Final Memories

The Masaai church village. See these prickly trees, the boys return at the end of the day with the goats and cattle and bring them into the village and then close the gap. These thorny bushes keep them safe and their livestock within the village during the night.

The Masaai leader no longer wears the traditional Masaai clothing since he met Jesus!

The church in the Masaai village!

Great Memories!

African Countryside!

One of the ladies doing the Discipleship program.  Here you can see the mud mortar and handmade bricks.

People arrived to pray at the church in Mbuguni when we arrived.

HOME!

So good to be home.  After 45 hours of traveling it felt good to finally arrive in Charlotte airport.  Of course, that flight was slightly delayed...Somewhere across the Atlantic, a good old COLD hit!  So, I have been moving a little slowly between the cold and time change.  Thanks for all the prayers, they have been felt!!  Then next couple of blogs are a few favorite pictures.  It was such a GREAT experience...can't wait to tell you all about it...until then, here are a few memories!

Loved how this building is painted to look like a Coke!

Moshono Christian Church.

Store along the way!

Insyia Mohamedali.  This is the little girl who started our relationship with Arusha, TZ!  Her mother met Carol Henderson in Lexington, KY when she was pregnant.  Nafissa was unable to return to TZ and delivered her baby in Lexington.  Insyia was born with a heart defect that required open-heart surgery that would not have been available to her in Arusha!  We serve a GREAT GOD!!

African Boy!

On U.S. soil

It is certainly good to be back. After a 9 1/2 hr. flight it is good to get on the ground and walk again. After 3 security checks and another bag check, I am at the gate for my last leg to home. Just got off the phone with Cheri; so good to hear her voice and I can't wait to see her.

So while it is 4:18 pm here, my body thinks it it 12:18 am. Whew, I'm a bit punchy. I know, most of you think I am most of the time, but this is different! I wanted to thank everyone for their posts. It was fun reading them. I'll do one more and we'll wrap up this adventure. Keep an eye out for the pics.

Almost home

Well, here I am again in Amsterdam, waiting a couple of hours for my flight to Atlanta and then to Charlotte. I will have an opportunity to post some pictures and captions when I get to a computer at home. I have been using an IPad for this trip and it has worked really well except for loading the pictures. I am assuming it is operator error, but I could never get the site to load. I will learn before I do this again!

David is heading to Detroit in a few minutes and as we reminence about the trip we both agree that God's hand was in this all the way. Even the baggage deal had God's fingerprints as we didn't open a single bag or tub (we had 14 in all). What a blessing. I met some old friends and made many new ones that I will not soon forget. My heart continues beating for the African people as they need Jesus so badly and a new way of thinking about life. But there is much hope and promise as people like Bill, Prosper, Naare, and Matteio serve our mighty God and Father.

I arrive this evening in Charlotte. I hope everyone has a good night's sleep.

Tues: Stuck in the Mud!

Got up early and drove to Mbuguni. There we met the pastor of the church. While there, several ladies came in to pray. So we decided to pray for them. More folks came and we prayed. More came and we prayed. Ended up praying for a dozen folks and for each one we prayed for, they joined in with us. So there was this cacophony of prayers being lifted to God for a hour or so. It was soooo cool. And then as we left, they just started singing and worshipping. It was so spontaneous and special. It is something I won't soon forget.
We then jammed into the car and headed for a Massai villiage that truly was in the middle of nowhere. This is truly the "bush county" of Africa. We didn't really didn't drive on roads...more like paths. It was incredibly dry and dusty and Bill and David kept saying, this is nothing...it's going to get worse and worse. So as I was preparing to eat dirt, we suddenly hit water and mud. Not just any mud. It was deep and soft and black. Bill tried to engage the 4 wheel drive, but it was too little too late. We came to a slow slushy halt! So Prosper and the Mbuguni pastor rolled their pants up, took off their shoes, and began to push. They wouldn't let us help. Finally, after much groaning and sweat, they were able to push Bill back to dry ground. So we then set off on foot and walked a mile or so to see Matteio, the father of the Massai village. He too became a Christian as a result of the discipleship program and has started a little church right there in his village.
As we sat in the church listening to his life we were again confronted with the struggle between culture and Christianity. Matteio, before he accepted Christ, had 27 wives and more than 60 children. We asked him how many and he thought for a moment and said, "I really don't know. it is more than 60 I think." So now he deals with the Word and marriage. He truly desires to be a good husband. I guess for now he'll be good to all 27 of them. It isn't always as easy as it would seem that all of his wives live in the village and to divorce them would mean danger and possible death to them and his kids. So he is seeking God's wisdom on how to deal with this in a godly way. Your prayers for Matteio are greatly appreciate.
Just before we left, David gave Matteio a gift of a shirt. In response, Matteio wanted to give David a goat as a gift. So David asked Matteio to take care of the goat for him. Now David says, "While I don't own land in Africa, I am part owner of a goat." Plans are to eat the goat in a dinner celebration next time David comes to see Matteio. As we started to leave, Matteio yelled that we hadn't yet drank with him and that we needed to drink before we left. Water is not good to drink, and there are no soda machines in a Massai villiage, so we were a bit nervous about this proposition. But then one of the wives brought out some chai tea (the water is a least boilded) and so we drank praying that God would keep us safe. All is good. So we trekked back to Bill's car and headed home; hot, dusty, muddy, and tired. What a day!

Power of Prayer!

Stuck in the Mud!!

Some of the Masaii leader's family

Dave's shirt to the Masaii leader

Dave's Goat!

Chai Tea with the Masaii

Monday with Friends

Sorry for the delay in my blogs. We've had some full days and some persistent problems with electricity. Please allow me to catch you up.

Monday morning we had to go to the insurance company to get Bill some car insurance. Apparently his ran out and we had a nice policeman remind Bill :-). Afterwards, we went to see Nafissa Mohamidale (I dodn't think I spelled those correctly). I first met Nafissa and her husband Juzer in 2006 on my first trip to Arusha. It was so good to see her and catch up on what's been happening with her. Since I last saw her she has taken over some of the purchasing duties for Juzer's store (lights and electrical supplies) and she has also opened a shop of her own. So she gets to travel some and that includes the states. Hope she'll land in Charlotte one of these days.

After some tea and crepes, we headed for Maji Ya Chai to meet with some of the folks that are going through the discipleship program. We met Samia and his family. According to his testimony, going through one on one discipleship has freed him from relying on a churh to tell him what to do and instead see what the Bible says about things. We also went to see two ladies who peppered us with questions. Seems the mainline church in the area is telling them one thing and they are finding out the Bible doesn't really confirm what they are hearing. Culturally, this is a big deal. For example, these ladies have some small children and babies and have been told by the local church that if they are not baptized as infants, they will not bury the children should something happen to them. This is a difficult message to hear and yet they are realizing that Scipture doesn't follow that teaching. So if they make a stand against the church, they risk rejection in their community should something terrible were to take the life of a child. This is just one example of several that we've seen in talking to those who are now learning to look to Scripture for answers. Overall, these folks struggle with the culture in which they live as compared to what God has revealed in His Word. It is not something that is too different than us, right? As it was preached Sunday, we are tempted to want to straddle the line with one foot on God's side and one foot on the world's side.

Sami and his family

Ladies with questions

African Violets!

Gotta love AFRICA!!!