On May 10th this year, MAF celebrated 50 years of serving in Tanzania. (We mentioned it in our last blog post)
Last week in Dodoma we had a big staff meeting and celebration in the hangar to mark the occasion. Bengt the outgoing Tanzania Programme Manager (from Finland) and a couple of others, came up from Dar Es Salaam for the occasion.
The morning started shortly after 8am and had Swahili/English translation throughout. It began with a short devotion led by Bengt.
While most of the MAF kids were at school, some of the little ones joined us for the occasion. Naomi and her best buddy, Grace enjoyed reading and playing with their Daddy's and didn't make too much noise!
We had a brief history of MAF and also an update on the current situation and staffing which is something that is constantly changing. As well as some personal memories of all MAF has meant here in Tanzania, in Dodoma in particular.
There was also the opportunity to honour several members of staff with certificates of appreciation and a small gift. Some of them have worked for MAF in Dodoma for 10, 15, or 20 years.
As with all good celebrations there was some delicious food to enjoy together ...
... before everyone got presented with their new MAF polo shirts! This is us with our neighbours.
Here are the majority (but not all) of the MAF Dodoma team who were there for the morning. Some of the countries represented are Tanzania, Kenya, England, Northern Ireland, France, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
At the end of the time, we had the opportunity to say thank you and goodbye to Bengt for the work he has done here for the last couple of years as Programme Manager. He had a chance to say a few words and was presented with some gifts and then as a team we prayed for him and his family.
It's amazing to think that MAF has been here for such a long time and it's really nice for us to be here to play our part in it!
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