He is Faithful

Packing up and cleaning out my apartment for the last year has been such an emotional chore. As I was going thru a box of letters, cards of encouragement I received over the year I stumbled upon my first 2 journals here in Tanzania. As I read the pages of smudged pencil there was an overwhelming theme of doubt and uncertainty. As I read I couldn’t help but weep “How faithful He has been…” Sleepless nights of feeling unsafe, driving fears and mustering up the guts to get out my gate once a day, crying out for relationships.

Now, Dar is truly been “home” to me. I adore the people that come in and out of my life everyday, I drive like I’m living in a video game, and my apartment has been very comfortable. He has been ever so faithful to me in my time here.

I’m looking forward to Kenya but for now I just want to spend every moment I can with these amazing students and friends that God has placed in my life. Tanzania will always have a piece of my heart.

Song I cant stop listening to "He is faithful" by Bryan and Katy Torwalt 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJMQKCCAm6I

Psalm 33:4 
 For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does.

Psalm 36:5
Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.

Psalm 86:15
But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

Psalm 89:1  I will sing of the LORD's great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.

Movingggg

With less than 30 days left in Dar, my time will be flying by.... 

I guess time to announce IM MOVING! Nairobi, Kenya will be my new home in one month. Due to some circumstances here, its best for me to finish my time there (7 more months!). It's kinda funny God would be sending me there. I fought going to a place I had been before- wanting to be stretched but now I've come full circle. I'm looking at this as a new adventure, things " if I could this over again" - well now I can, and obviously another country/ experience under my belt. Truly, I know this is the best thing for me right now - so I'm trying to embrace and frankly wrap my mind around it. 

 I don't really to think about saying goodbye just yet so no sappy blogs so far. I went to a wedding last weekend and took some shots of the happy couple! 

This next week is the last week of swimming and the semester is winding down. 

Congrats Raziki and Jehovaness 

Me, Angela, and Comfort

My date- Aneth

May in Dar

Drown Proofing Day 

Girls at the Beach! 

City Scape 

Webber's Bday with CoWorkers

Girls Bible Study for Webb's Bday

Joy, Carol, and I 

Learning to Dive 

Oh. Swim Class 

Love You Webber! 

The month of May has roared by and I never once really stopped.  This has probably been the fun-est month I’ve had here. Weeks have been busy filled with bible studies, swimming classes and meeting one on one with students. 

Weekends have been busy with beach trips, birthday fun, and simply hanging out!

A week from today we are saying goodbye to our volunteers we have had for 4 months. Through the ups and downs they have proven resilient to the city around them. I will be sad to see them go, but one in particular will leave a mark in my life. Webber has been not only a wonderful friend but also a partner in ministry. It has been a joy to watch her grow over the last 4 months with the girls that I invest in here.  In my weaknesses she has strengths and has been able to guide and mentor these women into better followers of Christ. I will miss our hang outs and cooking together. I am so grateful for her time here.

Pr@y For:
- HandsOn as they "unpack" their time here
- Lisa is joining me next month here
- Last month in Dar to be Awesome!
- Prepare my heart for moving and new City! 

April in a flash

The month of  April came and went in a flash. Between swimming class, bible studies, and events I didn’t even realize how fast time was flying. I do however remember saying at one point “ I haven’t had a ‘bad Dar’ day in a long time.” I think this is a product of the lack of time to even have a ‘bad Dar’ day. The last few weeks the girls bible study has been studying ‘relationships.’ We have explored how we should respond to people we don’t like, our parents, dating/singleness/marriage and the biblical women God has called us to be. One of our HandsOn girls has been helping teach along with my partner. The girls have responded amazingly and have really been evaluating their own relationships.

This month also celebrated my one-year anniversary in TZ!  The ministry that has unfolded for me here is defiantly not one that I had imagined. An African country that was never on my radar, but instead Ugandan students have flooded my heart. Even though I came to TZ, Uganda has been my field for sowing. These students are classmates with Tanzanians and will one day return to UG – what an impact they can make for His kingdom.

TZ had random holidays to offer breaks this month on top of Easter. On “Union” holiday one of the HandsOn girls and I spent the day at a TZn girls house. This is a contact she has made and the friendship has been wonderful. Her family hosted us for the day playing basketball, eating local food (yum!) and just great company. I also had a lot of students in and out of my home this month, which I love. This month I branched out and hosted a guys night of Mexican and Bang! (a western game).

Swimming class is still going on and the students are slowly progressing. They still haven’t made it to the deep end, hopefully they will soon. 

Pr@y this month:

-       bible study girls to continue to absorb/apply

-       strength and endurance on long day, swimming zaps my energy

-       HandsOn leave at the end of May – finish strong

-       big changes coming in July (more on that later) 

Easter Weekend

Easter 2012, will be one I look back on and smile for a long time. Friday started with pancakes/ Romans 5 with a sweet girl I disciple from the University. The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping for food on Sunday. Friday night, I led the girls bible study in a time of worship, mediation, scripture, and the Lord's supper. (on a side note: I recently have been learning how to play guitar- ive been playing for about 3 months now and meeting with a student once a week to get better, dream of mine since 7th grade) Saturday afternoon we returned to the Children's Cancer Ward we went to in December. Some of the kids were there again along with some new faces. This time we had a lot more people go which made it more one on one for the kids. I won over some hearts by playing music for them. Sunday after an awesome service at campus church we grilled out on the roof of my neighbors house hosting over 25+ college students from our churches bible studies. It ended up being a great time of fellowship and even had some guys playing cards late into the evening.

Swimming class is up and running. Its more difficult that an I had imagined, but fun.

Things to Pr@y for

- Relationships to strengthen and go deeper

- HandsOn Team to finish strong - they have about 7 weeks to go!

- Upcoming Changes - more on that later!

March = waiting

March was the month of waiting ... waiting for students to get back.... waiting for pool to be cleaned and ready.... waiting to see how the semester would play out. Now all that is in full swing and I have had little time to stop and think. Students have returned to campus and it's almost as if we have purpose again. This semester my "teaching" will be in the swimming class and frisbee once again. Swimming will be a challenge. All of these boys have no clue how to swim. I joined a Bib{e study on campus led by a Ugandan. I have really enjoyed getting to know a whole new set of students. My WOW moments this month comes from this bib{e study... when all of us crammed into this hot, small dorm room standing around holding hands, and praying.... love those moments! The girls are back and we have started working on a "dealing with people" bible study topic. I got to take a few days off and travel to Zanzibar with some of our HandsOn.




My passion for food and traveling has been now published check out my Food Blog Here !

February Wrap Up

The month of February has been a whirlwind. With the HandsOn I haven’t had much time to even think. The students at the Uni have been in finals/break for the semester. After getting them settled into their apartment, we started out helping with get around with public transportation and becoming aware of the area they live in. We even were able to shadow a couple here reaching out to Cousins downtown and meet some of them.
We took a weekend to travel out west and see village life. Out first stop was a safari at Mikumi National Park. We saw lots of awesome animals and had a great time riding around. Then we traveled out to a village 20 km from main road hitting branches to a small Maasi village. With their warm welcome we felt right at home in our pitched tents for the night. Finding a bathroom spot was a different story. Within the first few hours a goat was slaughtered for us to eat over the next meals. I chatted with the ladies cooking while this took place. Later in the night we held a church service were the girls sang songs and one of my teammates shared the salvation colors of the soccer ball we gave them. The next day we found out that a baby had been born the night before and it was custom to go and see the family. The culture of the Maasi is very gender oriented. The guys went and sat under a tree with all the men of the village with the father while us girls went to the house where the mother was resting. I got to see the baby and talk with some of the ladies in the village as they were preparing a meal for the gathering. The older women were sitting inside the home and I tired to talk with them in my broken Swahili. Soon after we finished our visit we had to hit the road and head to our next village.
Our next village was a little different. It was right of the main road back to Dar. We slept on the property of the pastor’s house/church. Shortly after we arrived we went to visit some ladies in the church. The first house was a lady who claims to be a cousin but isn’t a faithful. We shared with her our story and she accepted what we told her and said she would be at church the next day but she didn’t come. Our next home was a lady who is a faithful member but her husband does not. He wasn’t home but we encouraged her and prayed for him. At church the next day I volunteered to teach children’s Sunday school while my other teammates did the Teen’s class. I told the story of Joseph and brought up how what the brothers meant for bad God meant for good. The church service was refreshing due to not attending a Kiswahili service often in Dar. The church members were welcoming and glad we were there.
This past weekend we got to fly up to Uganda and raft the Nile. We had arranged to stay with a M family just a block down from the rafting company. We had a blast and even flipped out one time.
Prayer Request:
- Maasi village, Pastor and the church there
- The village of Mikese and the church there
- School starts back next week, relationships would continue to be built and they were refreshed from their break.
- My team to continue to meld.