Diversity

This week we celebrated Christmas with our Tanzanian friends on Tuesday night; the faculty and their spouses were at our home on Tuesday evening. We had a great time with them.
On Thursday night, one of the missionary ladies invited missionaries to her home for a Christmas party. Every one that came had to take part in an informal "program"; we could sing, read a poem, play an instrument or do whatever we wanted to do.
As I was looking around the group of missionaries I saw many different denominations represented; there were missionaries there from the AIC, Wycliffe Bible translators, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Pentecostal and others.
We were from various countries; USA, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, South Korea and England.
We sang "Joy to the World" in German, heard greetings in Swedish, greetings in Kisukuma,heard a song in Korean, sang a chorus in Swahili and sang American Christmas carols. 
We had American desserts, German desserts, British snacks, Canadian treats, and a Swedish dessert.
It was a fun night with people who were different on several levels; and yet we had in common that we were all there for one reason.  We came together to celebrate Christmas, the birth of our Savior.
Also, today we went to the English service at one of our TAG churches. During the worship service, we sang a chorus from South Africa, one from Nigeria, several Tanzanian choruses as well as some familiar choruses from America.
It's been quite a week of celebration and fellowship with brothers and sisters from all parts of the world; I suppose it's good practice for heaven.  People from every tribe, tongue and nation celebrating around the throne of God.  I wonder what language we will be using?? 

Sunday Marathon

This past Sunday we set out on a marathon to visit four new churches started by our pastor friend, Mwamluku. He has been asking us for a long time to visit his four church plants and we decided we could do it all in one Sunday.

We started out at 7:30 in the morning and returned home at 7:30 pm; it was a long day but it was a great day. The first church was only about 30 minutes from our house; however, they called us and said the road was impassable due to the rains. No problem, Mwamluku knows another way around. He failed to tell us that the other way would take us two hours! So, all day we were 2-3 hours behind. We drove through village after village that had no church of anykind; allwithin an hours drive of Mwanza.

However, these new little village churches were so excited that American missionaries were coming to visit them that they waited for 2-3 hours at each church for us to arrive. This was probably a once in a life time experience for them; I doubt if we ever get a chance to visit them again.

Tim preached, I greeted the people, Mwamluku encouraged them like a father, and our interpreter greeted them as well; our interpreter was our friend Lukilo who is a pastor and a teacher at the Mwanza Bible College.

To see the joy on their faces and to have the opportunity to encourage them to continue in the face of opposition and indifference in their respective villages was a privilege. For 3 of the 4 churches, they are the only church in their village and the local people are very steeped in Animism and they have local witch doctors as spiritual leaders.

We praise the Lord for Mwamluku's burden to see the Gospel preached in every village.

Grasshoppers - YUM!

We have seasons in Tanzania; but our seasons are different than those in the states. First, we have weather seasons:we basically have the rainy season and the dry season.

However, there are other "seasons" that are marked by bugs and insects. For instance, there is a time when the safari ants are on the move, there is a time when termites hatch out, there are times when the ants invade the house, their is a time for dragon flies, lake flies, etc. When these "insect seasons" come they come with a vengeance and for a day or two the insect of the hour/day is available in abundance; some are more annoying than others. My least favorite are the lake flies (tiny and they come in through the tiny holes in the screens) and the safari ants that can invade the house and move like an army across the property-and they bite.

This week has been the season for the grasshoppers; huge (bigger than my thumb) and green. At night they cover the outside of our window screens although they are scarce during the day. Our four workers love the grasshopper season; seems the grasshoppers are quite tasty when you remove their wings and legs and fry them in hot oil. So, for the past few nights/days our workers have gathered grasshoppers in empty containers to take home for their families to eat.

The above picture is an empty plastic water bottle (2 litre size) that our worker used to gather grasshoppers in to take home with her.

They have all graciously offered to "fry me up some" but I have declined this particular cultural experience.

The tree is up.

The day after Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas tree, dug out our Christmas CD's, set out a few other decorations and put up a wreath on the door. Our home is as ready as it is going to be for the Christmas holiday.

Last Friday night we hosted our monthly missionary potluck for Mwanza missionaries. We sang Christmas carols and told some of our family traditions at Christmas; this was very interesting since we have missionaries here from a number of countries other than the USA.

However, traveling around Mwanza there is no evidence that we are in the Christmas season; there are no decorations, music, Christmas ads/sales, Santa Clauses, nativity scenes. There are none of the Christmas trappings that Americans would associate with Christmas. Last year, one of the grocery stores (smaller than our house) put up a rather pathetic looking little artificial Christmas tree and had a couple strings of lights on the shelves. They were very proud of their Christmas look; they are Muslim but they have many Christian customers and made this concession for their Christian customers.

Tanzanians, even those who are Christians, don't decorate for Christmas and don't give gifts; Christmas Day is spent in church worshipping Jesus. Usually, there are no choirs, contatas, orchestras, Christmas hymns, plays or special programs. They just pray, worship, hear the word and sometimes share a meal together after the service which is then followed by another service. Hmmm, odd concept to us but I have a feeling that God is pleased.