Hiya Family and Friends,
Merry Christmas! What a special time of year this is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. I pray you can enjoy this holiday with family and friends and truly focus on the reason for the season.
I am just returning from another trip to Dar es Salaam to work on finalizing my work permit and I praise God that the woman working in the Ministry of Health office said it would be completed next week. This is such a huge answer to prayer to have this, especially as in January I head to the Lake Victoria area of Tanzania to do some more hands on nursing as I shadow a team that includes 1 doctor and 3 nurses to increase my knowledge of medicine in this part of the world. I have a lot to learn with tropical medicine and look forward to gaining experience in HIV/Aids ministries. So anyway I am very thankful to soon have a work permit, after over 6 months of work to get it.
You may wonder what we are doing for Christmas. For December 24th, we will have a team member, Mary, and another single missionary woman visiting us, Kim, over for dinner. Christmas Day we will spend at our church. Our pastor is putting on a Christmas presentation and there will be lots of food and fellowship. From what I hear, many people come from the community. I am excited to experience this. A few days later, our team will come into town and celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas day together. We drew secret santa's to buy presents for and will plan to cook lots of good food. It is not home, but again we are so blessed by our team and community and I look forward to celebrating together.
Rejoice! Merry Christmas!
Christmas Blessings,
Emily
PS-Sorry this is so short, have to head back to the village!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Choose your own adventure!
Hey there friends! What adventures we’ve had since our last post…I know I say this often, but life here really is an adventure. My tag line for most things I do has been “choose your own adventure.” You know…the books you read as a kid where you had to decide what happens next then turn to page 34 or 76. Such good times. Any who, I use this philosophy with cooking, visiting, traveling, etc… It works out well since most things don’t quite go as planned. In the wise words of my dear friend C.S. Lewis- make plans and hold on to them loosely.
So…the story begins last Tuesday at our team day when we found out Emily’s resident permit would finally be ready on Friday! Hooray! We couldn’t let Emily go to Dar all by her lonesome, so one of our team members-we will call her M- and I took the liberty of escorting Em to Dar on Thursday so we could head straight to the government offices on Friday morning. So…Thursday morning comes and Em and I are ready and waiting for the first bus at 6:10…we are a little antsy because we have to make a bus out of Tanga at 8am. Our village bus does not arrive until 6:45. We are laughing at this point and making slight adjustments to our plan if need be. We are put putting along when M calls and asks where we are. She’s in town and ready to go at the bus stand. This particular bus line leaves on time (the only one in East Africa), so we are trying to get to town on time and M is stalling at the bus stand. Suddenly it starts to rain and we are thinking…hmmm, maybe this rain will help stall the bus too. Needless to say all of our stalling was wearing on the workers’ patience and they decided to leave with M on the bus. We told her we’d jump in a taxi and chase down the bus…which is exactly what we did. It was like a scene from a movie…and though we were eager to catch the bus we didn’t want to die in a car crash either. Our trusty taxi driver got us behind the bus and they pulled over on the side of the road and we hopped on, wet and exhausted already from the first leg of our adventure. Good times.
Thankfully, we made it to Dar and even got to see a movie and do some Christmas shopping at a mall on Thursday…a real treat! Friday we went to the office eager to get the stamp in Em’s passport, but sadly we were told to come back on Tuesday…Tuesday?? This was only Friday. What were we going to do in Dar for 4 days? Hmm…when meandering around downtown Em had the genius idea to ferry over to Zanzibar for a mini holiday. Why else would her permit get postponed other than to provide a little island excursion? We thought about this for a while and weighed the pros and cons of going back to Tanga, staying in Dar, or going to an exotic island for a few days. The island won, and on Saturday morning we were off to Zanzibar. The funny thing about our trip was that the entire island was out of power and running on generators. We stayed at the beach and even though our power was rationed, it was an amazing time of rest and renewal. Em and I went on a spice tour and it was amazing! It was also a good time to practice language and meet new people. All in all, it was a perfect little girl’s getaway!
We returned to Dar on Monday and on Tuesday morning Emily got her resident permit! Praise Jesus! We found out some info on her work permit and she has to return to Dar next week for that, but we are hopeful it will all be taken care of and completed so she can continue her work with no anxiety or stress. We are very thankful that things have worked out as they have, as you have to be very patient with these processes. We are learning to be grateful in all circumstances and to make the most of each day. We are now back in Tanga and will return to the village today. Even though it has only been 6 days, we feel like we’ve been gone forever. It will be good to get back and reconnect with our friends and neighbors. We are excited to share our joys of the Christmas holiday season with them. Pray we take advantage of every opportunity to share the real meaning of Christmas! We will celebrate with our church on Christmas day then on the 27th head into town for our team Christmas. Though it is difficult being far away from home during the holidays, we know we are right where God wants us, and there is great comfort in that! Thanks for your continued support and prayers! Keep them coming! We pray you have a blessed Christmas!
Love,Sarah (& Em too)!
So…the story begins last Tuesday at our team day when we found out Emily’s resident permit would finally be ready on Friday! Hooray! We couldn’t let Emily go to Dar all by her lonesome, so one of our team members-we will call her M- and I took the liberty of escorting Em to Dar on Thursday so we could head straight to the government offices on Friday morning. So…Thursday morning comes and Em and I are ready and waiting for the first bus at 6:10…we are a little antsy because we have to make a bus out of Tanga at 8am. Our village bus does not arrive until 6:45. We are laughing at this point and making slight adjustments to our plan if need be. We are put putting along when M calls and asks where we are. She’s in town and ready to go at the bus stand. This particular bus line leaves on time (the only one in East Africa), so we are trying to get to town on time and M is stalling at the bus stand. Suddenly it starts to rain and we are thinking…hmmm, maybe this rain will help stall the bus too. Needless to say all of our stalling was wearing on the workers’ patience and they decided to leave with M on the bus. We told her we’d jump in a taxi and chase down the bus…which is exactly what we did. It was like a scene from a movie…and though we were eager to catch the bus we didn’t want to die in a car crash either. Our trusty taxi driver got us behind the bus and they pulled over on the side of the road and we hopped on, wet and exhausted already from the first leg of our adventure. Good times.
Thankfully, we made it to Dar and even got to see a movie and do some Christmas shopping at a mall on Thursday…a real treat! Friday we went to the office eager to get the stamp in Em’s passport, but sadly we were told to come back on Tuesday…Tuesday?? This was only Friday. What were we going to do in Dar for 4 days? Hmm…when meandering around downtown Em had the genius idea to ferry over to Zanzibar for a mini holiday. Why else would her permit get postponed other than to provide a little island excursion? We thought about this for a while and weighed the pros and cons of going back to Tanga, staying in Dar, or going to an exotic island for a few days. The island won, and on Saturday morning we were off to Zanzibar. The funny thing about our trip was that the entire island was out of power and running on generators. We stayed at the beach and even though our power was rationed, it was an amazing time of rest and renewal. Em and I went on a spice tour and it was amazing! It was also a good time to practice language and meet new people. All in all, it was a perfect little girl’s getaway!
We returned to Dar on Monday and on Tuesday morning Emily got her resident permit! Praise Jesus! We found out some info on her work permit and she has to return to Dar next week for that, but we are hopeful it will all be taken care of and completed so she can continue her work with no anxiety or stress. We are very thankful that things have worked out as they have, as you have to be very patient with these processes. We are learning to be grateful in all circumstances and to make the most of each day. We are now back in Tanga and will return to the village today. Even though it has only been 6 days, we feel like we’ve been gone forever. It will be good to get back and reconnect with our friends and neighbors. We are excited to share our joys of the Christmas holiday season with them. Pray we take advantage of every opportunity to share the real meaning of Christmas! We will celebrate with our church on Christmas day then on the 27th head into town for our team Christmas. Though it is difficult being far away from home during the holidays, we know we are right where God wants us, and there is great comfort in that! Thanks for your continued support and prayers! Keep them coming! We pray you have a blessed Christmas!
Love,Sarah (& Em too)!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Lot's Been Happening
Where does the time go I want to know? We have now been living in Tanzania over five months and it seems like we were just preparing to leave last summer. We have a lot to report in the last couple weeks with the end of our school year, school registrations, our team Thanksgiving, and the death of a dear little one. So I’ll try to update you on them all.
A kiddo who I have been closely following, who I think I have mentioned before, passed away two weeks ago. This was very challenging as she was the daughter of a dear neighbor of ours. She was a twin born in August to a mother who currently has 2 living children, 11 and 6. When the twins were born in August we were so surprised, two precious little girls, born in the village to an older mom. We were told by our teammate who left this summer, that the twin’s mother has lost her last two children at 4 months of age, so to watch the twins carefully. So I took this seriously and visited frequently. The littler twin started having small health issues which I advised them to go to the clinic twice, then things got a bit worse in October, so I took them to the public hospital in Tanga, the larger town 45 minutes from us. She was immediately admitted, given a blood transfusion for severe anemia and after a few days started looking much better and was even smiling a bit. I would go every weekend to visit and then she started deteriorating again having jaundice (indicator of liver problems). I spoke with the doctors and made special trips into town to see what I could do, even taking a blood sample to another lab in town to get more tests run. But it seemed our hospital did not have the capacities to help this child and they planned to send her to Dar es Salaam, but she died the night before she was to leave for Dar es Salaam. I was so saddened that there was nothing I could do but pray. God has taken this precious little one home and I look forward to seeing her again. The funeral was challenging to see all the people in community come and just dismiss her death as, “The work of God.” I was pretty open with my emotions of how sad I was. The community knew we were frequently visiting and helping care for the family, but I had inner frustrations as this community does not often help those in need, until someone is already passed away. Join us in prayer for this family.
Well onto some awesome news, our school had it’s end of the year celebration on Friday. It was a special time to see the kids perform in front of their parents. We were told by one mom, her son woke up really early and got on his uniform to get to school very early. You could see the joy in a lot of them, nervousness in others to perform in front of their parents. Each class did a few songs and the Standard 1 class even did a presentation in English about the importance of education verses money in which Sarah oversaw. I remember the day in August when Sarah was told about how she would oversee this presentation and how nervous she was, remember this was our first week on the job, and it turned out so well. The kids knew their lines to say and it was even up to them to come up with their reasons education is important. Four students from the 6 year old class read a poem to their parents. Many parents are still functionally illiterate, and reading as a 6 year old was once unheard of in this community, but thanks to great teachers and the Lord who has enabled us to build this school, great things are happening. Thanks to you all for supporting us in this. I even had a part in the presentation to talk with parents about the importance of caring for their child’s health. My language helper helped me write my speech and I think it went pretty well. My first speech in another language. After the presentations, there was a huge feast which many of the mom’s had helped prepared. The parents and kids had soda’s and as much as they could eat. I wish you could have experienced the excitement and enthusiasm parents had for this school. Hard to think of the opposition they once had warning parents not to send their children to our school. While there is still opposition out there, many are so proud of the work being done and even call the school, “Our school!”
School registration for the new class of 5 year olds was two weeks ago. Within 90 minutes, we had all 30 spots filled and a waiting list. It was a rainy day and many were not able to make it, so they have been asking us to open up another class, which we cannot at this time. Children interested in entering our Standard 1 and 2 classes had to take tests last week to see if they were ready, but we were saddened by the lack in quality education of the government schools and only a few can enter our upper grades (we wanted to fill the classes all to 30 students each). Education is what will change the future of this country, but it cannot be done without teachers and schools.
Well there is a lot to tell you about our school registration, but I will hit the highlights. God has worked miracles in getting three inspectors out to our school and we have two letters of approval and just need the third, but we may have to pay a fine because our buildings are not “Earthquake safe.” I hope this gives you a picture of the challenges we face here in trying to better our community. God knows the hearts of all people, so we will trust Him to work in people’s heart to get our school registered so we can remain open in January. And be praying as we need two teachers for next year with a special certification. And it is 5 weeks to the start of school.
We had a great Thanksgiving dinner last weekend. I planned the event and shared the cooking with my team. We had chicken kabobs which I think everybody enjoyed and had a special time of sitting around our table and just talking, like we do at my house for the holidays. And we had a special visitor, a man who teaches at a small Bible college in the Lake Victoria area of Tanzania. He was in for a couple days and we had great time with him.
Well this is getting a bit long, hope this catches you up to speed. We have three weddings to attend in the next week. We both really enjoy these cultural experiences.
Blessings,
Emily (and Sarah)
A kiddo who I have been closely following, who I think I have mentioned before, passed away two weeks ago. This was very challenging as she was the daughter of a dear neighbor of ours. She was a twin born in August to a mother who currently has 2 living children, 11 and 6. When the twins were born in August we were so surprised, two precious little girls, born in the village to an older mom. We were told by our teammate who left this summer, that the twin’s mother has lost her last two children at 4 months of age, so to watch the twins carefully. So I took this seriously and visited frequently. The littler twin started having small health issues which I advised them to go to the clinic twice, then things got a bit worse in October, so I took them to the public hospital in Tanga, the larger town 45 minutes from us. She was immediately admitted, given a blood transfusion for severe anemia and after a few days started looking much better and was even smiling a bit. I would go every weekend to visit and then she started deteriorating again having jaundice (indicator of liver problems). I spoke with the doctors and made special trips into town to see what I could do, even taking a blood sample to another lab in town to get more tests run. But it seemed our hospital did not have the capacities to help this child and they planned to send her to Dar es Salaam, but she died the night before she was to leave for Dar es Salaam. I was so saddened that there was nothing I could do but pray. God has taken this precious little one home and I look forward to seeing her again. The funeral was challenging to see all the people in community come and just dismiss her death as, “The work of God.” I was pretty open with my emotions of how sad I was. The community knew we were frequently visiting and helping care for the family, but I had inner frustrations as this community does not often help those in need, until someone is already passed away. Join us in prayer for this family.
Well onto some awesome news, our school had it’s end of the year celebration on Friday. It was a special time to see the kids perform in front of their parents. We were told by one mom, her son woke up really early and got on his uniform to get to school very early. You could see the joy in a lot of them, nervousness in others to perform in front of their parents. Each class did a few songs and the Standard 1 class even did a presentation in English about the importance of education verses money in which Sarah oversaw. I remember the day in August when Sarah was told about how she would oversee this presentation and how nervous she was, remember this was our first week on the job, and it turned out so well. The kids knew their lines to say and it was even up to them to come up with their reasons education is important. Four students from the 6 year old class read a poem to their parents. Many parents are still functionally illiterate, and reading as a 6 year old was once unheard of in this community, but thanks to great teachers and the Lord who has enabled us to build this school, great things are happening. Thanks to you all for supporting us in this. I even had a part in the presentation to talk with parents about the importance of caring for their child’s health. My language helper helped me write my speech and I think it went pretty well. My first speech in another language. After the presentations, there was a huge feast which many of the mom’s had helped prepared. The parents and kids had soda’s and as much as they could eat. I wish you could have experienced the excitement and enthusiasm parents had for this school. Hard to think of the opposition they once had warning parents not to send their children to our school. While there is still opposition out there, many are so proud of the work being done and even call the school, “Our school!”
School registration for the new class of 5 year olds was two weeks ago. Within 90 minutes, we had all 30 spots filled and a waiting list. It was a rainy day and many were not able to make it, so they have been asking us to open up another class, which we cannot at this time. Children interested in entering our Standard 1 and 2 classes had to take tests last week to see if they were ready, but we were saddened by the lack in quality education of the government schools and only a few can enter our upper grades (we wanted to fill the classes all to 30 students each). Education is what will change the future of this country, but it cannot be done without teachers and schools.
Well there is a lot to tell you about our school registration, but I will hit the highlights. God has worked miracles in getting three inspectors out to our school and we have two letters of approval and just need the third, but we may have to pay a fine because our buildings are not “Earthquake safe.” I hope this gives you a picture of the challenges we face here in trying to better our community. God knows the hearts of all people, so we will trust Him to work in people’s heart to get our school registered so we can remain open in January. And be praying as we need two teachers for next year with a special certification. And it is 5 weeks to the start of school.
We had a great Thanksgiving dinner last weekend. I planned the event and shared the cooking with my team. We had chicken kabobs which I think everybody enjoyed and had a special time of sitting around our table and just talking, like we do at my house for the holidays. And we had a special visitor, a man who teaches at a small Bible college in the Lake Victoria area of Tanzania. He was in for a couple days and we had great time with him.
Well this is getting a bit long, hope this catches you up to speed. We have three weddings to attend in the next week. We both really enjoy these cultural experiences.
Blessings,
Emily (and Sarah)
Saturday, November 14, 2009
A Day in the Life...
Hey kids!
To give you a glimpse into what life is like here I will give you the play by play of my day yesterday. I will tell you it was not an entirely typical day, but it speaks well to the culture, community, and spiritual life here. I woke up and went for a bike ride with one of my teammates. We are trying to exercise some mornings by riding through surrounding villages early in the morning. This provides good fellowship time, prayer for the villages, and entertainment for the locals. They get a kick out of riding a bike just for exercise-but not really having a destination in mind. We wave as we go by and wave as we come back and they just laugh.
After the ride I ran home to get some water and head off to work on my friend Mama H.’s shamba, or farm. With hoe in hand I trudged through the bush to her farm where we plowed and hoed for about an hour and a half before it got really hot and I said I had to head home. It was fun to spend time with her and learn how to farm from her. I love learning how to live here…not that I’m ready to run out and start my own shamba tomorrow. Farming is vital to life here. Many people in our community rely on their crops not only for food for their family but to cook and sell too. I got to have a great conversation with Mama H. the other day because she asked me about the big holiday that we celebrate that was coming up next month. I then got to share with her the real meaning of Christmas. She is a sweet, gentle woman and her son might be one of the cutest kiddos I’ve ever seen. Every time I go by he sees me from afar and calls out my name and runs to me. Talk about warming your heart.
Any who, after the farm I headed home to clean up and prepare for my language lesson and studied with my language helper until 11 when I made some lunch and headed off to school to help the teachers get end of the year assessments ready. I hung out for a while and then went with one of your teammates and Emily to visit a friend of ours who may be the sweetest old man in all of Tanzania. We met him at his farm and our teammate shared a story from the Bible with him. She uses the chronological Bible storying approach to sharing God’s word with friends and people in our villages since oral traditions and storytelling are still very prominent in this culture. It’s a great evangelistic tool. So, we got to sit in on her story time and it was great to see our friend so engaged in the story.
Midday, news of a baby’s death in the village next to ours reached us and we got the details that the young mother had taken the child to the hospital in the village nearby and they were sending her to town, but the baby died on the way. The traditional funeral was to be held that day and though we did not know the mother, we knew her family and were encouraged to go mourn with them. We arrived at the funeral and sat with the women as the men left to bury the baby. We then moved inside the house to give our condolences to the family and sit with the mother as she cried for her lost child. A picture of her sitting on the floor with tears falling down her cheeks as the sun came through the bars of the window illuminating her sad face will be with me for as long as I live. I kept peering back and forth from the barred window to the young woman sitting on the dirt floor of the house and I could not help but mourn for the prison that so many of these people live in day by day. The bondage of poverty and living a life that seems lost without hope is such a heavy weight to bear. Others attending simply stated that this was the work of God and life must go on. This is partly true, and though the loss and depth of despair can be overwhelming, it is confirmation that there is a need here to pour love and light into a place that can be so dark.
Moving from darkness to light, our day looked up. As when we were leaving we stopped by a neighbor’s house where our teammate introduced us to some old friends of hers. They started asking questions about God and she was able to share the Gospel with them. We then went on to visit several other people and had my language helper and her family over to our house for dinner. It was a great time of fellowship and we wanted them to know how much we appreciate them and love them. We also got to share a story with them, and thanked the Lord for all He accomplished in that day.
Though by the time my head hit my pillow I was spent in so many ways, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, my heart was filled with joy. Though there are many struggles each day and there is sorrow in the world, God’s word says, “I have told you these things so that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Jn. 16:33. In all these things, we know God is working, and He has a purpose for us here. Not only to meet the physical and tangible needs of the children and people of Tanzania, but to love them and most of all, share the Truth of His love that brings liberation. I hope this update encourages you and allows you to look into the reality of the world around you. Though there is darkness, He is the light.
Word,
Sarah
Saturday, October 31, 2009
What is Joy?
The topic of joy has been on my heart this last week, so let’s talk about it. What is joy you may ask? Webster’s dictionary says joy is “the emotion evoked by well being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.” But I am not sure how I feel about this definition, so let’s head to the Bible to examine joy. Joy comes from within. Joy is an internal peace of knowing your salvation through our savior Jesus Christ. The book of Psalms and Proverbs is full of the word joy. The reason for joy is well summed up in Psalms 71:23, “My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you-I, whom you have redeemed.” Jesus Christ died on the cross for all our sins and for that we are to be joyful. Having joy is not contingent on circumstances. You may not have health or wealth or even a job or a home, but you can be joyful when you put your hope in Christ. The world is facing many hard circumstances, but be joyful because God is in control and that will radiate to all around you. Another verse that has powerful words concerning joy and prayer is 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Be joyful always, pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” And these are commands, not advice.
This last week has been awesome to get back into the routine of things. I have been delighting in my time with the children of this community. They run to me, faces full of snot, covered in dirt, and give me a giant hug that makes your heart melt! I do not mind the snot or dirt, or even the many weird skin conditions so many of them have, I just love the hugs. You toss them up in the air or swing round and round and they cannot stop giggling. Generally in this community adults do not play with kids, so I soak it up. I love it when the kids come up to me and show me how they can blow up their muscles through their thumb, a trick my dad showed them. I hope you know what I am talking about; flexing your muscles when you blow on your thumb. Instead of saying, “Show me your guns (biceps)” they say, “Show me your potatoes.” Priceless.
Praise God the rains have come. It was predicted to be an El Nino year here and they might be right as the rains have been great. We have had a few days where we could barely leave the house due to all the rain. Although having a tin roof when it rains makes it a bit hard to have conversations. You have to shout over the rain to be heard. But we are very thankful for the rain as this is an agricultural based community. A couple of nights ago I heard this very weird noise outside. I asked Sarah what it is and she informed me it was frogs. Sounds like we have thousands of them now! Thank you Lord!
This last week I took two children into Tanga to see the doctor. One was immediately admitted to the hospital and the other we are starting her on strong meds for a problem she has had for over a year. Sometimes I have a bit of doubt about what I am doing here since I do not have a lot of structure in my role, but then it is through those situations where I can be an advocate and get children the help they need that the Lord truly affirms all I am doing. Both Sarah and I have both visited the little one in the hospital today and she is making great improvement. Her mother has lost her last two infants at the age of four months, so we are working hard to keep mother, this little one, and her twin healthy.
Now it’s Sarah’s turn to update. She has some encouraging news regarding our school. Please continue to pray for us, especially endurance as I have been feeling tired, but still strong and healthy. Also pray for my work visa. Sarah got hers two weeks ago, but the man who needs to complete it has had many trips away from the office. But I am confident it will come through, just join me in prayer.
Hey kids…not much to say after that. God has a way of bringing joy to our lives every day. The Bible (and my mom) says in this world you will have much trial and tribulation, but be of good cheer because GOD has overcome the world. I have learned so much about trusting in the promises of God when facing many of life’s trials here. It is only through Him that we continue to thrive, and the outpour of my heart is that all who I interact with will know where my joy comes from. I have been able to have more conversations about that very subject with some of my close friends here, and I hope to encourage them more and continue to talk with them as I grow in my Kiswahili. We have many reasons to praise God for His faithfulness.
As you know, we have been working for years now to get our land and school registration for our primary school. After a whirlwind of ups and downs, we were approved for stage one of this process. There are three stages, and as we embark on stage two, I ask that you pray for our interactions with government officials and that they would be supportive and actually in their offices when we go to visit. We still have a long way to go, but God has worked miracles to make this first stage complete, so we are very thankful! It has been good getting back into the classroom, and as Em stated, nothing in the world is better than a good hug! When I returned to my grade one class the students all shouted, “Teacher!” and ran up around me to hug me. The joy I felt about made me burst! As we enter this last month of school for the year, there is much work to be done so please pray that I can balance teaching, administrative tasks, and my involvement in the community.
Speaking of community I am super stoked to start a netball team in our village. Netball is a game girls and women play that is similar to basketball. I learned about it through a language lesson last week, and this week I walked to every house in my village with my language helper to invite women to come practice with us next Wednesday. So far we have 21 women signed up and a few weren’t home. Since we visited everyone, there has been buzz about playing throughout the village and I can’t wait to see who shows up. I am hopeful that a portion of this group will stick it out and commit to playing so that we can even play women from surrounding villages. It will be a fun time to get together and enjoy one another, and provide an avenue to share God’s love with the women of our village. Em and I are both excited about this endeavor.
This last week has been awesome to get back into the routine of things. I have been delighting in my time with the children of this community. They run to me, faces full of snot, covered in dirt, and give me a giant hug that makes your heart melt! I do not mind the snot or dirt, or even the many weird skin conditions so many of them have, I just love the hugs. You toss them up in the air or swing round and round and they cannot stop giggling. Generally in this community adults do not play with kids, so I soak it up. I love it when the kids come up to me and show me how they can blow up their muscles through their thumb, a trick my dad showed them. I hope you know what I am talking about; flexing your muscles when you blow on your thumb. Instead of saying, “Show me your guns (biceps)” they say, “Show me your potatoes.” Priceless.
Praise God the rains have come. It was predicted to be an El Nino year here and they might be right as the rains have been great. We have had a few days where we could barely leave the house due to all the rain. Although having a tin roof when it rains makes it a bit hard to have conversations. You have to shout over the rain to be heard. But we are very thankful for the rain as this is an agricultural based community. A couple of nights ago I heard this very weird noise outside. I asked Sarah what it is and she informed me it was frogs. Sounds like we have thousands of them now! Thank you Lord!
This last week I took two children into Tanga to see the doctor. One was immediately admitted to the hospital and the other we are starting her on strong meds for a problem she has had for over a year. Sometimes I have a bit of doubt about what I am doing here since I do not have a lot of structure in my role, but then it is through those situations where I can be an advocate and get children the help they need that the Lord truly affirms all I am doing. Both Sarah and I have both visited the little one in the hospital today and she is making great improvement. Her mother has lost her last two infants at the age of four months, so we are working hard to keep mother, this little one, and her twin healthy.
Now it’s Sarah’s turn to update. She has some encouraging news regarding our school. Please continue to pray for us, especially endurance as I have been feeling tired, but still strong and healthy. Also pray for my work visa. Sarah got hers two weeks ago, but the man who needs to complete it has had many trips away from the office. But I am confident it will come through, just join me in prayer.
Hey kids…not much to say after that. God has a way of bringing joy to our lives every day. The Bible (and my mom) says in this world you will have much trial and tribulation, but be of good cheer because GOD has overcome the world. I have learned so much about trusting in the promises of God when facing many of life’s trials here. It is only through Him that we continue to thrive, and the outpour of my heart is that all who I interact with will know where my joy comes from. I have been able to have more conversations about that very subject with some of my close friends here, and I hope to encourage them more and continue to talk with them as I grow in my Kiswahili. We have many reasons to praise God for His faithfulness.
As you know, we have been working for years now to get our land and school registration for our primary school. After a whirlwind of ups and downs, we were approved for stage one of this process. There are three stages, and as we embark on stage two, I ask that you pray for our interactions with government officials and that they would be supportive and actually in their offices when we go to visit. We still have a long way to go, but God has worked miracles to make this first stage complete, so we are very thankful! It has been good getting back into the classroom, and as Em stated, nothing in the world is better than a good hug! When I returned to my grade one class the students all shouted, “Teacher!” and ran up around me to hug me. The joy I felt about made me burst! As we enter this last month of school for the year, there is much work to be done so please pray that I can balance teaching, administrative tasks, and my involvement in the community.
Speaking of community I am super stoked to start a netball team in our village. Netball is a game girls and women play that is similar to basketball. I learned about it through a language lesson last week, and this week I walked to every house in my village with my language helper to invite women to come practice with us next Wednesday. So far we have 21 women signed up and a few weren’t home. Since we visited everyone, there has been buzz about playing throughout the village and I can’t wait to see who shows up. I am hopeful that a portion of this group will stick it out and commit to playing so that we can even play women from surrounding villages. It will be a fun time to get together and enjoy one another, and provide an avenue to share God’s love with the women of our village. Em and I are both excited about this endeavor.
When it comes to relationships it’s difficult to cross language and cultural barriers, but I have found so much joy in many of the women and children I have met, especially my language helper. We laugh together, learn together, sit in the shade when it’s hot together, and hopefully I will get to go work her farm with her soon. I have truly enjoyed our time getting to know one another and consider her a true friend. I can be honest with her and she is honest with me. About a month ago we had made a cake together (as part of our baking ministry…ha ha) and we were sharing it at her house with her husband (who just happens to be our knight in shining armor when it comes to rats). We were enjoying the cake as it was quite tasty, and for some reason I just thought a nice cold coke would be so good with this cake. I voiced my thoughts and we all had a good laugh and that was the end of it. We laugh a lot together, mostly from the silly things I say. Fast forward to last week. Emily had to go to town to help one of our sick team members so I spent my first 2 nights alone in the village. I had completed my daily routine and was getting ready to do some work in the evening inside my house when I heard a knock at the door. It was my language helper and she asked me to come to her house. She was acting kind of strange, so I didn’t know what was up. The next thing I knew, she and her husband were sitting on her front porch with cake and three ice cold sodas. They remembered my silly comment and the gesture was so kind and considerate that I was beaming and about to cry. This was such a complete act of love and joy. I thanked God for what an encouragement it was to have someone do something so special just for little old me. Joy filled my heart and in that moment I wanted my new friends to know the true joy that Emily so poignantly wrote about. God has put us here to share His joy and redemptive story, and for me that is going to be through love and relationships. Even when it’s hard and we’re tired and grumpy, He provides just what we need to keep us going. In all these things our faith is built on His unfailing love for us. As our team member, Joyce says- He will not let our faith get lazy. I pray we can continue to find joy in the good times and the struggles. Thanks for your prayers and encouragement as we continue to do what God has called us to do here. Blessings to you all!!!
Emily and Sarah
PS-The picture is of our school children lined up in the morning to sing!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Word from the Road
Hey there friends!
We’re sorry it’s been a while, but there’s so much to share since our last post. Hold on to your hats because this may be a long one! We have been all over Tanzania over the past 3 weeks, and we are blessed to get to experience more of this beautiful country. Our journey began October second as we hopped on the bus at 6:00am to head to Moshi to explore the city, hopefully to see Kilimanjaro and pick up Emily’s parents for our six-day safari to Tarangire National Park, Ngorongoro Crater Nature Reserve and Lake Manyara National Park. Moshi, as some of you know, is home to Kilimanjaro: The Roof of Africa. Getting to explore the small city was fun as we talked to many people who had just made the trek or were getting ready to head out. It made me very excited for my return in January with our teammates Wayne and Joyce. We plan to conquer Kili together. Sadly it was too cloudy to see the mountain while we were in Moshi.
Any who, back to Em’s parents. We were very eager for their arrival to show off our new home here, and when we first saw them it was both exciting and emotional. It meant so much to have a piece of home here with us. Emily was ecstatic as you can imagine. Em’s parents were nice enough to bring some items for us, our team, and school supplies donated from my home school in the States. It felt like Christmas! After we had a chance to catch up and relax for a day we headed out to Arusha and beyond on our safari. What an amazing opportunity to experience God’s creation. I, being the nerdy teacher that I am, kept reading up on all of the animals and came each morning ready with a slew of questions and fun facts to know and tell about all of the creatures of the African savannah. I am sure our guide was ready to ask me if I wanted to lead the safari, but he put up with me. He was so knowledgeable and it was amazing to learn so much about the habitats here in Tanzania. I was simply fascinated by how all of the animals interact and the interdependence that keeps the entire ecosystem in balance. I kept thinking of applications for the classroom and wished all the little kiddos from here and in the US could get to experience the wildlife firsthand. Needless to say, it was an amazing trip.
On our way back home we stopped to spend the night in Arusha and took Em’s parents to the Circus Mama Africa we saw our first month here in Tanga. It was good fun, and by the end of the week we were ready to head back to the village to get back to friends, school and the community. Thankfully on our way back from Arusha we had to go through Moshi and got a beautiful view of Kili for Em’s us all to enjoy.
On the next leg of their trip they had the privilege to join us in the village for 3 days, and they were troopers. They learned the ins and outs of life in the village and got to meet all the special people in our lives as well as go to church with us. Everyone was excited to have guests and they got to enjoy a dinner out at my language helper’s house. They visited school as well and played with the children who could not get enough of Emily’s dad! We were proud of how well they did being out of their comfort zone in so many ways and hope they have a clearer picture of how and why God has called us to serve here.
After 3 days we packed up again to head out to a conference for all of the AIM workers in Tanzania. Before leaving Tanga, Em put her parents on a plane to relax in Zanzibar while we headed to Dar. We also got to celebrate one of our team member’s birthdays! These are special times for us since our team is our family here. God has blessed us with such amazing, encouraging people who work along side us day in and day out with such fervor and passion. After the birthday night out, we headed off to Dar for the conference. This meant another bus ride, but we’re growing quite used to public transportation. I can’t even think of words to describe the conference. It was a time of encouragement, spiritual renewal, joy, and excitement about what God is doing in Tanzania and all of Africa. We got to share what is happening in our ministry and hear updates on all regions of Tanzania. From building churches, schools and mobile clinics, to ministering to street kids, fisherman and everyone in between, huge things are happening! I was in awe of how big God is and how He created each of the workers here for a specific job and purpose in His ministry. We got to reflect on the wisdom of God verses our human wisdom and our guest speaker was very dynamic in reviving us to go back to the field rearing to go! We made many connections and truly feel apart of the community of AIM workers here. We hope to visit some to learn more about health care, tropical medicine, and education as well as ministry outreach. Our entire team left feeling revived, and though there are bumps in the road, we press on!
We are currently still in Dar today visiting friends who came up to our village to do a Bible storying seminar about a month ago. They leave on home assignment in December, so we wanted to visit with them one more time before they go. The city life is vastly different from our humble life in the village, but it is amazing to experience this different culture in Africa. While here we had an opportunity to visit a friend from our village who is recovering from a broken leg after being hit by a car while on his motorcycle about 6 weeks ago. He and his wife are staying in Dar until he fully recovers. He had surgery to place a rod in his femur, and he seems to be on the road to recovery. It is a slow process, but we were able to speak with him and he seems optimistic and said he wasn’t experiencing too much pain. Meanwhile their youngest son is a student at our school in the village, so I was able to report that he is doing well and that we are looking after him along with many others in the village. Our friends were beaming as we visited with them, and it was good to make that connection to let them know we were praying for them. They even allowed Mary, our teammate, to pray for them at the end of our visit. It was a blessing to experience that, and I hope they will continue to be encouraged knowing we are praying for them.
Tomorrow we head back to Tanga and then on to the village. We are happy to return home where we can get back into the swing of things. This is a busy time of year with school winding down, and there is much work to be done. We are still interviewing teachers for grade 2 next year, and we are working on the school government registration. This has been a long, tedious process. Please pray that these processes will be completed by December and that we can be an officially registered school by next year starting in January. Please pray that God provides a teacher who loves Him and shares our vision for the students, school and community. On another note, I got my residence permit! Praise the Lord! Emily’s had a slight glitch but she is expecting the paperwork to be sent to her next week and she can complete the process in Tanga soon. We know it will all work out. We continue to learn daily how to surrender things to God and be patient. This is Africa.
Hiya, it’s Emily here. Hope you enjoyed reading all about what has been going on lately. Sarah summed it up well. We will try to write more often, but it’s very busy here as you can imagine. Thank you for your support, love, and encouragement!
Thanks for tuning in!
Grace and peace,
Sarah & Emily
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Safari Abroad
Hiya Friends,
As the title indicates, we are headed for a safari. Can you believe we have been gone for three months? Hard to believe! We were both reflecting how as you get older, time goes by so quickly. My parents arrive to Kilimanjaro Airport tomorrow evening for a two and a half week adventure in Tanzania. Sarah, my parents, and myself head to the bush to check out Tanzania’s wildlife on Sunday for six days. We are pumped about this opportunity to see many animals in their natural environment. Sarah really wants to see some giraffes run and I just want to see lots of elephants. Hopefully we will be able to post some pictures. After the safari, my parents will be joining us for a few nights in the village. We have been telling our friends they are coming and many people in our community are very excited to meet them. I wish you all could have the experience of living in a rural village. It would definitely change your perspective on life and what you have.
The time away will be such a blessing. We are both feeling a bit tired and need of some time for relaxation and rejuvenation. Living in rural Africa in a village and learning a new language can take a toll on your physical body, so the rest and time away I trust will be good. Also the time away will be good to reflect on what we are experiencing. I am finding I need to spend more time reflecting on God’s work within my own heart and the heart of this community.
We had a bit of an unplanned get away this last week as well. Our temporary 90 day visas were up and we still had not received our residency permits, meaning we had to make a trip out of country for two days in order to come back in to get another temporary 90 day visa. So we headed to Mombasa, Kenya, a little over three hours away by bus. We were joined by a couple we work with, Wayne and Joyce, and had a really great time. Wayne, Joyce, and their family lived outside of Mombasa for 16 years, so they gave us the tour of the island of Mombasa. We enjoyed lots of good food and laughter. And most importantly, we were granted another 90 day visa. We hope to iron out the official residency permit situation when we go to Dar es Salaam for conference in a few weeks.
I bet you are wondering, “How is work going for us?” For me I continue to stay as busy as I want to be. There was a school holiday and when the children returned, there were countless major health issues. The problem I battle most is skin issues. They come up with the weirdest things and then I searching through village medical manuals about what to do about it. The biggest thing is that parents need to learn to bathe their children with soap and water at least once daily, and I think a lot of these problems would be eliminated. I have recommended a few go to the hospital because of serious infections. Language continues to be an issue at times. Sarah and I visited a lady last week that was bit by a dog. Her doctor wrote that she needed the rabies vaccine. We thought she said she was unable to get it due to money and that is was not available. I was so concerned because if she was truly bit by a rabid dog and does not get the vaccine, it can be fatal. So I get to her Tanga to the vaccination clinic and turns out she was able to get the rabies vaccine the day before, just where she got it, it was their last dose, so would be unable to get the rest of the series. We thought we very clearly asked her if she was able to get it, but obviously there was some miscommunication. But our language skills are coming along.
Good stories Em…now that she has brought you up to date on life here, I will fill you in on my side of things. I, too, am excited about our safari, and we hope to return feeling refreshed with a renewed purpose and desire to serve our community. It has been amazing so far, and even though we face struggles and hardships daily, God has blessed our work and ministry. Here’s a recap on all things school: After our latest school break, the kiddos returned in rare form. As sad as it was to witness some of their conditions (as Em explained before) it showed just how much the school impacts the community. The kiddos were also super excited to be back at school. I realized how much I missed them too! The teachers genuinely care about the wellbeing of students and work with families to make sure they are taken care of. I am thankful to be an additional resource to help the children in and out of school, and more importantly, share with the families that our love comes from Jesus Christ. I got to experience my first round of teacher interviews as we are searching for 2 new teachers next year. Each year the school will expand to the next grade level, so next year we will have 2 kindergarten classes, 1 first grade class, and 1 second grade class. It was quite an interesting experience, but I was very thankful to get to be a part of the process. I got to meet with our principal and discuss possible questions beforehand and discuss how to ask them in English and Kiswahili. We interviewed 3 candidates over a four hour period. It was a long day, but we all learned a lot, and we know God will provide the right person for the job! We are still looking to follow up with more interviews, but we are excited about these first steps in the process. I am feeling more at home at the school and I have been taking over some administrative rolls regarding the registration of our school. We are not yet registered with the government, but we have been working for the past 2 years on this process. Everything here takes a lot of time and follow up to make sure things are happening! Our team has been working with our principal to aid and assist in this process, and we hope to complete it within the next year. I would love to see it done before our time here comes to an end, God willing. Please continue to pray for the kiddos at the school and for the interviews and registration process! As you can see, we have a lot going on! I will end with a cute teacher story. I have been teaching the standard one children the prepositions on, in, under, behind, and in front of to express location. We have done all sorts of activities to practice the words from asking questions playing hide and seek with objects and playing Simon says by putting their hands on their heads and sitting under their desks…I have to be creative. Any who, I saw one of the parents of one student on Wednesday night and she was very excited to be telling me that her daughter came home from school and was describing the location of every object in her house! As a teacher, the best news you can hear is when a child goes home and shares what he or she is learning at school! I was elated! Praise the Lord their English is coming even though there are gaps in my Kiswahili! I will miss the kiddos over the next few weeks, but I am eager to get back in the classroom with these kids that I’m falling in love with! Until next time, thanks for reading, and we can’t wait to share our safari adventures with you.
Peace out,
Em & Sarah
As the title indicates, we are headed for a safari. Can you believe we have been gone for three months? Hard to believe! We were both reflecting how as you get older, time goes by so quickly. My parents arrive to Kilimanjaro Airport tomorrow evening for a two and a half week adventure in Tanzania. Sarah, my parents, and myself head to the bush to check out Tanzania’s wildlife on Sunday for six days. We are pumped about this opportunity to see many animals in their natural environment. Sarah really wants to see some giraffes run and I just want to see lots of elephants. Hopefully we will be able to post some pictures. After the safari, my parents will be joining us for a few nights in the village. We have been telling our friends they are coming and many people in our community are very excited to meet them. I wish you all could have the experience of living in a rural village. It would definitely change your perspective on life and what you have.
The time away will be such a blessing. We are both feeling a bit tired and need of some time for relaxation and rejuvenation. Living in rural Africa in a village and learning a new language can take a toll on your physical body, so the rest and time away I trust will be good. Also the time away will be good to reflect on what we are experiencing. I am finding I need to spend more time reflecting on God’s work within my own heart and the heart of this community.
We had a bit of an unplanned get away this last week as well. Our temporary 90 day visas were up and we still had not received our residency permits, meaning we had to make a trip out of country for two days in order to come back in to get another temporary 90 day visa. So we headed to Mombasa, Kenya, a little over three hours away by bus. We were joined by a couple we work with, Wayne and Joyce, and had a really great time. Wayne, Joyce, and their family lived outside of Mombasa for 16 years, so they gave us the tour of the island of Mombasa. We enjoyed lots of good food and laughter. And most importantly, we were granted another 90 day visa. We hope to iron out the official residency permit situation when we go to Dar es Salaam for conference in a few weeks.
I bet you are wondering, “How is work going for us?” For me I continue to stay as busy as I want to be. There was a school holiday and when the children returned, there were countless major health issues. The problem I battle most is skin issues. They come up with the weirdest things and then I searching through village medical manuals about what to do about it. The biggest thing is that parents need to learn to bathe their children with soap and water at least once daily, and I think a lot of these problems would be eliminated. I have recommended a few go to the hospital because of serious infections. Language continues to be an issue at times. Sarah and I visited a lady last week that was bit by a dog. Her doctor wrote that she needed the rabies vaccine. We thought she said she was unable to get it due to money and that is was not available. I was so concerned because if she was truly bit by a rabid dog and does not get the vaccine, it can be fatal. So I get to her Tanga to the vaccination clinic and turns out she was able to get the rabies vaccine the day before, just where she got it, it was their last dose, so would be unable to get the rest of the series. We thought we very clearly asked her if she was able to get it, but obviously there was some miscommunication. But our language skills are coming along.
Good stories Em…now that she has brought you up to date on life here, I will fill you in on my side of things. I, too, am excited about our safari, and we hope to return feeling refreshed with a renewed purpose and desire to serve our community. It has been amazing so far, and even though we face struggles and hardships daily, God has blessed our work and ministry. Here’s a recap on all things school: After our latest school break, the kiddos returned in rare form. As sad as it was to witness some of their conditions (as Em explained before) it showed just how much the school impacts the community. The kiddos were also super excited to be back at school. I realized how much I missed them too! The teachers genuinely care about the wellbeing of students and work with families to make sure they are taken care of. I am thankful to be an additional resource to help the children in and out of school, and more importantly, share with the families that our love comes from Jesus Christ. I got to experience my first round of teacher interviews as we are searching for 2 new teachers next year. Each year the school will expand to the next grade level, so next year we will have 2 kindergarten classes, 1 first grade class, and 1 second grade class. It was quite an interesting experience, but I was very thankful to get to be a part of the process. I got to meet with our principal and discuss possible questions beforehand and discuss how to ask them in English and Kiswahili. We interviewed 3 candidates over a four hour period. It was a long day, but we all learned a lot, and we know God will provide the right person for the job! We are still looking to follow up with more interviews, but we are excited about these first steps in the process. I am feeling more at home at the school and I have been taking over some administrative rolls regarding the registration of our school. We are not yet registered with the government, but we have been working for the past 2 years on this process. Everything here takes a lot of time and follow up to make sure things are happening! Our team has been working with our principal to aid and assist in this process, and we hope to complete it within the next year. I would love to see it done before our time here comes to an end, God willing. Please continue to pray for the kiddos at the school and for the interviews and registration process! As you can see, we have a lot going on! I will end with a cute teacher story. I have been teaching the standard one children the prepositions on, in, under, behind, and in front of to express location. We have done all sorts of activities to practice the words from asking questions playing hide and seek with objects and playing Simon says by putting their hands on their heads and sitting under their desks…I have to be creative. Any who, I saw one of the parents of one student on Wednesday night and she was very excited to be telling me that her daughter came home from school and was describing the location of every object in her house! As a teacher, the best news you can hear is when a child goes home and shares what he or she is learning at school! I was elated! Praise the Lord their English is coming even though there are gaps in my Kiswahili! I will miss the kiddos over the next few weeks, but I am eager to get back in the classroom with these kids that I’m falling in love with! Until next time, thanks for reading, and we can’t wait to share our safari adventures with you.
Peace out,
Em & Sarah
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