Letter from our President
Let me begin by giving you a brief history of the formation of our organization. In June 1996, a year following a profound life changing experience of mine in mainland China, my pastor, John Gerdts and I led a team from our church to the country of Tanzania. We were there for three and a half weeks and were able to experience the profound blessings that accompany third world mission activities. We were profoundly touched by the country of Tanzania and more importantly, by its greatest resource; its people. The people of Tanzania, who despite life spans in the mid 40s and a mean annual income of less than five hundred dollars a year, demonstrate daily the joy of appreciating the blessings that God has given them. We found in Tanzania a people who were in extreme need of a multiplicity of goods and services, and yet who seemed incredibly content, and taught us a great deal about priorities.

As a result of the experiences shared by the twelve people on that trip, myself, John Gerdts, my wife, and Michael Boose, with the help of a native Tanzanian, Lazaro Nyalandu, formed the Siouxland Tanzania Educational and Medical Ministries. We were incorporated in the state of Iowa in the spring of 1997 and since that time we have made over 20 two to three week journeys to Tanzania with teams of three to twenty-five people. During these trips we have performed almost 500 orthopedic operations, primarily on children with congenital deformities.

Education is another priority which has grown to fully support over 750 students receiving their secondary education. This is quite remarkable in a country where less than eight percent of children receive a high school diploma. It is only through education that we will be able to assist the Tanzanians in becoming socially and economically self sufficient.

We have also been very involved with orphans in Tanzania. As a result of the devastating AIDS epidemic, the country of Tanzania now currently has over 1.4 million orphaned children with very few resources to care for them. We have helped build orphanages, dig wells, build chicken coups, and provide spiritual and material support in any way we have had the opportunity to do so. In a nutshell, we basically work to provide whatever type of assistance is required while we are there. On our trips, we merely pray that God will show us a need and that He will help us to meet it.

The implications of what we have been able to accomplish go far beyond the ability to provide a warm meal and a clean set of clothes or even an education or an operation. One example is that a young man who underwent an orthopedic operation for a crippled leg was from an entirely Islamic village. When the young man returned home, his uncle, who was the chief of that village was so profoundly touched by the impact on his nephew and the generosity of our team that he mandated the entire village convert to Christianity. So as you can see, we are having not only temporal, but everlasting consequences in the country of Tanzania.

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