They can read!!!

It has begun! After years of preparation, work, prayer, and patience, last week we finally began our literacy class? I have spent the last few weeks going from Boma to boma inviting every man I could find to come and learn how to read. Over 20 men, young and old, signed up to attend Tuesdays and Thursdays. This week we have had 5 students coming and it is awesome. I expected to have about this many to start and we am really excited. One old man, a well respected elder named Mrefu (translation: the tall guy)is 78 years old and has been early to class so far. Also an 18 year old named Omega comes so it is an interesting mix of men.
Week one: so far we have been learning how to open up our books and how to hold a pencil. The second half of the week, we learned how to write on the lines and then where to go when the current line is full...to the next line. It is awesome! I can't wait for each class to begin!
Every time we meet, I have been praying and preparing for little bits of the bible to share about the importance of reading and writing. We talked one day about how God created the entire universe using words. Then, another day we read about the Word. How God calls Himself the Word. They have been so encouraged by those things. Sooooo, now I'm asking for help!!
If anyone has come across a place in the Bible where there is some kind of importance placed on words, reading, writing, education through books, etc I would really love some references.
Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. "He who began a good work in you will continue until it is fully completed."

Riziki and Sara update

Riziki and Sara went home last night.  When Riziki's mother saw her alive and healthy, still with her child, she said, "my daughter has been saved from death."  Then, she gave her heart to Jesus.

Introductions - Riziki and Sara

I (Nick) apologize for not updating sooner, but there have been a lot of new developments here in Tanzania and we are now finally getting a regular schedule.  Therefore, a regular schedule results in a regular posting!  Anyway, this coming series I have titled "Introductions".  This past 4 weeks I have met a series of people that have been marked by God in a real and imprinting kind of way and I would like to introduce you to them. 

This is Riziki.  She is 15 years old and has a two week old baby.  She hasn't been married yet which is strange for the Maasai.  I assume probably her father and the father of a neigbor suitor haven't arrived at a brideprice yet.  Of course, that doesn't keep Riziki from gettting pregnant at 15 years old.  Her Maasai name is Seketer, but now that she has become a Christian she recently changed her name to Riziki.  Riziki is the word that they use in Tanzania when they are praying the Lord's prayer, "Give us this day our daily Riziki"  Essentially, it means provision. 
On Monday this week, Heidi had some time to go out to a Boma and visit some women that had recently given birth and she found herself at Riziki's house.  When she arrived, Riziki and her baby looked bad.  There really isn't any better way to put it.  This 2 week old baby, Sara, wasn't moving.  She couldn't have been more than 3 pounds.  She wasn't eating, crying, opening her eyes.  And there was a big sore inside of her mouth that was preventing her from breastfeeding.  Riziki on the other hand had a weak look to her and a similar sore on her mouth.  Since syphilis is a common ailment here, it looked like a firm diagnosis and given the potential for the baby to have contracted it in childbirth or breastfeeding, it seemed like an important thing to take care of right away. 
Heidi came back to the base and I drove our new minivan, just imported from Japan, out to the middle of maasailand to pick them up and take them to the hospital. 
We arrived at her boma and found her father there.  As we presented to him the importance of sending his daughter and two week old granddaughter to the hospital, he was more concerned about the cost and the length of time they would be gone.  After much deliberation, he conceded that he would allow us to take them to the hospital, but if the bill came out to more than 6 dollars, he wanted them returned because he had no money to pay any more than that.  (later I came to find out that this was one of the richest men in the area with over 1,000 head of goat and hundreds of cattle)  Or, of course, we could pay if we wanted. :)
Of course, then, we picked them up and rushed them to the hospital as it was nearing 9:00pm.

We got to the hospital and checked them in and right away the nurses informed us they would have to stay the night.  The mom was extremely anemic as she lost lots of blood during childbirth, and the baby had a high fever and needed to be looked after.  We said our goodbyes and were on our way out when the head nurse stopped us and asked us what they would eat?  I looked at her and said, "well, whatever you have for them I'm sure they will appreciate."  Silly me...hospitals don't provide food, or drinking water, or bedgowns, or plates and utensils, or anything.  At one point, they even sent us to a nearby pharmacy because they didn't have the medication she needed.  So out we went in the middle of the night to look for an open restaraunt that might have something we could take back for them to eat. 
When we came back, the two week old, 3 pound baby was so small and weak that they couldn't get an IV into her because her baby veins were continually collapsing and it was all I could do not to jump over the counter, take that huge needle from the nurse and defend that baby with my life.  Of  course she was only doing her job, but it was heartbreaking.  Finally the night was over and we went home to get some rest before we returned in the morning, but before we left, I noticed a black piece of cloth tied around Riziki's neck and another tightly around her arm.  I still know so little about Maasai culture, so I left it alone.
When we came back the next day, this poor 15 year old girl was ready to go home with her baby. She had never been in a car before, let alone to the middle of a bustling city like Arusha and she was terrified. The nurse came back with all of the bloodwork and informed us there were several diagnosese and they would need to stay 3 days in the hospital, fed every day, and some kind of provision made for a change or washing of clothes.  We were far past the 6 dollars now...
Every day I came, I brought food, soap for washing, clothes for the baby, tea and drinking water and, most importantly, some words from the Lord and prayer.  I sat down with Riziki and talked to her about Jesus and how good he is to take care of us when we need Him the most. 
At the end of the 2nd day, before I left, this little girl, so young and already a mother, looked up at me and said, "nafikiri mimi sihitaji kuvaa vitu nyeusi hivi bado. ( I don't think I need to wear these black things anymore)"  The black cloth around her neck and arm were given to her a few days before we found her.  The old man who knows about the spirits came by her boma and tied those around her to let everyone know when they see her that she is nearing death and to prepare themselves.  She looked up at me from her hospital bed, next to her baby that was now eating well, awake and alert, without any prodding or convincing, and asked me if I could help her take them off.  She didn't see any need for them.
I sat down and started untying the cloth and stopped, realizing there was no need for me to have any respect for a black death band binding the hand and kneck of this daughter of a living God.  Instead, I took out my pocket knife my sister gave me for Christmas and cut her loose, the whole time praying a prayer of praise to a living God that actually does talk to his sons and daughters, new and old.  I sat there on that hospital bed giving thanks to a gracious God that works through every situation, good and bad.  I left, got into my car and wept in the quietness of the presence of the Lord after proclaiming the Provision of healing that God brought to a girl named "Providence"...Riziki. 

Promise

First of all we just wanted to say we are so sorry for not updating our blog sooner. We have heard a lot of you say you would love to hear what is going on and I am sorry we haven’t taken the time to update it.  This past month has been full of amazing things God has done here in Tanzania and in our lives.  It has been a refining last month as well.  In this past month Nick went on outreach to Singida to join the rest of his team in the work God was doing there, the Holy Spirit moved and 8 people met their Savior,  I met another family from Canada and Hannah and Hailey had their first “playtime” with kids speaking their same language,  my parents returned to Tanzania and celebrated a late Christmas with us, we received our car, went through a month of a lack of water coming into the base, Nick along with 31 other students received their DTS certificate of completion, we took a trip to the coast for some good family R&R and just last week we became official staff at YWAM Arusha! .  We would love to expand on those things but I really just feel like the Lord is speaking to me to proclaim the promise He has fulfilled in my life. 

Are there times in your life where you feel God has put something on your heart; a passion for something but you feel as if He put it there and then never did anything with it? A promise not yet fulfilled? 7 ½ years ago Nick and I stood at the altar and made a covenant to stand together in life, to walk hand in hand and serve the Lord faithfully with our lives.  To go wherever He is leading us to go.  At our wedding we had 2 songs played.  When planning the wedding these two songs were thought out by the two of us for a long time. We didn’t want to play just any song but we wanted the song to be a proclamation to the Lord.  Something we would hold to in our marriage throughout our lives.  One was talking about going to the nations and that being the cry of our heart.  The other one is called “eagles wings”.  It says:

“Here I am waiting, abide in me I pray. Here I am longing for you.  Hide me in your love bring me to my knees. May I know Jesus more and more. 

Come live in me all my life take over. Come breathe in me and I will rise on eagles wings”

Whenever I hear that song my heart longs to sit and be with Jesus.  To join in the song He is already singing over my life.  The song always reminds me of the promise, the passion God put in my husband and my heart to serve him overseas.  To take over all my life and take us where He wants us.  These past 7 years of marriage have been amazing.  There have been so many amazing opportunities to join in the work God is doing in America, to be missionaries to our home land.  I wouldn’t trade those experiences  for anything but there was still a longing in my heart to see that promise He had given us carried out.  I knew He had placed it in our hearts.  All of this is brought up because last Monday at the weekly devotions at the YWAM base they sand “Eagles Wings”.  Out of all the songs they sing, mostly Swahili, for some reason this song was on the list and it moved me to tears.  We have been here 5 ½ months and to be honest the transition here with a family has been a lot tougher than we expected, but when I heard this song it brought back the passion and the promise He put in my heart at 16 and in Nick and my heart 7 years ago .  I was living in the promise all along but now I feel like that longing has been fulfilled and is being replaced by a new passion, a new vision for ministry here in Tanzania.   7 years later we are here!! No more saying someday.  No more wondering what/where God is taking us in this promise. I know that with Jesus creating new passions in our hearts we will start to experience the “when” questions again but as of now I sit in His peace, here in Tanzania with my family of four after waiting 13 years I feel as if I am sitting in the middle of the rainbow of God’s promise, experiencing his faithfulness daily.  Thank you Jesus for meeting our needs, for listening to our hearts and for giving us the opportunity to know you and your heart and join in the work you are doing.  Help us to constantly be reminded of how faithful you are.  Thank you Jesus for letting us be part of your plan.  Thank you for what YOU are doing here in Tanzania and everywhere else around the world.  Thank you

Please be praying for us this coming week. Nick has the opportunity to teach in the DTS at the Kilimanjaro YWAM base.  We are excited about the 5 days we will be away and it is such an important time of growth for the students. We know God will move there and teach them using Nick as his vessel. 

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."