Wrapping up the work in Dodoma and facing the Road of Death!

12 people sitting were baptized Saturday along with some others!

Last day of meetings 14 total tents were set up and there wasn't enough room!

During the last week - a health lesson - Tamara teaching, Joshua translating

With a name like "The Road of Death" you would think a person wouldn't really be looking forward to facing it, but we are!  It means that we are going home soon.  It has been almost three weeks since we have slept in our own beds.  We aren't complaining, but there is no place like home.
The health outreach and evangelism effort have been going on for three weeks now, and things are wrapped up.  Six hundred and thirty-nine people responded to our health expo and health outreach for testing and education.  We handed out thousands of pieces of literature on health and salvation in the last several weeks.  God has opened many doors.  We have spoken or taught in four different locations. Ten people followed their Saviour in baptism last week and 12 or more today.
The group set up an additional 9 tents, so today there are 14 tents here on the playing field of the local primary school. 

Flat dry stretch on the "road of death" from Iringa to Dodoma

Joshua helping with the sound system at the meetings

Doug testings some late comers

Doug and Joshua and many school children.

Tamara teaching and Ashery translating a health lesson

Some of the aftermath after the first dirt devil

Dirt devil aftermath another angle.

Doug and Joshua testing and giving health counseling

Ashely and a helper helping with health testing

House call to the village

Village

This village puppy was so very skinny

House call to a 90 year old grandmother and a man that had an accident.  Doug is massaging.

Walking back from that house - trash is everywhere often in these villages

Heavy load of fire wood.  People are so resourceful and hardworking.

We leave in less than two hours!  I wanted to get caught up on posts before we get back the the land of random internet!  It has been nice being able to post pictures without making them less than 50 kb each! 
I did sleep well last night (the first time in many, many days!)  Maybe concern about the NUMEROUS malaria carrying mosquitoes has been keeping me up too much.  I got enough bites last night before going to bed I guess I wasn't worried about accidentally touching the net and getting a few more during the night.  I don't know.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and support.  Much will be going on over the next few months.  We have appointments near and far through October (at least) so far. 
We are close to 10% to our goal for purchasing a vehicle for our department.  We were very blessed to be able to use a pick-up this trip.  It belongs to another department but was available because of the recent leaving of a family from Kibidula.  Soon it will be put back into service with that department as a new family is arriving for that department.  We are still praying that God will provide a vehicle for the Medical Missionary team.  Thank you for your prayers and thank you to all who are supporting this work. 

The feedback we got last night as we were saying our good-byes was very encouraging.  God is touching hearts!  One couple from a non-Christian religion, made an amazing appearance late yesterday at the closing meeting.  They brought their 5 day old baby.  They had just came from the hospital with him.  The baby was dying.  If I understood (and Joshua also gave me details) the baby would not cry or nurse.  It had been on a feeding tube.  A group of church members went and prayed with them and the baby immediately started getting better.  When the hospital released them yesterday, the father said, "We are not going home.  We will go to the church first, and I want to be baptized."  They also asked for the baby to be dedicated.  It was, and the family will start lessons to prepare to follow Jesus as their Saviour in baptism.  It was a very emotional way to end the meeting.

Many people came up to us and were so thankful for the teaching and service that we gave during the last three weeks.  Many asked for our contact info and for written materials to learn more.  Some asked us to pray for them as they seek to follow the counsel that was given them.

I challenged them to a Daniel-10-day-test.  Many accepted and I told them we would pray for them!
God is faithful.  Time to pack!

THANK YOU EVERYONE for making it possible for us to work here in Africa.
 

New and the Old

I am trying to clean up some things on my laptop tonight, since I just finished up with a project and have a few minutes before bedtime.
I was making sure some stories I had written on my desktop had indeed been made into blog posts before I delete them.  So I was looking through this site and previous posts.
I was looking at the Sights and Sounds post with all the various pictures, and it struck me how this country is so varied.
There are still people that live almost as if the rest of the world had not changed at all.  They have no electricity.  They cook using three stones as a stove.  They plant and harvest everything by hand.  Often they will use a big kinu to pound out their grains instead of taking them to a mill.  They walk everywhere they go, and some don't even have cell phones.
Then there are those that have taken in as many as possible of the developed-world's-ways.  We recently came from a wedding and the number of digital cameras and camera's on people's phones was surprising!  In some places, I think 80% of all the people have cell phones, and many of those have internet capabilities.
Cell phone towers are dotting the horizon more and more.  Even the road out to Mago has electric poles going up on it!  That seems so very strange after traveling that road for two years and there not being any electricity to the villages.  Now many people will have access to electricity!

Long flat mud houses along the "Road of Death" to Dodoma from Iringa

In other places where the lines have not come yet, there are more and more solar panels here and there.  Often we see in villages make-shift electric lines go from one place to another because people are buying electricity from someone who runs a generator at certain times in the day.  We are hearing more and more radios with loud music.  Even the buses have music videos or movies, of which I am not thrilled.   Everyone is subjected to it, whether they want to hear it or not.  Often it is so loud that even earplugs don't really help.
A few of the main roads are in good shape, and as soon as you leave those roads, often they are almost impassable.
The contrasts are amazing.
We see ox-carts, donkey carts, people carts, people carrying large loads on their heads.
Then we see the opposite.  We see semi-trucks, motorcycles, trucks, bicycles, daladalas packed to overflowing with merchandise tied on top (even goats at times.)

Ox-cart on the road between Dodoma and Iringa

It think of all the changes my generation has seen in our lives.  And then I think about the changes the people in this generation here in Tanzania have seen!  Oh, what would their grandparents think?
It just amazes me.  We experience such a huge variety of circumstances and people from day to day and place to place.  We just don't know what to expect next.
Hmm.  We live in a very varied place.

Demons and Dust Devils

For many people the idea of demon possessed people sounds like a thing out of the movies or something foolish.  But here in Tanzania, there are still practicing witchdoctors  and numerous accounts with the occult type challenges.  We are in a war between God and Satan and I think many times people forget that 1/3 of the (once holy) angels fell and now are what many call "demons." 
We have heard testimonies from people who have been very involved in witchcraft.  We have heard amazing stories from evangelist, students and close friends.  Even here just down the road from the largest university in East Africa (UDOM) in the village of Makulu during our efforts we have been hearing stories that have just happened that day while team members have been visiting guests in their homes. 
Yesterday we had a lady having a screaming foaming fit at the site (thankfully it was not during any of the teaching times, but it did run off  young men that were there to be health tested.) 
After a season of prayer things have been quit.  I just found out that she had been going to church but had stopped.  She then went to a witchdoctor to try to get a "spell or whatever" to get a husband.  Venturing on Satan's ground is a sure way to open the door for trouble.  I was also told that she is doing well now. 

Then today a lady saw us and was told we were testing blood sugars (incorrectly.)  She came and we did test her weight, height, BMI, and BP.  She received lots of counseling on health issues especially being overweight, diabetes and high BP.  She was full of questions and was very talkative.  She was with us for over an hour.  We invited her to the meetings and then the discussion turned really interesting as she started to tell us that she could not come because she has a problem with demons (especially a demon of a witchdoctor) that will not allow her to enter a church or religious meeting.  She was really very open about what was going on in her house and her problems.  She did give us her phone number and several of the local people plan to follow up with her to pray and study with her. 
And if that wasn't interesting enough - the weather is attacking us.
Friday the site and Doug were attacked by a dust devil (like a mini tornado.)  I saw it coming and ran for the truck.  Doug was putting up the measuring tape on the metal post of the sound system tent, and the dust devil picked up the tent, cutting his hand on the metal tape, broke one of the metal pipes, and dumped the tent down (three legs down one standing.)  There were only minor injuries.  The tent was welded and put back up.  Some of the speakers were damaged.

Attack #1.  Doug was holding the pole that is now on the ground where the boy is walking.

Then yesterday when we came back from lunch, we saw they were working on the speakers again.  We asked what happened and they pointed to the four tents that are together for the audience.  One was lifted off two of its legs and placed over the edges of two others.  It was moved about 4 feet!  Then we looked at the marks on the ground and saw that all of them had been moved.  They said a huge wind came and blew down the speakers and moved the tents.
Today, we saw a HUGE dust devil (MANY TIMES BIGGER than the one Friday.)  It was coming towards our site, then it changed direction and then dissappeard.  We saw it throw dirt and dibris thousands of feet in the air.  I watched for many minutes to see the debris continue upward until I couldn't even see it (and some of it was big!)  It came dangerously close to where Joshua and Ashery were. 
A friend of mine said (old World War II saying) that you know when you are close to the target when you start to "catch" flak.  Well, we must be onto something here! 

Please continue to keep us and everyone in your prayers!  We have four more days of meetings.  Many have been baptized and more are preparing for baptism Saturday.  God is faithful!

New Family Member & Dodoma Trip

Ashery is the youngest student to attend (and graduate) from the evangelism school. 

Ashery receiving his certificates at the evangelism school graduation

 After graduation he joined our family and medical missionary team.  He is proving to be a GREAT asset to our team.  He is not phased at all when we come  to challenges.  He actually loves them.  He is such a trooper.  When someone starts to ask very challenging questions he is eager to jump in and work out the confusion.  He prays a lot and God is giving him the gift of helping people understand things that seem complicated to them.  We praise the Lord for bringing him into our team and family.  It has been funny though.  We have run into something we didn't expect.  Many people think he is a black American instead of a Tanzanian.  Oh, it makes for some funny misunderstandings.

The trip to Dodoma was longer than we thought.  I had forgotten that the road between Iringa and Dodoma was called "The Road of Death."  We had learned that name for it when we were in language school over two years ago.  It is the shortest route to Dodoma, but many buses and people had been taking the much longer way to Morogoro and back.  We were told that one time someone had been told not to go that way, but he insisted.  He was on motorcycle and thought he could pick his way through.  It took him TWO DAYS to get there!  They have been doing a lot of work (and still are) on the road.  The area that goes through the mountains is something to behold for sure!  WOW.  It was pretty, but a bit scary.  I don't know if I would be so willing to pass through there on bus and certainly think twice about going that route during the rainy season.

The steep mountain-side road (with no guardrails) on the Road of Death

We have been having a steady stream of people getting testing at the health expo.  It isn't much of an expo anymore, since we had to take our banners down.  The wind here is fierce and after one day, several of our banners were BADLY damaged.  I am not sure what I will do about that.  So they have come down and we will not be using them again this trip.  We will need to replace them SOON.

Doug singing and exercising with some students

Our meeting site is on the playground of a school.  We have lots of young visitors everyday.  We have taken turns telling them stories, testing them, playing violin for them, sing songs with them and teach them.

We had hoped that we would have some local assistance with the testing, but that hasn't materialized.  The evening teaching sessions are going great and we have had some extra speaking opportunities also.  We did house to house work Saturday afternoon.  That was great.  We met a lot of people and were able to meet several people with lots of health questions.  We were able to get back with one household today, and more people are coming to the meetings.

Dodoma health expo taking blood pressures

Between us and the other people going door-to-door, people have taken hundreds of
tracts on the Good News of salvation and health.

Today the evangelist and other church members went house to house.  They encountered at least one man that was suffering with demons.  It was a very interesting story (a bit grotesque at points.)  But the man asked for help and they prayed much with him.  He had many witchcraft charms and was scared to touch them and told people if they touched them they (the charms) would kill them.  Well, our group touched them and helped the man make a fire and they burned all the witchcraft items (the man's desire) and he is now wanting to be baptized!  God is amazing.

We have two more weeks to go here.  Thank you for all the prayers!

Bee challenge

 A few Sunday's ago, Asheli was here doing his laundry and doing various things around our house (including learning more English, helping with some yard work, violin lesson and piano lesson.)  After lunch, we heard the very familiar sound of a swarm of bees passing by.
I quickly jumped up to close up the doors.  I am not afraid of bees, but it is a chore to capture them and return them back outside when they get lost in the house.  I was trying to help them out by keeping them in the safety of the outdoors.
Usually they pass so quickly it is a challenge to see them.  But they didn't move through so fast.  I went outside and was standing in the area full of swarming bees.  I looked to where the largest concentration of bees were flying around and watched for a while.  Soon I was joined by the rest of the group (Doug, Joshua and Asheli.)  I said, "I think they are going into your sleeping bag, Asheli."

There are still a few bees flying around the opening in the bag

Doug and I started talking about the possibilities of capturing the bees.  We were lamenting that we had not prepared the bee hive that we have often talked about.  As we continued to discuss possibilities, Asheli broke into our thoughts with the statement, "But what do I do???? What will I sleep in tonight?"
His voice reflected great concern.  I told him we would not let him sleep in the cold.  Bless his heart.  This was not a welcome sight to him at all, but Doug, Joshua and I were quite excited about it in a different way.
Quite a bit later, there were only a few bees flying around and the rest were not to be seen.  I tried to look into the sleeping bag, but it was dark inside, it was difficult.  I took my camera, turned on the flash and took a few pictures.  Oh, what did we see?  It was thousands of bees happy as could be snug as bugs in a rug!

Oh, wow.  Yes, the flash tells the story.  They are indeed in there!

We loaned a different sleeping to Asheli, and I carefully removed all of his remaining clothes from the clothes line.  He was not very interested in coming close to those bees.  After a while, the bees started being a bit more defensive about their newly acquired sleeping bag.
After many hours, when dusk was upon us, I started dressing a bit more carefully hoping to remove the bees from the precious sleeping bag.  Doug prepared a box for me.  I put on gloves, tied my shirt tightly around my waist to remove any gaps.  I was wearing two or three layers.  I put on a hat and put on a net over it.  I went out to the bag and started my new adventure.

waiting for the bucket - adventure begins

 I tried to shake the bees out of the bag into a 5 gallon bucket.  They didn't slip out nicely, but went here and there.  Some were in the bucket, some were on the outside of the bucket, some were in grass by the bucket, and too many were still in the sleeping bag!  Hmm.  So where is the queen?
After some encouragement from Doug I tried to shake out the rest from the sleeping bag.
After some time, a massive clump of bees were huddled on the bucket.  Some were inside, but most were outside.  This was causing the bucket to tip with the weight of them.  I didn't want it to tip over so I was holding it as Doug was preparing the box.

heavy bucket of bees.

After the box was ready I poured the clump into the box.  I was doing too much squatting and standing.  I started to notice that it felt that my shirt was feeling a bit loose around my waist, but I was too busy to do anything about it.  Foolish, foolish me!
I don't know how long I was out there dealing with all these bees until I started feeling a lot of crawling on my back, on bare skin under my shirt close to my waist.  Oh, that got my immediate attention!
I calmly stood up and tried to walk as carefully as possible as to not squish a bee and to produce a pain that I would not quickly forget.  These bees have a sting that seems to last a lot longer with complications than the ones we have encountered in the US.  I didn't want to give them any reasons to remind me of the reason many people fear them in these parts of Africa.
Doug came to my rescue.  He got a fly swatter and gently coaxed bee by bee and sometimes small groups off my bare skin and my clothes and relocated them onto the nearby wall of the house.
He removed bee after bee.  Over a hundred we are sure.  Finally he said that I could start getting out of my clothes.  Joshua had been sent to a remote part of the house, and I carefully came out of my outer clothes outside.  I left them outside.  (For a few days, actually!)

Still bees on my clothes the day after

I went inside in my last remaining layers.  In the bathroom, I removed the last of the clothes and prepared for a bath.  Another bee must have been tucked in somewhere, for now there was one in the bathroom flying around.  Doug helped him out.  There were at least two more in the living room also.
What a night!

The next day Doug dressed carefully and moved the box to a distant place hoping to get the hive prepared.

Doug the next morning

He worked on it most of the day.  I noticed many small areas of bees that morning and through the day until the sun was very high.  We decided not to do our laundry this day.  We would give the bees some space.

Little pockets of bees on the clothesline posts

The number of bees seemed to increase through out the morning.  There were a lot it seemed that were no longer in the box.

Bees here

Bees there, here a bee, there a bee....

After hours and sunshine, the small groups of bees that were here and there all over the walls and clothes lines post appeared to have disappeared with the exception of one large massive clump of bees that was growing on the post.  It seems that they had all come together in that one spot.  So I was wondering if they were confused or if we had truly missed the queen.  (I didn't get a pictures of the mass on the post.)

After another hour or so, they took off in a swarm!  Hmm.  I guess she was there after all.  Doug went to check the box, and it was EMPTY!  They had escaped and returned to the group during the morning hours.

Well, we have no bees, no stings, and now a partially built bee hive - and some experience.
AND WE GOT THE SLEEPING BAG BACK.  There was a lot of white stuff in it where the bees had been.  It appears that they had started setting up house and they were already putting out the wax!

Life is always an adventure in the mission field, and we just don't know where the next adventure will spring up!  It can even be in the sleeping bag.  Who thought laundry could be so exciting?

God was so good to us through this.  Truly He cares about the little and the big.  He kept us totally safe during this whole adventure, and gave us hopes for future honey making as well.  Truly it is SWEET to trust in Him.  Truly sweet indeed.  

Seeing Double - playing around

We have really enjoyed the new camera that Craig brought when he came with the One-Day-School building crew.  Here are a few shots that we had fun with on this trip.

Watson, our translator, checking out something on the motorcycle

Joshua playing on the gate wall

Lunch being made by Godfrey

Watson at the guest house "relaxing" with his phone

Kiliangawana and Kipeta

We were invited to do health meetings and health expos in two villages in the Rukwa Rift Valley on the West side of Tanzania.  Several of our past students and current evangelists came to be at the meetings with us.  It was very nice to see old friends and to work together to share the love of Jesus with others.
We found a guest house in a village between the two villages where the meetings were to be held.  The good news is that the rooms had decent beds, and private toilets.  The challenging news was that the place is also a pub and people were drinking and making all kinds of noise until the wee hours of the night every night (except when it rained.) 
We had to fetch our water out of a cistern that catches rain water from the roof.  I had forgotten how “refreshing” cold water bucket bathes were.
The weather in this area is very warm during the days and it cools just a bit during the night. 
The local government officials were very happy to hear about the programs that we were planning to do and they offered us meeting locations free of charge. 

Joshua teaching the kids a new game

Teaching under the mango tree

Lots of people coming to the meetings

Kipeta full house

Woman pounding rice (probably)

The big government building we used

Ripe ready rice

Health expo in Kilangawana

Our team (minus Doug and Joshua plus a couple of kids)

Village sights

Health Expo Kilangawana under the mango tree

Teaching in Lipeta

Our rice we purchased drying before going to the mill

The mill and owner (and a Pastor Zawadi)

In Kilangawana we actually met at the village counselor’s house!  We met under the big mango tree in his front yard each day for four days.  We taught using the generator and projector each day.  We ate our lunch in their home, then each afternoon we held the health expo.  People came to get their heights, weights, BMI, peak-flow meter test, and health counseling.  Our past students and evangelists were a huge help with both the meetings and expos. 
Each day we had a full crowd for the meetings and many people for the health expo.  There were 180 people that came through in Kilangawana.  We praise the Lord for keeping the rains away during meeting times.  It did rain a little during some of the nights.


After four days of meetings there, we went to the village of Kipeta.  The local government gave us full access to a new government building for the meetings and health expo.  Again we had very good attendance for the meetings and expo.  118 people passed through the health expo.  There would have been more, but this is the time of harvest and many people have gone out to the fields to harvest the grains that are starting to dry.  We have been asked to come back again in August or September when the field work is done. 
People were very happy.  We saw changes in people, in just a short time.  These villages are plagued with pombe (homemade beer) drinking.  As we taught about the harms of alcohol on the brain and body, we saw people’s lives changing before our eyes!  It was so very exciting!
The Lord blessed in many, many ways and we pray that people received with understanding the message the truly God is LOVE and He loves each one of them.

We learned that in these villages there are at least two machines that can refine the locally grown rice into brown rice instead of white rice.  We were so very excited for this news.  The owner of one of the mills brought us some brown rice as a gift.  We were so happy to know that people can make the choice to eat the healthier brown (unrefined) rice if they so choose.  The people in these villages were glad to learn this also. 

We purchased two buckets of the fresh rice and it will be taken to the mill tomorrow to have the husks removed.  This area grows much rice a large type of millet (much bigger than the kind we have in the U.S.) corn and sesame seeds.  I asked what the people use the sesame seeds for, and I was told that they don’t use them at all.  They only grow them to sell to others that take them far away to sell.  Isn’t that interesting?  It was very interesting to me to see the plants in various stages.

The people here have greeted us warmly and want us to come back to encourage them more.  I hope that we can meet their request as God opens the way and provides means.