"Humanly speaking it is impossible, but not with God. Everything is possible with God." Mk 10:29
"For the man who wants to save his life will lose it, but the man who loses his life for my sake will find it." Mt 16:25
"Some want to keep the gospel so disembodied that it doesn't get involved at all in the world to save it. Christ is now in history." Oscar Romero


Dec 16, 2007

weekly round-up

Haven’t been on in a while, but the good news is we have internet! It came last weekend and it works, most of the time, and so we hope to post more often. We had a very interesting week. First we met with a longstanding UK non-profit called WaterAid. They’ve been doing work in Tanzania for over 2 decades. We met with one of their lead policy advisors and we learned a lot about what is happening in the area of clean water in Dar. We also scheduled a meeting this coming week with the director of the Dar office and I’m hoping she will be able to fill us in more about what the local projects are, which communities are most vulnerable, what’s being done now, etc. We really feel that research is the first step to doing anything significant in the community.

We received our first package, care of Eben and Sarah Brusco in Ireland! It had candy, and a dress for melissa - it was so nice to get some western canday...though Cadbury makes some kind of Mint Chocolate bar that we can buy for $1.50 that is out of this world! Candy is good despite the somewhat melted state after it sits in a non-airconditioned East African warehouse for a few days.

There is this wonderful family that has lived in Dar for years, she works in education and he's a geologist. They invited us to dinner this week and they live right near the water. Being near the ocean affords certain "luxuries" we didn't have living in central Ohio (though we had the Sciota river). Anyway, they own a sail boat, as "racing" sailboat and I got to go proper sailing for the first time in my life. I've since lost all the exciting new lingo, but i felt quite cool that evening. It was really fun - I made sure to say that a number of times in hopes I would be invited out again soon!

We’ve continued to meet neighbors and practice Swahili in our local community. It’s always challenging, but we’re learning quickly and people are so helpful – even complete strangers are willing to listen patiently and correct you if there is a problem. Language is our priority at the moment, despite starting some other networking, b/c everything we do is communication. We’re actually increasing our tutoring instruction to 4 mornings a week b/c we really want to progress further. Thankfully the language instructors we’re connected with employ many of the latest techniques and exercises – similar to the LAMP methodology for learning language. Our language tutor is named Johari, and she is a Muslim, and she’s taught peace corps and other Americans for almost a decade. She has been hugely helpful when asking difficult cultural questions and her experience allows her to talk openly with us as Americans…there really is a large difference between East African and American cultures. That reminds me, before we left, Rich Mendola found a study comparing measurable cultural values, like timeliness, power distance, male-female relationships, and many other cultural indicators. When plotted on a graph, East Africa was almost completely opposite America on many of the indicators. Other Americans living here have verified, or heard of similar studies, and say that Americans have a really hard time in East Africa. There is more “cultural novelty” for us coming to Tanzania than almost anywhere else in the world. At times its hard to believe, because Melissa and I, so far, really like it here and haven’t found adjustment too difficult. But that’s in part b/c we we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s happening all around us, with community relationships, who’s influencing whom, really understanding how people make and maintain relationships, what obligations to we have as neighbors, how am I (a man) perceived carrying Asher, on and on…We just talked with some friends this week ministering south of Dar in a smaller Muslim town. He said he’s learned the “3 minute” rule. He said he can’t be alone in any home with another women longer than 3 minutes, literally, b/c people will presume their having sex. It would discredit him on the street and undermine the relationships he’s trying to build. That is a pretty extreme example, but in general people’s behaviors are governed by their perceptions of their cultural surroundings (neighborhood, daily activities, relationships, etc). Our perceptions are just at the infant stage. We’re learning quickly, but we perceive and recognize everything through our American eyes. We need to learn to see things through our Tanzanian Glasses. All that to say Johari has not only be extremely helpful in teaching language, but in cultural understanding as well.

Another small but important accomplishment this week, maybe better described as a milestone, is we successfully arranged for some neighbor girls to baby-sit Jude and Asher while we had our Tanzanian Bible study. It went really well, and to make all you parents jealous – we “overpaid” the TWO girls by giving them each $3 for 4 hours of babysitting. So we’re hoping that as our ministry grows, or other late night events occur (Tanzanians stay up late – eating dinner at 6:30 is very early – much more like our college days of eating between 8pm – 9pm). The girls seem really responsible and we hope they’ll continue to want to watch the boys – they literally live right next door to us…our majirani (neighbors, I think).

One last thing – there is car trouble and then there is CAR TROUBLE. We’ve had the latter. Please pray that we’ll stop flushing money into our cars…it’s getting very expensive, even for us missionaries (haha, joke).

Nov 25, 2007

Hammered...(warning gross story contained below)

Well, we're back in Dar. We had such a good time in Iringa, studying language for one month and being with our family and meeting new friends. It was invaluable for our foundation in our language learning – we hope we can continue with new tutors here in Dar. In the midst of this, and the next part is where I’m at my worst, we get hammered with all the trials of life in Africa (TIA – watch Blood Diamonds). Our second to last day in Irina Melissa got her wallet stolen, along with $50+ in cash, credit cards, ID. Then as we’re driving home, our cars starts shutting off while I’m driving and the engine goes berserk – the same problem I had just spent $1000 and 2 weeks fixing before leaving for Iringa 1 month earlier. To add injury to insult, the guys “helping” us one of the times we broke down had the gall to reach into my car and grab my cell phone from the dashboard – I didn’t realize it was taken for 100 kilometers…I don’t who I was more frustrated at, them or myself. As we return home and unload the car, a beautiful one-of-a-kind hand carved Last Supper scene we bought in Iringa as our “big splurge” tumbles out of the car and cracks in half. As we enter our kitchen, after being gone for 1 month, we can’t help but notice the strong, slightly overwhelming scent of a zoo…literally our kitchen became a playground for mice while we were gone. Every drawer and cabinet was filled with “friendly reminders” that mice had been cohabitating with our plates, and pots and pans, and silverware. We decided to tackle it the next morning. In the morning we found actual evidence of mice, in the form of a bloated mouse that had died after being stuck in this goo that had spilled when trying to capture the mice a month before. Finally, and I want to sensor this next part for the weak-willed stomach (which was me prior to spending 2 months in Tanzania) – okay – one of the mice, and I believe it’s the one stuck in the goo had made a nest in one of the drawers by dragging dishtowels from beneath the sink. Well, that drawer was particularly disgusting, as one might imagine, and needed to be hosed down. In the back, beneath a pile of torn and shredded dishtowels was a rotting carcass from a baby mouse, presumably the mother had been the mouse caught in the goo earlier and was unable to return to the nest. Yuck! After getting over the initial revulsion of the situation, and feeling glad to finally remove the “zoo-smelling” cause from our kitchen, I did feel a little bad for the mice – they’re just trying to survive…and then I noticed the a swarm of crows outside fighting of the remains of the mice by dive-bombing one-another until one particularly large black and white crow (in Tanzania they’re the size of hawks) gathered his or her “breakfast” and flew off…I quickly took a shower and like Mary, treasured these things up in my heart to share later with you.

Okay, now that’s over…

We are so excited to be home and begin work. We have a 5-year old’s understanding of Swahili but it’s there and we can build on it. Also, while we were away Edmond Lyattu, our team leader, started the first Bible Study. We meet on Friday nights and initially it will be joint Swahili and English. Also, there is a rather serious issue to pray for, and that is one of the churches that was started almost 2 years ago in a very poor area called Ukonga is not doing well. The church has between 8-15 couples (18-30 p) but only two of them have a job. The church used to have an outside source of money from another church, and when combined with the weekly tithes, the pastor tried to care for the needs of the church by supporting members with food and met other needs as well. The church now receives $2-$3 each week in tithes, and the other source of money is gone. We feel that it’s not right to close down the church, and instead would like to consider any job-creation strategies or income strategies we can come up with both for the pastor, who needs to survive, and for members of the congregation. We’re meeting with the leaders early next week and we’re really praying God provides a solution. One of the main challenges is seeing sustainable churches be planted – when 50%- 70% are unemployed and the other cultural factors are combined…it’s just very challenging.

Finally, a bit about us, we have had incredible car problems. More than anyone should in a 2 month period. I think the car is disintegrating beneath us. Just driving it around waiting for 2 weeks while a potential buyer gets money has caused over $1000 more in repairs. The only decent car we can afford at the moment is 15 years old and has rattled over Africa for how many years. Our fundi, mechanic, said the car we’re buying needs a new engine at some point - $3000+ - so we won’t keep that one long but at least have a breather to look for a car that can get us through the whole year. Cars are so expensive it’s out of this world. A friend said, the reason everything is so expensive is because nothing works – and when it breaks people don’t have the technical knowledge to fix it. So, they’re always importing and importing and the demand is so high due that glitch in the system that a 12 year old Toyota Rav4 (from japan) costs $15000+. The same car, our current car, that has been in Africa 4-5 years, is worth maybe $6000. The market is completely warped. Enough complaining, we just need a solution that is going to kill us. We just didn’t come to Tanzania to worry about our transport 24/7, or waste $1000’s on repairs.

One more thing, we might get a puppy! Maybe?! There are these little rat-terriers that are breed to kill mice and rats. Someone has free puppies that we’re seeing today and it would be great to have a rat-killer roaming the premises…but that will mean we have two little ones to be responsible for – new puppy, and Asher. Being home with him more, I’ve really learned a lot about the boys. One thing is Asher doesn’t really like playing with “traditional” toys – cars, dinosaurs, swords – what he likes instead is destroying things. Like his diaper, or his lunch, or my Swahili notebook, or our flower bed outside (it’s more like a plant-bed than flowers though). He will slip into another room and you never know what kind of surprise you’ll find around the corner. So we’re just not sure if we’re ready for a “rat-killer” puppy…but we need one…ah, the dilemmas of life in Tanzania – smile.

Nov 7, 2007

our new amigos...

You never know…

Who you are going to meet at language camp in Iringa. For instance, we met two French brothers who have been “on the road” for over a year. They left France and drove to Greece, which took them through a few months (how cool!), then hopped a boat to Malta and then onto Alexandria. They then drove into Somalia (how I don’t quite know), down through Ethiopia and Kenya, and they’ve been in Tanzania the last month touring the parks. Their plan is to continue down the eastern coast to South Africa and return to France via the Western coast of Africa; Angola, etc…The whole tour they estimate will take 3 years. They’re doing all this in a make-shift pickup that modified with a camper hard top on the bed. Also, these guys must’ve been in their late 60’s. Another couple at the camp works for SIL (look them up). He does video and there are still many unreached people groups in Tanzania and he’s in charge of translating various media into a certain tribes language – things like the Jesus Film, Bible Teachings, Kids programs, etc. Another couple is from the Farrow Islands. There are only 35k people that live on the Farrow Islands and we know four of them! They have their own language – Faroese. It’s a tiny fishing island between Europe and Iceland, technically owned by Denmark, but they hate the Dutch. Out camp owners served in British Royal army, but grew up in Tanzania, and the wife is from Liverpool. Our Banda mates are from Bath, England and former Anglican ministers acquainted with the Mumfords. We hung out a few evenings with a French family, who insisted that they, with their kids, smoke a water bong every night before dinner. This wasn’t a small bong, but a giant 4 ft tall bong with a long tube that would be smoked right alongside the dinner table. Why, I didn’t quite understand. There are some single girls from Germany, Netherlands, and Denmark, an Australian married to an American and the occasional guest visiting from Iringa born and bread in Tanzania…small world huh.

Other Happenings…
Jude has Giardia. A smelly diarrhea causing intestinal amoeba – not fun for him or us. To diagnosis his condition we had to take him to a lab. Literally, drive up to this one room building with a microscope on the table and some syringes and a few other medical looking items laying around in plastic buckets (the same kind you’d use to wash your car or store old rags). We mentioned what we wanted tested and he handed us an old 24mm plastic film container which we were supposed to capture the “sample”. So we asked where the toilet was and he just shrugged his shoulders, a bush out back was suitable enough for Jude. TIA (this is Africa).

Oct 25, 2007

Life in Iringa

Wow, we have a decent internet cafe in Iringa, which is a quaint little mountain-side town about 500 kilometers from Dar where we're studying Swahili.

It really feels like a reprieve here, which is funny to say b/c we've only been in Dar a month, but the air is much cooler and we're up in the mountains...it feels so much like Wyoming - like a vacation. The people here are super helpful and our language instructor, Kondo, is great - he's been teaching Kiswahili for like 20 years. We sit in a little banda by a small flowing river with the Millers and Grace. We do as much language and practice as possible in the 5 hours we study formally everyday.

We have an interesting schedule, which is a nice change of course.

700 wake up get the boys ready
730 breakfast
800 - 1300 Kiswahili class ("child minders for the boys")
1300 Lunch
1400-1600 Study / kids nap
1800 dinner
2000 Kids asleep - study some more.

We've jammed so much language into 4 days - we can "easily" get around the market and have basic conversations...it's so great to get some language under our belts. There are also some really interesting people at the camp - Wycliffe translators planning to work in remote areas of Tanzania who are studying for like 4 months, seminary professors, nurses, and some other hospital and development volunteers. The campsite has food prepared for all meals and it's quite tasty - we didn't know what to expect. It's really nice not to worry about food or anything else really while we study language.

We've had some interesting evening events in our "chalet". It's a small stone structure that has two small rooms and a bathroom. We actually have hot water for showers which is so great b/c the temperature gets down in the 40's and 50's at night. The first night went well, but the second night we had some visits from furry friends. They were going crazy running around our room and making weird noises. We didn't sleep too well that night. The next night we were ready with some traps, and we caught all of them, we think, even the flying mice...literally it would try to run up the wall, or the book shelf, and then launch itself off the top and run under the bed or something (I never did find their hiding spot). Needless to say, we've caught 4 mice in the room and last night we slept well, sort of.

Please pray for the boys b/c they haven't been sleeping that well and now jude is quite ill...stomach issues. Asher seems to love it here and he's constantly dirty, except for immediately post shower. Also, there is another couple who is coming at the end of the week and we might have to reduce our living space to 1 room if they are unwilling to take one of the tent-bandas. We're not sure how life will be if we're in one small room - literally just enough space for the beds...I guess that's Africa right...also, our car has gave us some fits on the way here and we hope it can make it back to Dar okay.

Well, Kwaheri, for now.

Oct 1, 2007

Take 2

We have a house! It's actually a split level home, with one apartment on the bottom and one on top. Grace Mendola will take the top and we'll inhabit the bottom. We move in, in one week - which is cool and a little scary. The best part is the neighborhood, so we think. This new home has a gated entrance, but most of the homes nearby don't have a gate. That means people of often out and about. Secondly, we're about 100 yards down an alleyway from a busy market area. When we visited the house last, there were hundreds of people milling about and all kinds of shops - fruit, electronics, house products, etc. I didn't see any other wzungu (white people), but our part of the apartment has a bide (pronouced bi-day) in one of the bathrooms, so I imagine a European lived there at one time. We are really excited to move in. We'll be about 5 minutes drive from the Lyattu's place. We'll also be just minutes from a major road, so we hope getting around the city will be okay. One thing that is almost unthinkable considering less than 1% of Tanzanians own cars, is the traffic. It must be that most of those owners are in Dar. It's basically out of the question to venture out between 7-9am or 4-7 pm (of course that's unrealistic), but even on the weekends we've already experienced 2+ hours of traffic for a length of drive equivalent to driving from Campus to Worthington. It's just so hard to believe it's going to be like this everyday.
On Sunday we met a really cool woman named Anglea. She's a nurse from England and works on a health project with other doctors. She's invited us to see her efforts this week and we're excited b/c they've been successfully able to turn responsibilities over to indigenous leadership and authority, while strongly sustaining the services. I guess the head guy is quite adept at starting projects and then training others to lead them. I'm hoping we'll get an audience with him at some length this week. He travels often, so I don't know if he'll be in.
Most importantly, can someone please update me on the Yankees! I can't get a fast enough connection to load the espn page. Also, if there is buckeye news perhaps someone can fill me in. Ah, the things we take for granted in the states - fast Internet connections, highways, driving laws (though I must say I'm have fun), billing options (everything, I mean everything, is pre-paid - no "bill me later" stuff), everything Trader Joe's, the sports page every morning, free nights and weekends on the cell phones, free refills, diet pop, water from the tap, snack foods (3 musketeers), and no mosquitoes!!! We have a lot to be thankful for....

Sep 28, 2007

Rabitt's Hole

Where have we landed – we feel like Alice in Alice and Wonderland, freshly emerged from falling down the rabbit’s hole. We are alien; in our surroundings, in our family, in our persons. Which way is up and which is down. How do we recover from such an intoxicating experience? At least we have money right? No, we don’t even know how to spend it, where to go to get milk, eggs, cereal…where do we throw our trash…how do we not get blanketed by mosquitoes…how much water can touch my person – drinking?, washing hands?, washing dishes?...how do we keep our boys sane in this seemingly insane place…That was day one.
Day Two. We have cell phones. We can call each other. We can conceivably call home, but it will cost about $5 for 30 seconds. We found food! Cereal - $6-$14. Bug spray - $10. Internet - $.50 per 30 minutes!!! Slow, but the connection is steady. Can count to 10 in Kiswahili, Moja, etc. We can casually greet people. We can say “no thank you” to hawkers, trying to sell us socks, or hats, or newspapers we can’t read yet. We have mosquito fumigation - we’re saved!
We have arrived! Sort of. We have our own wheels! We need insurance, but we can drive. We met friends, and now know our general location and living area within this vast city. I can leave my house and get to the “main” road – despite the 3-foot divots and random lakes made by people cutting water lines to get a couple of buckets of water…
The heat is bad, but it’s similar to Columbus. It gets quite warm by 9am and will not cool down until 9pm or so. We’re told “this is cool – wait until December”. The other strange thing about the environment concerns day and night. Because we’re miles from the equator, the sun comes up at 6am and it goes down by 6pm everyday, all “seasons” (I put that in quotes b/c there is only a 10-20 degree change between seasons).
The people, oh the people are wonderful! They are so kind and friendly – if you engage them. They like foreigners, they are patient and helpful. This is a fundamental difference between Africans and Americans. Africans value you, the person, above your contribution, or purpose – above what you offer to them. Americans often value just utility – usefulness, satisfaction of need, etc. An example is how Americans mock and treat people rudely for not knowing English – or at a minimum - Americans who display open annoyance b/c of the delays or inconveniences caused by a foreign worker at some grocery store or retail location. As Christians, we have much to learn about valuing others. We came here b/c we thought we did – we found out how much further we have still to go.

Aug 23, 2007

Moved-in with parents (in-laws)

Not too often am I excited by the prospect of moving back in with my parents, especially with my wife of more than 6 years and my two boys...but this time is wholly unique. After moving from our home all our "treasured" possessions (what could fit in a few pick-up truck loads) we took the plunge. More importantly, this move signals the near arrival of our much anticipated bigger move. It's very strange, and humbling, to be without a home (you own home) or without "reliable" employment. Both of us have officially stopped working in order to finalize last minute preparations and tie up some loose ends. We're entering a transition phase that will last for a least 4 months. We'll be living out of our suitcases, and at last count, we'll be sleeping in 7 different beds. Why would seemingly sane people do this you ask? Why would any responsible parents inflict such irregularity upon their innocent children? The answer is, I have absolutely no idea...actually, the answer rests in the deeper recesses of our hearts, where the raw materials of our motives and desires reside. See, 4 years ago, imagining this same course of events, there would be slim chance you'd see us in line to sign-up (we'd be the nay-sayers in the back critiquing everything). What changed for us more than anything else was a fresh and deep understanding, through the Bible and by the holy spirit, that our lives are not our own. If we can gain that eternal perspective, firmly rooted in Christ's redeeming love, all our values shift, all the preoccupations with this life get loosed, all the excuses fade, all the hardships shrink, all the attachments re-prioritized - and our contorted and blurry image of a Christ-centered life becomes really sharp and the contrast of full obedience to the Kingdom appears black-and-white. Let us not lose focus, oh Lord.

Jul 25, 2007

Getting Ready

We are writing amidst unpacked boxes and half-finished projects – never have we been so aware of our limitations, our tensions, and our weaknesses but still so confident in where our God is leading us. The intensity has increased, but also so has His grace. Everything will fall into place in the end, we believe…

As it stands now, we with our friend and teammate, Grace Mendola will arrive in Dar es Salaam before the other members of the team. We are both eager and excited, but will anxiously await the arrival of our additional teammates. Please remember to pray that they will have great favor on raising support, and the remaining logistical details.

It is almost impossible for us to believe, but we will be moving out of our home the week of the August 14th, and ending our employment the following week. As we pack up our lives here, we have really strong feelings about being intentional with our relationships in the limited remaining time. Of course we would like to spend hours and hours with everyone, but it’s just not realistic at this stage. It would be wonderful to connect with each of you. Please feel free to call or e-mail with any questions, wisdom, or points of interest. We would also be tremendously grateful if those of you who made monthly commitments would begin to give in August or September.

In some other news, Edmond and Dorothy Lyattu, our team leaders, have finally found adequate housing and their spirits have been much uplifted by settling in and beginning to meet new friends in their new community. We are praying intensely about where we our team should locate within the city as our original plans are seemingly diverted as housing is quite limited and very expensive. We are now praying about settling on the north end of Dar es Salaam, instead of our intended plans in one of the western districts. This is something we really hope to hear clearly about from the Holy Spirit. Our team continues to grow together, and we have all felt a strong urging to place our unity at the forefront of most issues. God is with us, and that is good!

Jun 17, 2007

Too Long we've been silent

More than a month since our last post, wow - not for lack of activity. We have found our schedules rapidly increasing and our need for "down time" gets considerably less deserved attention each week. Fortunately, we have a long anticipated break beginning next weekend - a cross-country mini-van journey through the Badlands of South Dakota and onward toward exciting Douglas Wyoming (family owned property) and, most importantly, the Grand Tetons on the western edge of Wyoming. We have about 13 days in a row with just our family. We're excited!!! So even though our kitchen is torn apart because of a "minor" remodel and our bathroom has been unusable for a couple of days, we know there is relief in sight. Actually our inconveniences our quite mild and all the work should be finished prior to leaving this week. We had some long overdue work required on our house in order to get it into condition for our renters to arrive (middle of August). We're almost done.

We're entering an odd period of time with our team where we will not be together as an entire team (due to summer vacations, work schedules, etc) until the beginning of September. That is when we plan to leave. As our leave date nears, our hearts are increasingly filled with excitement - just sheer excitement. God has drawn near and His enduring and faithful love has not ceased to stir and focus us on toward His goal and call. Partly we've been preparing now almost 18months, but in part it's been the good favor of the Lord to reassure our hearts and align our desires with His. Despite all we're "losing" in moving away, our divine intensity is drawn from all that we'll gain. At the top of the blog is one of my favorite verses, as well of the late Jim Elliot's (one of my personal heroes). There is a promise of Life, true life, when we abandon all for our Lord. For us, the gain, the fruit, is embedding our lives more fully to our creator's and humbly accepting the privilege to serve him. As we all continually ask ourselves "what does God want with our life", I pray that we're not led astray to compromise or take short-cuts or fail to fully bow at the Cross in living an abandoned life to Jesus. Lord give us mercy to endure.

May 10, 2007

ReCovErIng...

I've been in an oxycotton and vicodin induced haze for the past 48 hours. No, not just for fun, but because I underwent a surgery on Tuesday with a nasty name I'll leave up to the imagination, in and around my colon area. To say the least, it's been painful. Praise God that I got around a potential emergency room visit b/c my bladder almost exploded (so says my doctor) due to inability to urinate. Overall, I would have to unreservedly say I will never ever do this again...I've heard stories of folks needing to repeat this procedure up to three more times - OUCH. My prayer is that the symptoms this surgery is supposed to alleviate will not follow me to Tanzania. It's sort of a "suffer now, and not later" theory - at least here there are such things as doctors-on-call and emergency rooms (though there might be something similar there, not sure though).
Aside from the agonizing last 2 days, Melissa and I continue to move forward with plans. We also continue to have the grace to experience growing excitement, especially with the Lyatuus already there. This past weekend we cleaned out a bunch of "crap" from our basement and it was a strange bitter-sweet experience which helped to solidify that our life here in Columbus is irrevocably changing, and it reminded us that, honestly, we feel it has been really good here so far and we love the life we've built. We've both completed school, started our families, seen God move over and over in our friends' lives, and really believe God's favor has been on us and our lives here...but once we got through the "cleansing" tasks the Lord used those little things to help focus and hone-in our desires and enabled us to embrace a little further the life decisions we're making in Him. He will continue to sustain us and provide for us, and it reminded us that ultimately our lives are not our own. "Use us Lord" was our prayer for the past 6 years, "send us" was our cry - and He saw fit to do so. It's awesome and scary at the same time, to fall into the hands of the living God. Most of the time we live with the perspective that we're somehow running our life. We're somehow in control. Once we loosen our grip just a little, we quickly will realize who is truly driving. It's not us. If we can hold onto that reality, there is no way God will disappoint. God works out everything for our good, and our trust needs to remain in Him and not our strengths or our plans.
Prayers: please pray for a quick recovery from this surgery, it can take up to 2-4 weeks, but I would love to be functioning again next week (god is powerful). Also, we have some financial matters to complete and certain long-term planning that we really want God's wisdom to work through. Also, we sent in all our passport applications, and we would really like those returned without any "hiccups". Only 18 more weeks, so please cover our family and team in prayer as we finish this preparation time. Peace my friends!

May 5, 2007

Hard Times In Dar

Hello Friends - I wanted to make a plea for prayer for our team leaders Edmond and Dorothy Lyatuu. They arrived in Tanzania on Monday and have been met with nothing but difficulty and pain. Dorothy's father passed away from a routine surgery on Wednesday and Edmond's sister gave birth to a still born that same day. On top of that they have felt discouraged all week that they won't be able to find a house and some costs, such as cell phones (no land lines available), are more expensive than they expected. Please pray for their family as they settle in and readjust to their community. Also, pray that they find reservoirs of God's grace in the mundane and comfort in their loss. Our team's heart goes out to them and plead for God's protection over their lives.
Thank you for sharing this burden ~ peace.

Apr 13, 2007

Tickets in Hand

We never knew how overwhelming buying a couple of airline tickets could be - until we just purchased one-way tickets to Africa...we're going, we're actually going!?! Daniel was jumping up and down and Melissa was panting as if recovering from being recently stunned. Everything is taking on a new level of sincerity. The Lyatuus, our team leaders, leave for Dar in less than two weeks. Our church is praying for us at each service this weekend, in preparation and ordination for the first of our team members transition. In less than 5 months we'll both have quite our jobs, packed up our belongings, rented our house, sold our cars, loaded a shipping crate, finalized our visas, inoculated our immune systems, gathered our favorite music and whittled-down our inseparable books, said our goodbyes and boarded a one-way flight. We'll rejoin our two of our team members in September and receive the final of our "first wave" team by early December. After almost 24 months of planning, somehow 9 adults and 11 kids will have managed to trade in their lives in Columbus, Ohio for a new beginning in Dar es Salaam. Only be the grace of God could we be in the place we're at. In reflecting, it's one of those moments where you're awash in awe at where you've just come from, and astounded you've landed right side up. Since we haven't actually completed it yet, I hope we land right-side up, but the feeling is we are, so far, and we will.
At our most recent team meeting there was a unique buzz in the air - like the thrill of a wedding finally arriving or a the night before a vacation. The word Joy kept creeping into our conversation in the manner of emotions just bubbling over - some couldn't contain it that night. I believe the presence of the Almighty was there and his Favor rested on many of us. My prayer is that we continue to recall that Joy, and seek in our hearts the desire to persevere for the Goodness of our God. May we START well. May our hearts, in the beginning, align closely with our father's. May the hardships be embraced and peace found in Him, within our families, and on our team.

Apr 4, 2007

God Grew Tired of Us

For our book club we have been reading an amazing book by Dave Eggers called "What is the What". It's about one of the Lost boy's experience as a child during the SPLA war with the Arab dominated Khartoum government in the north. Amazing book, and Melissa and I would recommend it unreservedly.
There is a special screening of a new documentary on the Lost boys called God Grew Tired of Us.
The movie will be screened at Drexel Gateway (campus) on April 13th. We're planning to buy tickets, and anyone who is able should try to come as well. It's a profoundly tragic history that only begins to receive its due justice when people around the world acknowledge and gasp at its reality. Please join us if you can.

Mar 21, 2007

Tanzania Info



This is a map of the % of evangelicals and church planting activities in Tanzania. As you can see there is still great need as most of the red,yellow,and orange show minimal evangelistic efforts. There is an unfortunate maxim of religion in Africa, and that is "a mile wide, but an inch deep". As our team seeks God's heart for and with the people of Tanzania, we hope to see a great impact throughout those less-reached areas. Even among Tanzanians, there are still classic unreached peoples. The Joshua Project keeps a record of all the people groups with less than 2% having made commitments of faith to Jesus. As I read all the remaining ethnic groups in Tanzania, I was floored by the openess of the Kingdom. We possess a gospel and a savior that is capable of meeting and loving anyone, with any background, and any people. There is such a sense of privilege setting foot in this country. Let you Kingdom come, oh Lord.

Mar 7, 2007

One Life Video

This is one of the coolest videos World Vision has ever done - it's hard not to get chills down your spine.



I believe the message is good, but as a Christian I would emphasize the eternal perspective. Because we're looking forward to the life ahead of us, some of the obstacles get removed to the sacrifices we can make in this life. It's the Kingdom perspective.

Mar 6, 2007

just ordinary people, doing extraordinary things for Jesus

What an awesome time! Our team had a chance to share at Joshua House, the college/young professional service at our church, and it was just so encouraging. We actually got a standing ovation after we shared - there is just quite a lot of excitement surrounding what we get to do. To steal JFK's line above, that sums up what we feel about serving in Tanzania. The other part that was really special to us about sharing at J house is that it was where we "grew up". Both Melissa and I were welcomed into communities there around the age of 18. We were mentored and disciplined by some awesome people and later became leaders. God stretched us and grew us in so many ways through our ministry there, and ultimately prepared us for what we're getting to do now.
It is so good to be involved in a community of believers that challenge and encourage us. We have been so blessed in our home church. So much of what we hope to bring and share with people in Tanzania, are the rich blessings that can exist in a body of believers. I know we still have so much to learn, and in a communal African context, I can't even imagine how awesome the church can become. As Melissa always says, we fully feel the "intense privilege" of what we get to do. Praise Jesus!

Feb 23, 2007

Sex attacks blamed on bat demon

What a great start to a blog, especially a missionary blog. Actually, this title was taken directly from a BBC article appearing on their website Feb 21, 2007. Aside from the mildly humorous yet tragically terrifying details, this article reiterates a very stark reality we in the U.S. don't encounter very often - and that is the dark world of witchcraft and the occult. As the article states, Tanzanians regularly encounter the occult in many forms. The rural areas more so than the urban ones, but the animism of the occult is rising in the cities - especially as rural growth is fueling one of the fastest observed population growth rates of any city in the world (over 4.5% per anum). As our family enters Dar es Salaam, TZ we expect amazing things from our Lord, but we know it will not be without a "battle". Christianity is on the decline in TZ, despite the rising tide most every else in Africa. Jesus is getting lost in the internal church battles and sometimes stifling atmosphere of current Christian dogma. As our team seeks to plant a church in Dar, we fully realize the protective prayer necessary to fulfill our visions and complete the tasks Jesus is asking us to do. I can't emphasize enough, faithful prayers are necessary.
Please join us as regularly as possible to pray and seek god for the next steps as we prepare to leave for Tanzania, as well as when we're there. We expect great things from God, and so far he has asked us to be available - so we are. Peace.