It now has been 8 months since we started the new chapter in our lives in Tanzania living at the Rafiki Village. Looking back, the single most striking thing which occurs to me is the doors which have been opened to us for proclaiming the Gospel and making Christ known. We would not want you to get the idea that this mission field is evangelized (both the Catholics and the Lutherans have large works here and in our area the Lutherans are the larger of the two). But there is plenty of profession and so far fewer who want to be disciples and wish to disciple others. Let me tell you about two of the opportunities. A few weeks ago a Lutheran pastor who is in charge of education for a subdivision of the diocese (defined as the territory which a bishop supervises) invited me to go with him up the mountain to a place called Machame to see about getting a Bible study started at the Lutheran hospital there. This one trains clinical officers, mostly males and closer to a nurse practitioner, who are then sent out to remote sites to establish or staff clinics. There is also a nurses training program there. We met in the chaplain’s office with representatives of two Christian student organizations and an older nurse who is also a well-known Bible teacher. They want me to come every Sunday for two hours to teach the students through the Gospel of John. This is how I became a believer when presented with the astonishing person, words and works of Jesus. I still am amazed at the power of His words when reading through that gospel. “Two hours, are you sure you could tolerate this”! I replied as we discussed what should be done. “Well how about 80-90 minutes”, they replied thinking I may get weary. This is a place where the Gospel was first preached by the German Lutheran missionaries who came pioneering in the mid eighteen hundreds. The tent pegs which they cut by tradition have grown into huge trees adjacent to the very large Lutheran church which stands nearby on the edge of the tropical rain forest, one of the transition zones as the altitude of Kilimanjaro gradually increases. After the meeting the chaplain wanted to talk with me and said, “I am in charge of a teacher training college further down the mountain which has 100-200 students called Arizona and if you would come and teach on Fridays we would make the teaching a course which everyone would be required to attend during the academic year”. Later I asked why it was called Arizona and was told that some prominent Lutherans came from Arizona to look over the work and were told of the desperate need for teachers in the area. They provided the funds and support to get the college going. Just think of the opportunity for presenting the necessity of a personal relationship with Christ as we study through John. The problem here is that I can’t do this alone with all the other things I must do here at the Village.

The other thing which would fit in with this nicely is we really need another couple on the Village; a man who is trained or experienced in general maintenance, and another teacher who is experienced in junior secondary. We are just finishing a large addition to the campus for junior secondary and will be starting the sixth grade In January (we add a class each year as the resident children grow older and plan on doing this until we have all twelve levels complete). The man would need to be an experienced Bible teacher. There is a large concentrated pool of such men in Bible Study Fellowship and a smaller pool among church Sunday school teachers. WOULD YOU PRAY WITH US FOR SUCH A COUPLE AND HELP US FIND THEM. Jesus calls us to these opportunities and we realize that it does entail tremendous sacrifice for those who are willing. Here is an example of what Jesus was talking about when he said that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few (Matt 9:37).

I thought for the remainder that I should share with you what a typical day is like during a school break. After rising early and praying (I am really being edified by Bill Bright’s list of the thirteen attributes of God and nearly have them committed to memory) I ran around the village while Peggy prepared breakfast. The night before she had prepared a large mound of provisions for taking our second graders to the Arusha game park for the day (I don’t think any of these kids had ever seen the wild animals which are less than an hour away). School is out for about another two weeks and this is what we call GAMES (games, art, music, enrichment and sports). She left with fourteen kids in two vehicles, the second driven by an experienced safari guide who offered to do the day with the kids for $25. The costs were all underwritten by a family who dropped by last Christmas for a tour of the village and left cash to pay for a safari trip for all the kids. Tomorrow will be the first grader’s turn. They spent all day driving around in the park and having a picnic. I stayed home because somebody always must be available for the unexpected. Our mini-missionary was at work early drilling some of the children on math facts (+,-, x, division) and supervising coloring. I finished up painting the entrance to our house and got everybody ready for kick ball. We played until  noon and since it is a new but very exciting game for them we are concentrating on learning the rules, not pushing, following the orders of the team leader and accepting the observations of the referee (me). After lunch we did origami (I had to practice the night before and learned how to make a cube out of paper with only a piece of origami paper, the right folds and a final puff of air to inflate the cube). Next we did board games and triominoes. Finally at 4 o’clock it was time for the boys’ spectacular bike ride which they can hardly wait for, girls come tomorrow. The younger children who are just learning to ride are left in the village to ride small bikes supervised by the mothers. The older ones I take with me outside the village, down a dusty dirt road, cross two rivers and ride up a hill. For the trip back they can all ride just as fast as they want back to the village. Then it was supper time and Peggy was just getting back from the park. She just peeked in now after reviewing the day’s photos and said, “I am beat, I am going to bed”.

We love our life here and the days are full and rewarding. Many days end by our sitting on our porch with spectacular views of Mount Kilimanjaro. We nearly always sleep well J.