these past few months well 2 months actually have been great, I'm now working full time with The Joshua Foundation. Here i am working full time in the preschool class year 2. i have 26 kids and 1 assistant Godwin.
This has been such a great time, and i really have that peace that passes all understanding that this is where God has placed me. i am loving the challenge of what i do, and am loving being able to teach again.
though as any new job it does not come without its challenges. Some of the challenges that i have experienced since beginning my new chapter of being on the mission field has been the language barrier with my class. i would say that this by far has been the hardest challenge so far. It really makes me stop and think about what i am saying how fast its being said and if its completely understood. But my kids are understanding my English very well and have begun speaking more and more in English each day, with a slight Australian accent mixed in with the Tanzanian accent.
Here on my base I'm so fully loving being apart of community living. we have team meals every other week and we have team worship every other Sunday evening. we have education meetings every fortnight along with just hanging out with people on the base, going to someones house for a meal or having people come over to our house.
on our Sunday night worship times we have been looking more and more into sewing and reaping.
our base wants to be able to sew and reap completely into the lives of our community and so our base leaders have been teaching us more and more about this concept. these teachings are practical and therefore am able to put them into a daily practise, or at least attempt to do this.
over this last term we have been talking in our school about stewardship and what that means to our teachers and most importantly how we can teach this to our children.
the teachers have had Professional development days every week to talk about how they can teach and show these children good models for life.
we have just had an amazing conference called TaCSA- ACSI this was a 2 day round table where christian teachers from Moshi, Dar, and locally have met together in a round table to talk about the Christian education.
the conference was held at our base in Arusha, and the main focus of ACSI is to strengthen christian schools and to equip christian educators worldwide as they prepare students academically to inspire them to become developed followers of Jesus Christ.
WOW well when i came into this conference i was excited, but after 2 days of hearing the hearts of our schools who want to make an impact i was not just excited, but became more fully aware that this is completely God's calling upon my life to be here serving right now. the slogan for the conference was Tanzania its your time. how true i feel that this is, its time for Tanzania to stand up and to make a stand in Christian education.
my words cant even completely express how inspired and excited i am to see this vision and to help be the change. to help make a difference, (which is exactly what i came here to do in the first place).
this past first term has been filled so much which is part of the reason i took so long to email and blog. for that i am sorry. i do want to take the time to also acknowledge and thank all the people who i got to see back in OZ, it was such a blessing to see you all and i was so encouraged by the fact that you believe in the work that God has called me to be doing. this i think has given me the extra straight to come back here and begin the work i know that God has called me to. i am so thankful for the break i was able to take in OZ, and feel so refreshed being here now, each of you have blessed me in more ways than you ll ever imagine, and for that i am and always be thankful.
in the times of being so busy since i arrived back i have also had some good fellowship and good times with friends here too.
i have the joy f being part of my house mates wedding in April and have been able to catch up with people here in arusha too.
some of the not so fun times have been when 2 of my bank cards got eaten by the ATM's and i got one back but the other is still with the bank. In true African style on the 2nd bank card incident as i went into the bank they told me to come back on Monday, so back i go a few days later only for them to tell me come back in half an hour. ha i thought here we go ill never get the card back, but to my surprise i did get the card back PRAISE GOD, after a rather short process.
another of the harder time has been that i had to go back to Likamba to say 'goodbye' to the Pastor there and tell him that i had moved on from Imara. he took this all very well and he understands that we cant argue with what the lord says.
during this time Corrine and i stopped on our way to pick up some ladies, Corrine asked them in Swahili has it rained much lately?? the ladies both quickly responded with No no rain here.
we arrive up at the school and within 10 minutes of us arriving the rains come pouring in. followed by the rock rain. (hail).
i stood there with Pastor as we watched the rains and rock rains come pouring down and was amazed. as this has never happened in all the time i have been coming to Likamba.
we came to leaving time, and well if you have been to Likamba then ull understand that getting out after the rain is a challenge. the dirt is like an ash dirt, so out came the 4b4 skills. it took alot of skill and prayer to get out of this without getting stuck or slipping to the side completely. we had one point where i wanted to go one way but no matter how hard i tried the car wouldn't do it. so i went with it and got out fine.
i stopped after we got out and said to Corrine lets just take one moment to breathe and praise god for getting out. at that same point it hit me oh yeh that's right I'm in Africa. not in OZ.
we have been blessed by some great rains in the evenings and great sunshine in the day times. this is just great.
i do have a few prayer requests that ill ask that you as a body would join with me in.
- please pray for health- pray specifically that no more sickness comes to me. its been more of a frustration as i have been sick a bit since arriving back.
- please pray for our base and the staff here, just pray for there families and the work that they do here each day as they serve the lord.
- please pray for the protection especially on the pastors in arusha and Tanzania.
- pray for our school as children are on holidays and the teachers too.
also i would love to hear from you as well. Prayer needs from you i would love to get so send them my way and ill certainly pray for you all.
for now may god bless you :D
