by Nola Smith
It all started when I read an article in the April 2025 Bold Connections e-newsletter from Women of the ELCA regarding a trip to Arusha and Meru, Tanzania, through their Global Education Travel program. In my retirement from nursing, I was looking for new ways to serve my faith community. I already had a strong connection to Tanzania due to sponsoring a young girl from the country for many years. When I read the newsletter, I felt called to learn more about how my sisters in faith in Tanzania, Cameroon, and the U.S. are working together to help young women through the program, “Raising Up Healthy Women and Girls.” This program raises funds to help young women continue their education by covering tuition, books and fees. The program also provides mentorship opportunities, and I was blessed to meet and get to know the two most recent recipients of this scholarship, Tumaini Abel Pallangoyo and Heavenlight Daudi.
From the moment I arrived in Tanzania until the end of my trip, I was met with warm welcomes and hugs. Our group of Lutheran women was both international and intergenerational. Over the course of a week together, our relationships grew through daily prayer and reflection. We worshipped together and enjoyed the wilderness on safari. It was wonderful to witness the Lord’s creatures and landscapes that are so different from what I experience in Minnesota!
Cathedral USA River Lutheran Church
The Lutheran Church is growing in Tanzania, and I was able to attend the vibrant worship service at the Cathedral USA River Lutheran Church. This church has five services, with 400 people attending each. The liturgy and songs were all in Swahili, so I was grateful to one of the ladies who translated for me. What I didn’t need translated was the incredible joy of thanksgiving and praise in the room. The service lasted two and a half hours, but the time flew by.
Another incredible worship experience was at the Ngereiyani Maasai village. It began with several hundred people waiting for our arrival outside the church, dressed in colorful dresses and beaded jewelry, with smiling faces. Each person wanted to shake our hands or hug us. Worship consisted of three different groups of ladies singing songs of praise and using their whole bodies to express their love of the Lord, which was so moving to me.
Outside of these worship experiences, I also had the opportunity to see how international faith connections have inspired health and education in Tanzania. In the field of health, I had the chance to visit the Arusha Lutheran Medical Centre, founded in 2008 by Dr. Mark Jacobson, ELCA, a physician-missionary from Minnesota. Later in 2015, he and Dr. David Swanson opened the Neonatal Intensive Care unit with four beds/incubators, funded by donations from my former congregation, Trinity Lutheran Church in Cyrus, MN. During my visit, I learned that before this unit, 80% of premature babies died, but today 98% survive!
I visited a number of schools in Tanzania and saw firsthand the challenges that many young people face in receiving a good education. I visited the Ailanga Lutheran Junior Seminary, the Makumira Senior School, and the Mshikamano Vocational School. All are boarding schools where students live year-round in dormitory-style buildings with outdoor bathrooms. There are no musical instruments, such as a piano, no art or sports programs, few computers, and few books. A blackboard is used for students to copy information and write in notebooks. Electricity is not always available either. Yet the students are very motivated to study and do well in school, so they can have a better life in the future.
Unfortunately, several factors make it much less likely that girls will continue their education after primary school. If a girl becomes pregnant, she must leave school and not return per Tanzanian law. Others leave due to lack of school fees, family and cultural pressure to stay at home and care for siblings, the need to begin working, or getting married.
To address the challenges that girls, especially, face in education, three ELCA International Women Leaders—Naomi Mbise (Tanzania), Dora Houma, and Marina Fomabami (Cameroon) — founded the African Girls Scholarship and Mentorship Program. These inspiring young women established the scholarship while studying at three different ELCA colleges in the United States during the pandemic. To date, seven women have received scholarships that cover tuition, books, and fees for one year. During the week I spent time with the two most recent scholarship recipients, Tumaini Abel Pallengyo and Heavenlight Daudi, and continue to either write or call them and to keep them in prayer as they continue their education. Funding is essential to continue this impactful work. To contribute—make checks payable to Women of the ELCA, including RUHWG in the memo line. Mail to ELCA Gift Processing Center, PO Box 1809, Merryfield, Virginia 22116-8009
This journey has made me aware of the educational and healthcare challenges that girls and young women face in Tanzania. Yet they stand firm in their faith by being kind and caring to all they meet, being courageous to continue their schooling, and showing others the love of Christ through their witness. May we as sisters in faith be a source of support and prayer for these young women and others in the future.
Discussion questions:
1. How do we engage, accompany, and mentor our young women in our parish, our neighborhood, and our homes?
2. We have so many resources to help others here in the United States. What is something you could do to engage, accompany and mentor girls who may live in a foreign country that do not have access to resources that you do?
3. How can we be strong in faith and courageous in love for others?
Closing prayer:
Dear Lord, Each of us is called to be firm in our faith, to share the good news of Jesus Christ, and to engage others to do the same through our daily lives here at home and abroad. We pray for all women in Tanzania and the world to be given the opportunity to receive health care and a good education to make their lives better. Keep the women and girls safe from violence. We especially pray for the Raising Up Healthy Women and Girls program and the African Girls Scholarship and Mentorship Program. Keep us strong in faith and courageous in love, as we engage, accompany, and mentor the girls and women of the world! Amen.
Nola Smith is a pastor’s wife for 51 years, a retired Registered Nurse and serves on the board of the Northwestern Minnesota Synodical Women’s Organization. She participated in the Global Education Travel program in Tanzania in July 2025. She is a member and parish visitor of Shalom Lutheran Church in Alexandria, Minn.