This month in Tanzania has gone by quickly. After the
parents came, Ally and I went straight to ministry to meet up with our team in
Moshi, Tanzania. It’s the closest town to Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest free
standing mountain in the world.
Instead of being greeted by our four team members, there
were ten other girls too. They are a Passport team from Adventures all college
age doing a four month mission trip around Africa. Instantly Ally and I fell in
love with them just as our other teammates had.
We got to do ministry alongside the girls for a week before
they left to go to Uganda. They’re actually now at the same contact we were in
Uganda which made us so excited for them!
This month we’ve helped build a church in the bush. Some of
the group would do construction while a smaller group would evangelize.
Shelley, standing on the sturdy homemade ladder, is throwing water on the bricks to strengthen to concrete. Ally and I are helping refill the water. Sam and Courtney are working very hard sitting on the bricks.
We also did door to door ministry and we went to orphanages.
When the Passport team was here, we went to an orphanage that had 20 girls. It
was very nice there and they treated us like we were famous. They gave us soda,
popcorn, cookies, tea, and coffee. We played with the girls and shared a Bible
story with them.
My favorite day of ministry in Tanzania though was after the
Passport team had left. We went to another orphanage. Only four of my team
went. We rode on public transportation for about an hour and a half. Finally we
got out of the matatu (public transport van that should only fit 14 people because there are only 14 seats, but regularly fits about 30) and walked down a random street. Then tons of kids
started running down the street after us. It was the cutest thing! One young
boy jumped into Sam’s arms, and a little girl jumped into mine.
Me and Witness
I fell in love there with that whole place. Ester is the
lady who runs it. I asked her how she got the vision for the orphanage and loved her story. When she got saved, she felt the Lord lead her to go save older people
who were going to die soon and didn’t know the Lord. When she was doing that,
God showed her what he really wanted her to do. She found so many young children with no
parents and relatives who would soon be gone. The orphans are what God had in
mind for her. So, she started an orphanage, taking care of those in the bush
and around her community with no one to take care of them.
Now she had 15 kids, 4 girls and 11 boys, in her orphanage.
She has no money, nothing to take care of them with, but relies on the Lord. It
was so wonderful to go to a place and have people sharing this with us without
them asking us for money. I think it’s in the African culture to ask white
people for money, they must think it grows on trees in America.
We played with the kids all afternoon. I loved it so much! A
little girl named Witness clung to my side the whole day. It’s crazy how now I’ve been to three
orphanages within a month and have loved it. God’s been changing my heart for
the kids who have no one to love them.
We only have three more days in Africa and I’m so excited to
go to Europe. It’s crazy for me to believe Africa has already come and gone,
but I’m excited to see what God has for us next.
The Passport Girls
