Here I stand with a person who helped to shape my life, Chirangi!  He was struggling with some health issues when I taught him at Katoke Teachers College.  I tried to walk with him in his discomfort.   He was born and bred in a dry climate, Katoke was in a semi-rain forest area west of Lake Victoria.  I do believe his struggles were authentic.  Others thought otherwise!  With diligence he worked hard to stay in training and so was not dismissed as a trainee but qualified to be a school teacher, his career.  We loved and admired one another and that was that!  Here I stand with him as the Secretary of the Tanzania Mennonite Church.  In his patience and love he walked with me as I tried to find my way in that culture.  He must have wondered now and again who this was that he was to call “brother.”  It was me!

Chirangi’s son is now the Doctor in Charge of the Shirati Hospital, one of the best private hospitals in Tanzania.  He is the one who sent me this precious picture a few days ago.    As the years pass all this fits into patterns – God’s call to change us all!

Chirangi and others loved me with all my faults and together we revealed to all what God can do with people so different yet so much the same!  May his name be praised. Thank you, Dr. Chirangi for this wonderful picture and even more precious memories.