In 2005, the Rev. John Naumann retired from his post as an Episcopal priest in Billings and moved on to a new ministry in Africa.

He went, feeling he had gotten a prompting from God: "I am planting a tree which will bear fruit." And each time Naumann returns to Billings to visit supporters of the Amani Development Organization, it seems more fruit is sprouting on the ministry's tree.

Naumann, 69, lives at the Amani Development Center in Makang'wa, south of Dodoma, the capital of Tanzania. He served as rector of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church before that.

"Currently we're going in the direction of caring for children and integrating with the local educational community," Naumann said, back in the state for a few weeks.

He will speak at a dinner Friday at the Billings Petroleum Club.

Earlier this year, the faith-based nonprofit opened a school for 130 children in preschool through kindergarten. Many of them are orphans or come from poor families, Naumann said.

Next year, the organization will open a second school in Mvumi Makulu, another village where Amani works with the people. Amani also is sponsoring two young women at a time to become educated as professional preschool teachers, to staff the schools.

It also seeks out sponsorships for students in elementary and secondary schools and college, to help them complete their goals.

Amani has developed an after-school and Saturday program for older students to give them more personal attention. At school, the students attend large classes of 130 to 150 students, Naumann said. "We take the same textbooks as the local school and use those in classes with no more than 30 students," he said.

And while Swahili is spoken in elementary schools, English is spoken in secondary schools. The extra tutoring gives children a chance to practice their English, which helps prepare them for the upper grades. "It's a program that's transferrable to other villages," he said.

But the focus on children hasn't taken the emphasis off other programs that began with the creation of Amani. Water is crucial in a famine-prone country like Tanzania, and the organization continues to build wells in villages as the money becomes available.

Amani also began the Makutupora Grape Research Center, about 1ƒ hours from the Amani Development Center, which provides information and training to vineyard workers. The center is raising grapes and has even sold its first crop for wine.

Naumann is quick to say that everything Amani does is done not for the people of Tanzania but with them.

"We try to partner with them and not create total dependency," he said.

Along with that, projects, such as the vineyard, are developed with a training component, to give people trades to support themselves and their families.

Naumann is also excited about the partnerships he's formed with people and congregations in Montana and in Australia, his native country. He told of St. John's Church in Emigrant, which donated $1,500 to build a primary school in Maumi, 40 kilometers southwest of the development center. The children in Maumi never had a proper elementary school, Naumann said. So the people used the money to construct the school's walls with bald brick walls and carved rock.

There isn't a roof yet; that will take more money. But the people of the village were so touched by the donation that they invited Naumann to conduct worship in the village. During the service, 156 asked to be baptized, Naumann said, joining 70 others who received the sacrament after the school was built. The spiritual response came after the practical help was given, he said.

"That gift of $1,500 from the people of Emigrant has really impacted the lives of the community," Naumann said.

The people of St. John's have vowed that they will come up with the money for the roof, he said.