Mission & Outreach
Tanzania
Tanzania travel
Several St. Paul people traveled to Tanzania in early summer to serve and to experience life in Africa person-to-person. One traveler, Sherry O’Keefe, assembled a beautiful book recounting their experience in friendship. It’s on display in the St. Paul Library.
Goat news from Tanzania!
Fourteen goats are a gift to Tanzanian farmers from St. Paul Lutheran Church people. This special congregational effort is providing 10 dairy goats, four bucks, farmer training, and transportation through Heifer International.
One goat can provide sustainability for an entire family. The animal provides milk for family needs, and the excess milk can be sold for income. Recipients of the goats agree to share the offspring of gift animals with others in need, making them equal partners in the fight to end world hunger.
Contact Bill Whitmore, our resident goat expert,
Read the inspiring story of Beatrice’s goat>>
Tanzanian missionaries
Todd and Lori Byerly, members of St. Paul, serve as ELCA missionaries in northeast Tanzania, East Africa. There they live in Same, a sprawling community in the Kilimanjaro region, one of the poorest in Tanzania. It is our congregation’s joy to provide funding, love, and prayers for the Byerlys.
To learn more about daily life in Tanzania, explore Todd and Lori’s lively weblog.
Contact Todd & Lori Byerly:
c/o Diocese of Pare
SLP 22
Same, Tanzania
Bombo Lutheran Parish
Bombo Lutheran Parish is a cluster of small churches in northeastern Tanzania in the Pare Diocese where Todd and Lori Byerly live. Our St. Paul congregation has an unfolding partnership with Bombo Parish, grounded in prayer, study, communication, and people-to-people connections. Team Tanzania gives inspiration to this Iowa-Africa relationship.
Gonja Hospital contributes to healthcare in the area.
For more information, be in touch with Melanie & Tom Gellhaus, who have served as medical missionaries in Tanzania and other countries: , 563-441-0154
Habari Hello!
A letter-writing friendship unfolds, from Iowa to Tanzania and back. Read more.
"...Jesus reduced the mark of a Christian to one word: 'By this all will know you are my disciples,' he said: 'if you LOVE one another.' The most subversive act the church can take is consistently to obey that command." ~Philip Yancey