January 13, 2025

Teaming with Tanzania

Travel reflections from Jason Borders, Ph.D.

I had never considered going to sub-Saharan Africa. I wasn’t against traveling to this part of the world; I had simply not added it to my bucket list, so to speak. But that changed with a call from Dr. Jay Cooper, Senior Minister of First United Methodist Church, Montgomery, Alabama. “Hey, you want to go to Tanzania?” About 3 weeks later, thanks to President Anthony Leigh at Huntingdon College, I was on my way.

Tanzania – a country famously known for Africa’s highest peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the natural beauty of the Serengeti National Park, and the tropical island of Zanzibar. Tanzania – a country larger than the State of Texas, a population of about 68 million, and a median age of about 18! Tanzania – a new country with much to learn in an old world with much to teach. Why would I go to Tanzania? As it turns out, I found myself teaching theology students and learning how Wesley College and Huntingdon College may help one another live out our educational mission as sister institutions in the Wesleyan tradition.

John Wesley had a peculiar idea about faith and the world. Pulpits are great, but the life of faith requires a bit more than good sermons. Good news must be spread through the healing of bodies, education of minds, and the work of neighbors who roll up their sleeves to build communities together. And because of an unexpected call from a friend, I soon became a co-worker and witness to John Wesley’s vision of the life of faith in the city of Mwanza at a college just beginning what Huntingdon has been doing for over 100 years.

My primary role on the trip was to lead class sessions on the Gospel of Luke, particularly the parable of the Good Samaritan, for the 46 theology students studying at Wesley College. Like Huntingdon, Wesley embraces a vision of education for all grounded in the Methodist tradition. Wesley seeks to serve the underserved from its surrounding area. And Wesley invests in the lives of students so that communities may be transformed. “Education for building community” says Wesley College. “Go forth to apply wisdom in service” says Huntingdon College. Sound similar? What I found at Wesley was a new institution just beginning to follow the path on which Huntingdon was founded, in a city with few resources and among a people living in extreme poverty. Over 250 students are enrolled at Wesley, each committed to using their hearts, hands, and minds to build community in various fields of study. Poverty is not stopping them. Social challenges are not stopping them. Obstacles we can’t imagine are not stopping them. Wesley College is moving forward with its mission.

It was my privilege to see how far Wesley College has come in its brief history. Several years ago, Rev. Eric Soard, former United Methodist missionary to Tanzania and current Executive Director of the Wesley College Foundation, called me up looking for academic resources to help Wesley College resource its own faculty. I put together a few of the syllabi and academic resources we use in the Religion Department at Huntingdon to give Wesley College faculty an idea of how we structure our courses. Now, Wesley College is leading courses of its own, in many areas of study.

There is an African proverb that I learned from the students at Wesley. “Jirani mwemani bora kuliko rafiki.” In English, “A good neighbor is better than a friend.” I’ve thought about this proverb quite often after returning home. A good neighbor is the one in close proximity willing to do what is necessary so that others may live life in abundance. Each student I met at Wesley nodded in agreement that this is the way life should be. We may not know each other. We may not even like each other. But when we find ourselves in close proximity to each other, the only way the world changes for the better is by becoming a “jiranimwema”- a good neighbor. I’ll be thinking about the many ways I can be a good neighbor to the people that come in and out of my life. I’ll be eager to see how Wesley College and Huntingdon College may be good neighbors to each other and the communities we serve, in the future.

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