Christmas

Christmas this year was quite different than any other year we have had.  It was both great and miserable at the same time!
We started the week with being able to give the Maasai women out in Engikaret that faces4hope works with a Christmas meal! A couple months ago my mom and I were sitting talking about something we could do as an outreach on Christmas that we could involve the girls in.  We also talked about really wanting to put the Masaai in the hearts of people in our churches in america; something we could do to let them know they are being thought of over the Christmas season. I started talking with my mother-in-law about her church (one of our sending churches) doing a fundraiser to raise money to be able to give a Christmas dinner to our friends in Engikaret.  She was so excited and started on it right away.  It gave us about a month to raise support.  We got preparations ready and headed into town on Dec. 18th to get the food and soap.  We were believing for $600.  Two days later, the day we were heading out to Engikaret to distribute the Christmas presents we got an email from my mother-in-law saying the church had been able to raise almost $1,000 which meant we would be able to give even more!!  The girls were so excited to go out there and give food to their friends, the Masaai.  Hannah had been talking about it for weeeks and was full of energy when she woke up that day realizing it was the day to give away presents.   The women that came were so thankful.  We were able to give all 40 women plus 15 secondary (high) school Masaai girls food to bring home to their family for Christmas.  It included rice, oil, sugar, tea, soap, babycare (some stuff for their skin they need), and some candy for the kids.  With the extra money raised we were also able to give the Tanzanian staff out in Engikaret some Christmas money.  They had spent hours getting the gifts ready with us.  They worked so hard with no reward for themselves just like they do all year long.  We were so glad to be able to give them a very unexpected gift as well. Their hearts for the work God has put in front of them is unbelievable.  Our girls loved giving the candy away and as we left there, Hannah said to me that it was her favorite part about Christmas.  Now her friends wouldn't be hungry anymore.  It was an amazing experience that we plan to make a tradition! Thank you Christ Community Church for being so generous!
During that week Nick continued to do the seminar with the church he is working with right now.  He saw 10 people come to know Jesus this week.  One of them was a muslim woman who showed up for the seminar that same day.  On Saturday we had our family's Christmas knowing Sunday would be full at the church for Nick.  We had such a fun Christmas. The girls came out in the morning to discover their two guinea pigs and were so excited they were fine not getting any other present. They sat and sang to their guinea pigs and held them forever! We finally had to tell them it was time to open presents.  Please put the guinea pigs down! We searched for baby Jesus (a tradition from my family) and then opened presents! It was a simple but great christmas morning. Nick searched all over Arusha for a waffle maker and found one that he got for me for Christmas.  We had a great christmas breakfast then headed out in a borrowed car to go see a Christmas movie at the one theater in town.  The girls loved it and it felt a little like home. 
Nick was very excited about the next morning, Christmas morning, preaching at the church he had been working with all week.  Unfortunately the whole night of Christmas Eve Nick was extremely sick.  We believe he ate something wrong but are still unsure.  Whatever it was wanted out of his body! He was so weak in the morning that going to preach at church was out of the question.  We were both so disappointed and after a sleepless night we stayed at home all of Christmas and the Pastor of the church preached that day.  It was a sad Christmas day and that night we skyped with family watching them all together on Christmas morning.  We were so glad to be able to see them but it was so hard and had me in tears and Hannah saying she wanted to go back and spend Christmas with our families. This made Christmas a hard time to be away from family but we had expected that and to be honest, I expected to feel even worse for a longer time.  Every missionary here that we have talked to said Christmas morning the first year is the worst and you have to distract yourself which was our plan but with Nick being so sick we had to sit at home.  To make it worse, we ran out of water and weren't able to take showers or clean up dishes.
I had to remind myself that I am not entitled to running water or clean dishes or being with family.  Serving Jesus means giving up yourself and your desires.  Serving Jesus means loving His people and we have followed Jesus here and want to love His people no matter what the cost.  In reality, the cost of no running water isn't much of a sacrifice.  We were still able to be together as a family, have a great Christmas and show Jesus to others through giving to them. 
We had such a blessed Christmas and are so thankful for everything we have here in Tanzania.  We are greatful living here with our kids, experiencing Christmas in a different way this year.  We have been continuing our christmas celebrations with boxes that have arrived (which means soo much to us and feels like Christmas morning all over again) and there are more to come!  Also, my parents are  arriving on Sunday night and we have kept all of our Christmas decorations up so we can celebrate Christmas with them as well!  Our Christmas will last a long time this year, especially if the post office continues to surprise us with how incredibly long it takes to get a package.  We may still be celebrating Christmas in March!
Thank you for supporting us in this adventure.  We pray you had a Christmas full of Jesus, family, and friends.  We love you and miss you all and can't wait to hear from you.

Summer Camp in December

Seventy-three young men and women between 13 (they say) and 18 years old came to the base for a week of Christian Summer Camp this month.  I was asked to do two things during this week; play some games and teach them about sin.  Those two didn't really seem to gel very well when they first told me, but I was excited anyway. 
Seventy-three young adults that have grown up in bomas (dung huts) unaware of much else besides Maasai culture, for the first time got to experience dodge-ball.  IT WAS NUTS!  Can you imagine, for the first time ever, handing a couple of soccer balls to a group of teenagers and telling them they could pummel each other and get a prize at the end for doing it well?  In the end, a little 14 year old girl named Bebi won.  All of the big boys canceled eachother out and she was left the sole survivor.  She was so proud of herself.  This young girl is in school because she loves to learn.  She wants to go to school.  Her father had already made negotiations to become a bride to a much older man, but because of the work of Faces for Hope (www.faces4hope.com) she was able to start high school and learn first. 
Seventy-three young Maasai men and women for the first time heard that sin is more than just breaking God's Law.  But instead it is breaking God's Heart.  Sin is more than being fearful of God's Wrath, but that there is a Father in Heaven that doesn't just want to use them for what He can get out of them, but instead He is seeking their good and is emotionally wounded when they choose to harm themselves. 
Seventy-three young adults this week experienced God's love expressed through His hands and His feet.  Praise the Lord for the opportunity.  Praise the Lord for the PCYM School in YWAM Arusha.  Praise the Lord for Faces For Hope for sponsoring.  Praise the Lord for the Praise Center and Christ Community Church and all of our friends and family that helped us be able to be here.

Seventy-three children of God met with their Father this week. 
This is how EVERY worship service was!  It was awesome!

Finnished!

Today was the last day of the lecture phase of the classes I have been involved in and looking back, I see some really encouraging things the Jesus has been doing for His people.  Just as exciting is what He has in store for these next few weeks; 2 week long seminars, sermons twice a week for the next 4 weeks, house visitations with a local pastor for shut-ins and those that are sick, and potentially an opportunity to preach to over 600 people in a town about 6 hours away! 

As much as all of that means to me, there is something I heard this week that competes extremely well.  Last night, as I put Hannah and Hailey to sleep, we had our regular time of prayer together and for some reason, this night, they both really felt that they wanted to pray themselves.  So I let them...And boy can they pray!  They prayed and prayed for everything.  Thank you for the day. Thank you for the night.  Thank you for my arms.  Thank you for my lunch.  But it was the end that I don't think I can ever forget.  All of a sudden, I heard Hannah, in her little 3 1/2 year old voice cry out in gratitude, "Thank you God for making me Hannah.  I love being Hannah."  These last few weeks, I have been praying a lot, and asking the Lord, "is it fair for me and Heidi to cart these poor girls all over the world, across the globe, away from family, away from their home, away from people that speak English?"  And every couple of days, when Hannah cries about missing her friends (getting better from every day), I ask God if I heard Him right.  Then, when I heard the cries of my daughter's heart, I felt the Lord reassuring me that He is working in Hannah's life and Hannah likes being who she is.  He reminded me that "our times are in His hands" and that I can "let the little children come" to Him.  That He watches out for Hannah, even at her young age and that He is doing a work in her.  "Teach a child in the way (s)he should go and she will not go far from it."