Psalm 91:11 and He shall give His angels charge over you.....

I know this verse speaks more to keeping us from evil; however, today it was the first verse that came to my mind as the car began to roll off the road as we traveled towards Arusha. Kent and I had planned a trip to Arusha all week, to get some needed things for our kitchen remodeling project. We were hoping to leave the house at 8 AM to arrive in Arusha (70 km away or 43 miles) before 10 AM hoping for a good parking place at the appliance store as we needed to replace a microwave. We had a call while eating breakfast that a former student was bringing other prospective RICE students for an interview so we knew our start would be delayed. When the students did not show up at 9 AM, Kent called and actually they hadn’t yet left Karatu (a five hour drive away),  so we decided to proceed. Kent was driving and the day was cloudy and perfect for the trip. The truck traffic was heavy but that is about normal. After leaving Boma (about a 20 minute trip from the Village) Kent had just passed a big semi and we were likely going 60 kph….about 36 mph…. when all of a sudden the car took a sharp swerve to the left and Kent said “I can’t control the car!” We swerved off the road into a field on the left hand side of the road and came to a stop in the tall grass. We quickly got out, thinking a tire had blown, and saw that the tire was indeed not the problem, but the tie rod which stabilizes the steering mechanism had lost its left bolt causing the rod to hang down below the car. Immediately we began to thank God for sparing us from harm or death. We had just passed a huge truck, there was no sharp drop off on the road when the car lost the steering, the field was not populated with cows or people, no one’s maize crop was growing on that spot and we did not hit the thorn tree in our path. After we assessed the problem, we called Phil, our Village Administrator and he sent out our best two mechanical employees, Emanuel and Godwin with the Village Rav 4 car. They arrived in about half an hour and looked at the situation. They felt they could get the car back together enough to drive it to the Village so they traded cars with us and we were again on our way but in another car. What a way to start a much anticipated and somewhat fun trip. This is an example of things that happen in our time in Africa but also how God continues to protect us for the work here.

We have been back in Tanzania one week following a nice 3 week break. We had some fun times in Florida with our friends Randy and Raylene and even made a trip to the Kennedy Space Center. If you have not recently visited that site, I would highly recommend it. We had a great and full day there. Kent also had a Basal Cell Caner removed from his nose by a MOHS procedure and ended up with a skin graft that I had to care for as it was done less than 24 hours before we left Florida. I got to take the stitches out and I must say it looks pretty good. 

We had a nice visit with our daughter, Anna, in Amsterdam as we traveled back to Tanzania. Anna is working in London now, so was able to fly to Amsterdam for the day of our layover. 

We are happy to be back in our HOME here in Tanzania and ready to start a new term of school on Monday. We have been preparing for about 10 new students in the teacher’s training program to bring the total of students to around 40. I will be teaching math and one reading comprehension class this term in addition to my child care responsibilities. I am so thankful for a good child care assistant to fill in the gaps that are left as I prepare and do the teaching. I am enjoying getting to know the students in the teacher’s program and enjoy working with them.

Kent is busy preparing all the course work for the new term. He is also beginning to write the book that he has been planning for some time. He also keeps our yard like a tropical garden and does repairs on the house as needed. We have our wonderful village carpenter making our new kitchen cabinets, but Kent helps by replacing lights and fans. There is never a lack of things to do. 

The rains have begun in earnest during our time away. Since we returned it has rained at least 1/4 of an inch every day and some days we have gotten up to 1.5 inches of rain. The few glimpses we have gotten of the mountain are snowy ones indeed. The people are grateful for the rain as they are able to grow their maize for the year. The temperature is also beginning to cool a bit and I am grateful for that. I love to go to sleep at night listening to the rain. No-one complains about the excessive mud because the rains grow the crops. You have to admire the attitude of a people who have to walk far everyday in thick mud and yet do not complain at all!! Everything is lush green and the rivers are flowing swiftly now. North America is crying for “Spring” and we are praising God for “Winter” in the southern hemisphere. 

"I will betroth you to me forever" Hosea 2:19

        We are supposed to be home in Florida in about three weeks for a short time between school sessions.  The dry season is about to end and the rains for the big maize crop should start soon. There is dust blowing everywhere with the plowing of the very dry fields. 

One must keep their focus when living in a foreign country where things do not always go the way you have planned so we focus on  the most important thing  and that is that we have a regular discipleship training going for almost all the male teacher training students and have also started one for the students at Machame, a hospital about ½ hr up the mountain. There are about 500 students there in the nursing and medical officer training program and most of them are in their 20’s. My male assistant in the teacher training program here at the Rafiki village is turning out to be a good Bible teacher so he is going to run the disciple training program on a Sunday afternoon at the hospital. It is simply held in a spare classroom. Ours here at the village runs for about 3 hrs on Saturday mornings. First hour we study a Bible book, second hour is aimed at the details of personal discipleship which is built around handouts based on a CRU (former Campus Crusade for Christ) outline. For the last hour I dismiss all the students except my assistant and he teaches me the Gospel of John in a practice session. During the week he prepares the study using my Bible Knowledge Commentary set. In this practice session I give him constructive suggestions for the next day, Sunday, when he will actually teach the study to nursing and medical officer students at Machame. I love his enthusiasm and ability to retain what I teach him. He had to drop out of the teacher training program between the second and third year to save enough money to pay for a room and food for the third year. He is singularly my best student and is doing a wonderful job as my assistant into this coming academic year.

       We are inserting a picture of the male students in the discipleship training program here at the Rafiki village, two students are missing when they stepped out for a break. The one squatting on the floor and holding the commentary volume is Paschal, my assistant. You will notice I am wearing something on my head. It is a crown made out of a cardboard box. There are nine points on the crown in groups of three with the central three raised above the other six. I wear it when teaching this part of the discipleship program which is a subheading of “complete surrender”. The crown represents a major theme under “complete surrender” which is seeking God and not sin.  We are spending three sessions on what it means to seek God. The material is taken from a very “ancient text”-Deuteronomy chapter six (about 3500 years old)-which has at least nine important points. The first is “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (v. 5).
       

The second picture expresses my joy in the wonderful privilege of teaching young men and women about these things. It reminds me of the Lord’s joy when Israel in the future will be reconciled and married to Him permanently. This is a major theme of the OT book Hosea. I am asking the Lord to let me in on this joy and celebration now although the event is still future. His plans for ancient Israel after being separated from Him these thousands of years, symbolized by the children of Gomer, his wayward wife, reflect this great joy. Although they are now called Lo-ruhama and Lo-ammi (she is not loved and not my people), God will change all this through the miracle of regeneration. They will be betrothed or married to Jehovah forever. The features of this betrothal will be in righteousness, justice, lovingkindness (hesed, it is loaded with meaning used over 250 times in the Bible), compassion and faithfulness (Hos 2:19,20). The conclusion is “then you will know the Lord”. Lord, let me know you in these ways and experience the joy of it more deeply!
        Lest you think I am just getting too heavenly minded for my own good the last picture is one of my students mopping the floor of our new building. I still spend most of the day (about 7:15 AM to 5:00 PM) mentoring the students through the curriculum with the students at 8 levels and directing cleanup at the end of the day. We still really need a visionary lady to join the program as a music/art teacher who is interested in discipleship for the women. The fruits will be great.

A new school year begins and Christmas Blessings

Blog for January 21, 2018

Weather all over the world seems a bit “off” this year. We have had incredible rains over the past weeks. We have had a total of 4 inches in the first week of January and it is usually the “dry season” here in Tanzania. We are quite grateful that all is green again and the gardens are producing well. ☔

The children arrived back safely from their visits to their relatives over the break. They seem quite happy to be back and celebrated with soda, hotdogs, chips and slaw. There were smiles all around.  Only 4 to 6 children remained here at the Village during the school break and they too had a wonderful time. Many of the children went to the homes of relatives while some went to the homes of our childcare staff and a few school staff members. 

Anna and Peggy on Christmas Day

We have been blessed with a 4 week visit from our daughter Anna. This is the first Christmas we have been together since about 2012. We had much fun catching up and getting to know her boyfriend, Scott who was here part of the time. They got to do some Moshi adventure hiking and even went to swim in our warm “hot springs” west of here. They enjoyed the local food of Tanzania.  Scott came with a really bad case of malaria which exhibited itself on Christmas Day… two days after they arrived. The diagnosis was complicated by the fact that he had been on Mefloquine which is a very good drug for malaria. After careful research, we learned that Tanzania, along with Myanmar and one other country have malaria that is resistant to Mefloquine. We were able to find a pharmacy open on Christmas Day and get the drug, Coatem, which so far has no resistant strains. It took him nearly a week to fully recover. How thankful he as well as we were that he was staying with an infectious disease doctor. Anna left to begin a job in London which is one plane flight closer than the US  😀.

We have now completed week one of term one in school for 2018. We have an 8th level in the school this year and they are so proud to have new uniforms that set them apart from the younger children. We were also able to place nine of our oldest girls into an “honor cottage” which makes all the girls in grade 7 and level 8 in that cottage. The girls are so excited to be together so they can do homework and studies. It does mean that many of the mothers now have nearly all younger girls but they seem fine with that too.

Lilac Breasted Roller.. my greeter each morning

Off to Nairobi to play on National Tennis team

The first week of school ,and with our missionary staff reduced from six to four ,actually went very well. I am helping Kent with tutoring in math and grading some of the weekly quizzes. We are all so busy that we have to nearly schedule time to greet the rest of our group here. Please pray that God will quickly send more workers into the harvest for all of the Rafiki Villages. I must say though that we are totally keeping our heads above water for now and that is a miracle of God Himself. 

Two of our 14 year old girls were invited to play on the Tanzanian National Tennis team at a competition in Nairobi. They didn’t come home with medals, but they won a number of matches and represented Tanzania well. What a wonderful opportunity it was for these girls and even the Childcare assistant who traveled with the girls. We had to quickly get passport documents together and then get them a Yellow Fever Vaccine before they could travel. It was an opportunity they will never forget. One of the girls is likely to be invited to play in Tunisia in the future. 

Franklin our resident rooster

As we watch the newsfeed from here, we see that most of the US has been in the “freezer” lately with ice and snow even in the deep south. We are certain that all of you reading this would really enjoy some time in WARM Tanzania working with us here. You are all most welcomed!!

First School Assembly of 2018

4 resident girls in new uniforms