Lodging: This month we are living in a house with a family…well grown siblings. I have no idea the total number because some leave and new ones appear all the time. There are two teams here: ours and team Joy’l. We share beds and have access to an indoor bathroom with western toilets-three amazing things. I know I am feeling blessed. We have access to internet at a little motel down the road, but it is incredibly slow so I avoided it all month.
Food: We have three sweet ladies from the church who come every day, each with one adorable small child in tow, to cook our meals. We have a lot of spaghetti noodles, potato wedges/fries, rice, beans, and occasionally some greens or cabbage. We also eat a lot of bananas and have access to a market nearby where we buy tomatoes and carrots and other fruits to supplement our meals. Culturally we should be eating a lot of Chapatti –a dense, tortilla-like food- but after a rough bout of stomach troubles in week one, they kindly took it off the menu rotation. We have also been spared from ugahli, a bland porridge-like food very common throughout Africa.
People: The people of Tanzania are very friendly. There are quite a few greetings they use, and everyone you pass will greet you. On the Race, and even more specifically in Africa, I think we get a glimpse of what life as a celebrity would be like. Everyone stops and looks as you pass or tries to shake your hand. You are constantly yelled at or kindly greeted. People will ask to take pictures with you or “stealthily” take pictures with their phones when they think you aren’t looking. Kids flock to you. If you hand is at your side, it will be grasped by one or two children as soon as they catch sight of you. It is not uncommon to become a human jungle gym. You will be pet like an animal-arms, head, legs. On the last day of the crusade I had to walk through a crowd of a hundred or so children to exit and had kids pulling at my clothes, petting my hair, strongly tugging on me, and shouting at me the whole walk to the exit and until some of our contacts firmly dismissed them, although not all obeyed. Africa has the ability to be a tad overwhelming, and I haven’t even mentioned the spiritual aspects yet. I should be touching on those in my next blog…hopefully..possibly…mmm, well see. Overall, though, it has been a lot better than I expected so thank you for praying!
Ministry: This month we have played with some children, and attended and sang at a crusade. One of the coolest contributions we have made here in Singida, Tanzania is the establishment (well, it’s in the process,) of a website setting up sponsorships for the children here. Our talented Amanda Tuten spent the first week taking pictures and gathering information about the kids in the area around the church and is now working on setting up the website for Greater Grace ministries. They formerly relied on sponsorships solely from World Racers who came through because they could not afford a website. Now the world will be able to have the ability to help these sweet children through this site. More details will appear on Facebook or at the bottom of another blog when they site is ready. If you have been thinking about sponsoring a child, feel free to contact me and I can get you even more details while I am still here.
Prayer Requests:
-There is a lot of spiritual warfare here in Africa and since Satan is a deceitful, conniving jerk, it is manifesting in all sorts of ways for each of us. Please pray for the armor of God over us, and eyes open to anything before us. Also, pray that we would be constantly be aware and in awe of the greatness and power of the one true God whom we serve.
-I have had a few months in a row of struggling with trusting the integrity of our contacts, which is completely a reaction of my flesh contributed to by difficulty in communication, so please pray that in each place I have God’s heart for everyone we interact with and do not operate out of skepticism first.
-Pray for my team. Satan has targeted our unity in a couple of ways this month and we also, honestly, struggle a bit with laziness due to our lax schedule. Pray we are initiators and don’t operate based solely on if we are assigned a duty, but look for ways to serve and be Jesus all around. I don’t know what that is going to look like…You could just pray we have a contact with more for us to do next month too. Oh, and that we adjust well to the potential subtle team changes occurring at the end of this month.
-Pray for peace over prophecy I have gotten for next month and a preparation of hearts for events to come. I know God works all things together for good, but I can never be reminded enough.
-Pray for our travel at the end of the month. It will be a good 30+ hours on a bus to get to the next country. It won’t be non-stop since busses don’t run at night so it will likely get a little crazy. Then there is the always-full-of-surprises border crossing. Pray for peace and sound minds for our logistics people, and patience for the whole squad.
Thank you all for the love and support!!
