Life at Pamoja!

Life at Pamoja Ministries is awesome to say the least. This place really feels like home to me, and I can’t believe that I’ve already been here over a month. I really do love it here and I feel like I fit in. Pamoja is like one big family and everyone on base is very close. It can be kind of scary to be so far away from home sometimes, but Pamoja has really made it easy for me and I feel right at home. One aspect that I love about Pamoja is the community between everyone on base. The word “pamoja” itself is Swahili for the word “together” and that’s exactly what we are here. We’re all together and we’re here for each other.

Speaking of the word “pamoja,” we like to do a lot of really cool stuff together. On Sundays, we all usually go to a church called Arusha Vineyard Church. Vineyard is an English speaking church that a lot of missionaries from the surrounding area attend and it’s a really good service. I even got to play the drums as a part of the worship team this past Sunday! It was such an awesome experience and I was so happy that I had to opportunity to offer my talent to help lead worship at Vineyard. Another thing that we do together is pray. Every Wednesday, we meet for about an hour to just pray and talk. It’s such an awesome experience to just see how God answers prayers and how God heals. God has already answered so many prayers since I’ve been here and I’ve really been able to see and understand the power of prayer much better since I’ve been here. That kind of thing really makes me happy to be a volunteer with Pamoja. I know that God is doing some awesome things here.

We also watch a lot of movies here at Pamoja. Sometimes, some of us volunteers like to go to the movie theater to see a movie and get something to eat. We actually went out a couple of weeks ago to see the movie Man of Steel. We enjoyed the movie, and afterwards we had dinner at the outdoor food court and listened to music and played cards. It was really fun to just hang out with each other. We also like to watch movies on base. Every Friday night is movie night at Pamoja and we like to watch pretty much anything, from action movies to Bollywood.

Another thing that we like to do is barbecue. We like it so much that we had two different Fourth of July celebrations! I definitely didn’t complain, though, because those burgers were good! A week before that, we had a lamb roast, which was also pretty delicious as well. Needless to say, we definitely know how to have a good time here at Pamoja.  

Speaking of a good time, there’s this rock climbing wall on one of the office buildings at Pamoja. A couple of days ago, some of the volunteers went to climb it, and they asked me if I wanted to, but since I’m afraid of heights, I said no. Even though I said I didn’t want to do it, I secretly really did, I was just nervous. After watching some of the volunteers actually make it to the top, it eased my mind a bit, but I was still pretty uneasy about the idea of doing it myself. I had just about made up my mind that I wasn’t going to climb it until Jeremy asked me if I wanted to have a go. I quickly said “No, I’ll be okay,” and then Jeremy said “Come on, Matt, just give it a try.” I guess that was all of the inspiration I actually needed to try it because I did it, with a little peer pressure to help me along. And I even made it all the way to the top! It may not sound like that much of a big deal, but I was pretty proud of myself for conquering my fear of heights.

I also really enjoy the conversations that we have with each other on base. I’ve had some pretty awesome conversations with just about everyone on base and some of them are so fulfilling and inspiring, while others are just funny and entertaining. Either way, the people at Pamoja make for some great conversations. The volunteers usually have dinner at Sig and Joy’s (the founders of Pamoja) house every Wednesday night, which leads to some pretty awesome and deep conversations. Sig is one of the wisest, most knowledgeable and spiritual people I’ve met, but my favorite trait about him is his willingness to listen. It’s really easy to get into a deep and meaningful conversation with Sig, but he’s always willing to hear you out and really listen to what you’re saying. It definitely makes it easy to talk to him and I like that.

I definitely feel like I was called to serve with Pamoja this summer, and I haven’t regretted one second of it. I really enjoy working here and being around all of the people at Pamoja. God has definitely blessed me and is continuing to bless me, and I’m so thankful for that. Life at Pamoja is so awesome and I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.