What Would Nixon Do? Everything!

What Would Pastor Nixon Do?  Everything!

Pastor Nixon was our extraordinary host during our week in Iringa.  He is the pastor at our companion congregation Ipogoro Lutheran Church.  I would liken him to the Energizer Bunny.  Wherever we went, he was two steps ahead of us, leading the way, explaining everything, translating and keeping us in good spirits with his sense of humor!  One of his famous phrases was to refer to someone as "The Big Potato" meaning the head honcho, the big cheese, you name it.  Everyone was The Big Potato at some point in the trip.  In fact Pastor Nixon is The Big Potato in my book!  He is a young, energetic pastor with big hopes and dreams for his congregation.       

Here is Pastor Nixon showing us around the new sanctuary being built at Ipogoro.  It is a growing congregation and they sponsor lots of community activities in addition to their worship services.  When I saw this project, I couldn't believe they would need such a big worship space until we attended two packed Sunday services with more looking in the windows!

We saw a lot of semi-completed construction projects around Iringa.  Nixon explained this is because there aren't "loans" as we know them.  Whoever is doing construction saves up enough money to complete the first step, then saves more until they can complete the next step and so on until it's completed.  During our worship at Ipogoro, there were three offerings at each service including a special "men vs. women" offering for the building fund.  The men won the first service while the women were victorious in the second.  They are about 3 million shillings (less than $1900) from having enough to put on the metal trusses for the roof.    

 

 

One of the Augustana members who visited 3 years ago sent along this shirt from the Nixon Presidential Library.  Nixon LOVED it and much time was spent explaining and perfecting the Nixon gestures.  Nixon was born in 1974 and was named after the President. 

 

In addition to his duties at Ipogoro, Pastor Nixon also leads 5 preaching points in the outlaying area.  Each preaching point is led by a trained Evangelist who typically lives in the community he or she serves.  Pastor Nixon visits each one every month to perform baptisms, give communion and visit the parishioners.  As Pastor Nixon doesn't have a car or motorbike, I think he takes a dalla-dalla (shared van) as far as he can and walks the remainder of the way so it's probably an all day affair. 

 

Several of the preaching points also had construction in progress. Two of them were constructing homes for their Evangelists as they were living in less than ideal conditions.  As they explained, having an Evangelist home is important for the community and makes their preaching point a more permanent place of worship.  These women were proud to give us a tour of the newly constructed toilets at their preaching point.  We were all impressed - they were new, clean and came with a million shilling view.       

 

Here is Pastor Nixon and his fantastic wife Prisca.  They are quite the couple!  In addition to being the Hostess with the Mostest during our time at Ipogoro as well as an assistant during Sunday services, Prisca works as an accountant at Tumaini University where she and Nixon went to college.  They are a true example of a modern Tanzanian couple!   
















Nixon and Prisca have two beautiful children.  Although they were somewhat shy, they eventually took to sitting on my lap during our Sunday afternoon visit.  I think they have the same sense our niece Bella has.  She always chooses the youngest person in the group to be her BFF and I'm happy to say I got that honor.     

 

Nixon was with us during most of our visits throughout the week.  On our way back from Ilula Hospital and Image Secondary School, Nixon announced we were going to stop to visit his mother.  Nixon is the second oldest of 9 children. Several of his siblings work as teachers and nurses so it's quite an accomplishment for a woman whose husband died when her children were quite young.  Although she spoke as much English as we spoke Swahili, we were warmly welcomed and we could see how proud she was of Nixon.   

Several children gathered to greet us and Nixon introduced them as his relatives.  In addition, we were greeted by a calf, several chickens, a pig and even the family dog in the midst of fields of corn and beans.  Signs of hard work and prosperity!  You can see another of Nixon's construction projects in the background.  He and his siblings are building a new house for his mother. 

Nixon was a marvelous translator throughout the week.  As mentioned in an earlier post, he even 'translated' the sound of a trombone during Doug's introduction.  During the sermon, Pastor Aune occasionally used a Swahili word and during the translation Nixon would insert the English word!  

This is one of my favorite pictures of Pastor Nixon and Pastor Aune.  Throughout the week, we could tell there was mutual respect, admiration and friendship between the two.  They fit the description of Bega Kwa Bega - "Shoulder To Shoulder".