The Lake House of Prayer exists because the world got louder.
It was built as a response — not to any single moment, but to a pattern: people arriving in Mwanza exhausted, disconnected, and searching for something they couldn’t quite name. What they needed wasn’t more information or activity. They needed silence. They needed space. They needed somewhere to simply stop. That is what this place was built to hold.
Rooted in Contemplation
The Lake House of Prayer is a Catholic retreat centre operating in the Ignatian tradition — a centuries-old practice of spiritual discernment through silence, prayer, and guided reflection.
Ignatian spirituality doesn’t ask you to arrive with answers. It creates conditions for you to hear your own life more clearly — through stillness, through honest examination, and through the kind of unhurried conversation that rarely happens in ordinary time.
We welcome retreatants of all faith backgrounds. The tradition informs how we hold the space. It does not determine who is welcome in it.
A Setting That Does Its Own Work
The contemplative life of the Church began in Africa with the Desert Fathers and Mothers of Egypt in the third century, who went into silence to find what the noise of the world was covering.
Lake House of Prayer sits on a hill in the Kabuhoro-Ibanda section of Kirumba District, overlooking Lake Victoria. The grounds are landscaped for quiet — gardens, open sky, and a view of the lake that has a way of putting things in perspective.
It is not remote for the sake of it. It is simply apart — close enough to reach, far enough to feel different.
Who Holds This Space
Fr. Jim Eble M.M. Fr. Jim has lived and worked in Tanzania for over 30 years — among the Natuturu pastoralists in the Rift Valley, in urban communities in Mabatini, and in a rural parish on the Serengeti Plains. He pursued formal training in Spiritual Direction and founded the retreat house to offer Tanzanian religious and lay people the kind of accompaniment he had seen transform lives. He brings three decades of presence — not theory — to his work as a spiritual director.
Sr. Janet Srebalus M.M. Sr. Janet has lived and worked in Tanzania for 50 years. She offers Spiritual Direction to retreatants and supports Tanzanian religious sisters from across the country in leadership and spiritual growth. Her depth of experience makes her one of the most quietly trusted voices in this work.
Stephen Veryser — House Manager Steve first came to Tanzania in 2004 as a Peace Corps teacher and never really left. As a Maryknoll Lay Missioner, he manages the day-to-day life of the retreat house with the kind of practical attentiveness that lets guests focus entirely on why they came. He is currently pursuing studies in Pastoral Studies.
The Lake House of Prayer is a collaborative effort of Maryknoll Fathers, Brothers, Sisters, and Lay Missioners, operating under the Catholic Archdiocese of Mwanza.
It is not a grand institution. It is a small, serious, carefully tended place — held by people who believe that silence is not a luxury, and that every person who arrives here deserves to be met well.