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." 

Breakthrough

The biggest prayer on my heart nowadays is that Hannah and Hailey will have a heart for Tanzania; that they will want to be here more than they want to go back to America.  So far every time Hannah acts up she says it is because she just misses everyone so much that she can’t help but do the wrong thing.  Sometimes at night I hear her just praying and praying that Jesus will let her friends know how much she misses them.   I am so thankful that she had such amazing friends in Wenatchee that she has kept this tight of a grip on them but it is also hard for her to move on.  Hailey follows suit.  One time in the car Hailey couldn’t stop crying and I kept asking her what was wrong. She said she wanted to go home but every time I would say we are almost home she would say “no!!!” so finally I asked her what home did she want to go to and she responded by saying “Abby’s home and Mya’s home” (these are her friends in Wenatchee). She was trying to tell me she just wanted to go back to Wenatchee.  She wasn’t prompted in any way and we hadn’t talked about Abby or Mya’s home in a while so this was her own little mind remembering home.  These have been heartbreaking for me as a mom and I keep trying to figure out ways to make them feel like this is home but in the end I know I just need to pray for their hearts to open up here and for them to feel comfortable. When they get sad we talk about going home to visit for a couple months and that normally helps Hannah settle down. I know it has only been 3 months but I have just been waiting and waiting to hear her say she likes it.  Finally the other day we were walking from Nick’s class back to our apartment and Hannah looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, “Mommy, if we go back to Wenatchee I would miss this place so much. I would cry every day. Can we please stay here? It’s okay if I miss my friends in America, they know I love them and miss them.  Please mommy, please can we stay here?”  After that we talked about all the things she would miss about Africa and the list was long!  Hailey then said she wanted to live in Africa not Wenatchee.  That night the girls and I sat out on our patio and watched the sunset (one of their favorite things to do) and Hannah said “see mommy, like this.  It is so beautiful. I would miss seeing the beautiful sunset if we left here and listen to those silly chickens, they are so loud all day and night. I wouldn’t see chickens and cows if we went back to Wenatchee.”  I am so proud of my girls. We have a long way to go but this is a huge step in the process of adjusting here.  I am seeing their hearts for Jesus grow bigger and bigger every day.  It is such a blessing to watch Hailey fall down (I’m getting to the good partJ) and watch Hannah run to her side and pick her up, brush her off and ask her if she can pray for any of her cuts.  When we are places with other kids the girls are starting to realize these kids don’t have the toys like they do so they give them some of their toys to play with.   We are so thankful for the family he has given us!

Cream of wheat and PBnJs

Some things i have learned about tanzanian culture:

The word "please" doesn't compute
The white taxis don't stop if you are crossing
Celine Dion has made a serious comeback in Africa
When food is available, everyone has a few minutes to talk...

We had a teacher from Korea this month that came to talk about humility and Servanthood. He was teaching in English and there was a translator was speaking in Swahili. It was a really good set of teaching for a couple of reasons. First off, as he spoke with such a thick korean accent, it was hard to catch all that he was saying. So, in order to understand everything, I had to really focus on the Swahili translation of what he was saying. Needless to say, I picked up a lot of new vocal. Lately all of us have been speaking quite a bit of Swahili; even the girls. They now have a couple of worship songs that are their favorites in Swahili.
The second reason I enjoyed what he had to say so much was how inspiring he was. He is a 59 year old man that says he is just about finished with his missionary training after 25 years of full time ministry. He described a time in his life when his ministry to a group of day-laborers was just to show up with tea and bread under a tree. He said so many came to the lord in those days and I was captivated. So I got an idea...
Around the corner from where we live is a long stretch of houses with lots and lots of kids. Every saturday morning, the girls ask to go for a walk so one Saturday I got up early and began to cook a huge pot of cream of wheat and a stack of quarter sliced peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and we went for a walk. As I mentioned earlier, as soon as food is available people have time to listen. We got about a quarter mile down the road before a whole group of kids were surrounding us eating sandwiches and porridge. While they ate, Hailey passed out more food while Hannah and I told them about Jesus. Eight of them asked Jesus into their hearts right there on the road. I praise the Lord that He used us in that way and I praise Him even more that my children were able to be a part of it. It was a good week.

You are for me

Blog post

Since being here there have been some amazing days and some hard days.  For some reason after coming here I was introduced to a song we had on our Itunes all along but I have never sat down and listened to it.  The girls and I have quiet a few “ballet classes” a week where I put on some ballet type music and they dance around.  Fortunately I didn’t load any real ballet music so we put on our worship songs and dance around.  There is one in particular that has stood out to me every time it is played.  Hannah knows every word now and it is her favorite song to dance to.  One day I sat and just wrote out the words for myself to meditate on and now every time I hear it I am able to focus on Jesus and feel so blessed that I have a God that is for me.  He isn’t just for me when I am happy and content and comfortable in life but he is for me in a place I feel that everything is against me.   Some days I feel that the language, the weather, the snakes/scorpions, the awful things that are happening to the masaai girls, the loneliness, the children right out my door, dying of disease that could so easily be cured in the U.S.,  all of these things are too much but then I remember that God, the God of the universe that holds everything in His hands, MY GOD is for me!  He doesn’t want me to crumble when things look too hard.  I need a reminder all the time that God is for me.  This brings me sooo much peace and I hope if you are in a time of transition in your life or struggle that seems to big to overcome or even if you are in a great  place in your life that these words will just continue to confirm the truth that we know in our hearts that our God is for us.

 The song is by Kari Jobe and is called “You are for me”

So faithful, so constant, so loving and so true so powerful in all you do.

 You fill me, you see me, you know my every move, you love for me to sing to you.

  I know that you are for me. I know that you are for me.

 I know that you will never forsake me in my weakness and I know that you have come down even if to write upon my heart to remind me of who you are.   

 So patient, so gracious, so merciful and true so wonderful in all you do, you fill me, you see me, you know my every move you love for me to sing to you.

 I know that you are for me, I know that you are for me, I know that you will never forsake me in my weakness and I know that you have come down even if to write upon my heart to remind me of who you are

The Road Less Travelled, Cont...

The second remarkable fork in the road that I was able to hear about was this young man in the picture above. His name is Yohana (John) and he is a Maasai man from Loliondo. It's a Maasai village near the Serengetti. He told me he wanted to come to my house and talk with me about a need that he had. Now, this has become a regular thing here and it often pertains to money. He came by and sat down and we began to talk. I asked him what he needed and to my surprise, he started talking about his little sister. He told me about his family. He was very sick 10 years ago with some kind of heart complication. He went to the Doctors in Loliondo and no one could help him. So, travelled here to Arusha, but still no doctors had anything they could do for him. He returned home and his family prepared for his funeral. he was ready to go home and die. But, somehow, he heard about a man across the border in Kenya that would pray for people and they would be healed. One last change to live! He talked with his mother about making arrangemments to go see the man, and so he was coming out of Maasailand where he lived to Loliondo town in order to find a ride to Kenya, when all of a sudden he saw the very man that he was going to see in the town of Loliondo! He approached him right away and demanded prayer! The man prayed for him and right there his heart condition left. He knelt down and gave his heart to Jesus and returned home to his family who were still in the midst of his burial arrangements. When he got home he told everyone to stop. He had been healed and now he loves this one called Jesus so much because he was so gracious to him! soon afterward, his youngest sister, Mary, began to come to church and found Jesus to be exactly who her brother told her he was. Another brother didn't like that they were going to church, but he came one day with them also, and he met Jesus and was changed. Soon followed his mother, but his father to this day is uninterested in anything having to do with these things. This is why Yohana was at my door. He came to ask for prayer, not for money. He came to ask if I would pray for his young sister, Mary. Mary is away at boarding school because a group from Denmark sponsored her to study and she loves it. However, there is a man in the village that has already made an arrangement with Yohana's father for a bride price for Mary. Mary is 17 and doesn't want to marry yet, but she just wants to finish school. She wants to keep learning and to be ready to marry when it is time and to choose for herself what kind of man she will marry. Their father is fed up and has sent her messages at school calling her home. Now, in about a month, there is a school break and all of the students have to return home. The moment Mary steps foot in Loliondo, she will be grabbed from the side of the road and locked in a room until she is married. Then, she will be kept in that room until she has been impregnated so that she is no longer allowed to attend school. Yohana was making plans to go home a few days before the break to tell his father that Mary should be allowed to stay at school and not made to come home and marry. He wanted prayer because he didn't want all of this to happen to his youngest sister and he was going home to tell his father so.  I heard Yohana talking in my living room and all of a sudden I began to think about my youngest sister, Melissa.  I thought about her when she was 17, how beautiful she is and was, how smart she is and all of the plans she had then.  I remember the young man she chose to be her husband and how happy she is now in her family, what a wonderful man she has chosen herself and how much they love eachother still today.  If I were in his position, I'm not sure I would have the same composure he afforded in my living room.

The reason I write about Yohana is two-fold. First, is to ask that you would join me in praying for Yohana and Mary. Pray for the Lord's favor and his protection for both of them. The second is to say that every decision we make counts. This young man is on staff here at YWAM as an evangelist and he is incredible. Somebody 10 years ago decided to make a trip to Loliondo and God had put some incredible things in motion for Yohana in that man's decision. I'm sure he has no idea what the fruit is from that one short prayer he prayed so many years ago, but the ripples are making there way all over Africa. Now, as we think back about some of the places we have gone for the Lord, maybe some have felt insignificant, maybe some of seemed like we didn't get to see much happen, but everything is sacred. Every decision counts. Every seed planted matters.

And now for your viewing pleasure.... Yesterday evening it was just about to rain and the sun was setting.  I looked out the door and there was sweet little Hailey taking in every bit of the sunset that she could.  I couldn't help but take a picture. 

And below we have a praise report!!  Praise the Lord that all of you are praying!!  Because this little guy below here just happened to be crawling across our living room floor this week and someone caught a glimpse of him.  We killed it before it could sting anyone.  Thank you for praying for us, thank you Lord for protecting us from danger!