Thanksgiving Day

Yesterday we had our traditional Thanksgiving meal with some of our American friends here in Mwanza; all missionaries with various groups but all Americans. There was a total of 11 of us and we had a great time of food, fellowship, food, playing games, food, watching football and food.
There were a few problems to remind us that we were in Africa rather than America. There were five of us cooking various dishes in our homes; I began getting text messages from the other four about 8:00am. There power was out and they were all in varying stages of food preparation. Fortunately, our power was on and we hooked up a little gas stove at one of the other homes and by working together we managed to get everything and on the table by 1:30.
We thoroughly enjoyed our $72 turkey (17lbs = over $4 a pound), dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, homemade rolls, vegetable salad and sweet potatoes (not as good as American variety but with some imagination they were fine). Later we had pumpkin w/Dream Whip topping and pecan pies made from carefully hoarded ingredients from the states. As an added little treat we had a dish of candy corn/pumpkins brought out for us from the states earlier this month; we snacked on this while we played some table games.
All in all it was a great day with good friends and good food. The icing on the cake was talking to my daughters, Mom and sister later that night.
Today we decorate for Christmas!!!!!

Always Ready

Earlier this month the Mwanza District WWK (Women's Ministry) had their annual conference. The first day of the conference was designated for pastor's wives only and our scheduled guest missionary was our field moderator's wife, Karen Hanson; we were also joined by new missionary Tiffany Richardson.

I had been invited to do a session for the pastor's wives as well but had declined since I had final exams at the Bible School, several groups of guests and other seminars all within the first two weeks of November. They contacted me a couple of times the week prior to the conference asking me to speak and I politely but firmly declined.

Karen, Tiffany and I arrived at the Women's conference and were warmly greeted by the leadership and pastor's wives.

Karen did a great job teaching the first one hour session of the day. As she returned to the head table amidst applause, the WWK leader announced that now "our beloved missionary, Mama Jarvis, is coming to teach her session".

Karen leaned over and asked what I was going to do. I replied that I was going to walk over to the podium and teach for an hour.

During Karen's teaching several thoughts had come to mind and I had written them on a scrap piece of paper along with a couple of scriptures. That scrap of paper became my "notes" for my session. God definitely filled my mouth with the words he wanted me to speak. After I finished my session we prayed for each of the 50 pastor's wives individually and God confirmed in my heart that I had given the right message.

I don't think it hurt that I have been teaching for 30 years and have spoken at numerous women's meetings.

I must remember to be a little firmer in my refusals in the future.

November 1-14

Just thought I would give you a glimpse of our schedule for the first two weeks of November in an effort to explain why I have not blogged recently:
November 1: Jerry Spain arrived to teach one week with the student body at the Mwanza Bible college and one week for the leadership from our six districts.
November 2-3: Final exams at MBC
November 6: Graduation for MBC third year students
November 8-10: Spiritual Leadership seminar with leaders from 6 districts
November 8-10: Missionaries Karen Hanson and Tiffany Richardson arrive for District Women's Conference
November 9: spent the day at the Women's Conference and taught a one hour session even though I had informed several of the leaders that I would not be able to teach during this year's conference. "Instant in season and out of season" applied, the Lord helped me.
November 10: Missionaries Rob & Jeanel Shipley arrive from Uganda to spend the night and travel to Dodoma with us the following day
November 11: Traveled to Dodoma for a field fellowship meeting and the first Master's Graduation at Dodoma Bible College
November 12: Field fellowship meeting
November 13: Master's Graduation 9:00am - 2:00pm followed by a luncheon.
November 14: 8 hour drive home from Dodoma
November 15: Shipley's leave for Uganda.
During those first two weeks I provided meals for our guests, made and remade beds and attempted to be a good hostess.
This week has been guest and activity free so we are catching up on office work and getting everything back to normal. We have no more travel planned until after Christmas and that is OK with us!
Be blessed.

Post Election

The elections are over and we have retained the incumbent; President Kikwete. His party, CCM, has been the ruling party since Tanzania became a nation in 1964. His re-election was announced on Wednesday and things were peaceful.
However, many of the Districts elected officials from the opposing party, Chadema, for the first time in this country's history. Also for the first time in it's history, except on the islands and along the east coast, there was rioting in Tanzania.
Tanzania has always been a peaceful country and its citizens are very non-confrontational. On Monday, the results of all of the local elections were to be announced in the early morning but by 4:00 the crowds were still waiting to hear the results.
The crowds feared that the incumbent CCM officials were attempting to change the votes back in their favor. Riots broke out across Mwanza, we heard tear gas cannons go off all over the city and all around us there were mobs of people carrying rocks and sticks and yelling. Riot police were called in with rifles and dogs to control the crowds. For about two hours around our house, in the road in front of our house and in our neighbors yards there was fighting and guns were being fired by guards and riot police. A crowd set the CCM building on fire.
Our house had a haze of smoke in it which drifted up our hill from the many tear gas bombs (15-20) that were fired into the crowds around Mwanza.
Finally, about 7:00, the incumbent CCM official came out and conceded his loss and the win of the ChaDema candidate. Almost immediately, people settled down and dispersed to their homes.
It was the first time such a thing has ever happened in Tanzania and we pray it will never happen again. It was a brief glimpse for a couple of hours into the fear filled lives of people around the world who live with constant war, rioting and violence and where "ducking for cover" is as normal an activity as walking down the street.