Then he said to his disciples "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Matthew 9:37-38

We have been here for a little more than two weeks and are starting to get used to things as residents. Thomas and Karen Prischman arrived 13 Nov. work at the Village with us for two weeks, planning to go on to Malawi to visit Larry and Cindy Renner for about the same time. The Prischmans have traveled extensively to many exotic mission stations in the (we wouldn’t call ours exotic) world and for many years were in our home church in Bismarck. We sent them on safari for three days and they are due back tonight before sunset. This would be the approximate schedule for any of you who may wish to visit us with the option of a longer safari. The Renners were our fellow church workers in Bismarck who traveled with us to Tanzania earlier and then decided to go out to Africa with Rafiki to help run the Rafiki village in Malawi. Skype works well out here most of the time and we talk to the Renners regularly. It is amazing how well it works for visits with our old friends and relatives. Prischmans brought us some much needed niceties which we were out of in this village-concrete anchor screws, wire nuts and a few tools. Most of our drill bits were broken so we got two new sets in plastic cases-I started using them immediately and fixed a number of things.

Here are our present duties. I get up well before six and make sure the great iron doors can be unlocked for the change of the guard and our Tanzanian workers who work in the kitchen, the garden and the laundry. This is a 24 hour operation with sixty children who we are responsible to raise. I’ve settled down enough that it is possible to run in the early AM and the Tanzanians probably think I am crazy. The official day starts at 8:00 AM  and by then the population of the compound has swelled dramatically with the day students who attend school but do not live here. Our educational facilities go up to the fourth grade since that includes the age of our oldest orphan(resident student). Each year we add a grade and fill out the remaining space in a class up to eighteen. Only the school director is Rafiki staff. We carefully interview Tanzanian teachers to help us operate the school. My work so far is with the RICE program which is the specially adapted Rafiki curriculum to increase the quality of Tanzanian teachers; we have about 20 in this class which requires about four semesters to qualify for up through 1^st grade teaching. The work is difficult for many of the students because it is English language based (the government is trying to make this the standard for all teachers as in Kenya). Fortunately it is computer based and the student move along at their own pace with occasional testing to make sure they don’t lag behind. As of two days ago, running this program is now my primary responsibilitiy. We start the morning reviewing a pre-printed Bible study similar to that of Bible Study Fellowship and there are different versions depending on your English language skills. This is about the equivalent of teaching a well-organized Sunday school class each day of the week and I have considerable latitude about how to fill the 50 minutes once we go over the questions. The Rafiki missionary who ran this went home for about two months so I will be doing this nearly full time except for two afternoons a week at the medical school-the details about this have been put off by the hospital administration for another week. The rest of a routine day would be spent tutoring/supervising the students. Average age is late twenties but it is a great opportunity for grounding in the Scriptures. The day may be interrupted by Peggy bringing me a sick child at any time. We had a harrowing case last week which looked like a tonsilar abscess with approaching closure of the oral passageway. The poor boy ended up with ten penicillin shots in his buttocks before we could shift him over to amoxicillin. In a few days he was happy and playing again. My classroom instruction is over at about 4:00 PM and then I walk home and do house fixing or studying Swahili. Often after supper we do sick call in an  cottage at the request of the mother responsible for those ten children-mostly it is just the usual illnesses that you were used to at home growing up-vomiting, diarrhea, colds, ear infections and occasional insect bite complication (there is an insect here that if you smear its body fluids when smacking it dead severe skin irritation develops and can result if on the face with not being able to open the eyes). The children bear all these afflictions very patiently and bounce back quickly since they have good nutrition and care. When bed time comes we can hardly stay awake to read for just a few minutes.

Peggy’s day is more varied and is more complicated because it involves unexpected events. She drives our stick drive old Nissan into town maybe once a day for errands: medicine, ordering new clothes, getting mosquito nets repaired (can you imagine trying to police sixty kids to be careful with their fragile nets in getting in and out of bed) or having meetings. She has an ongoing instruction program with the mothers about the details of providing good care from a Christian perspective using a regular Bible study and our manuals. Last Friday she had to drive up on the mountain ( it is 60 x 90 miles in measurement just dropped down on the Tanzanian plain) to do a final home visitation to make as sure as possible that after a careful interview she would be a good mother. She would be writing this part of the blog but is showing a spectacular movie, White Lion, at the dining hall. This was attempted yesterday and ended with a major technical problem after sixty children got well into the movie all settled down on the floor and reclining on giant mats. It was the usual conjunction of difficulties which we all encounter trying to make things work out here in Africa. We learned a good lesson: prepare ahead for the unexpected, make sure in advance all equipment has been checked, the DVD is not defective and the sound is working.

It is the short rains now so there are vast fields which normally would be cultivated that are just left bare but shortly foster an equal vast field of weeds. We are discussing the working out of how to start a program for the older boys and girls early Sunday morning in how to be good church workers when they grow up. This would include preaching, teaching, choir and church music. We hope that you can read in between the lines about what an opportunity  this is for some of you to come out and help us on a short or long term basis. Shortly, construction will start on enlarging the primary school, building a large tool, equipment storage area and redoing our sewer system to incorporate a wet land for water purification (we have a deep well as a very adequate water source). Where does all the money come to do this? God moves upon the hearts of those who believe in what we are doing and we do not go into debt.

We are thankful for all of you who follow and support our work here. It is a joy to serve here in Moshi, Tanzania.