programs at Msalato: Diploma in Ministry, Diploma in Applied Theology and Degree in Theology. The Diploma in Ministry program is the only one with instruction in Swahili (the official language of Tanzania) and lasts two years. The other diploma program is similar, but instruction lasts three years and is only in English. The diploma programs are designed for students with educations varying from Standard 7 to Form 4. If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry. I was not familiar with the British school system, which Tanzania uses, until I came here. Standard 7 is comparable to completing some of middle school and Form 4 is similar to a high school diploma. The final and newest program at Msalato is the degree program and is three years of English instruction and for students who have already completed a theology diploma program.

This past semester I taught two academic classes for students in the Diploma in Applied Theology program. I taught first year students about medieval Christianity and the Reformation. For second year students, I taught them modern church history (although I only got to World War II). I also taught two computer skills classes and an introduction to the Bible course for pre-diploma students.

I am here in Dodoma as part of the Young Adult Service Corps missionary program of the Episcopal Church. As part of that program I was required to raise $10,000 to support my work here. With the help of the people of the Diocese of West Virginia and St. Mark’s in Silver Spring, Maryland nearly $15,000 was raised. The funds over the required $10,000 have been used to support Msalato and the work I am doing here directly. However, all of this money has been used. The largest single item was $1,200, which was used to purchase the parts for a new server that will provide a local email system at Msalato. Other money was used to buy an oven and refrigerator for the duplex I live in, which will be left for the use of future missionaries. More money was used to improve the plumbing in my duplex, which will be of great benefit to future occupants. I was also able to purchase new keyboards, mice and power supplies for the computers here. Those items need replacement quite often here.

As I look forward to the remaining months that I will be here I am aware of numerous other needs that exist here. There is a desperate need for spare parts for the computers here – especially power supplies and keyboards. The electrical system in Tanzania is in very poor condition and although we use a very expensive voltage regulator on all of our computers there are still many power supplies that need replacement on a regular basis. The two computer labs are only a year old and more than ten power supplies have needed to be replaced. At least fifteen keyboards have needed replacement in my seven months here. There are also two classrooms and several offices that need to have network wiring so that students and staff can access the computer network and the Internet. The main server here also needs a spare hard drive, which costs at least $350 and is hard to find. For all these reasons and more I would appreciate your continued support.

If you feel called and able to support the ministry I am doing here, you can donate by writing a check to the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia and sending it to PO Box 5400, Charleston, WV, 25361. Be sure to mention my name or Tanzania in the memo line. Feel free to keep up to date with my activities by visiting my blog at www.daysdaze.org or you can contact me directly at stephend79@gmail.com.

Yours in Christ,
Stephen Day

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

June 20, 2008 by Stephen Day.

The semester has ended and some students have already left. The students in the pre-degree and pre-diploma courses have graduated and all have been accepted into the full degree and diploma programs. I have a fair amount of marking to do, but I am pleased with the semester. I really enjoyed teaching and look forward to teaching three academic courses next semester - two Church History courses for first and second year diploma students. I will be teaching third year diploma students ecclesiology and mission theology (which is actually mostly systematic theology). These will be interesting challenges.

I have been taking a lot of pictures and will share them with you as soon as I can sort through them. My father is leaving the US next Tuesday and will arrive in Dar es Salaam late on Wednesday night next week. I can’t wait for him to arrive so that I can share this experience with him.

That brings me to my final point - I would like to take this opportunity to thank my parents for all of their support for my work here. They have spent thousands of dollars in support of the work I am doing and without their help I would not be here (in Dodoma, not in the metaphysical sense) today. They are very faithful and loving people who have taught me so much.

Well, goodbye for now. God bless.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

June 12, 2008 by Stephen Day.

I have uploaded even more pictures. The pictures are of some of the staff and students here at Msalato Theological College. View them at: http://stephencday.com/TeachersofMsalato/. Enjoy!!!!

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

June 9, 2008 by Stephen Day.

I have posted two more webpages of pictures. The first is a set of pictures from a service at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, which was led by a missionary here at Msalato. The second webpage is a collection of random pictures from the past few months. Enjoy these!

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

June 8, 2008 by Stephen Day.

I wanted to let you all know that I have posted some new pictures to my website. You can view them at: http://stephencday.com/Prayer%20Walk%20Page/

These are pictures of last Friday’s Prayer Walk. It was a day of prayer here at Msalato and the day began with a prayer service in the chapel. The service was followed by a prayer walk around the campus. The pictures on my site show the staff and students of Msalato walking and praying around the campus. Enjoy!

Also, I have just posted a video from today’s service at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit here in Dodoma. The service was led by the Pre-Diploma and Pre-Degree students of Msalato. The video is from the Offortory when the students sang and dance. You can view or download the 20 MB video at www.stephencday.com/Students-Singing-Dancing.m4v You will need Quicktime version 6 or better to view it. You can get Quicktime at www.apple.com.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »