By The Rev. Marek Zabriskie
The Gospel of Matthew concludes with Jesus saying, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I had commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). This is known as The Great Commission.
Ever since, Christians have traveled to remote places to share their faith. It’s not always been easy or well-received. Stories abound of missionaries being rejected or even killed.
Some 35 years ago, Christ Church awarded their Rector, Jack Bishop, a sabbatical. When Jack asked his wife, JoAnn, where she wanted to travel on their sabbatical, she said, “Africa.” So, they arranged a trip to Tanzania.
They began an enduring relationship between Christ Church and the Diocese of Mt. Kilimanjaro that has lasted for over three decades. Christ Church members and Greenwich friends have returned to Tanzania dozens of times and have brought the Bishop of Tanzania to Greenwich.
In 2008, during one of the many Christ Church mission trips to Tanzania, Maasai tribesmen asked to meet with Christ Church parishioner Cheryl Kyle, who was visiting Tanzania with 12 parishioners.
They met in a remote desert location an hour’s drive from the bustling city of Arusha. Over 400 Maasai showed up. They said, “We want to build a school for our children, but we need your help.”
One couple offered to help pay half of the cost of a classroom. Cheryl contacted parishioner Karen Royce, and together they raised the other half. The Endupoto Primary School was born.
Since then, these two intrepid women have returned over a dozen times to Tanzania with Christ Church members. They have raised funds and have now built ten classrooms, a kindergarten, teacher housing, water-harvesting tanks, soccer and net ball fields, latrines, a kitchen, a storage building, gardens, and planted trees.
A group of 18 of us from Christ Church and Greenwich recently returned from visiting the school in Tanzania. This year, a remarkable 850 students will attend the primary school. The smallest classroom has 59 students. Several classes have over 100 students. The largest class has 138 students. One teacher goes back and forth between two classrooms to teach.
Endupoto has 15 teachers. The government pays for eight and Karen and Cheryl raise funds to pay for seven and two cooks to prepare food for the children. They need more teachers.
You can see in these children’s eyes a determination to learn. They know that getting an education is the difference between spending a life herding goats or becoming a doctor, nurse, or lawyer, or starting their own business. The school is educating future leaders for a nation.
When we arrived, we were greeted by Maasai tribesmen and women, carrying spears and wearing bright clothes and their finest beaded jewelry made by hand. Several choirs sang and danced. Their hospitality was incredible. Our visit was delayed for two years due to COVID.
We dedicated the kindergarten classroom given by Vestry member Pat Baity in honor of her son, Edward, who tragically died almost seven years ago. Pat’s daughter-in-law, Michelle, and her granddaughters, Page and Brook, ages 16 and 12, were there to share the moment.
We gathered in a church that was given by generous Christ Church parishioners Tom and Barbara Arenz. It can hold 200 people, but it is already too small to hold the entire village that is growing up around the school.
Members of the Tanzanian government were on hand to celebrate with us. They told us that the Endupoto School is now seen as a model that the government wants to emulate to educate children across the country.
It all came about because two strong, hard-working, gifted women with a vision and courage and dozens of church members and friends were moved to achieve what others said could not be done.
On our final day, we met a fourteen-year-old girl named Naomi. She recently graduated from the Endoputo School and passed her national exams so that she could attend secondary school. Several days before our mission team arrived in Tanzania, this downcast girl told Cheryl that her father had promised her in marriage to a much older man for the bride gift or dowry of several cows. She could not continue her education. She had no say in the decision.
Karen, Cheryl, and a teacher named, Jackson, interceded. They knew that a new Tanzanian law prohibited a girl from being married before the age of 18. So, Naomi’s older sister sheltered her, while her aunt, a Catholic nun, informed the police that her father had arranged a marriage for his underage daughter. He was arrested, and Naomi was free to continue her education.
When we met her, she was dressed in her maroon school uniform. She was smiling. “You cannot believe the change that has come over her since she learned that she could continue her education,” said Cheryl. It was one of countless miracles to occur at the Endupoto School.
Many of the people that we met in Tanzania have almost nothing, but they gave us gifts. They are so poor, but they are filled with enormous hope and joy. It made us wonder why do we, who have so much, live in fear that we do not have enough. We fear that we might run out of money, and thus we fear to share with God and others? These people have much to teach us.
On our last day, we visited a workshop where handicapped employees produce cloth and jewelry to earn a meager living. A man named Johnny made a bracelet of colored beads for me.
As I left, we gave each other a fist-bump, but this was unlike any fist bump I have ever given. Johnny has no hands. He has two stumps where his hands would normally be. So, we did our fist bump, smiled and said goodbye.
I pray that Christ Church will continue its ministry at the Endupoto School for decades to come and that many parishioners and Greenwich friends will travel with us to Tanzania. It is the trip of a lifetime, but more importantly it is a window to the Kingdom of God and how to live with simplicity, hope, and compassion.
