Oakdale Church Mission Trips to Tanzania Changes Couple’s Lives

Each year, a group of congregants from Oakdale’s House of Prayer Lutheran Church make the long journey to the village of Ifunda in central Tanzania, to visit their friends in a companion congregation.  Pam and Gene Hults were part of the group that traveled there this month. It was their sixth trip to the country. Before they left, the Hults talked with Oakdale Patch about their adventures and the incredible lessons they have learned along the way.  

Oakdale Patch: We would love to hear about your experiences with this expedition. How did it all come together?

Pam Hults: Our congregation is part of a group of 60 churches called the Saint Paul Area Synod who have a relationship with the churches in the Iringa, Tanzania area. We heard about the trip and thought, “This is something we want to do … someday.” Gene and I heard congregants speak about the trip, and then he said, “We need to go now.” We went for the first time in 2001 and our role has evolved. Gene and I now coordinate, with a great deal of help from the synod. This February, we have 13 people in our group.

Oakdale Patch: What is the journey like?

Pam Hults: We fly to Dar es Salaam—which is on the Indian Ocean—it takes about 24 hours to get there. The first night we stay at a place that is like a hostel, a church camp kind of place.

Gene Hults: We catch the 7 a.m. bus and travel all day.

Pam Hults: We go up into the mountains where it's very green and wonderful. Then the best thing: we spend two nights and four days in Ifunda, the village that we work with.

Gene Hults: They speak Swahili, but anyone with a secondary education speaks English. When we do go the village, we have an interpreter.

Oakdale Patch: What sort of work do you do?

Gene Hults: We decide as a group, first raising money to bring with us, then sitting down as a committee with their church leaders. They tell us what their highest priorities are, then we see what we can do to help.

Pam Hults: We have helped them put roofs on their churches, our synod has been drilling wells.

Gene Hults: We bought the pastor a motorbike.

Pam Hults: That becomes a gift for everyone—they use it for an ambulance and all kinds of things—it’s a wonderful way for the whole village to benefit. And all the money we raise is without a middle man.

Gene Hults: If you donate $20, that is what goes to them, so we know in our hearts that the money we are raising is going toward God’s work

Pam Hults: There is great accountability. A very little bit of money helps a great deal. One of the biggest things our church provides is scholarships—the best way we can help is to educate their children. Secondary schooling costs $350 a year, where most of the villagers make only $250 a year.

Gene Hults: We also help them learn improved farming methods—composting, getting better seeds. Everyone has a little farm in their yard, no grass, and earns most of their income from farming. With these new methods they now have 25 percent more to sell.

Oakdale Patch: This all sounds very fulfilling.

Pam Hults: It is. But one of the biggest rewards is to get to know the people—these are our friends. When you travel as a tourist, you rarely meet local people, but we stay at their houses, share meals, learn their recipes.

Gene Hults: Someone from the village will say “Please come to my home for lunch.” Lunch might just be a bowl of ground nuts, but being in their home, getting to know individuals and their family, it’s such a blessing.

Pam Hults: About four years into it, we coordinated with Gethsemane Lutheran and brought three of our friends to Oakdale for two weeks and they saw how we live. And the questions…

Gene Hults: “Why do you have a dog living in your house?”

Pam Hults: “Why is it that in our country it is so hard to go to church, and our church is so full and here it is easy to go to church, and the church is so empty?” “Why is there only one person in a car?” We realized how rich we are.

Pam Hults: The first time we went, we had preconceived notions. But the way they welcomed us—there was singing and dancing, they were so gracious, giving us gifts—made me realize that this is a two-way street. We are both giving each other something important.

Gene Hults: We can take the money and help, but what I get coming back is an enlarged heart—these people have jumped in there and I bring them home with me.