Tumaini University
Makumira University College (MUC0)
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
P. 0. Box 55Usa River, Arusha

7 February 2010

Dear Friends at First Lutheran Church,

Many warm greetings from Tanzania on this cool, rainy Sunday evening. I’m smiling and very happy because I’ve just come from the first youth recital of the children and youth who are taking music lessons in the Department of Music here at MUCo. There were guitars, flute, violin, cello, piano, and harp solos, a very nice piano duet, and of course some choir music. The director of the choir and a music teacher, fellow ELCA missionary Mrs. Carol Stubbs, told us to clap loudly, and we did!

I’m writing to you to say thank you very much for your generous contribution to Educational Opportunities for Tanzanians, an ELCA level II project. You dear and generous people at First Lutheran sent a check for $75 on December 15, 2008.
Now, here is the recipient of your generosity. On 23 July 2009 Mr. Aloys Ndayirukiye, my former student in communications skills in his first year in the BD (Bachelor of Divinity program) received 225,000 T shillings to enable him to send his son Clovis to form I at a Lutheran secondary school not too far from MUCo. (It’s called Kikatiti Secondary School. See the receipt.) One day Mr. Ndayirukiye and his son brought a live chicken to say thank you. I was so touched.  I wish one of you had been here to receive your chicken. (1 think I gave it to the next poor person who showed up at my office that day. Is that OK’?)

Mr. Ndayirukiye, originally from Rwanda, had a very narrow escape when he fled Rwanda in 1994! Now he and his wife and four children have a home in the far south of Tanzania. By God’s grace he was able to bring his family to MUCo, where married student housing is very scarce. He and his wife are raising their children carefully and well. Their second child, a girl named Ninnette, was confirmed in December 2009 and joined her brother at Kikatiti Secondary School last month. She’s in Form I and her brother is in Form 2.

Mr. Ndayirukiye, who already had very good English when he came to study, is a very hard working student. He was chosen to be the editor of the festschrift his class prepared for the former provost, Dr. Gwakisa Mwakagali, who is retiring this August.

Here are the financial details of your gift. The money came to me together with a gift of $100 from another church. Therefore, I’ve shown the calculations I received from the Lutheran Mission Cooperation, the body that receives the money here in Tanzania and gives it out to missionarieswho have set up level two projects. First, 10% of each check was deducted for “90%-lO% Missionary Sponsorship Split,” which left $157.50. I believe the deduction means that 10% was deducted and put toward my support. Then the $157.50 was changed to shillings. The amount of the check given to me to put in the Level II bank account was Tanzanian shillings 203,359.28.

The reason that I’m so late in sending this thank-you letter to you is that I’m very, very busy. For example, one of my communication skills classes, which should have about 35 students, has 122 students! 1 need a microphone and a TA to help mark papers in that class, but I don’t have either. And when I turn my head to the left, I can see a pile of vocabulary notebooks over two feet high that I’m going to mark soon.

Thank you so much for helping this worthy Lutheran family. God bless you all richly for your kindness and generosity.

Yours in His service
Nancy E. Stevenson
ELCA missionary English teacher since Aug. 1979