01/18 

   

On March 27, 2011, the Bishop of Tarime, the Right Rev Dr Mwita Akiri visited the Mangucha Parish at the Kenya/Tanzania border.  Mangucha is one of the smallest congregations with about 15 or so regular worshippers.  What impressed Bishop Akiri was the effort made by this congregation to collect stones and carry them on their head or on the back of push bikes to bring them to the church site. This has been made possible by their new pastor Elias Philimon who was transferred to Mangucha in January 2010. Since then he has mobilized the congregation so that they can start building a church with burnt bricks and roof it with corrugated sheets. The diocese has a partnership policy that it will assist with roofing material if the congregation can manage to erect the wall. A church building that can seat up to 150 people may cost a minimum of Tsh15 million, (which translates to roughly $12,000) of which nearly a half may be spent on roofing material (corrugated sheets, timber, nails) and the carpenter's roofing fee.