Across Africa: Wesley’s Immersive Journey Through Tanzania and Kenya

In July of this year, Wesley sponsored an International Immersion/Missions Trip to Kenya and Tanzania. Rev. Dr. Glen Robyne led this trip with ten American participants. Three current or just-graduated Wesley students were on the trip, along with the father of one of those students. An alum and her husband also attended. A married couple from Grace UMC in Lafayette also came on the trip, along with their high school-age son. As with all of our international trips, we had participants from local countries join us as full members of the trip. Didyme, who is called to ordained ministry, joined us again from DRC (Congo). He was a student at Africa University and interacted with us for part of our 2019 trip to Zimbabwe/Zambia/DRC and most of our 2022 Zimbabwe trips. Yolanda from Zimbabwe had previously been on a few days of our 2022 trip, and this time, she joined us for every day of our trip. She recently graduated with a degree in Social Work from a state university in Zimbabwe.

Part 1: Mt. Kilimanjaro National Park

The first part of the trip fulfilled a long-time aspiration for Pastor Glen to go on a backpacking trek in Mt. Kilimanjaro National Park. We selected Follow Alice as our tour company and found that their excellent reputation for treating employees well and providing enjoyable treks was well deserved. Fifty-three of their employees made

the 7-day trek up the mountain very fun and full of songs and camaraderie. This was enhanced by Didyme, who spoke the first language of all the workers.

As we climbed in elevation, we went through four distinct ecological zones with very different vegetation, from rain forest to alpine summit.

For many of us, the summit night (we started hiking at 11:15 pm) was the most challenging hike ever embarked on. Everyone made it to 17,500 ft., ten made it to Stella Peak at 18,885 ft., and seven made it all the way to Uhuru Peak at 19,341 feet.

Part 2: Safari

The second part of the trip was a two-day safari led by Women Adventure Africa. Levina leads this company and did a tremendous job leading our tour and showing us amazing scenery, flora, and fauna.

Women-owned companies and female guides are somewhat rare in Tanzania, and we were very happy to get connected with Levina.

Two other African friends joined us on this part of the trip: Drs. Ruth and Lawrence Kutiwa, who are professors at Mutare Teachers College in Zimbabwe. Ruth and Lawrence have now played a role in six of the seven Africa mission trips Glen has led in Africa.

Part 3: Nairobi, Kenya

The third and last part of the trip that all fourteen team members participated in was a touring mission and cultural sites in Nairobi, Kenya. Three missionaries hosted us, two of whom grew up at Grace UMC in Lafayette! We were highly impressed with what amazing work both American and African missionaries were doing for special needs and other vulnerable children and their families.

Check Out More Photos From Our Trip!

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