We have had a parish link with St Mark's Mkirira and Kiamajoje for over twenty years. Mkirira is a large rural village near the town of Masoma which is situated on the shores of Lake Victoria in Tanzania. The villagers mostly live on what they grow and their incomes are very small indeed. We have supported them through our friendship and prayers and through giving them help with basic things for the village and community.
Over the years St George's congregation have bought a grinding machine for the community to use when they harvest the cassava; an altar and a corrugated iron roof for the church; water butts, guttering and fallpipes to collect the rainwater; a solar panel for villagers to charge their mobile phones and the cement they need to hold together the bricks they make by hand in the village.
People from St George's have visited the village and the primary school where there are about 400 pupils, (all in classes of about 60 with little or no furniture), and have met the village children as they go about their daily chores.
The people are supported by two priests and a group of people who work hard to serve God and share God's love in practical ways with their neighbours.
In St Mark's Church there is a banner made by people from St George's Lupset and in St George's Lupset there is a banner made by people in the parish of St Mark's Mkirira. This reminds us that we are all part of the same family of God even though we are thousands of miles apart and that we are all trying to share God's love and care with each other every day.
