Until I was 30, the longest I had ever lived continuously in the same house was about four years. Since then, I had a couple of longer stretches. The longest I’ve called a place “home” was the nine years we lived in a “temporary” apartment while I was completing seminary, trying to sell my business, and hoping to go into full-time ministry. My sense of “home” has never been rooted in a particular structure.
Iringa Hope, our Bega Kwa Bega affiliated ministry partner, has created a powerful way for our brothers and sisters in Tanzania to invest their modest resources cooperatively into their communities and create real transformation in the process. Using the model of “micro-financing,” similar to the savings & loans systems that pre-existed modern banking, local cooperatives trained and supported by Iringa Hope are providing the financial services that are lacking in the mostly rural areas of central Tanzania.
oday’s is St. Patrick’s Day. Even though we might equate a celebration of Patrick as a saint in the Roman Catholic tradition, Lutherans are also keen to remember his life and witness by including him in our “official” annual commemorations. Patrick, after all, lived as a missionary and bishop in 5th century Ireland, almost 1000 years before the reformation.
This past Monday evening, over 50 members of our church, pastors and members from other Roseville area congregations and partner ministries, plus supporters of Settled and the Mosaic Sacred Settlement all arrived at City Hall to be a visible witness to the City Council as they heard our appeal of the staff ruling regarding our efforts to care for the homeless. Before we entered the council chambers, we gathered outside the front entry of City Hall to pray.