We recently were in the States for two weeks then spent a wonderful 5 days in the Netherlands before returning HOME to Tanzania. We had a great time visiting some old friends and a few days with Peggy's family in North Carolina.

These activities made the time fly by but are so important for connecting as we are far across the world most of the time. We did arrive back in Tanzania refreshed and ready to go again. I think the most exciting thing we did in the Netherlands was to visit the Corrie Ten Boom house in Haarlem. The tour was wonderful and you felt a bit of the persecution and pain that the family must have endured while protecting the Jews. It was quite moving and I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling in that area. Because of a storm on the East Coast causing us to miss our flight to Amsterdam, we missed our scheduled visit to the Anne Frank house; however one of my friends wrote that "when you leave the Anne Frank house tour you feel a real sense of loss and despair, but when you leave the Corrie Ten Boom house, you feel a sense of hope". I am glad we only did the Corrie Ten Boom house :).  We also met our dear friend from ND, Raylene Alexander for a day in Amsterdam to tour the tulips and she returned with us to work at Rafiki Tanzania for 2 weeks. What a nice way to return!!

We have come to a major turning point here at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro and all the news is good! It is Easter afternoon and we are in the midst of a long Easter holiday so we are able to get caught up on a lot of things. We have the Easter weekend free plus the Friday and Monday. Later today we are planning a party for our orphans which will feature feasting on two goats which were brought in earlier today. Some of the kids asked me this morning if they could watch our administrative assistant and maintenance man prepare the goats for eating-I simply replied, “if they don’t mind”.  It would be the same thing if they were waiting back at the village where they came from. I suspect by now the goats are being roasted for supper.

Cutting up the goat for grilling

School has restarted and we (the teachers training institute) have moved into our brand new building. It will be dedicated in June after the landscaping is done and I have volunteered to do it. There are just piles of dirt around the building now and mud, the rainy season has started. There will be a lot of plants to go in, sidewalks and arrangements for drip irrigation. The large gym/meeting area concrete floor is now being poured and fortunately we can close it off from the classroom area to prevent all the dust and dirt from blowing in. Peggy and the village administrator’s wife are in charge of all the furniture, wall hangings, curtain and pictures. We have a nearby workshop where the furniture, desks, tables and white boards are being manufactured thanks to some of you who supplied funds for purchasing our power tools (they cost about twice as much as we would pay in the States for a good brand like Bosch). I finally have an office now instead of a little place in the corner of a classroom.

We have a young Maasai warrior who is just starting at the first level of training. Last time I saw him was out in the drought stricken bush when we took four visitors from the US to his village. It is the same one where four of our orphans originated. He wasn’t hardly saying a word as he was serving us goat meat and stew then suddenly he spoke in good English. The guests asked a lot of questions about him through the rest of the day’s trip and the next morning offered to pay all his expenses for three years of training if necessary. He is dirt poor. When he came to school he just had the clothes on his back and later showed me his shoes (the only ones he has). There was a big hole in one of the soles. I asked him how long he had them a he replied that it was for years but two years ago he sewed on new soles himself with leather thread, “but I left the thread and needle home at the village”. I’ve tested him several times this week and his math and English comprehension skills are very good considering where he is starting.

The thing which follows naturally from this is the potential of some students for serious discipleship since we will have them for one to three years. I have a group of about four men now who are good candidates and hope to start discipleship training next Saturday morning using CRU (the new name for Campus Crusade for Christ) materials. This is over and above what we would call a “revved up” Bible study which I teach each morning for about 45 minutes and is required for all our students. I haven’t identified as many girls who I think would really be interested in discipleship but am praying that God will raise up someone long term to meet that need. This brings me to the subject of trainers. Most African countries are moving away from giving visas for “missionary work”. They want highly skilled people who will be able to transfer learning and experience to learners. Our school head mistress is finally going home at Christmas after four years of volunteering with us over the previous four years. She is a retired very experienced teacher who has a master’s degree and has really done a good job for our 180 students in the ordinary school (preprimary 1-3 and primary 1-6). We are praying and looking for a replacement candidate. I hope all of you who read this will consider doing at least something like this before the Lord comes. Maybe you know someone that you can encourage.

Lastly we received the good news from the STEER organization (farmers and ranchers who support missionaries) a few days ago that they are awarding us $3000 to build a large chicken house to teach our orphans how to breed and raise chickens in the tropics. Our goal is to be able to raise enough meat and eggs to supply the village and teach all our children how to do the same regardless of what they end up doing. I have written before that about 70% of our children will be university material if they want to go, 20% will end up in blue collar skills (vocational training) and 10% gardeners, laborers and house girls. Rafiki is committed to sending all our children who are capable to a university for advanced training in some vocation but here in Tanzania everyone who can possibly do it should have at least a small garden and chickens. We think this will be a really good use of the Lord’s money and we were competing for the funds with many truly worthy mission organizations who had suggested other projects. The reviewers for the STEER organization must have agreed that our project was a promising one.

Please be praying with us about these items especially the position which is soon opening as the director of our school. Maybe God has something for you in this need or someone you know. It would involve also supervising about 20 Tanzanian teachers.

THE goat