Post-Christmas Thoughts

It was our first Christmas Day in thirty years of marriage that we have spent alone; it was our first Christmas without our two daughters with us as well.
All of this considered, it was a good Christmas day for us. If you are a Christian living in Tanzania then you spend part of Christmas Day in church; celebrating the "reason for the season" as the old saying goes. We went to the Bible College church and heard a sermon taken from the famous passage from Luke 2 that tells about the birth of Jesus. It's my own personal favorite passage for the Christmas story.
After the service we returned to our quiet home and prepared a facsimile of the traditional Christmas dinner; a small ham (which we paid about $50 for since we refused to pay almost $100 for a turkey), dressing (thanks to the generous gift of sage from another missionary but missing celery which is not available here), mashed potatoes and gravy, fresh green beans, cucumbers and onions in vinegar(a dish usually eaten in the summer in our family but available year-round here) and a pecan pie (made with pecans sent out in November and local "golden syrup" - not bad).
After we ate and cleaned up the dishes we called our two daughters who are spending Christmas together in Missouri; we used Skype and were able to talk to them and see them at the same time. What a great joy that was for all of us! While we were all "together" on Skype, Tim read the Christmas story from Luke 2; this has been our family tradition since we were married and the girls always knew this happened right before we opened presents.
The girls showed us, via Skype webcam, the gifts they had gotten for each other and we spent a little time talking and laughing together.
I was unable to talk to my family at the Christmas dinner gathering due to some complications, but we talked to the girls again later and they told us what a great day it was.
Thus, our Christmas Day ended; it was a little different for us but we were so happy to be able to see and talk to both of our daughters and rejoice together in the birth of the Saviour.
Merry Christmas!

Answered Prayers

Every day we pray for our two daughters, Jenn and Sarah; it's often the only way we have to help them when problems arise. It can be frustrating at times to be half way around the world from your children. We are learning the true meaning of trusting God to take care of them.

Recently, both of our daughters were in situations that made it difficult for us to be so far away.

Sarah went out one morning very early to go to church; she was performing in the handbell choir that morning. She had driven a short distance when she realized that she had a flat tire; it was actually split and beyond repair. She called a friend to pick her up and take her on to church. Once at church, her best friend's father took her keys and told her not to worry, he went and bought two new tires and put them on for her and filled her car up with gas as well. He would not allow her to repay them; what a blessing!

This month our oldest daughter, Jenn, had her car totaled when another person ran a stop sign and plowed into her front left side. The above picture was taken of her car after the accident. Jenn was not seriously hurt, but was bruised and sore from the seatbelt and from the air bag deploying. We thank God for protecting her. It was difficult to not be able to be there to help her with all of the post-accident business; insurance, police reports, finding a new car, etc.

We praise God for his faithfulness to our children; He is taking care of them and teaching us to trust Him with their care at the same time. It's not an easy lesson to learn; we continue to work on it.

Be blessed today as you rest in His care.

Our First Tanzanian Wedding

Earlier this month, we were asked to be honored guests at the wedding of the son of our very good friend, Seni. We have known Seni and his family since our arrival in Africa in 1997; our families have been friends and we have spent time in each other's homes and shared many meals together.

It was a joy and a privilege to be a part of Alex and Aminatha's wedding; our STL vehicle was decorated for the occasion. We were asked to be the transport for Alexx and his bride for the entire day. It was the longest wedding we have ever been involved in including our own!

We went to a designated location at 9:00 on Sunday morning to have our car decorated. By 11:00 we were at the church; the wedding service took place after the third service around noon.

We ate a late lunch at the groom's home with 60-70 other people and slipped the bride and groom away to rest for awhile. Next came the picture taking which lasted until about 6:00pm.

There was a huge reception at the New Mwanza Hotel immediately after the pictures that lasted until about 10:30. We witnessed many Tanzanian customs as well as a number of tribal customs. There was much gift giving and speeches by both sides of the family and the bride and groom gave out gifts as well.

The day ended at about midnight when we arrived home after whisking the tired bride and groom away to a secret location known only to the groom's parents.

Even though it was a long day; we enjoyed it immensely and learned new things about the people in Tanzania and their customs.

By the way, one of the customs that is very different from ours in America; the groom's family pays for everything.

Woman's work is never done...

There's an old saying that goes, "a man may work from sun to sun but a woman's work is never done".

This is even more true in developing nations like Tanzania. Although inside the larger cities electricity and running water are available, in the villages and small towns very few homes/churches have water or electricity.

Women cook over open fires outside with wood or charcoal, there are no refrigerators or modern conveniences and water is usually carried from somewhere. Recently, Tim traveled to a small village about 2 hours from Mwanza. He took this picture of a lady grinding grain on stones to make flour for her family.

It brings a lot of meaning to the phrase, "cooking from scratch". For most Tanzanian women there is no such thing as "Hamburger Helper" or "packaged foods". Women and children spend a good part of their day looking for wood, carrying water, and fixing food "from scratch" over an open fire.

Think about it next time you open a can or box to prepare some food or take some meat from the freezer that is ready for cooking. Or, maybe, as you go through a drive-thru restaurant for a "quick" meal.

Blessings!

Rough Ride

You can take for granted some of the simple blessings in life; such as nice paved roads on which to drive.

Here in Tanzania, although many of the major roads are beginning to be paved, most secondary roads are still unpaved. A lot of these unpaved roads are almost impassable during the rainy season and many require four-wheel drive vehicles.

We are thankful for our STL vehicle; it allows us to go many places that we would not be able to get to without it.

We have been doing some exploratory trips in the Mwanza area recently in an effort to determine areas which have no TAG church; in fact, they don't have any churches at all.

Recently, our Area Director, Greg Beggs, came for a few days to visit. We traveled north of Mwanza on dirt roads and found a number of good sized villages with no churches. These are areas we will focus on in the future for church planting efforts.

We also traveled up the hill to visit our Mwanza Bible School campus; Greg took this picture of our Land Cruiser on the road up to the Bible school. It is a steep incline and requires that we use our four-wheel drive to make it to the top.

I'm sure you will agree that we definitely need to have a better road to make access to our Bible school easier for students and visitors alike.

Be blessed today - enjoy your smooth roads!

Thanksgiving Day

Some things can be taken for granted; consider Thanksgiving Day. In America, it is a given that certain foods are eaten with a little variation according to personal tastes and family traditions. But, it is a day to get together as a family and eat a lot of food and, hopefully, take time to be thankful for the blessings we have. In Tanzania it is not recognized since it is an exclusively American holiday.

I spent my first Thanksgiving alone; it was a unique experience but it was a good day.

Tim was in Dar Es Salaam working on getting our residence permit so we can legally be in Tanzania; that is a full 16 hour drive away so he could not be home.

I went to the ladies Bible study as I normally do on Thursdays. Afterwards, one of the single missionary ladies invited me to go to the local vegetarian pizza place for lunch. We had a nice lunch, did a little shopping for groceries and shared a taxi to take us home. For supper, I fixed some fried chicken, mashed potatoes and cut up some raw veggies.

Thursday evening I put in a CD of some old well-known hymns and sang along for awhile. I read my Bible, concentrating on portions that had to do with thanksgiving. I prayed for awhile, first giving thanks for my blessings and then asking God to bless my family, our supporters, etc.

I watched a beautiful sunset over Lake Victoria from my patio and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

A special blessing came when Tim texted me that he had received our residence permit on that very day; a week earlier than they had told him. He would be home on the weekend; what a nice blessing that was on Thanksgiving Day.

It's important to remember among all the tradition of this American holiday; that it is really a day of celebration and giving thanks for our many blessings.

Be blessed and be thankful!