Our address

Sorry I never was able to post our address here at the base.  If you are planning on sending something here it is!

YWAM ARUSHA
Nick Forrest
Po Box 10295
Arusha, Tanzania

A little update about our family

Blog post:

               4 weeks!

               We have been here 4 weeks now and are starting to settle in a bit.  Our home is almost all set up and we are starting to learn where to go to buy our vegetables, meat, groceries, etc.   Bucket showers are no big deal anymore and the dogs barking all night no longer keeps us up.

The Arusha YWAM base is about 15 minutes drive from downtown Arusha.  The base has a main hall, a dining hall with a kitchen, a row of offices, classrooms, dorms and then a row of staff/family housing. We are at the end of the staff housing in an apartment on the lower level.  In order to get to classes we walk along a dirt path lining the housing to the main area of the base which takes about 2 minutes if you are by yourself but with the girls who trip over everything and have to stop to fix something it takes about 8.  With my parents here they are along the row of the houses as well and so the girls are able to go back and forth by themselves which is a huge step towards them being a little more independent.  All around us are lots of kids around the girls’ age but they only speak Swahili so it has been hard for the girls  to be able to play with them.  Also they like to pull the toys apart that aren’t supposed to be pulled apart which makes Hannah a little upset.  There is a family that has a little girl named Rita that Hannah really likes but they live out in Engikaret and only come back once every couple weeks for a day.  Yesterday when Rita showed up at our house Hannah went crazy. She became this social butterfly and couldn’t get enough of Rita.  She only speaks Swahili as well and is 5 but her and Hannah seem to be the same temperament so they seem to like each other because of that.  The couple days we were out in engikaret Hannah and Rita played so well together.  At the Arusha base the kids are a little pushier than Hannah and hailey would like. Hailey likes a couple of the kids but follows Hannah around mostly and copies everything she does.  Hannah loves it but also wants a break every now and then. They have been becoming better friends every day. Hannah has stepped up her role as a big sister and Hailey has really enjoyed watching and learning from Hannah.  They are starting to say Swahili greetings to people and wave.  Nobody here has been able to pick them up but them even saying Hi is a step in the right direction.  They are learning more every day. The biggest thing that they are struggling with right now is being a bit bored. We were so used to going somewhere every day that they are having a hard time just being at the base. There is only so many places to walk to on base and so many things to do in the house.  They want to go to town or do something different than what we do every day.   Once we get a car it will get easier to get out a couple times a week but even then it is not very safe to drive around Arusha.   We will get the hang of it once our car arrives.  Nick has tried to get his license but our Residence permit visas still have not been issued so we are here still as tourists. 

               Nick has enjoyed DTS thus far.  He has classes Monday through Friday and then once every month there is an outreach.  There have been 3 weeks of class and last week was a great week.  A lady from South Africa who works in Tanzania came and taught the class. I was able to sit through class and I really enjoyed her teaching. It is so interesting to see the difference in teaching/learning styles between Tanzanians and Americans.  On Sunday the DTS starts its mini-outreach and they have decided that this year it is in Engikaret so the girls and I are able to come.  They will be helping teach the preschool, doing door to door (well boma to boma evangelism), and some other things.   Saturday is a Massai Christian Wedding that we will be attending out there and then we will be staying through the week.  The week following they are holding classes out in Engikaret so Nick will be gone 2 weeks out there.  The girls and I are going to try and be out there as much as possible but we am leaving that up to how the girls do the first week.  We are excited to be out there as a family.

               We are learning a lot about surrendering every day to Jesus and hearing what He wants us to do with our time.  We would love to hear how you are.  You can email us at nhforrest@yahoo.com or post on here how we can pray for you and how the ministry you are involved in is going.  Thank you so much for your prayers.  We are doing better and better every day we are here. We love you and appreciate you all soo much. 

Some pictures of our adventures so far!

On our way to Engikaret to see the Massai women.   Hailey falls asleep every time she gets into the car... still has her dog!:) Hannah loves not having a car seat!

Saying goodbye to everyone to come back to Arusha. We were there for a ceremony to bless one of the woman that has been working out there for the last 5 years and is getting married and moving away. 

Becoming closer friends every day.  Hannah likes to dress like a ballerina whenever she can!:)

Hannah out in Engikaret with Promise and Rita (Rita is in the back making the face).  Hannah misses Rita when we have to come back into town.

Watching the celebration for Mary's wedding (like a bridal shower)

Hailey might have been a little tired waiting for her lunch:)

Ready to go to church for the first time. 

If you look closely at her arm you will see Hannah's favorite friend thus far, her gecko.

An answer to our prayers (well really Nick and Hailey's). We have a dog that comes by our house every morning for breakfast.  A puppy, maybe 3 months old. Nick and Hailey named him "woof".  He keeps trying to come in for shelter but Heidi keeps kicking him out. :)

Tear Streaks and Naptime Prayers

Two things that almost made me (Nick) cry today as I was putting the girls down for their naps this afternoon. The first was from Hailey. The more I get to know her, the more I think she is so much like me. Today, we were having lunch at Pappy and yaya's house. Mommy was going up to the office to send some emails and I had finished class so I was going to take the girls down to our house for their naps and do some homework while they slept. There is a long stretch of apartment like housing where the staff stay and then beyond that is the courtyard where classes are and student housing and then after that is the offices. Pappy and Yaya live on the front end of the staff housing and we live all the way down at the end. Hannah and I left pappy and yaya's and headed down toward our house. All of a sudden, Hannah said, where is Hailey? I turned around and she was marching her little self all by herself past the staff housing, almost to the courtyard another fifty yards away, almost to the offices past that. Hannah and I followed at a distance to see how far she would go. She passed students, staff, workers, throwing her arms backing and forth, swaying her hips and stomping her little feet, not afraid of a thing! She had no idea we were behind her. She knew exactly where she wanted to go and she was just fine getting there by herself. In the distance, I saw a problem. A Tanzanian that wanted to greet Hailey. So far, she hadn't been noticed, but now, this little white girl in a sea of Tanzanians realized she was outnumbered. She looked up a the young person that said hello and I could see in her that she felt lost. She turned right around and ran back toward home. Crying all the way until she turned the corner and saw Hannah and me waiting for her there. As I picked her up, and took her home, placing her in her bed for her nap, I looked down at her little face and could see tear streaks on her cheeks. Her little face was so dirty from the dust that covers everything here that you could see the troughs running down her face as the water rushed through like the rivers. When it rains here you can always see the signs of the rain. things have changed. You see a difference in the terrain. some roads are clean, others are left with debris, but everything is a little different. The leaves on the trees are rinsed, roofs look like they have been swept, puddles are left everywhere. As i saw the change that the streaks of made on Hailey's face, I felt like I wanted to cry because I could see that she is changing. I could see that she is different than she was when she came and so am I. I have gotten used to her face being dirty. She loves the dust. Its like the entire world is her own personal sandbox and she can't get enough of it. I've become accustom to Hailey constantly having a thin layer of dust all over her, and she has changed too. She is becoming her adventurous self again. She is turning into the hailey she was in America, only now, she is the hailey in Africa. She can march herself wherever she wants again. She is not confined anymore to mommy's hip or daddy's arms, but she is free again to be Hailey.
The second thing that almost led me to tears today during nap time was the sound of my daughter's voice in prayer as I left hailey in her room on my way into our room. Hannah was in our room, sitting up in the bed, talking to her Lord and I was eavesdropping. I heard her little 3 1/2 (almost 4, daddy) year old voice crying out to God. She said, in teh quietness of her prayer, "please tell them that I am crying right now." And then she began to cry.
I walked into the room slowly, not wanting to interrupt her prayers, but wanting to hear her heart for myself. She said, "I was praying that Jesus would go and tell all of my friends in Wenatchee that I miss them and that I am crying right now....all except Mya because I think she is probably on Skype and I was going to tell her myself." She began to tell me all about her friends, about how much she misses all of them; Mya, Emma, Kaylie, Lana, I really Amy, Grandma, I really miss my Grandma, Oh, and Grace, Grace is gonna be my age when I get back, and Oakley, and Abby, and Auntie Sarah, and Uncle Phil..." After all of this, she said, "I really wish that I would have given all of my friends a bigger hug before I left...I want to go home" I was tempted to just hold her and feel so sad that she had to be here where she does not feel at home yet. But instead, I felt this surge of pride and thankfulness. I was so proud of my little girl that she knew where to go when she felt alone. I was so proud of my eldest daughter that she trusted Jesus to be able to deliver a message for her. I was so proud of my wife and my family and all of my friends, all of you that have had a part in my daughter's life, teaching her that Jesus is real, he is here, and he hears us when we pray. Thank you. thank you for helping my baby to know Jesus. And then, I felt so thankful to Jesus that he has given my little girl an opportunity to pray. I was so thankful that he brought us here, to a place that is different than we are used to and given Hannah a reason to cry out to him. Thank you Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you.

Prudence: Not All It's Cracked Up to Be

Today as I read the Bible I came across a passage by accident. Proverbs 22:3 says, "A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it." Its an interesting life that comes with prudence. A life full of safety and control, foresight and planning. When I first read this, I had a thought of relief. I thought, well that makes things easy. No, that makes things very easy. This has now become for me Biblical proof that quitters prosper!!! When things are hard for me here or there, it is prudence, it is wisdom to take refuge. It is the right thing to quit while I am ahead. It is the simpleton that keeps going down the same old road of frustration and suffers for it.
Here lies the problem and it is two fold. The first is with a misunderstanding of prudence and the second is with a misunderstanding of simplicity and suffering. If I understand prudence to be something of my own doing, something of my own ability and skill, my discernment, well then there is no safety at all in the refuge I might find. "the best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley" (ref. Sermon aug 28th) If, on the other hand it is the wisdom of God that comes through His spirit and is encountered in His presence, well then, there is a strong tower of refuge and help in a time of need. That seems to be a different kind of prudence. Thats more like listening then planning. There is always a situation and circumstance that seems dangerous. There will always be a potential of disaster. To follow prudence will be to never, ever complete anything. But to follow Prudence sometimes is going down the same old road and suffering for it.
The second misunderstanding, then, lies in simplicity and suffering. When I suffer, I pray it is not because of my own prudence, but I pray that I suffer because of my simplicity. To look at life as smart versus simple is to see a dynamic that doesn't exist. Life is more complicated than that. Moments, people, decisions are only smart or stupid. We live in a real world with real and delicate problems. But in the simplicity of hearing the Words of God and staying still long enough to watch as they are fulfilled there must be peace. There must be peace. There must be!
James says, "my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance."
A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keeps going and suffers for it. I pray that I can avoid refuge today. I pray that I don't slink back to places that are safe for me, but instead, I pray that the proverb is true for me. I pray that I can simply keep going in suffering of any kind that it may produce endurance for me. There is a lot of running left to do today. Lord, give me grace sufficient for the challenge.

Meditation or Imagination

Today, one of our training instructors said a phrase that I'm not sure it meant as much to her as it did to me, but all the same, it has reminded me of something very important. Today, I spent almost 4 hours learning about what it means to have Quite Time and at first glance, I was tempted to be prideful. I was tempted to look up into the sky and shout, "what am I doing here?!?!" But, then, the Lord reached into the memoirs of my mind and showed me some places that I still need to be taught about quiet time; specifically as it relates to meditation and imagination.
She said, Meditation is not Imagination. That simple statement spoke! Certainly we can use our imagination to meditate on our Creator, for who could find a being that could create so much without using our imagination. Surely we use our imagination to see the Lord as our shepherd, leading us beside still waters, making us to lie down in green pastures, restoring our souls. Surely in our imagination, we see goodness and mercy following us all the days of our lives.
But there is another part of my meditation, in the quietness of my heart, in my Quite Times where I feel a conviction. What happens when Imagination becomes my Meditation? What happens when my meditation on the Lord becomes unfocused and misguided; no longer guided by His Words and His presence, but instead guided by what I think I might want. I imagine myself with a great following. I imagine myself no longer plagued by my soft-spokenness, no longer full of so many ideas. I imagine myself like someone else. I imagine myself looking like my grandfather with all of the patience in the world and calm acceptance of what comes in life. Then, I remember my own personality. I see my drivenness and my anxiousness and am dissatisfied with who I am. Or I imagine, calling it meditation, all of the ways my other grandfather commands attention. How he is a man of few words, but when they are spoken everyone listens. How his ideas are few and far between, but always worth listening to and working out. Then, I see my head full of far-fetched, optimistic and incredible ideas that often don't pan out. I hear my many words that might be encouraging to people some of the time, but so many often are unheard and imagine that I was differently made. Meditation certainly invokes imagination, but imagination is not meditation in and of itself.
When it becomes really counter-productive is when we begin to imagine God rather than meditate on him and our anthropomorphism really take shape. I imagine how god will give me every desire of my mind...no, I mean heart. I imagine how God will develop in me a totally new person immune to struggling and all of a sudden imagination has taken over my meditation and God has become way too much like me. God made me the way He intended me to be. The problem parts I've come up with on my own. As for today, my job is to meditate on him rather than to imagine the God of Creation The way I see fit.

Saying Yes IS Saying No

"Yes, Lord!  I'll go where you send me!  I do what you have called me to do!  I'll suffer hardship and lay my life down for your purpose."  Hallelujah!  Its so exciting to say "Yes!" and so exhilarating.  Finally being able to articulate a plan, being able to chart a course, move forward, take direction.  It makes you feel unstoppable, too.  If I have said "YES!" to the Lord, then no harm can befall me.  No weapon formed against me shall prosper.  No height, nor depth, nor present, nor future, nor power, nor principality....

Then, we arrive in Africa as a family and together, we begin to realize maybe a little bit more of what the disciples must have felt when Jesus says, "Come, follow me" and they all respond with a resounding, "YES!!!  I will follow you!"  They don't even really pack their things.  They just go.  They leave their nets where they lay, they leave their families in the midst of fishing season, tax season, harvest time and they just go.  But when they finally arrive in some other place, away from what they used to know, away from where they fit in, away from the people they have invested years of their lives into I wonder if they realized before they left that saying "Yes!" is saying, "no", too.  Being here in Africa, in Tanzania, the land the Lord has shown us time and time again, we continue to see the incredible things God is doing here.  We continue to feel His presence and hear His voice, we continue to love the language and get excited about the potential that is building for a revival of all nations, an outpouring of the power and the spirit of God and to all of these things, we say, "YES!!!"  But then, we arrive at home after a day of prayer and fellowship and work and we remember that we have said "no", too, and that has left us with a sense of mourning that we did not expect.  We did not expect to feel mourning for the loss of our close proximity to our family.  We did not expect to mourn the loss of a coffee date or afternoon barbecue.  We did not expect to mourn the loss of Hannah's playtimes with her friends.  All of those things seemed to inconsequential before; we could take them or leave them.  If they fit into our plans, then sure.  We can go get a coffee and sit down and talk.  Sure, we can bring some toys over and let the girls play.  If it works out.  Now, we experience the cost of discipleship in a way that we did not expect and the words of the gospel come alive in a new way when Jesus says, "he who does not hate father, mother, wife, children, {coffee dates and play times] is not fit for the kingdom of heaven."  And now it makes more sense, too, because I don't hate them at all.  I love my family and my friends.  I love my father and mother.  What I hate right now is not being with them!!  But if I were to love them so much that I would allow myself to begin to hate what I have come to do here, if I would love them so much that I would give in to the temptation to feel unwanted here, to feel insignificant and worthless here, well then I begin to love them more than I love what He has for me.  If we were to turn around when things get hard, if we were to change our minds, if we were to trump up charges against ourselves, accusing ourselves of misunderstanding God's voice, selfishly following adventure rather than his will, well then we would be unfit for the kingdom all together. 

Settling in

Nick started DTS today; the girls slept from midnight until 7 which is an improvement so they are almost on Arusha time; i made a meal the girls would eat last night; did the laundry and mopped my concrete floors; all of these things to say we are settling in.  The transition from America to here has been a lot harder than we imagined it to be. We knew it would be different but with the traveling we have done we did not prepare ourselves for the culture shock we would go through once we arrived here as a family.  The first day seemed great as the girls took in their new surroundings and then the next day came.  The girls started realizing they weren't going back to the states and things started unraveling.  Hailey kept putting on her boots and saying "okay I'm ready to go to my house" and I would let her know this is our house and that would lead to her bursting out in tears saying this is not her home.  Then Hannah started noticing that everyone looked at her and realized she looks so different than these other kids. At first she wanted to try and talk to them but after a while she realized that they didn't know what she was saying which resulted in her hiding away in the back room when the kids would come knock to play.  Hailey likes listening to the other children speaking swahili but screams and runs to me when an adult comes near. Everyone loves to try and pick up the girls; make them go with them which has put a fear in them that now makes them not leave my side.  We are not quite sure how to help this but know that time will be the best thing.  We have only been here 5 days and we need to realize it is going to take a lot of time to adjust to being here. 
I have tried to make a couple of meals because the girls are not too happy about eating rice and beans every meal but I have come up with spaghetti and thats about it.  Mama Miracle (our base leader) says she will help me make a good meal for the girls.  We got some fresh fruit and vegetables so tonight she is going to come by and help me make something she believes the girls will enjoy.  The other day she made the girls pancakes and I had not seen the girls eat like that since they have been here. This might be my greatest challenge as a mother.  I am at a loss when it comes to finding things to cook that the girls will enjoy.  Tears came to my eyes when they ate the spaghetti last night. Hannah ate more than I did and slept through the night without waking up hungry. 
Nick started DTS today and is excited about the classes that will begin tomorrow.  As of now he is the only american student but in 3 days 3 more american students will be here; 2 from our church.  The DTS is a lot smaller than usual due to the increase in the visa price. There are only 25 this year as compared to 40 previous times. 



The internet has been off and on so we will try and update as much as possible.  Though this transition has been harder than we expected we are anxious to see what the Lord is going to do here and to really see where our family fits.  It has definately made us rely on him and seek him for direction.  We can't rely on ourselves anymore and we are learning just how much we need Jesus.  Thank you to everyone that has been praying for us!  Hannah made me promise I would let everyone know she prays for you and misses you all! We are so thankful to have so many people supporting us. I cannot tell you how amazing it is to have a community supporting you and loving you through this journey we are on. 



The girls after not sleeping for 2 days



Helping me wash their shoes! They helped with the laundry too

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On our walk out to the school. Hailey loved saying "Hujambo" to everyone. Hannah was in our arms

Our address

Hi everyone! We are so sorry we haven't written on here for a while. First before we lose internet i needed to post the address here.