August 25, 2005, was a horrific day in the lives of people living in the Gulf Coast region of the United States. Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast and changed their lives forever. For the next 3 years, we brought groups to Ocean Springs Mississippi to serve by doing home repair and help families move from trailers to their homes.

In the fall of 2009, we did the same thing in the wake of Hurricane Ike, which did significant damage to the southern coast of Texas. We travelled to Orange Texas and spent a week hearing the stories of survival and repairing homes so that the families could take another step back to normalcy.

To mix things up, in October of 2010, we chose to do a local mission trip. This experience had all of the elements of a long distance travel except the long bus ride and the hotel/dorm room lodging. We served in North and South Minneapolis - partnering with Urban Ventures and Urban Homeworks. We spent 3 days serving and learning about each of these communities.

If you have any questions, please contact Eric at eelton@princeofpeaceonline.org or at 952-898-9377.

Since the spring of 2002, we have journeyed to Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic to visit our mission partner Doulos Discovery School. Over the years, we have brought over 300 people to serve in this beautiful, Caribbean, mountain, community. Groups have been Intergenerational (ages 4 – 74), Men’s trips, Women’s trips and Youth trips. Group sizes have ranged from 10 – 61. We have been part of experiences that have served by tutoring children, building in a local public school, carpentry and dental mission – sharing the gospel by our actions.

Historically, we have travelled during the spring of the year. A great opportunity to escape the lovely Minnesota winters! We expect our next trips to be announced in late summer. If you would like more information, please contact us at eelton@princeofpeaceonline.org.

Doulos Discovery School was started in the fall of 2003. It is a Christian, bilingual, school serving children in the town of Jarabacoa. 50% of the students are able to afford tuition, while the other 50% are sponsored by individuals and families in the United States. For more information about Doulos, please go to www.doulosdiscovery.org.

Tanzania/Prince of Peace History

Since 1987, the Saint Paul Area Synod, of which Prince of Peace is a member, began a more official synod to synod relationship with the Iringa Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania. The main focus of this partnership has been assisting with the education of pastors due to the rapid growth of the Lutheran Church in Tanzania. It has evolved into a grassroots movement in which congregations within the Saint Paul Area Synod are matched with congregations within the Iringa Diocese. These partnerships focus on five major efforts: mutual prayer, communication, scholarships for secondary and post-secondary education, exchange visits and financial support. Currently there are over sixty partnerships between churches in the Saint Paul Area Synod and congregations in Tanzania.

Since 2006, Prince of Peace has partnered with a sister congregation in Ilambo, a small village in the mountains of Tanzania To date, our commitment to the community has included praying for the village, sponsoring several students’ enrollment in a Lutheran Secondary School, digging water wells, purchasing motorcycles for pastoral transportation and building a new sanctuary.

In July 2010, 17 Prince of Peace disciples ventured back to Tanzania. The impact of God and the synod partnership became visible during visits to an orphanage, a hospital, a Lutheran Secondary school, a university, water projects and churches in several villages.

The highlight was the visit to Ilambo and the sister congregation. Most were both nervous and excited about the visit to the village. The roads to the village were legendary – terribly rough with a high prevalence of boulders and potholes, multiple river bed and stream crossings and steep cliffs with no guardrails. This was also the first time that this large a group of westerners had ever spent the night in the village (see stories from the road for more details).

From 2006 to 2008, the Lutheran Church in Ilambo more than doubled in membership. Having outgrown their sanctuary, they prepared the foundation for a new sanctuary by carrying boulders to the site and making bricks out of clay. Prince of Peace helped purchase the roofing materials, cement and windows for the new sanctuary.

Looking ahead to the future, the opportunities to support this mountain village are endless. The immediate areas of need include the completion of the church building, education for the children, medical support for the community and a clean water supply. Additional opportunities may include micro-business, agriculture and more.

We are grateful for this new partnership and look forward to what God has in store for Ilambo in the country of Tanzania and Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Burnsville, Minnesota.

We expect to journey back to our sister congregation in Ilambo, Tanzania during the summer of 2012. If you have any questions or would like to be placed on our e-mail list, please contact Eric at eelton@princeofpeaceonline.org.