Latest News

Dear Friends, At 4:00 p.m. this Monday afternoon the 9th of March, the sun is blazing hot and it is 93’ in my office. I want to do some outdoor work but with the unusual heat I will wait a bit. It is hard to believe that just a week ago yesterday I had Sunday Mass in Gasuma Center and drove most of the way there using 4 wheel drive to get through the mud. It has not rained since and the extreme heat is taking its toll on my garden even though we water it twice a day. The palm

Dear Friends, In my Christmas news letter I mentioned that at Christmas I would write only a page or two and then add a lot of pictures because the yearly 4 page letter was a daunting task and only came out once a year not really reflecting the activities of the year. My hope is to improve communications by more email news notes with pictures and improving our web site roadstolifetanzania.org If you have never visited it please do so and give us some feedback so that we can i

Dear Friends, Greetings from Prairie du Chien, located on the banks of the Mississippi River and just north of the mouth of the Wisconsin River. I just ventured up the Wis. River yesterday, 01 August, for the first time this year. I love to fish there for catfish. After maneuvering around new sandbars and obstacles brought in by recent flooding I found some good fishing spots and ended up with 18 pounds of fish. The biggest one was 5 ½ pounds. Getting that one in the net

Dear Friends: I hope that the last dirty pile of snow is now melted and that you are at last enjoying the beautiful sight of spring flowers. Perhaps there is only a foot of ice left on some Minnesota lakes. Enough is enough! Here we are seeing some weather changes. We no longer have what were almost daily rains or light showers. We still need some rain for corn that was planted after the first harvest or simply planted later. Farmers that planted cotton too early, as usu

Dear Friends, If you haven’t already, check our new web site at: www.roadstolifetanzania.com A big thank you to Mary Ruedinger Shellander for the many hours of hard work she donated to get the site up and running. The web site has an interesting report of what’s happening at St. Peter Parish in Nkololo, Tanzania, Africa. I am writing this note on an 85’ F., early Tuesday afternoon. I have outside work to do but will wait to get at it until the sun is not directly overhead.

Dear Friends, Once upon a time I had thoughts of writing a newsletter telling about Christmas and the New Year in Tanzania. Now those events are history and I’m more interested in the present and future. Right now, it is about 90’ F in our office as the sun has come down south and is streaming through 3 big louver windows that face south. I’ll be happy when it starts moving north again and the sun is overhead. The evenings are longer now as it gets dark about 7:30 p.m. and su

Dear Friends, I was up before the sun this morning with my first priority after saying Mass being to write a short newsletter to let you know that I am here in Prairie du Chien, WI. I arrived in Wisconsin in time to experience the excessive humid heat that blanketed much of the country. I knew that it was hot when I didn’t even want to be out on the water fishing, much less riding my bicycle. Some folks thought that that was my type of weather! We do live just south of the eq

Dear Friends, It is now 2:20 p.m. on a pleasant/warm Friday afternoon, 8 June. A week from today would have been my brother Fr. Peter’s 82nd birthday. Sad to say, he only lived to be 61, but packed a lot into those years. I wish that I had some astounding news to tell you, such as that we have found funding for our hospital or at least for our operating suites building. Sad to say such is not the case. At least we have the foundation in and hope to get a rough floor poured so

Dear Friends, I am writing to you on a cloudy Saturday afternoon, 12 May 2012. My last letter was 21 April. That was not so long ago, but a number of things have happened since my last letter and I want to write them before I forget what happened. I only have 5 weeks and 2 days left before I begin my long journey home and lots can happen before that. Last time I wrote I mentioned that we had started looking for blood donors and that we had given one blood transfusion in an em

Dear Friends, After having had many weeks of continuous rains it is hard to believe that for 6 weeks or so a very hot, dry spell continues to turn fields brown, including rice fields that once looked like little ponds. As I am writing, some clouds have moved in and the 88 degree temperature in the office seems more tolerable. We continue to pray for rain daily but I have been disappointed that the number of people at daily Mass has not increased. Seems that the worse the dr

Dear Friends, It is 4:37 p.m. on this 2nd Sunday of Advent. The days between now and Christmas will be busy. As I write there are two Charismatic Youth Ministers preaching/teaching in church. I am close enough that I can hear Arnold who is the leader, Stefano is his assistant. I will go to church when they begin the intercessions and healing ceremony. As I told you last year when we had them here there are many people slain in the spirit and a lot who have problems with t

Dear Friends, So many things have happened since I wrote to you before Easter that I can’t remember them all. They are already history! I will simply mention two things that have and will take much of my time for the rest of my life. I have many concerns that occupy my thoughts and work every day, however the two that get and need a lot of thought, prayer and time are the Diocesan Shrine of Divine Mercy here at St. Peter Parish and the major development project, the Songamb

Dear Friends, Today is Sunday, 09 Jan., the feast day of the Baptism of our Lord. As the Holy Season of Christmas comes to an end, we take down our simple Christmas crib and begin the ordinary season in the church liturgy. I doubt that 2011 will be an ordinary/simple year as we have a lot of work ahead of us. By the time you get this we may know the results of the referendum in Sudan that may bring us a new country in Africa. Our prayers are that whatever the results there