Introduction
In 2004, I had the privilege of joining other 300 short term mission team members as a part of Celebrate Africa 2004, a special missionary event Missionary Pyung Lyuk (Paul) Kim prepared to organize during the past two years.  Missionary Kim initiated African missionary work in 1994 in Rwanda.  Celebrate Africa 2004 consisted of (1) one week of Mission Conference in Nsangi, Uganda with our African brothers and sisters (pastors and their spouses), (2) two weeks of Vacation Bible School (VBS) for African children in primary schools and secondary schools in various cities in East Africa, and (3) one week of leadership seminars, in various cities of East Africa, for church leaders, community and government leaders, women leaders, and youth leaders.  There was also a special two day visitation to cities of Uganda that the team missed during the earlier four weeks.  As I attended nearly all of these programs during the five week stay in Africa, I feel that I would be in a good position to report what I have observed throughout those five weeks.

The Lord said, I have seen the misery of my people... (Exodus 3:7).  I feel that finally the Lord is hearing the cry of people of Africa, as He did for the people of Israel in Egypt.  We, as people called by the Lord, have so many more things to do in Africa, to provide the relief that the people of Africa need.  They need restoration materially as  well as spiritually.  They had been exploited by many Western countries for centuries.  Even the missionary work in the past was affected by the overall scheme of exploitation.  The missionary work in the past exported the western culture as well as Christianity.  I  saw many signs of hurt in the people of Africa due to such exploitation.  This is clearly demonstrated in their cry for bettering their physical living conditions.  On the other hand, their faith is genuine and fervent.   This is shown in their thirst for the Word of God.  I strongly feel that the Lord is listening to them as He did for the Israelites in Egypt and to some extent for South Koreans in the past.
Nsangi, Uganda
We left San Francisco on June 30, 2004, and arrived at Nsangi, Uganda on July 2, 2004.  Missionary Kim had one week of Mission conference, June 4 to June 9 in Nsangi, Uganda.  This one week was an excellent transition period.  It gave me a chance to get familiar with African way of doing things, practicing a few phrases for greetings in Kswahilli and making a few African friends.  Two Tanzanian friends were introduced to us during this period, and they helped us greatly when we were doing VBS in Mwanza, Tanzania.  One is Elisha, a young man struggling to be a pastor, and the other is Billy Brown, a high school student.   Both of them helped us greatly when we visited the city of Mwanza, Tanzania.  It also gave me time to adjust my body to the time change between US and East Africa.  During this time, many outside speakers came and gave us many wonderful lectures, which was translated into English, Kswahilli, Ugandan, Rwandan, and Korean.  We had a chance to worship together with our African brothers and sisters.  They do have a different worship style than we do.  They have much longer worship than we do in US or Korea.  Their worship shows more genuine and more fervent adoration of our God than ours show in US or Korea.  Some of the major differences in sanitary conditions from US should also be mentioned for those who are planning to go for a short term missionary work in this area.  One is the primitive bath room facility  an outhouse and a concrete compartment used as a shower room where we use buckets of water to take a shower.  The water supply was provided by a well about one mile away and a two pumps.  It was essential to drink boiled and/or filtered water to protect us from infection. 

One of the problems we had in Nsangi was that the water supply was not smooth, because the hose connecting to the pump kept melting away due to the overheating of the pump.  I was asked to help the situation out by Elder John Kim who was taking care of the facility.  I spent some time with him to identify the problem.  The well and the tank collecting water from this well is significantly below the buildings in elevation.  Because of this, significant pump head is needed to push the water through the pump. 
One pump was not sufficient to overcome this elevation head and the friction head.  Therefore, two pumps were put into series connection, but the second pump was put so far away from the first one without a sump tank  that the second pump was often at dry condition without water.  This problem was solved by connecting the two pumps in series right near the well where there is a plenty of water supply.  Another problem was that a valve was installed at the outlet of the hose and people were closing the valve while the pump was running half a mile below.  When the valve is closed while the pump is running, there is no flow through the pump, and the pump overheats and the end of the hose connected to the pump would be overheated and melted.  The valve was relocated near the pump at the well, and the instruction was left that the pump should be shut off when any one would try to close the valve.  I was also hoping to replace the existing one inch tubes by two inch tubes so that I can further reduce the hydraulic losses such that the water may be pumped from the tank near the well to another tank that is located higher in elevation than the buildings on the site.  They told me that they paid about US $ 500 for all the one-inch tube they used.  I thought that I could solve the whole problem if I spend about US $ 1000.  Elder Kim and I went to Kampala the next morning to buy all the necessary materials.  We exchanged US $ 1000 to Ugandan Schillings, and we bought sufficient materials for the first two problems that required less than US $ 100, but we could not buy the sufficient quantity of two inch tubes because the two inch tubing was about five times more expensive than the one inch tubes and I did not carry enough money to purchase sufficient length of 2 inch tubing.  I decided to donate the remaining Ugandan schillings that was close to US $ 1000 to Missionary Kim.  He told me that I would need money in Tanzania and gave me back US $ 400.  I had total of US $ 700 including this $ 400.  I felt that all of my skills may be used usefully in missionary work, including my engineering skills.

Mwanza, Tanzania  VBS Ministry
Two teams left Nsangi, Uganda on Friday, July 9, 2004, one for Bukoba, Tanzania, and our team for Mwanza, Tanzania.  It was an all day bus trip to Bukoba.  Nsangi is on the northern shore of Lake Victoria and Bukoba is on the western shore of Lake Victoria.  Lake Victoria is the second largest fresh water lake in the world.  The largest fresh water lake is Lake Superior.  Lake Victoria is landlocked by three countries, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya.  Most of the shore lines are in Uganda and Tanzania.  When we were crossing the border of Uganda and Tanzania, it took more than an hour and we had to pay US $ 50.00 to obtain Tanzanian Visa.  When we arrived in Bukova, it was dark, long past dinner time.  Our African friend in a Bukoban church welcomed us and provided a very late dinner. 
They had waited for our arrival even though our arrival time was delayed for several hours.  We felt the real kinship with them.  I told our African friends in Bukoba that the promises of God to Abraham was for us gentiles because it says, All the families of the earth will be blessed through you [that is Abraham] (Gen. 12:3).    One team stayed in Bukoba, but we had to board a ship bound for Mwanza at 10:00 PM.  We bid farewell to the other team and our Bukoban friends.  Some one told me that Missionary Myung-Ju Um in Bukoba badly needs money and I donated to him US $ 300, which left me US $ 400.  The ship left Bukoba at around midnight, and arrived at Mwanza at about 9:00 AM on Saturday, July 10, 2004.  Mwanza is on the south eastern shore of Lake Victoria.  It took 24 hours for our team to travel from Nsangi, Uganda to Mwanza, Tanzania, our first destination. 

Our team consists of John Son and myself from San Jose God's Church,  Joyce Kang and Peter Hahn from Southern California, and JinWoo Song, SooKyung Park, ChangSook Kim, InYoung Yang, and WoonCho Kim from South Korea.
Andy Lee from Southern California joined several days later when Hallelujah Soccer team arrived.  Peter Hahn was youngest, 19 years old.  I was the oldest, 59 years old.  John Son and WoonCho Kim were in early fifties.  The rest of the team members were in twenties.  Many of our African friends came out to welcome us, and they sang and danced for us.  A large group of women followed us and sang for us until we came to a local Anglican church. They gave us one lei for each one of us.  Many bishops, pastors, and brothers and sisters came out to greet us, and served us a breakfast in a local restaurant.  I was compelled to tell them that whatever we bind together will be bound in heaven and whatever we loose together will be loosed in heaven, paraphrasing and applying Mat. 16:19 to the occasion.  We were told that in the history of Tanzania they never had anything like VBS.  Therefore, this is all new to them.  Our team was led to Mwanza Mission center by Pastor Appolinary.  Mwanza Mission center is used as Pastor Appolinary's residence as well as a guest house for visitors related to the mission.  That evening we had a visitation of Bishop Alex Lwakisumbwa, Mr. Alban Hamisi, Bishop Kuguru, and Dr. Joyce.  During that evening, we discussed about our VBS plan for the week. 

Also we learned that we had to pay for meals we eat everyday and for the two land rovers we needed to do VBS ministry to various schools.  Before we left Uganda, we had already raised $ 100 for each, and we had $ 800 for the team.  One member did not carry sufficient fund, and could not contribute.  We had to pay about $ 60 for everyday for five days for two cars at Mwanza.  This alone cost $ 300.  Also Mr. John Son brought a Jesus Christ movie with a movie projector.  We needed a generator which can power a PC, and a movie projector.  A generator costs about $ 150.    There were other miscellaneous costs such as batteries, fuel for the generator, repair of the speaker we brought and other small expenses needed for the team.  The money we raised from the team was just enough to cover our expenses in Mwanza.  Considering the VBS ministry we also have to carry out on Kome Island and the fare to and from Kome Island, we were approximately in need of extra $ 1000.  We did not expect to pay for any of these extra costs because we were told that $ 2900 we paid covers these costs. 
One member from South Korea was told that he did not have to carry any extra money, and therefore he changed his original plan of carrying $ 500 extra cash and carried only $ 80.  Some members of the team were surprised and were not very happy. We had an emergency fund raising meeting among our team members for the extra $ 1000 for VBS on Kome Island.  All felt that if we could not raise enough fund we should give up the ministry at Kome Island and return home.  On the other hand, the additional money needed is a small fraction of the total cost we spent already, and all of us felt that we can not sacrifice half of our planned VBS.  I told everyone that they must keep the money they need for the remainder of their stay in Africa and an additional US $ 100 for an emergency and the possible taxi fare when they return home.  All of us in the team prayed earnestly, and raised additional $ 940.  Mr. WoonCho Kim contributed $ 400, my self $ 300, Miss InYoung Yang $ 200, and Peter Hahn $ 40.  Later as we were leaving for Kome Island and while on Kome Island, Mr. John Son contributed $ 100, and Dr. and Mrs. YoungBum Park $ 200, and Mrs. MiKyung Hong from Texas, USA, $ 300.   The Lord indeed provided what we needed for His work.  We can only praise the Lord for His generous giving for us!  Without their help, we could not have carried out our ministry at Kome Island.  I give my sincere appreciation for their generous giving even now.

While we were in Mwanza, we had a busy schedule, starting on Sunday, July 11, 2004.  We split the team in two, and attended two churches for Sunday worship service.  I attended Highway of Holiness Church.  The worship was strong and fervent.  They were singing and dancing for about one and half hours.  They also had two sermons.  I was asked to deliver the first sermon.  The main theme was about the New Commandment, Love One Another.  I have emphasized forgiveness as a condition for loving one another, and the proper way of  communicating between one another, and that we are facing trials and suffering as part of our lives to make us mature and to be like Christ.  At the closing of my sermon, I gave an example of Cori Ten Boom's encounter of her Nazi persecutor and how she could forgive him because of the forgiveness received from Jesus Christ.  There was another half an hour worship.  Then the second sermon was delivered by Rev. Eugene Murisa, Senior Pastor of the church.  As we were concluding the service, there was a call for the people to come out for joining the church and for healing the sicknesses they have.  Many people came out to join the church and also to get healed.  Many people were healed.  I joined the Pastor Murisa and his staff in prayers to heal the people.  In US or South Korea, not many people are healed by prayer alone, but during this service, many people, more than half who came out got healed after we prayed.  I noticed that the same work of healing was achieved in the other parts of Africa and also in China when I visited China in 2001 and 2002.   The other team reported a similar description of their worship service and Tanzanian Christians' faith. 
On July 12, 2004, Monday, we visited Nyamonoro Primary School.   Bishops Lwakisumbwa and Kuguru, and Mr. Hamisi accompanied us to the school.