Asante

Asante! Thank you! Words cannot thank you all enough for the generous support we are receiving. God is just so amazing. The Lord is really shining His light on this ministry and providing in unique ways. Thank you for sharing the blessings the Lord has given you with us. Also a big thank you to the many businesses who are donating items for our bowling fundraiser (see below).

Sarah and I are both diving into Rosetta Stone and reading lots of good books in preparation. I just finished Cross Cultural Servanthood by Elmer and it was fantastic. Even if you are not considering missions abroad, it is just great to read about how to serve people and learning to practice humility. Sarah's is staying busy with teaching her 3rd graders and I am commuting every week to Kansas City to work at Children's Mercy. We are both spending most of our free time in preparation. I keep getting more and more excited to meet the people we are working with. We will get to meet them in about 3 months which I know will fly by. So all in all things are going well!

A little update on fundraising activities: We are having a bowling fundraiser on Sunday, April 26th. The invite is copied below. Please feel free to tell others about this, just RSVP so we have enough food.

An event right up your alley:
Emily & Sarah are going to Africa and need your support!
Join us for an afternoon of bowling and fun to benefit the
girls as they prepare to teach and nurse in Tanga, Tanzania.
Who: You and feel free to invite friends
What: Unlimited bowling, pool tables, and good food
When: Sunday, April 26th from 2-6 pm
Where: Saratoga Lanes 2725 Sutton Blvd.
South on Sutton from Manchester Road in Maplewood
Cost: $20 (cash bar)
There will also be a silent auction and raffle.
Please RSVP to Sarah Majino (lilmajino@yahoo.com) or
Emily Arneson (lilarnie@yahoo.com).

We are also having a garage sale at my house on Saturday, May 9th with all the money going towards our trip. If you would like to donate any items for us to sell, please email us and we will pick it up the weekend before.

Thanks for tuning in. We are blessed to have many care about this ministry. I thought I would paste in a picture of some cute African kids from my trip to Uganda in October. I visited a school and the kids just loved to have their pictures taken.

Hugs, EMILY

New News!

Habari! (That's hello in Swahili). We hope you all are doing well.  I am currently typing from my the house of my dear friends, the McKillips family, in Oakland, California.  I have come to have some great renewal and fellowship over my spring break.  It has been a wonderful, encouraging trip.  In the mean time, Emily and I have been in touch with Heather, who we will be working with in Tanzania, and she has given us more detailed information regarding what we will be doing while serving there.  I will be teaching English classes to all students in the school as well as art and PE if I so desire.  I am ecstatic at the possibility to be creative and active with the kids.  I am picturing playing soccer outside with 30 little kiddos running around.  To prepare for my English teaching roll, I have spoken with the ESOL teacher at my school.  She has given me some great insight and suggestions.  Emily will be the school nurse and will be responsible for giving exams and checking in with the children regularly to ensure they remain healthy.   Another important roll for her will include health education for the community.  She will teach the people some preventative measures and practices to avoid unnecessary illness or breakouts.  We are both eager to prepare for our jobs and every little piece of information helps us put together this puzzle.  We will be meeting with our recruiter and a woman returning from Tanga in April, so we are excited to ask her all sorts of everyday questions about life there.  We will be moving into her house, so she will have a wealth of information and insight to share with us.  The best part of this story is that she is from Kirkwood Missouri!  Just in our own back yard.  It's so funny how God works.  We were concerned about having no idea where we were going to live, and now we find out the person we are replacing actually lives in St. Louis.  God continues to provide just what we need and more.  That being said, we are still working on support raising, so stay tuned for some fun events in April and May! 

Grace & peace,

Sarah   

June 29th it is...

Hello Friends,

God is good all the time, and all the time God is good.  Now that we have officially begun our support raising, God has proven faithful yet again.  We are humbled by the cheerful giving our friends and families have shown us thus far.  Both of us are close to 20% of our goal.  Though we have far to go, I have a no doubt God will provide.   There are days I ask God, "Is this really going to happen?"  Then I go to the mailbox and there is another encouraging message supporting our efforts in His mission.  It has been exciting to share this experience with you all, and we continue to be grateful for your prayers.  Emily and I just found out we are leaving June 29th.   We will spend a few days in New York at orientation and arrive in Tanzania on July 3rd. It's a little earlier than we had thought, but we are excited to get going.  We also purchased Rosetta Stone, so we will be speaking Swahili in no time...wink wink.  Now we are in the stage where we are spending time preparing logistically, as well as emotionally and spiritually.  It is a fine balance working and living life in the present when we are both looking forward to this big adventure that will be here before we know it.   It has been challenging at times, but it is affirming to see God working in so many ways.  We will continue to be praying that He will provide and use this time to bring us closer to Him.  

Peace,

Sarah 

Things are moving

Well friends, the ball is rolling. I have sent my letters for support out and Sarah's will be out today. And I am so blessed by the response already. Praise Jesus! He is so good. I have had fun telling more and more people about what we are doing. We want to share this opportunity with others. It is exciting.
The budget is coming from Africa Inland Mission this weekend. We want to see the exact numbers to have a goal to reach. I got a great book from my church called Funding Your Ministry by Scott Martin and I have been looking through it. One thing it says is that we should fully expect all our support to be raised. I am praying to have this attitude towards support raising and fully trusting the Lord to provide. And He will. I can think of many stories in the Bible where God so graciously provided like feeding the 5,000. He is the true provider.
I start work back this week in Kansas City at Children's Mercy in their Pediatric Intensive Care. I will be commuting back and forth most weeks so I can be home preparing. There is lots to be done.
Some things we are working on now are following up the support letters, contacting local businesses for donations, planning a bowling fundraising party (date to be determined), reading through books with our mentors, and just spending time preparing.

GOOD NEWS

Tanga, Tanzania here we come!  We have been contacted and offered positions to teach and nurse at a Christian school in Tanga, Tanzania.  Tanzania is on the East coast of Africa just south of Kenya.  We will be living in a village 15 minutes outside the port city of Tanga.  We're still awaiting more details, but Emily and I are extremely excited to move forward with the preparation process.  We are eager to learn the Swahili language.  Thank you for your prayers and encouragement.  Support from family and friends gives us even more joy.  As we get more details we will update you...in the mean time, feel free to look up info on Tanzania and plan your trip to come visit!  It is a beautiful country.  

Peace out,

Sarah 

Map of Tanzania-Tanga is the red region. 

Hello Friends!

We are currently planning, filling out forms, getting shots, and beginning to write letters to let everyone know we are going to be off to Africa before we know it!  Soon July will be here, and we will begin the "field work" of this amazing adventure.  God has been doing some amazing things already.  He has directed us to Africa Inland Missions, or AIM, who has been amazing in supporting our desire to go to Africa as a nurse-teacher dynamic duo.  We must admit that we were slightly nervous about the possibility of being assigned to different locations, but God is so faithful!  After interviewing we both realized how amazing God is as our recruiter confirmed to us that we would definitely be going as a team.  We are excited to hopefully find out in the next week where we will be going in Africa and what our specific jobs will be.  We will keep you posted, so visit us again soon for more updates!  We'll leave you with a little bit of God's word to encourage and challenge you, as we are continually reminded of how good God is and what good He has for us!

Eph. 2:10- For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Peace,

Sarah & Emily