Those Unexpected Happenings

It's those unexpected happenings that keep you on your toes. The first day that the team from Turning Point Church in Kansas City arrived last week, we had a Green Mamba get into the house. He decided to go into the door facing and has not been found since; we choose to assume that he died. We assume this because Tim almost emptied a can of "Doom" bug spray into the are of the door frame he went into and we have not seen him/her since then.
Later, when Tim and I checked the house before turning in for the night after our guests were in bed, we found a baby cobra in the living room. Thank goodness we had more "Doom" and Tim still had his strong "stomping" shoes on! Sorry, team, we didn't tell you about that one!
It's only the third time we've seen a green mamba in the past year and a half and the second time for the baby cobra. Of course, they would both show up on the same day; I suppose it was kind of a "Welcome to Africa" sort of thing.
The next night, the guard came to the door to let us know that our male Rottweiler, Jeffie, had escaped under the fence and was fighting with a pack of dogs. This was about midnight and we had just gotten ready for bed. Tim went out and he and Charles chased Jeffie around for almost 2 hours before giving up and coming home. Jeffie returned later that morning with not a scratch on him to show for his battle with the other dogs.
Later in the week, on two separate nights our female dog, Gin, killed two of the neighbors chickens who wandered into our yard. Our worker assured us that we did not have to pay for the expired chickens because the neighbors had been warned numerous times about the wandering chickens. In addition, the front toilet decided to malfunction on several occasions.
These are just some of the highlights; sometimes we have a busy and eventful day even before we have breakfast!!! Maybe if we would eat breakfast earlier.....
There were lots of "unexpected happenings" and "last minute" changes and adaptations while the team was here; wonderful lessons in flexibility for all of us. The team, by the way, handled these changes and interruptions with great grace and flexibility.
All in all, it's been a normal week sprinkled with a few unexpected happenings to keep us alert and on our toes.

Ministry Team

We have just finished a very busy week; we had a ministry team from Turning Point in Kansas City, MO with us to paint buildings at the Bible College and to do children's ministry on Saturday and Sunday.

We managed to house all 10 members of the team in our home (except for the 3 men in the bunkhouse). It was crazy, hectic, fun, tiring, exciting, rewarding, and a lot of other things all rolled into one action packed four days. Two days, Thursday and Friday, were spent painting at the Bible College. The dining hall looks wonderful after having a fresh paint job inside and out; the doors all around the main building were painted as well as the sitting room of the Principal's home. This team was fast and efficient and they amazed us and the Bible School faculty; you could tell they have done this before.

Saturday and Sunday were spent doing children's ministry; we spent Saturday in Nyakato with 300 children from the ages of 3-14 and Sunday we were in the village of Ukiriguru where we ministered to the children during Sunday school and children's church. One of the team members taught the adult Sunday school class and another team member preached during the morning service. The team brought gifts to hand out to every child at both locations and blessed our pastors and Bible College faculty as well with gifts.

On Monday, we all took a safari into the Serengeti Game Park for some much needed R & R; we were blessed to see a lot of animals and we had a good time together.

The team flew out today to return to the states, however, their lives are forever changed because they came to Tanzania. They touched the lives of hundreds of children and blessed the Bible College, the students and the faculty in the four days they were here. In return, they were blessed by the Tanzanian people they met and left with a greater appreciation for the benefits and comforts they have waiting for them in the states.

They were definitely a joy to work with and they blessed us with their generosity, flexibility and cooperation as well as their tender hearts and love for the Tanzanian people.

You shouldn't be a missionary if...

You shouldn't be a missionary if:
1. You are easily frightened.
2. you won't eat something you can't identify.
3. you can't live without certain foods.
4. you have an aversion to creepy crawly things.
5. you can't adjust quickly to new situations.
6. you are afraid of change.
7. you have trouble saying "Goodbye".
8. you don't like being stared at or standing out in a crowd.
9. you can't imagine driving for hours on dirt roads.
10. you need to spend time with family on a regular basis.
11. your wardrobe must be up to date and in style.
12. you don't want to be laughed at.
13. things that don't work drive you crazy.
14. people annoy you.
15. waiting in long lines for hours is one of your pet peeves.
16. you can't imagine a world without Walmart.
17. fast food is your favorite food.
18. you panic when the lights go out.
19. you think your way is the only way.
20. you think everyone should speak English!

Being a missionary is not for the faint hearted, close minded, weak in the knees, weak in the faith, resistant to change, easily overwhelmed person. It is, however, for the person who feels called by God to go to unknown places to be with unknown people with unknown customs who speak an unknown language and yet they need to know a Savior who is unknown to them.

Month of Guests

Wow, I can't believe it is March 12 already and I have not updated our website for almost two weeks. My apologies to those faithful few who check for updates regularly.
We have had guests almost every day this month; the first week we had the leaders from the TAG National Education Department visiting our Mwanza Bible College. They were here from Monday - Thursday; it was good to have them in our home so that we could get to know them better.
This week we have Michael and Tiffany Richardson staying with us; they are our newest team members and are attending Language school in nearby Musoma. They have a week break from school and are staying with us for the week. It's nice to have them here; they are the age of our daughters and we get to dust off our parenting skills and pretend we have college kids in our home once again. Michael and Tiffany are very gracious and tolerant of us. They are helping us prepare for the team arriving next Wednesday from Kansas City, MO.
This team will be doing some painting at the Bible College and then Saturday and Sunday we will go out into a couple of villages and do Children's ministry. Tiffany is helping me prepare crafts for about 350 children from the ages of 3-13; this involves a lot of writing, cutting, glueing, typing, hole punching, string tying... well, you get the picture.
Michael is helping Tim take care of preparing enough beds(yesterday they welded metal legs on metal frames), buying supplies, locating a small bus/van to rent, arranging for meetings, lining up activities, making contacts and a multitude of other tasks that are necessary when hosting a team.
In addition we have the usual day to day things that must be dealt with both here and at the Mwanza Bible College.
And, since I have a list of things to accomplish today I'd better close for now and get busy!