Walking Through Open Doors in Tanzania
By Dave Burgess
President, Ubora
I’m excited to share with you what is going on about a door that God seems to be presenting to our ministry!
Hopefully you are aware of the transformation that has taken place in education over the past years in Karansi--changing it from a place of little hope to one of great promise for the future. Over these years of progress, though, there has been struggle, and the change has not always come easily. One of our biggest challenges has been the government regulations of the curriculum. These regulations impacted everything within the school from content to class schedule to culture, and our teacher teams have done well to expand the curriculum while not running afoul of local inspectors. Overall, the progress made in education has happened despite these regulations and the cultural impact they have. Sometimes it’s felt like we’ve been swimming a bit against the current all these years.
But God has orchestrated an amazing work!
As the SHEFO and UBORA teams attempted to try to get local education authorities to relax these regulations, God had much bigger plans.
He placed the idea in Pastor Wariaeli’s mind to arrange a meeting with the Minister of Education in the capital of Dodoma - an unprecedented request for a small village like Karansi. At just the right time, God had the Prime Minister initiate discussions within Parliament about the need for major education reform, so Pastor’s idea was well received – and therefore a meeting was agreed. He then provided the resources and timing so that the Siha District leadership could attend.
And so, on June 3rd, SHEFO leadership, eight members of the Siha District leadership team, Jerry Thames and I made a trip to the Tanzanian Parliament to meet with the Deputy Minister of Education, Mr. Omary Kipanga and his team.
The Holy Spirit was present and provided the right words as we presented a brief history of the school, our curriculum, teaching methodologies, an update on the school expansion, and plans for the future of Tanzanian education.
The meeting could not have gone better. In short, the Ministry of Education has expressed its desire for Siha Leadership School to be a Reference School for future education reform! We now have the freedom, privilege, and responsibility to take education to the next level and continue creating the best education system for the children of Tanzania.
This is a major answer to many prayers over many years for our school. The situation was presented to the Ubora Board of Directors, and it was agreed that we should move forward boldly, but humbly, and with much prayer - in viewing this as a God-given opportunity to impact the education system of the nation of Tanzania. We have been blessed with different experiences and resources here, and we pray that we will steward these well going forward and blend them gracefully with those of our Tanzanian brothers and sisters – all for the glory of Jesus.
We all know that there will be new challenges to face, but in the coming years, this is going to be a healthy dose of, well, FUN! We envision things like...
The Curiosity Zone – a hands-on learning lab for grades K-3
Full science labs for the upper grades
Additional hands-on and engaging resources in the classrooms
Expanded teacher mentoring
More opportunities to read to children, and
Mind expanding activities for after school and on weekends
As I think about how much potential these kids have, I distinctly recall on an early VBS trip introducing one or two children to a simple game of thumb-wrestling and was soon mobbed by 30 kids. If this simple game brought so much joy, I cannot imagine the excitement and learning that will happen with the type of programs we are envisioning.
It is going to be a hoot, and we will need folks to go and be a part of this in the coming months and years.
Could God be opening the door for you to be involved on helping transform education in Tanzania? Let’s talk.
In His Precious and Holy Name,
Dave