KEMPS

Grace Lutheran Church has a heart for Tanzanian students.  Our members have supported nine young students with long-term scholarships.  We have collected pencils and supplies to send to Kibeta English Medium Primary School (KEMPS), and Grace members Bob and Inge Schnut made the sizable trek to Bukoba, Tanzania in 2016 to visit the students they sponsor as well as the school.

Pen Pals

Penpal Faithness

Bob and Inge with Penpal Faithness

On this visit, Bob and Inge delivered 18 pen pal letters from Grace Sunday school students to the students at KEMPS.  They returned home with 63 letters.  Others joined in the letter writing – including adults – and, since that time, the pen pals have exchanged letters eight times. This sets the record for number of exchanges in a pen pal program at KEMPS.

Grace Lutheran has also employed more modern technology to communicate with the students.  On several occasions, sponsors and pen pals have had very meaningful “face-to-face” visits via Skype.  On May 19th, 2018, 71 students spoke with Grace members for two and a half hours!  On another occasion, sponsors spoke with their nine scholarship students – a very emotional event that concluded with each group singing to each other.  Both sides were joyful and grateful for the communication.