My Birthday

Generally speaking, I don't like to celebrate my own birthdays by having a birthday party and the older I get the less I like to celebrate them. However, I do like to be remembered by friends and family on my birthday and to spend the day with my immediate family over a nice meal if possible.
Yesterday was my birthday and Tim has been gone on a ministry trip for over a week; I wondered what type of a day I would have. I invited two single missionary ladies to join me for my "birthday supper" last night and when they arrived they had baked me a lovely cake.
We ate supper and played games afterwards and had a lot of fun; one of the ladies spent the night with me since she walks here from her home.
In addition, during the course of the day I received numerous phone calls, phone texts and emails from many friends and family as well as most of my missionary team here in Tanzania. I spoke with both my daughters, my husband and two of my sisters on the phone via Skype.
All in all it was a great day; I felt very loved throughout the day and even though I had to concede the fact that I was a year older it was worth it.
In addition, I looked through my special "Memory Book" that my daughters made me for Christmas with my missionary friends and it was a very enjoyable evening reminiscing as we looked at pictures.

Memory Lane

When our daughters arrived in Tanzania to spend Christmas with us we had agreed not to buy each other gifts; the cost of the trip was our gift to each other.
However, our daughters had spent several months working on a priceless gift for us; they put in many hours making a photo album.
This is not just your "everyday" sort of album as family albums go; this is a work of love and a work of art.
There was a page for my family, Tim's family, our early years of marriage, our early years as a family, special places we lived, special moments and it was truly a pictorial story of where we started and where we are today as a family.
Each page is beautifully done as only a master "scrapbooker" could do it (Sarah) and a journalist and writer (Jennifer) could arrange it; together they created the most valuable thing that Tim and I own.
Tim and I looked through it with awe and wonder on Christmas day and were both teary eyed before we finished.
The girls have returned to the states and Tim has left for a 10-day long trip; unwisely I decided to look through "the album". Bad idea, I got halfway through it and had to quit when I couldn't see the pages anymore and I had to keep blowing my nose...
It is a treasure - just not one that you can look at when you are facing a 10 day stretch alone.

The Classroom

What does it take to make a good classroom? Do you need four walls, a ceiling and a floor? Do you need chairs, tables, chalkboard, maps, pictures, etc.?

In Tanzania, a church or classroom does not have the same definition as a classroom in America. We have visited a number of churches across western Tanzania since our return here in August of 2008 and have witnessed a variety of churches and classrooms. Most rural TAG churches are constructed in a simple rectangular shape and consist of one large room.


So, they must be creative in finding a place for classrooms, especially when it comes to a place for the children to meet. Unfortunately, in this society, children are generally less important than adults when it comes to providing classrooms, furnishings and curriculum.


The picture on the left is where the children of Ukiriguru Tag meet for their class each week; they borrow benches from inside the church for class time and return them after class. No one seems to mind; you will not hear them complain. Well, maybe during the rainy season they grumble a little...

Swahili Full Life Study Bible

Thanks to the generosity of some of our ministry partners, we have received enough money to buy 143 Swahili Full Life Study Bibles for our pastors in western Tanzania. For many of these pastors, the FLSB will be the only resource tool they have to help them study the Bible and correctly teach their people the Word of God. We still have a large number of pastors in TZ who have not yet been to Bible School or had any formal training to prepare them for ministry.

To date, we have purchased 98 Swahili Full Life Study Bibles from Kenya. We keep them with us as we travel western Tanzania; we have had many pastors say, "We are saving money to buy our FLSB and when we have all our money we will come to Mwanza for our Bible"

The picture above is of Esther Mangera receiving the first FLSB; she is an Evangelist and graduated in November from the Mwanza Bible College. She plans to plant a church in the near future.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year (Mwaka Mpya Njema)
We have been in Kenya for almost two weeks; we brought our daughters here to fly back to the states and have been in meetings since then. We are at a beautiful retreat center outside of Nairobi for an East Africa Prayer Retreat. Most Americans would consider it somewhat "rustic" but the grounds are beautiful; green lush grass, bright colorful flowers and a large number of birds.
We have seen many missionaries that we have known through the years and have met many new missionaries as well. It is good to come together as a missionary family to encourage one another, pray with one another and to relax and visit during the breaks. The African missionaries are known to be close knit and the East Africa missionaries are especially close knit; we are a very large family and we look forward to the Brackenhurst Prayer Retreat every two years.
An especially nice asset, for me, is that because of the high elevation here it is very cool here. It's in the 60's in the mornings and up in the 70's during the day; I am loving it.
Tomorrow we head back to Mwanza, Tanzania; it's about a 10 hour drive. We have enjoyed the break but are anxious to get back to Mwanza and go to work!