Medical Mission Morogoro

The Arkansas-Oklahoma Medical Mission Trip to Morogoro:

The Arkansas-Oklahoma Synod of the ELCA (to which we belong) is a companion Synod with the Morogoro Dioceses of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. One of our partnerships is a medical mission trip each summer to a community in the Morogoro Dioceses that is far from the larger hospital. For a week in the summer, a team including doctors, nurses, and non-medical volunteers go to serve in this community hospital. The team treat what they can and financially assist to get people to the larger hospital if they cannot treat them. Volunteers that are not needed for the medical, pharmaceutical or patient intake roles serve as a "fundi" or fixer. They repair anything from broken doors to broken x-ray machines at the hospital. 

Servanthood Sunday:

Lance and Eileen Miller, members of Community of Joy Lutheran Church in Hot Springs Village, AR and veteran servants on the medical mission trip visited Faith Lutheran to share about the ministry of this trip. Lance and Eileen shared what the day-to-day life is like, stories of meeting the people of Morogoro and the hospitality they received. The service project for this servanthood Sunday was to package Ibuprofen and vitamins to go with the team this summer. Both Ibuprofen and vitamins are common prescriptions at the hospital so to save costs for the patients, the team has started bringing them along. During the service project time, worshipers either weighed and package pills, spent time in prayer, or with the children coloring pictures to accompany the team. 

During this Servanthood Sunday, 38,000 pills (Ibuprofen or vitamins) for children and adults were packaged to send with the Medical Mission Trip to the Morogoro Dioceses.