A whole army of my countrymen

I love epic movies, you know those wonderful cinematic events that stir your soul and remind you that there are things in this world worth fighting for. I will never forget the first time I watched the Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers. This part isn't in the book but still I loved it. (I am assuming at this point that everyone has watched this movie, if you have not, please drop everything and go do it now, it is for your own good). Darkness has set in, the rain comes, and the massive army of the enemy does not seem to end. The army for the good guys is meager. The best soldiers are not there. Old man and young boys are being forced to fight. They are about to fight not only ugly creatures known as Orcs but despair as well. They are doing their best to muster up every ounce of courage they have but you can see the fear on their face. At that point, there is a bang on their gate, and in walks a whole army of some of the best trained elf soldiers. They are known for the bravery and skill as soldiers. The spirits of the others soar. They can do this. They can fight. My conditions are nothing like that but recently I had one of those moments, one of those what I have done moments. Can I really do this? Can I make it? Who am I that God would use me? Am I alone? Not to mention several others. My army that God sent to remind me of His faithfulness was a team from Perimeter. My spirits soared. They were such an unbelievable blessing to me. There are so many stories and memories from this trip.

And, to keep up the epic theme, I thought I would share one of the major things the team focused on. In the village of Karansi, we have established a wonderful school that is thriving and changing the lives and futures of all the children involved. This team wanted to reach out to the kids that do not go to that school. So, we had a sports camp. Our effort took quite a bit of blood, sweat, and tears to prepare. On the third day, we had things well organized. A couple hundred of students were rotating through out the various stations of sports and games. We knew that there was another school close by that was due to dismiss soon but we were not sure if they knew that they were welcome to come to the camp. So three of us, including Colin one of my former students, went up to the school to talk with the teachers to invite all of the children. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. The school had about 300-500 children roughly. At dismissal, they are lined up and began to chant. They got louder and louder and the energy was building. Colin held up a soccer ball and had them all follow him to the field. He ran with all of the children following down the hill. A whole army of chilren unleashed unto the unsuspecting American teenagers! But it went so well! The children got T-shirts, for many of them the first time they have received anything new. Their clothes were older, filthy, and hole-torn. As I looked out onto the field with all of these children lined up and playing games with their bright, new, blue T-shirts, I couldn't help but think of Braveheart. When they are first preparing for battle, William Wallace says, "I see a whole army of my countrymen here in the defiance of tyranny. They may take our lives but they will never take our FREEDOM!" I missed a bit of the speech but you get the idea. These children were treated with dignity and respect. They were played with and loved. For the first time for many, they were hugged and given the freedom to play and to enjoy their childhood. I never realized that I had taken my childhood for granted. We were able to share the love of God with them and to tell them that Jesus is real and that He cares for them. They were there in defiance of the oppression and poverty that surrounds them. They will not be destined to fall into the same fatalistic mindset that things can never change and that there is not hope. God offers so much more. This is just the beginning!

The Power of Candy

If you have never been to Tanzania before, you might not fully understand the power of candy. Granted, I am sure you have some idea because there is nothing like a lollipop to help you forget the pain of a shot. And, nothing says, "I love you" or at least "I think you're cute" like a box of chocolates. The swahili word for candy is pipi and I think that one too many white persons have handed out candy to children here in Africa so they now think that white people come from Candyland. =) If you want the full attention of a child, give him some pipi. Actually, now that I that I think about it, it works the same in America. But I digress, let me get back to the point. I decided to tap into the hidden power of Candy! I bought a bag of gummy snakes! (They were on sale). The cover has a red and orange snake with bows on that have a big, friendly smile on their faces. The caption below says, "stretch them. Crush them. Watch them wiggle." So I ate the whole bag while staring at my ceiling making sure that all my slithery roommates knew what I was doing and I understand that they would be my next meal if they decided to fall from the ceiling.

Okay, not really. Don't worry mom and dad, I haven't lost my mind or at least not anymore than what I had before I came to Africa. I do appreciate all of your prayers and words of encouragement. I think God will use anything to get us to a deeper place of trust. Being the math geek that I am, I know that statistically speaking, it is not common for snakes to fall through the roof but I could not rationalize with myself. I had to get to a place of trust with God; to know that He would not give me more than I am able to handle and that He is sovereign and in control.

Enough about the snakes though! I have actually learned a lot and experienced a lot in the past ten days that has nothing to do with scaley, wiggly, ugly, poisonous reptiles. I haven't really thought about the snakes that much but I wanted to give an update on the situation. A team from Perimeter just left yesterday. WOW! What an amazing time, so many stories to tell but I will fill you all in tomorrow!

To go to bed or not that is the question

You are doomed to have to read yet another blog in one day because I am scared and processing my fears for all the world to see. As I am sure you know, there are snakes in Africa and even in Tanzania. I quickly learned how to say I don't like snakes in Swahili so that as I am walking in the villages, people could help me avoid the snake hang outs.

We just had another earthquake a few moments ago, small but I want to make sure that the snakes aren't freaking out and they stay nice and bundled up in their home where they belong and they don't come and bother me. As I was walking home in the dark tonight, I got a little concerned that I might bump into one of those slithery little creatures.

So, I decided to ask my roommates if snakes here at Joshua are common. Being the informative realists that they are, they shared some great bedtime stories. They shared about the wonderful variety of snakes including mambas and spitting cobras that we have here on base which enjoy spending quality time out and about outside of our house and in our trees. They even shared about how a snake fell out of our roof. We have wooden thatched roofs and apparently that is prime real estate for the local snakes. Just a few months ago a snake about a meter long fell out of the roof onto the desk of one of the teachers here. ooohh fun. And, not too long ago one of the workers had a spitting cobra "spit" on him while he was cleaning the fence in our yard.

Some of our roof is concrete, some is wooden. My bed is under the wooden part. I have slept peacefully and ignorantly under there for several nights. I miss that blissful ignorance. I meant to go to sleep some time ago but now I am just staring at my bed wondering if I have the courage to go to bed. That is a new thought! I used to have nightmares all the time as a kid, well, I might as well be honest, even as an adult I have had nightmares. I have an irrational fear of snakes. Rats, spiders, maggots, blood, cold showers, gross toilets I can handle. Snakes not so much......

And just so that everyone knows that I am a big scaredy cat. I just moved my bed to the middle of my room under the concrete part and I am sleep with the lights ON! =)

Life in the fast lane

Many people out there live high-powered, fast paced lives. They rub shoulders with the who's who or maybe they just are the who's who. I rub shoulders with little ones that are fascinated by my funny accent and my pathetic attempt at Swahili and my white skin that turns pink. The most power I have is when I drink a cup of African coffee. =) I am not much of a coffee drinker back home and the stuff here really knows how to pack a punch. One cup of java African style and I think that I can climb Mt. Kilimanjaro! (Little side note: I do hope to climb it one day: back to the real story). However, life has been a little face paced lately. As I mentioned before, I have been traveling to the villages a lot. Every time I go to a village, I never want to leave. You see the people and the sweet precious faces of the children with these gigantic smiles that seem to quietly say, love me. How do you leave them? I am still learning the ropes so I am doing a lot of traveling back to back but I am so thankful for all of your prayers because I know that God is sustaining me.

Tomorrow we have a team arriving from Perimeter and I am so thrilled! I feel like a little kid at Christmas, you know that feeling when you feel all tingly on the inside and you think you are going to burst! This is a youth team and I have taught, tutored, discipled, or some other way been involved in almost all of the lives of the teenagers. Plus, the adults aren't too shabby either! We also have a team from SBC and I am so excited about getting to know them better. Please pray for the earthquakes here. We had a couple more today and for one the epicenter was only 20km away from Mairowa, one of the villages where SBC is involved. So far no major damage. Praise the Lord.

However, I will be traveling with these teams over the next week in a half and will be in the villages full time. So, no internet access. I will be offline until late next week. Please pray for the teams while they are here. They have busy schedules. Pray that God will knock their socks off, completely blow them away! I want them to know that God is an amazing, powerful, wonderful God but also a tender, compassionate, loving God. The team from Perimeter will be in Karansi and Mwika. Mwika is the village that has the orphanage with children that have HIV. I think some of what the teenagers will see might be hard. It is hard to take in. Pray that their hearts would be handle it but still be tender.

Thank you all so much!!!!

Following God.....

As I am sure many of you know, following God can sometimes be suprising and you end up in places that you never imagined. What I discovered this morning is that I am living on a fault line. Who knew! Plus, Mt. Kilamanjaro is in a string of 20 volcanoes. Mt. Kilimanjaro has been dormant for hundreds of years, but not some of the others are not. Why the science lesson? Because last night, we had two earthquakes. What we felt was relatively small tremors, but the news said that they registered 7.5 on the richter scale but not here. More are expected.

I had no idea when I got on the plane to follow God to the other side of the ocean. Would it have changed my decision? No, of course not. Many people live here and earthquakes are very rare. I can't help but remember that the safest place is the center of God's will. I am exactly where He wants me to be. That brings such comfort and peace to me. I know that does not mean that bad things won't happen, but I do know that it means that God works all things for good for those who are called according to His purpose.

So bottom line, if you have heard on the news that there was an earthquake in Tanzania, Hakuna matata, I am safe.

A picture! WOOHOO!

I can finally add pictures! or at least I can in the place that I am currently staying. =) This a picture from a celebration of the children of Africa. Singing, sermons, and a big parade where the children walked all through the town proclaiming that the children have value!

My commute home from work

On Wednesday, I traveled to a village called Mairowa. We are starting a school there in January partnering with a Scottsdale Bible Church in Arizona. What an amazing day! I am going to work backwards as I tell you about the day. So my commute home.... I couldn't help but chuckle as I thought about Atlanta traffic and I-85. I know that at times the skyline can be quite beautiful but I think that this commute might be my favorite. Of course, it was a bit long, two hours long that is on dirt roads that have a bit of a bump to them. As we were traveling along reflecting on the day, we happened to notice a group of giraffe. That's right GIRAFFE right outside our window. Unbelievable. That was quickly followed by baboons, monkeys, impala, ostriches, and more giraffes. I left out goats and cows because they are everywhere! The landscape of trees are stunning and all set up against the backdrop of two mountains. Whenever I look at mountains I can't kept help but be in awe of God's majesty! All of these animals roaming free doing their thing as we do ours.

The day in the village was wonderful. I am so excited about the school there. Every time I go to another village, I cannot believe how quickly I fall in love with the children. The sound of their laughter makes my heart want to dance. Wherever you go the children follow. They are so fascinated by wazungu (white people). They all want to touch me. I have a different child on every finger. I sang all the songs that I knew with them and I was trying to think of something else to do with them. I don't know where it came from but I just pulled my shawl over my head and started to chase them. What fun! They giggled with delight and when I would capture one I would tickle them until they could no longer breathe. I can't imagine what I looked like. This crazy white girl running around with a scarf on her head chasing little children!

The day was so full and there is so much more to tell you but Iwill save that for later.
Thank you all so much for your prayers!

Desperate times call for desperate measures

I have been here a month and finally broke down and bought some chocolate. Last night, I went with Godsave to the airport to pick someone up. While we were waiting, we broke down and bought a snickers. I have been dying for some good old yummy chocolate. It cost 1500 shillings! which is about $1.25. Yowsers. Whats even worse is that my lunch everyday at Moonlight (our local hangout) =) costs less than that. I get rice, a beef stew, beans, banana, and a soda for less than what I spent on one little candy bar, but boy did that snickers taste good! I know need Jesus but sometimes a little chocolate helps......

Please pray for next few days because they are quite busy.
I leave early tomorrow morning to go to Kondoa which is about a six hour drive on rough roads. I will come back on Tuesday. Then Wendesday, I will to go Mairowa which is about two hours a way and return that night. The roads can be rough and I have actually been struggling with car sickness which I never have before.

Kondoa is predominantly Muslim. The children at the school are learning about Jesus and seeing that He is real and He is good and the He loves them. They go home and tell their parents. Please pray for the transformation of this community.

Mairowa is predominantly Masaai which is one of the tribes that is very nomadic and that do not see the value of school. School does not help them herd cattle better. This is the tribe where men have several wives and live in huts. Please pray that the people in this community will send their children to our school. This school opens in January 2008.

Squash, Bananas, Lion King, and Africa

Here is some Lion King trivia for you all
The monkey song. The one where we jumps around and sings.
I learned what the words are and now I even now what they mean!

Asante Sana, Squash Banana (Thank you very much, squash banana)
wewe mzungu (You are a white person)
mimi hapana (I am not)

Very exciting!
My language classes are paying off. WOOHOO!

Spitting for Jesus

As many of you know, most of Tanzania is quite rural. We had to go by another school today before we went to the village of Likamba. Godsave decided to go a way that he had never been before. We had to stop and ask several Masaai if we were going in the right direction. The concept of a road is quite loose here. We got to a point where we were not sure which way to go and there was no one around. We stopped and a big cloud of dust surrounded us and kept on going past us. I thought it was God's way of telling us to keep going forward. We were right. During our little adventure, I learned how the children of Tanzania would decide which way to go. Whenever they would come to a cross in the roads, they would spit in their hands. Then they would take their index finger and hit the saliva. Whichever way the saliva goes is the direction that you should go. The things you learn!

I cannot get this image out of my head

I traveled to a village called Mwika today. Mwika has one of the highest concentrations of AIDS in this area. We are involved with a woman named Mama Marena. She has opened her home to orphans that are all HIV positive. They still giggle and squeal with delight and fight over candy. They find happiness in the smallest of things. They have started a small nursery school and we will be building classrooms for them. I danced and played and sung with the children. We had fun! Seeing what the live in and how they little they have has yet to stop affecting me.

However, we went to two homes to visit AIDS patients that are homebound. They were not planned so our project manager had not brought the money. It is typical to bring a gift when you go to visit someone. We brought two kilograms of sugar and soap. I decided to pay for it out of my own money. The grand total was about $6.

The first man that we met was so thankful. We talked to him for a while and worshipped and prayed with him. One of my favorite things about prayer here is that you always sing first. It is typically Father, Father. God, there in no God like you. After we sing that through couple of a times, we all pray at the same time. After this, the man wanted to touch my head and bless me. Touching the forehead of someone is a sign of respect.

The second man was the image that I will never get out of my head. He is bound to his bed. We went into his small house which is one room that is smaller than my bathroom that has very little light. He did not have enough strength to lift the sugar that I handed him. He is also suffering from another disease, maybe elephantitus but I am not sure. His feet are swollen but skin is what I cannot get out my head. If you have ever seen a sea urchin with the "tentacles" that are about a 1/4" thick and maybe an inch long. All over is feet. One foot is being eaten alive by maggots. His hands were starting to deteriorate and get sores all over them. I cannot get this image out of my head. I do not know how to get past it. I do not know how to cope. I went on the internet and tried to find out how to heal this disease. I want to fix it. Is that the answer? I have no idea. I come in with my American bravado and want to throw money at things. I know that is not the right answer. I want to visit him again. I want to love him and read to him.

Life is never going to be the same again.....

By the way, thank you for your prayers for my friend Samuel, his slowly recovering from the Malara.

Some things I never thought I would say...

Do you ever catch yourself saying things that as you think about what you are saying, you are a little incredulous? I have had many such moments in the short time that I have been here.
Here are few:

1. How many wives does your father have?
2. How long do you think we will have power?
3. Wow the internet was quick today (I only had to play two games of solitaire, take a 20 minute nap, study swahili, and do a sudoku to send one email)
4. It only took one bucket full of water to flush the toilet this time.
5. Oh yeah!, Hot water!
6. Oh yeah!, I get to sleep in the same place for three nights in a row!
7. Will my feet ever be clean again?
8. So you mean I shouldn't be concerned that we are passing a car and another car is coming at us at 65mph?
9. I like the style of this mosquito net.
10. And, last but not least, I will never settle for less than 200 cows and one bull (for a marriage proposal that is).

I know I have forgotten some and that there will be many more moments like this, so be sure to stay tuned to catch next week's edition of Meagan's top ten!