Offering of Beans

One of my favorite parts of any offering here in Tanzania is the "mavuno" offering. This means "harvest" offering.

If you don't have cash for your offering then it is perfectly acceptable to bring an offering of anything you have to place in the basket. Towards the end of the service the non-cash items are auctioned off.

You can either bid an amount yourself, or simply add a little bit of money to someone else's bid and let them take the booty home. The beautiful thing about this offering is that whatever item is being auctioned off regularly is sold for MORE than it would go for in the market. God truly does bring the increase to our offerings.

This past week Sarah and I got to take the booty home. Sarah raised the bid from someone else, then we had three different members of the congregation add to our bid. We are having beans and rice this week for lunch!