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.