I am currently in Bangalore, India, after a few days of travel, including a 36-hour train ride for our FINAL month of the race!!!!! I still can’t believe the race is almost over! We will be working with YWAM this month doing various types of ministry throughout the city. However, before I jump into this month I wanted to catch you up on the end of our month in Tanzania.
Our “tribal” village experience wasn’t quite what we expected, but it was exactly what it needed to be. The landscape was breathtaking and left me in awe of our magnificent Creator. Below are some pictures that give you a glimpse of our nine day journey to three small villages.
Tent city in the first village. The new church plant is the tin roof structure in the background.
Tent city outside of the church in the second village.
This is what happens when 14 mzungus show up and set up 14 tents in a small village.
Since this was month three of drawing a crowd we started having a little fun with it. Although it looks like children were terrified by the mzungus running towards them, rest assured they all returned 10 seconds later to continue watching us in our tents.
I got to hold these girls’ sweet baby brother for two hours!!!! I LOVED having a baby strapped to me!
It doesn’t get any better than snuggling sweet babies!!!!
This beautiful little one didn’t even like mzungus looking at her. If we came within 10 feet of her she would start crying.
This is the crowd that gathered within two minutes of us arriving in the third, very remote, village. The village has only seen two white people ever. Needless to say, when 14 mzungus showed up we were the talk of the village.
This is the crowd we gathered when we were putting up our tents, and this was the crowd that remained outside of our tents everyday while we were there.
This is just how curious the kids were…we kind of felt like we were in a zoo. The kids would just watch us in our tents all day long.
This was our “toilet” in the third village (with the church in the background), that I opted not to use when the sun went down due to an excessive amount of critters. I would just pop a squat behind it or behind a bush (I have come a long way since the start of the race).
Beautiful African women!!!!!
The third village was what I pictured Africa being like, including incredible sunsets and the most stars I have ever seen!
Needless to say we were all left in awe of our incredible Creator.
I got another baby strapped to me!!!! LOVED every minute of it!!!
This was the crowd of adults we gathered while doing our children’s program. We kind of felt like celebrities since SO many people just wanted to see us and touch us.
I had the privalege of naming these two three-week-old twins. It all started with me holding the baby on the right. As soon as I got the baby the older women were trying to tell me something in their local tongue (which I obviously didn’t understand), so I grabbed our translater to translate what they were saying. Come to find out when you hold one twin you have to hold the other one to bless both babies. So next thing I know another baby is placed in my arms. Needless to say, I was in heaven holding two newborn African babies! Not only did I get to name them (David on the left and Paul on the right) but the Lord also provided an opportunity for me to share the gospel with their mother and she ended up accepting Christ! Such an incredible experience that I will never forget!
Yet another incredible sunset!!!
Visiting the babies in their home 🙂
With Geneva, the mom of the twins.
Apparently a mzungu holding an African baby is quite entertaining. Everyone just pointed and laughed as I snuggled with yet another precious African baby.
I was sad to leave Africa and all of the sweet African children, however I know that I will be back there one day 🙂 Hope you enjoyed all of the pictures! Since this is our last month we are trying to take advantage of every moment, so I am not sure how much I will blog this month.
Please pray for my squad and me as we are reflecting on the past 11 months and preparing to return home at the end of this month. Words cannot even begin to express how grateful I am for everyone’s encouraging words, powerful prayers, and financial support. This journey has been life-changing to say the least and would not have been possible without all of YOU! I can’t wait to share more of my heart when I return to the States in less than a month!
