| The Northwestern Ohio Synod has been in companionship with the Dodoma Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania since the 1980s as two regional church bodies walking in accompaniment to learn from each other with mutual respect. This has included exchanges of members of each church hosted by the other, as well as projects around the work of health, education, evangelism and disability in our two contexts.
Project Pikipiki has been developed out of a request by the Dodoma Diocese to help fund the purchase of motorbikes to make the work of evangelists in remote regions safer and more efficient. Evangelists are the first folks to engage with and support emerging Christian communities in villages where the church has not been previously present. Their work involves preaching, teaching and caring for the community. As these communities grow, pastoral care becomes more important and a pastor may be called to serve the sub parishes alongside the evangelist on an annual or semi-annual basis. While the population and development of the city of Dodoma is exploding as an urban center after the relocation of the state and economic capital to the region, the outlying geography is still very rural and not easily accessible. Some evangelists are serving multiple communities, walking between 15-20 miles between sub parishes. Motorbikes are an affordable way to make their work safer and more efficient, saving miles of walking and increasing time in service and care to God's people in remote parishes. |
