Wow, where to begin! It has been over four months since we have updated. I am a little embarrassed at that. Time goes way to fast especially in the fall. So where to even begin…first and foremost, we must thank and praise the Lord in this season of thanksgiving, as in all times. As I reflect on the last year of my life, I feel so blessed where He has taken me. It has been a journey that is for sure. God taught me a lot about dependence and trust while living in a cross cultural environment. And now as I have returned home and have had a bit more free time, I have been reading more and more of His word so that I can depend on His promises and share those with others. Our mission is wherever we are in life. As followers of Christ, we are all missionaries to share the Gospel as eternity is on the line. May we boldly plant seeds in people’s lives and pray for God to reveal Himself within people.
So let me update you to the work still going on in Tanzania. We left behind an incredible team, which as recently grown with the addition of a family of five from Canada. They are the Krahn family and you can check out their blog at krahniclesinafrica.blogspot.com. They are facing some huge adjustments as they transfer their family from Canada to rural northern Tanzania. Pray for them as they learn the language and adjust to life in Africa. Leah will be homeschooling their three children as well. Their focus is community development, but right now it’s language and culture learning. Pray for their kids as they learn to adapt to village life and make friends. Our other teammates are doing well. There are always bumps in the road, but God is working through those situations. Our pastor and his wife continue to impact the community in such a positive way even though they face constant persecution.
We spoke so often about our school registration which we had hoped to see it completed in our year there. But there are still delays. When we left, the issue that kept us from registration was our bathrooms. You see, we did not have enough for the amount of students we served. So Sarah, myself, and our team got to work and began building a bathroom building which had 10 stalls. There were a few delays when our head fundi (contractor) got sick and the job was on hold, so we did not get to see them completed before we left. But in July, an inspector from the local branch of the Ministry of Education came and saw that the bathrooms were mostly completed and gave the official okay to proceed forward with the finalization of the registration process. A letter went from Moshi to Dar es Salaam, but as of yet, we have not received the final letter from Dar. Mary, our teammate has traveled to Dar once and stayed multiple days waiting on it, but she could not get it. Last I heard, the letter was supposed to be on a bus to Tanga, but I have no official word that the school is registered. I know this school is in God’s will, so I trust He will work it out. Working with the government, while not paying bribes, can be a challenge, but we know this will be completed. The end of their school year is just a few weeks away. The end of the school year celebration was so special last year; I know we will both miss it. Mary continues to story the Bible with a couple of our closest friends and we pray that soon they will put a last faith and trust in Jesus.
So what are we now up to you may ask. Sarah quickly went back to prepare for school, just weeks after getting back. She switched grades, this year teaching 4th grade. From what I hear, she really loves her class and is helping them to have a broader worldview. I have visited her class a few times and they asked some good questions about our service. Sarah has decorated her classroom very African themed. Even though her students are only 9-10 year olds, she is teaching them big lessons about caring for others and learning about what other people in the world live like. Sarah has enjoyed catching up with her family and is now living with her older sister. She ran a half marathon in September which is a huge accomplishment after not running the year we were in Africa due to the heat and having to where a skirt to run in.
As for me, it took a bit of time to get an interview for a travel nursing position, which is what I did prior to Africa. But God totally opened the door for me to work in the Pediatric Intensive Care at University of Virginia Health Center. It took me a while for my confidence in my nursing skills to come back, but I am back in the swing of things now. My mindset in nursing in the US is quite different. I was baffled at all the resources I have at my fingertips now, like lots of doctors who work day and night. I finish up in Virginia in just a couple weeks and will be home for Christmas which I am so thankful for. Then I will be serving with Samaritan’s Purse in Haiti in January. I will likely use this website for my updates while in Haiti. I have signed a contract to be working at Denver Children’s from February until May. Always on the go it seems for me.
We have both had some major periods of readjustment. For Sarah it was right when getting back into work in August. For me it has been more recently as I adjust to life working again since I started in late September. Life is simpler in Africa and your complete focus is on the Gospel and spreading it. Where as in the US, we are bombarded by distractions and things to do. There are lots of little things we notice, for example going to Walmart, I was blown away by the selection of toothpastes. I thought in Africa we had like 5 to choose from not like 100 which we have in the US. I know my stomach took some major getting used to eating meat again. When an ambulance went by one time, I thought I sure would have liked one of those in Africa. These are lots of little things, but God helped us through the major readjustments of missing our life back in the village while getting used to life here in the US after what we have experience and the new people we became post Tanzania. We used to always say TIA (This is Africa), now it means This is America.
As the time goes by, I know I miss it more and more and am getting that itch again to get back. But right now, I am where I believe God has me. Sarah and I spoke just today about maybe getting back for a few weeks in the summer of 2011. Please check out this video Sarah made. Go to the You Tube site below. Thanks for tuning in and sorry for an new update taking so long.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq9GjK5FrRw
Blessings,
Emily
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