Welcoming us to our final month in Africa, along with a handful of Maasai women hawking their goods, was something I have been excited to see for three months. Standing at over 18,000 feet tall and known as the tallest free-standing mountain in Africa, I couldn’t help but smile when I finally set my eyes on Mount Kilimanjaro. We’ve made it to Tanzania!
Our ministry location this month is in Moshi. It is the town that trekkers stay in right before they climb Kilimanjaro. Our church is located about a five minute drive outside the main city, so it’s quieter… well, kind of quieter.
We arrived to the church yesterday afternoon and were greeted by eight mzungus! I was so surprised to learn that we will be spending this month with a passport team! There are 10 girls that will stay here with our 6 girl team. So, you can imagine that with 16 girls our home is anything but quiet. It’s going to be a fun girl’s month! For those of you who don’t know what a passport team is, let me explain. A Passport trip is also based out of Adventures in Missions (the organization I’m with for the World Race), but they travel for only four months and have a slightly bigger team. The team with us is a passport expedition team so they travel to three different countries in four months. This is their second month on the field, and they have been such a refreshment and burst of energy for us who are now on month nine.
They got here a couple days before us, so they were able to show us around when we got here. Our home for the month is an outshoot from the church. It’s not connected, but it’s close enough that it could be. There is a hallway with a few rooms in it that the passport team is staying in. Our room is next to that home and has six bunk beds. We have beds this month! We also have a couple squatty potties and a bucket shower. There is a lady here from Arusha who cooks our meals for us and she is just so loving and trusting in the Lord.
I’m still not quite sure what we’ll be doing this month. It sounds like a little door to door in the mornings and then different ministries in the afternoons. We have the opportunity to stay in villages during the week to help build and plant churches in them.
One thing I’m really hoping to do while I’m here is get to summit Mount Kilimanjaro. We can see it from our house every morning when we get up before the clouds roll in. There are a lot of factors that might prevent it from happening, but I’m optimistic that it’ll happen. I can’t imagine being this close to Kilimanjaro and not attempting the climb. I’ll keep you updated. It’s going to be a great last month in Africa.
