Time to Travel

It was time to hit the road the again!  We had the opportunity to travel and visit a few of our friends in Georgia and North Carolina.  It was so wonderful to spend time with many loved ones  that we hadn’t  seen in over a year as well as see some friends we made while in Tanzania.

 

Our first stop was to visit Susan and Marty Larsen in Georgia.  We had the privilege of meeting them while we were in Tanzania and we just love them!

 

Next stop was Waxhaw, North Carolina where we caught up with some more friends from Tanzania, Brian and Karen Anders. It was great to see them and hear about their time being back in the states.

 We visited the JAARS center...

 

 

Spent some time enjoying the fall leaves with our friends from Virginia, the Dillinghams, who are now with Wycliffe...

 

Met up with our friends, the Cravens, who we first met during our initial training with Wycliffe.  We have stayed in touch with them through the years as both our families have served both overseas and stateside...

 

And got to shop at the very-much-missed Trader Joes for the first time since returning to the states!

 

Then, after arriving in Bakersville, NC, with our friends the Leavells, we carved pumpkins...

 

Collected candy at the town's fall festival....

 

And played in a surprise snow shower!

 

 

2012 Global Outreach Celebration

We enjoyed a great week with our friends at Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Florida.  Whenever we are invited to their Global Outreach Celebration, we know we are in for a special time!

Throughout the week, we caught up with old friends and made new ones.  We spent time with missionaries from all over the world and heard miraculous stories of how God is at work.  Our God is an awesome God!

Birthday Week

 Mid September brings us lots of time to celebrate!  (As you can tell, this is a very belated birthday post!)

Ariana turned 8!

Celebrating with friends at Steak n' Shake

       The birthday person always starts their special day with breakfast in bed!

Anissa turned 12!

The super-star bowlers!

 

 It's great to celebrate with friends!

 

And, Jim (Carolyn's dad) as well asVirginia (Craig's mother) celebrated their birthdays as well!

The Return

Wow!  When I think that we have been back in Florida for a little over a month, it's hard to believe. The time has flown! 

 

And now, we find ourselves in yet another transition.  And with every transition comes lots of emotions.  As excited as we are to be "home" we are EXHAUSTED.  Although it literally feels like a weight has been lifted off of our backs by not dealing with the daily stress of just living life in Dar, we still find we are struggling to have the energy to get through all it takes to get re-established someplace new.  We sold our house before we left for Africa and now need to look for a new home to settle in.  That is both exciting and overwhelming.  And through it all I am so thankful that we don't have to do it alone and that God is there to see us through!

I wanted to share a few pictures from our first weeks back in the states.  (And I have to note that the type in the blog post is going crazy and I can't seem to get it all to match up, so forgive me!)

We had a wonderful greeting at the aiport by great friends from our church!

 Craig returned 3 weeks later.

 

 

The first stop back in Tampa for both the girls and I and then Craig-Tijuana Flats-our favorite Mexican place.





We were also welcomed home by a hurricane/tropical storm.  This is the back yard of the home where we are staying.  Typically, the water from the lake is behind all those trees.  Ariana thought it was pretty cool that we saw fish jumping in the yard!

 

We visited the Wycliffe center in Orlando.

For those of you who may remember, one of the hardest parts of us leaving for Tanzania was the fact that we had to leave our three cats here in the states.  My sister was gracious enough to take them in and start her own geriatric ward for kitties.  Our oldest cat is 21 and is diabetic, the middle one is almost 18 and has seizures and the baby is almost 12.  Needless to say, we when left, we really didn't think that we would see them again.  However, we are excited to be able to spend more time with all of them!



 Jasmine, our "baby".

Luke with the girls

 

 

 

 

Beboo, the old man

 So right now, we are still trying to settle in, visit friends and family, find a place to live, re-adjust to life here in the states and do many of the things you need to do when you move.  We look forward to seeing more people in the next few weeks and we have a upcoming missions conference and then some travel. 

Although we don't live in Tanzania any longer, we would ask that you continue to pray with us for the people there.  There are still so many people that need to hear about our Saviour and so many translations to be completed!  We have friends working hard in an extremely difficult city to help bring the news of Jesus Christ to the Tanzanians.  We have a special place for them in our hearts and in our prayers!

A Visit to Tanzania's "White House"

We serve an awesome God! He is able to open any door he wants and close any door he wants. He is the God of relationships. Starting with the Trinity he uses these relationships to advance his kingdom and glorify himself. Over the course of our six years serving in DC, Tanzania and around the world, we have seen relationships orchestrated by the hand of God.

 It was about two and a half months ago when I (Craig) was reading The Citizen, an English newspaper in Tanzania, when the hand of God moved again. With surprise, I came upon a name I recalled from my time in Washington, D.C.

The article quoted the Chief Secretary from the Office of the President of the Republic of Tanzania. The Chief Secretary is responsible for every Permanent Secretary of every Ministry of Government in Tanzania. (The Permanent Secretary at each Government Ministry runs the entire Ministry.) The name I read was Ambassador Ombeni Sefue.  I met Ambassador Sefue nearly four years ago when I attended a program in Washington, D.C. about China’s expanding role in Africa.

At the time I first met him, he had just been appointed as Ambassador of Tanzania to the United States. We enjoyed several visits over the next year and a half in DC until he was appointed as Ambassador to the United Nations for Tanzania and moved to New York. We lost touch so I was surprised to read in the paper that he had been appointed to one of the highest positions in the Country of Tanzania- The Chief Secretary.

I have learned from my mentors Dave Farah and Ron Gluck it is the little things in relationships that count. So our leadership here in Tanzania decided it would be fitting to congratulate Ambassador Sefue in person and present him a language map of Tanzania produced by SIL. Our leaders (including Director Liz Thomson, Louise Nagler and Allen Mchake) had a great visit at Tanzania’s “White House” (the State House) and spending time with Ambassador Sefue.  At the end of our time we were able to pray for Ambassador Sefue.

Ambassador Sefue with UTB Director Liz Thomson

It was great for me to see Ambassador Sefue again and be reminded God is truly an amazing God.

Congratulations Ambassador and best wishes on your new position serving your country!

The task for reaching those without God’s written word in Tanzania and around the World is immense but with our God nothing is impossible!

Selous

During our time of packing to return to the states, we were blessed to be able to explore one more area in Tanzania, called Selous.  Selous is one of the world's largest protected wildlife areas, and is larger than the country of Belgium!

We stayed in tents along the Rufiji River which runs through the park.  I think what struck me most about this place was the quiet.  Maybe it was just because we have been living in a crazy, big city for the last year and this park was very remote.  No matter the reason, it was wonderfully peaceful!

(photo taken from Jimbiza Lodge web site)

The park itself is a little difficult to get to, and we were able to fly.  It was amazing to see how the terrain changed so significantly in the different areas of the park.  Some parts were green--around the lakes and the river, other areas very dry and dusty, some areas very rough and rocky.  All were amazingly beautiful in their own way.


Of course, our favorite parts were when we spotted animals.  We really hoped to see cheetah on this trip, as it seems the cheetah have been elusive on all our travels.  We still didn't see any, but we did score with the hyena!

We also enjoyed a boat ride along the river where we saw lots of hippo!

So, does it get any more relaxing than this?!?!  I told you this place was peaceful....

Heading Home, but the Work is Expanding

Several months ago we wrote about our decision to return home to live, but continue to work with our Africa team remotely. Since that time, Craig’s assignment has expanded to include some exciting new opportunities.  Our dear friend, Alemayehu, has become the director of the newly formed Eastern and Southern Africa Area of SIL.  He has asked Craig to serve as his consultant for external relations and legal affairs.

This assignment will allow Craig to work directly with Alemayehu on issues impacting many different countries in East and Southern Africa.  This new position will allow him to pull from his past experiences working at both the international and in-country levels and it will also allow him to continue work that was initiated while serving in Dar. 

Just to give you an idea, in just over one year, Craig has had over 60 meetings with Government  Ministries of Tanzania and Regional/District  government officials , Non-Governmental organizations, Donor nations to Tanzania, National Networks, Church leaders and Universities to serve language communities seeking to bring spiritual transformation to their communities.  All of these opportunities were from the hand of God and we praise him for his faithfulness.

Our journey while here in Dar has allowed us to explore many different areas of this beautiful country in our short time here. Here is a list of places we have traveled: Iringa, Mbeya, Malindi (Kenya), Entebbe (Uganda), Arusha, Zanzibar, Nairobi  (Kenya), Bagamoyo , Musoma, Mwanza, Selous,  and Ruaha.  It’s been a busy but amazingly rewarding time. 

 The new assignment will begin on January 1, 2013. In the meantime, we are starting to pack and say our good byes.  It’s hard to believe we leave in less than 2 weeks.  (Craig will stay until September).  So, after our return (and catching up with much-missed family and friends!) we plan to take part in the Bell Shoals Missions Conference and then do some traveling to visit other friends and churches, and hopefully determine where we will ultimately call “home” for this next stage in our journey.   In early November, we will take part in a program Wycliffe has for missionaries returning from overseas assignments.

It seems like so much before the end of the year!  We are looking forward to our return and hope that we will be able to see everyone soon!  We know many of you have stood in the gap for us over many years and we are truly grateful and humbled by the support and partnership in the work.  Thanks for going on the journey with us!

The Farewells Have Started

I think one of the most difficult parts on our journey into missions has been the good-byes.  We have had numerous moves in the last few years and moving can be hard.  The time and effort it takes to plan, pack up, travel, unpack and feel settled is immense.  Getting established in a new church, a new community and with new friends can also be challenging.  But by far the most painful part of any of that is leaving the relationships that been developed. 

We aren't leaving for another few months, but we have found that here in Dar es Salaam, many of the missionaries leave for the summer (winter here) and most of them will not return until after we have gone back to the states.  We didn't realize we would be saying many of our farewells so soon!

Here are some recent shots...

Anissa and her best friends, Alex and Esther, on the last day of school.

On the last day of school we met with some other families to celebrate. 
These are some of the moms I have come to know and love.  Laura, Laura, and Michelle. 

We also had to say an early farewell to Snuggles, who went to live with a local family.
(She discovered she could climb our papaya tree and get onto the wall where the electric fence is.  Not good!)

We have been blessed to have Mr. Cook teach swim lessons for the home school families throughout the year. 
This was the last day of class.

Small Blessings

As much as we know that our lives are full of blessings, sometimes it's the little things that you don't expect that can bring joy to your day.

Like finding real berries at the store when you haven't had any type of berry since you left the states 10 months earlier....

Like having Snuggles unexpectedly join your family....

And rainy season starting when you have nothing better to do than truly enjoy the experience!

Translation, Training and the Lake

Musoma is located in the blue circle, on the coast of Lake Victoria

One of the great privileges Craig has had while in Tanzania has been traveling to the SIL cluster projects throughout Tanzania. Cluster projects are where language specialists focus on multiple languages for development and translation at the same time. Last week, Craig traveled to Musoma, which is the site of our Mara Cluster Project. Mara is located in the Northwest of Tanzania near Lake Victoria- the largest lake in Africa and second largest lake in the world.

SIL is working on language development in nine languages in this cluster. All of the language staff

work together in one building—and work on all these languages at the same time! What is more

amazing is the partnership God raised up through the churches in the Mara region to support the

work of language development and translation of God’s word. If we mentioned Mennonite,

Lutheran, African Inland Church, Methodist, Baptist, Assemblies of God, Free Pentecostal, Calvary

and Moravian Church you might ask how you got all of them in the same room.  J  (Amazingly,

there are also another 29 partners on top of those mentioned.)  Thankfully, the hunger for God’s

word in their own language has brought them all together.   

Craig was honored to participate in the National Orientation Program, which is the training for our

Tanzanian staff.  The course lasted over two weeks and covered team building as well as a broad

range of other  topics. You can watch highlights of the training by clicking here.

http://vimeo.com/41125375

Craig was also able spend some time exploring Lake Victoria and God’s creation.  As Craig climbed

the rocks overlooking the lake, he pondered the challenge of reaching over 1900 languages by the

year 2025 with God’s word…but thankfully, we know that the God who created Lake Victoria can do

anything!

Easter Sunrise Service

This year, we joined some good friends for a time of Easter celebration.  We met early in the morning and walked to the beach to worship together.  Although we missed meeting with our church family back in the states, we shared a memorable time here on the beautiful Indian Ocean.  :)

The morning started off a cloudy, but eventually the sun broke through!

   

Decisions Made and Spurring Others On

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Hebrews 10:24 is a great verse on exhortation and inspiring others to press on for the work of the kingdom. As we have worked here in Tanzania for over six months, we have felt the Lord calling us to do just that.

Carolyn and I have been personally overwhelmed by the friendships, housing, provision and all the open doors to the Tanzania government in the few short months we have been here.  We know it is all because of the faithful prayers of our friends and family.   As you may recall, our commitment in Tanzania was for one year—this was based on many factors. One of the main factors was the belief that we were coming to Tanzania to start the work of government relations and advocacy, inspire others towards this goal and then hand the work over to our Tanzanian colleagues. In other words we came to stir others. We came to inspire but frankly our Tanzanian staff have inspired us!

We are grateful for the talented and gifted staff here in Dar es Salaam who engaged very quickly at both the local and highest levels of government.  God has also opened many partnership opportunities with other organizations in Tanzania in dramatic ways.  If we are going to see every language have a translation project started by 2025, the national colleagues must take more and more responsibility of the work in each country.  We desire for them to become the primary face of SIL in Tanzania. 

We have never been more inspired by the work here in Tanzania, however, after much prayer and seeking of Godly counsel,  we feel the Lord leading us to take a consultant role with our staff in Tanzania and Uganda and head back to the US. We will still have a part time role with the leadership and staff in Tanzania and Uganda and Craig would work remotely with a few trips each year to Africa.  We say we will be working part time with Uganda Tanzania because an amazing thing happened during this process-- God revealed an even bigger role for reaching the remaining languages of the world through the ministry.

Many of you in Northern Virginia may remember Alemayehu who became the first national to serve as an SIL national director back in 2007. His story was an incredible story of how he as a young man was persecuted by the communist in Ethiopia for his faith in Christ. We are excited that Alemayehu has now been chosen to become the regional director for East Africa.  With that role, he has asked Craig to join his regional team and help him consulting in the area of government relations, leadership training and partnership! We praise God for this amazing opportunity to expand our work throughout  Africa. So not only will we continue to focus on Uganda and Tanzania, but our work will expand to all of East Africa!

                                           Alemayhu visiting with us in Dar.

As John the Baptist said, “I must become less and he must become more. “  With God’s hand, we have lit the fire, we have stirred the pot, and the kingdom is advancing. Praise God!  It is so exciting to be a part of God’s work! 

If God allows, our plan is to return to the US in the fall, and continue to serve the people of East Africa in a consultant role.  Please pray for us as we continue to serve here in the remaining months. 
We love you all and thank you for your continued faithfulness!

Vocabulary Lessons

Even though we only had about a week of “official” language school, we are slowly learning some basics to help us communicate in Tanzania.

In Kiswahili, knowing how to greet someone is essential.  And greetings extend beyond simply, “Hi, how are you?”  Most people are familiar with the greeting, “Jambo” but we have learned that will often mark you as being a tourist.  Officially, you would say “Hujambo” and the reply would be, “Sijambo”.  There are many variations on this, but more commonly you would greet someone with “Habari za….”  This means, literally, what is the news of…  So it can be what is the news of the day, work, the family, the school, the possibilities are endless!  And you never ask just one, they can keep going!

Some other basic phrases that we use often are “asante” which means thank you, “karibu” which can mean you’re welcome or just welcome, and “pole sana” which means I’m sorry.

Although many Tanzanians in the city speak English, there are many basic words like these that make interactions easier.  One of our favorite dukas (store) has some great guys that work there who are always trying to teach us new words.  Not only are they the nicest guys around, they make shopping there so much more fun. 

Then there are the traffic words.  Dar es Salaam is never short on modes of transportation.  There are dala dalas (buses), piki pikis (motorcycle taxis), bicycle taxis, and bajajis (like a motorized rickshaw).

Certainly, Tanesco (the electric company) and Dawasco (the water company) are important words to know, since you are often dealing with issues with one or the other. 

The part of my new vocabulary that I haven’t been thrilled with, actually has nothing to do with learning Kiswahili.  It’s all happening in English and at times is troubling.  Living in a third world country means that talk of hospitals and clinics is commonplace.  Malaria, amoeba, worms and deworming (not just for your pets, but your family too!) and unknown diagnosis are also pretty typical.  And just recently, I’ve gotten to add the term “flesh eating bacteria” to my list of discussions (thankfully not for our family, but you can certainly keep another family in your prayers).

Living in Dar es Salaam has made me realize, in many, many ways, how much I have taken for granted while living my life in the United States.  And, despite the difficulties we often face here, I know that we are blessed beyond measure.  God is working mightily in Tanzania.  You can see it in the number of translations of His Word that are being completed, you can hear it in the praises, and you can feel it the joy that manifests itself in the His people.  And the best news is, He’s not done yet!

Traveling to Arusha

Mt. Meru, from just outside of Arusha

One of our recent visits took us to the city of Arusha, in northern Tanzania.  Arusha is located near Mt. Meru, one of the highest mountains in Africa. (On our drive to the city, we also got an incredible view of Mt. Kilimanjaro—THE highest mountain in Africa.)   Arusha is also a stopping point for many on safari.  Within just a few hours of the city are many of the best game parks in the country.  And, being that it is at a much higher elevation than Dar, the weather was so much cooler…what a refreshing break from the summer heat!

One of our highlights was visiting the Cultural Heritage Center.  The main part of the center is shops that sell many African crafts and different types of art work.  There is also a bookstore, a glass store, a clothing store and a restaurant.  However, the bulk of the business is in the sale of tanzanite.  The owner gave us an interesting education on the gem and showed us many different sizes and colorations of the stones.  I have never seen so many tanzanite stones!

Next to the center is a museum/gallery that showcases African artists.  Just as impressive as the artwork was the building itself.  It reminded me of the Guggeheim museum in that you followed a spiral path around the building, gradually moving higher (or lower) throughout the displays. 

While we were there, we were able to visit with Gary and Diane Eberts who pastor one of the local churches in town.  They were so gracious to take their time to show us around the city and we were blessed to be able to worship their church on Sunday. 

Mt. Kilimanjaro, in the morning.  It was a beautiful drive with the mountain on one side and the sun rise on the other.