A time to rejoice.

Well this blog isn't as far and few between as the last ones, though i am writing this in the later hours of the night, so i hope that it makes sense. It seems to be the best time, that i can blog. And a new thing for me to be staying up so late...
We have had many power cuts of late, all of which no one really knows why these are happening. Some days are worse than others and today has been one of those better days where the power has been on for most of it. we are up to around 3 days where the power has come and gone. along with the washing machine that decided to break, but is now fixed and being of great use again. 
Well enough about the lack of power, and washing facilities. Let me continue, as I share with you a little more on the home front of life. 
Last blog i mentioned about parents day and the need to be thankful. This time i want to share a little about rejoicing. I have had nearly one month of holidays now and its been great. I have had so many adventures, like climbing Mt Meru again and being out in Magugu for Easter with over 300 youth kids, we have celebrated G's 1st birthday,  (our neighbour who i share my stair case with, their son turned 1). 
So its a time to celebrate. to rejoice. Even when things sometimes are hard, it;s important to celebrate and rejoice. Here we can always find a reason for celebrating, which always includes a cake of some sort and often a good cooked meal. i must say though that my baking skills are horrible and so often its my house mate who is the baker and makes all sorts of yumo cakes and hot cross buns, so i can't really take much of the credit for them at all except that i help to eat them and they taste great. We all know that the cake is the most important part, along with the people who you get to celebrate and rejoice with. 

One of my sisters just had her 3rd baby  a  boy, which was awesome but yet  bittersweet as its awesome i'm an aunty again but the bitter part comes when you can't be there to celebrate with family. So it was skype and phone calls to Australia that helped me through the day and photos as well. It is part of living life as away and at times its easy while other times is more of a struggle. 

Easter as i said was spent this year with over 300 youth kids.... it was a fun time though very different to my other Easters, we rapped to the fresh prince of bel air and played many crazy games with these kids. But the part that just caught my heart was when these young kids were just giving their whole hearts to God. They were so thankful and were able to give thanks and rejoice in all that they had at that time. This made me really stop and reflect upon my own life and how i can be rejoicing and celebrating and thanking God for each and everything, because every good and perfect gift comes from him. 
As i drove today from meeting a friend i saw the most amazing sunset, the sun was just going down and as i looked at the amazing colours that were reflecting on the trees i paused in my thoughts for a moment to just rejoice and celebrate that i do live in such an amazingly beautiful place.... again it was a time to rejoice and celebrate the small but beautiful part of God's creation. 

I recently had the chance to talk with my 6 year old niece on skype for around 40 minutes, again this was a treasured time, to be able to chat and celebrate the things that she has been doing. Even if it's across the other side of the world... 

As the holidays come to an end, (we will celebrate this with another cake) and we are now having our teacher only days, again i celebrated today with these teachers who are so passionate about serving the kids in our school, and about loving life, that you really can't help but to rejoice and celebrate with them. 

And so now the time is late, i shall meet with you all again via my blog or fb or some kind of technology type of way. 
so be blessed and look for the things to celebrate and rejoice in your life. And then tell me or someone else about it, because it's always more fun when its with other people.

A time of Thanksgiving.

Mambo friends and family.

WOW let me begin with. what a busy few months it has been since i last blogged. So i have survived my first submission of essays for university, all with the daily trials of no power, and having to head to head into town for power. this also includes many long nights of trying to download at crazy hours of the morning because that's when the internet is fastest. it has been super busy, but i am constantly reminded of the promise that God showed to me, how this is now the time to do study. God was the one who showed this to me, and i am reminded so much of this.
we just had our end of school term parents day, where the children perform and parents come. the school is now closed for one month. we had over 100 parents attend our parents day, this is such an encouragement because its so many more than last year. Keep praying for more parents to catch the vision of our school and the work that is happening here.
during this crazy busy time my friend and our house help lost her baby at 3 months. her husband came to our house one morning, very worried and explained that she was very unwell. After some short discussion we all decided that she needed to go to hospital straight away. as i reflected i began to think about the amount that i have. how no matter what i always have enough, and the amount that i should be giving, to a family who can barely pay for food for their family, who are struggling to make ends meet. As i took them to hospital and helped them out in a financial way it just hit me how much God wants us to give  of ourselves to him, for me it just stopped me in my tracks, to be thankful that i was even able to do something so small for this family. how can i just sit back and ignore the basic needs of this family, when God has enabled me to be able to help them out.
 this was such a sad and heart breaking time for her and her family. She has 2 other children who attend our school, and her husband works with us too. Women here seem to have been losing babies, and this is the 5th person i know who has lost her baby, and i would ask you to please join me in prayer for these women who are losing babies before they are born. these are lives being lost.

i have been reflecting so much on this and in this comes to the thankfulness that each one of you believes in what i'm doing, i am so thankful for the prayer and the support that is shown to me from each of you, my words don't even seem enough, but please know how thankful i am for each one of you.
As i run through our village behind our base, i stop and just marvel at God's creation of the sunset, or laugh as i run with an entourage of  children running wit me shouting hi hi hi. its the everyday moments like these that i am affirmed that this is where God wants me to be. After a long busy day its always refreshing to be able to build the relationships with these families and children, to sometimes be forced to stop and just be. it is such a challenge at times, as my mind just says keep going i have work to do, yet such a part of this is the relationships being built along the way. by stopping and greeting someone to sitting in their house attempting to speak in swahili.

being able to stop and just breathe in the air that is fresh and know that it is God who is in control of all that i do, so long as i am willing and open to hearing his word and to learn.

so as i leave you with prayer points and praise points i pray for each of you, that God would just  dwell in each of your daily lives. that you too would be able to enjoy the simplicity of the busy lives we all live.

Prayer points

• pray for these women losing babies. pray for their safety and health and pray for their spirits as they come to terms with the loss. 
• pray for me as i continue to study, pray for wisdom as i read and good power and internet connection.
• Please pray for the cost of my car, as i have just had to spend alot of money on it, pray that it will last and break again. 

Praise points.

• i survived my fist submission of uni.
• for each of you i am so thankful, for your prayer. 
• being able to enjoy the small pleasures in life. 

I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart, for i know that he is good.
blessings on you all. 

Carly

Hi friends,
well its been a little while since my last update, pole sana. (very sorry), SO as i sit here on my computer blogging to you, i have to stop and remember the things that have happened in the last few weeks. 
Oh, so i'm now working down at school again in 4 classes this year i'm specifically working with the children who are low achieving. i work mostly with them in groups of 2 or 3, and am focusing right now on English, phonics and all that. ( i am working with the  preschool classes and year 1), its been really encouraging so far working with these children and being there to encourage them in learning. uni has started again and its keeping me very busy as well, so that's another part of the reason i haven't been so much in contact. 
one evening i decided to sleep early only to be woken at 10 pm asking me to take one of our teachers to hospital, we (5 of us) trecked to the first hospital only to be told oh sorry we don't do testing at night. but they proceeded to give her a needle, so then we made another treck to the 2nd hospital, where we waited for several hours, where she was tested and then sent home. praise God she is ok now and does not have Malaria or anything else. 
its times like this where i just stop and thank God for his provision upon my life. 

over the past weekend me, my 2 house mates Emma and Amy and another friend Sam all went to Magugu. we left for our 4 hour bus journey on Saturday afternoon and arrived to the hot and sticky, yet awesome place Magugu. it was so nice because we were there on the weekend this time, where as in the past it's always been a school day. we were able to hang out with Pastor Ezekiel and his family, speaking in Swahili and just being in community together. Sunday we went to a youth service where there were around 50 young girls, 2 of whom were Muslim singing and leading the choir. What impact God i making in this community. we gave our testimonies and danced a lot.  Ezekiel the pastor saw this need for these young youth to go to a church and so he put it into action, and made this happen. WHat a blessing this was for me to see so many young people worshiping and praising God and better yet they were hungry for the word. 
Sunday afternoon we did some more visiting around the community, with one of our teachers Joseph (a student teacher who now works in Magugu). and were able to take Pastor Ezekiel and his family out for a meal, his wife, and 2 children all sat for the form 4 exam and passed. this was such a great time to celebrate. 
Monday rolled around all too quickly, and we were up and ready for school devotions and then ready to head to see the preschool class, Pina the teacher of this class is amazing, and i was so encouraged by what i was seeing. Again i was seeing God in all his glory. 
we said our goodbyes and headed for the long 4 hour bus journey back to Arusha. As i sat down to my seat, i turned several minutes later to notice that there was a kuku (chicken) in a plastic bag with its little head popping out. we laughed about this and then several more minutes passed and a young girl came to sell her creams, only for me to then be asked to move again. so up i get and move to the seat behind me. i sit down and as i look over here is another lady with a kuku (chicken) on her lap. oh the buses in Africa. you just never know what will happen on them. eventually i moved to the back seat of the bus, not the best place as you get all the bumps as the bus goes full speed over the bumps. 
we stop a little and the ladies come to the side of your window in hope to sell there goods. watermelon, baskets, sodas, mats and many other goods you could imagine. 
we arrive back to Arusha and the rain pours down. we make it to the bus stand and wait in a shop, with people selling bread. everyone gathers round to get out of the rain, but also because of the novelty that the Wazungu are all there too, the rain eases up and we head walking to the market to get fruit and veggies, followed by a long dala dala trip home. we get to our stop and decide we want pee pee's (lollies) so we head to a friends shop and then back home. 
we arrive home and are so warmly greeted by our neighbors who share our stair case they missed us and hadn't seen us all weekend. 
the adventures just keep going each and everyday but ill share praise points with you all. 
praise points over the last little while 

• being back in school
• beginning uni 
• the rain that has come and gone. 

prayer points 

• please pray for my health and for our teachers as well flus are going around
• pray for our new school to be registered, this is important to go ahead

so for now ill go but remember you can contact me, via facebook, email, skype, phone. etc. AND ill post some photos onto facebook as this seems to be the fastest way. 

look forward to hearing from you all. 

blessings 

3 More nights in OZ

Hello

SO, now my time is quickly coming to an end. 3 more nights here in OZ land until i make the long journey back to Arusha, where i shall arrive at 3 am  or somewhere around that ridiculous time in the morning. let me say a huge ASANTE SANA, to you all for the support and love that has been shown to me over the 2 months that i have been in the land of luxury, good chocolate and most importantly great people. 

so as i prepare for the journey back i am just thinking and being reminded of so many great times i have shared with so many of you. these times shared will continue to hold a precious memory in my mind and remind me when times are hard, as i know they will be, that i have a caring and loving family back here in OZ land. 

it was such a blessing to be able to share on Sunday at Maitland baptist, and as we sung the song about rising up, as one body (Ray's song), it just really reminded me of community, family and fellowship. for this i am so truly thankful. 

some big prayer points before leaving, and when i arrive i shall share with you today. 

• Pray for my permit (visa) its coming, but i need it before Friday morning so i can arrive back in Tanzania without any hassles. 
• Pray for my safety as i travel and make long stop overs in Bangkok and Addis. 
• Pray that God would speak to me clearly as i travel. 
• At this point i am slightly unsure as to getting back to Arusha at the early hours of the morning. please be in prayer that Emma my house mate finds someone to travel with her (driving my car) so she can come and get me. 
• continue to pray for my financial support. some specific needs that i am waiting on God for, if you would like to know specifics on this please email me or Margaret, my email is greeningcarly@gmail.com
• pray for me as i begin uni on March 1st.  

Praise points:

• Being completely blessed by the love and care here in OZ
• Having coffee with great friends.
• catching up and spending good quality time with my nieces and nephews and extended family.
• being welcomed into church life in OZ.

SO for now i shall go, but ill email/ blog again soon. 
blessings to all. 

REMEMBER you can contact me
Skype- Carly.greening
Email- greeningcarly@gmail.com
Facebook- Carly Greening

My Aussie Adventure

Hello to all my friends and family. 

Well its now January and i cant believe that i only have just 3 weeks until i make the long journey back to Arusha. 
But before i get ready for my big departure let me fill you in on some of the adventures and blessings that i have been having over the last 2 months.
My time in Oz has been widely spread with many fun adventures.. i had the chance to get to Dubbo twice. 
As i took the 4 hour journey i was reminded by a lot of the scenery that is seen in Tanzania, but the only difference was and still is, that the roads are just so much better here than in Arusha. although they are being improved. 
As i sit here and write this blog to you all, i am thankful for the chance to be able to visit Australia. its been a real time of r and r and for that i am thankful. 
i had the chance to see many friends, as well and was completely surprised by some of the old staff that i worked with as they had a picnic with everyone in the park, the families who i used to work with. this was such a great day. 
as i returned to my 'home' church i was warmly welcomed back, each week since i have been back. i was reminded of the parable of the lost son, and how he returned, they celebrated. it was so great being able to re connect with old faces and to catch up on life again. 

i have had many chances to get to the beach, and swim a favorite past time of mine. 

I do want to say a huge thank you to those of you who have supported me, both through prayer and financially. you are all such a blessing to me in more ways than you shall ever know. 
so as i prepare my last weeks here in Oz i continue to stop and just be still, knowing that this time here is so precious. 

until i type again. enjoy your day's/ weeks and month. 
blessings 
Carly

oh if you do want to keep more updated remember you can skype with me, facebook, text or even snail mail. 

Holidays in Australia

Mambo friends and family. 

well as many of you by now may be aware i'm back in Australia and i decided that i would surprise my family for Christmas. i have been back in Oz now for just nearly 3 weeks, its been such a blessing being able to see family and friends for Christmas. 
it was all a bit of a whirl wind as i made a very quick decision to come back, and therefore kept it as a surprise to everyone. 
So i'm back in Oz just until the 7th Feb, i am loving the longer days as back in Arusha it gets dark at the same time each night, no day light savings. 
My Christmas was filled with some great times with my family,  sharing meals and being able to share in each others lives. this has and still is such a special time for me being back. 
i was so warmly welcomed by Maitland baps church as i came back, and they all cheered and clapped that i had returned. it really reminded me of the lost sheep story and how when the son returns its a celebration, a time to rejoice. being able to re connect with old friends and also making new friends has been such a blessing to me, and i am so thankful for each one of you who has come into contact with me over the last few weeks.

As i stop and just try to be still and reflect upon the year that i have had, i really have to say thankyou to God for all that he has blessed me with. i feel so blessed to be able to be apart of such an organisation that not only supports me in the work that i do, but that they are people who seek God with all there hearts. i am so thankful for each of my supporters,  each one of you are enabling me to be able to do the work that i know i'm called to, and without your support both financially and prayerfully i truly wouldn't be where i am today. 
God just keeps blowing me away as he continues to provide, and prove to me that he is bigger than all my 'earthly needs and wants'. 

as i stop and reflect i again am reminded of what it is to have enough. to have enough means to be content with the things that we own or consume. i have been thinking about the needs and wants, and what really is a need in my life and what is a want. i really have to stop and think about how i should be using what God has already given to me. it is so easy for me to just skip this or to not really think about it, but as i sit here to write i am reminded strongly that i need to think about this, and give it back to God. 

i am again humbled and reminded that it is God who has enabled me to come back to Oz to see family and friends, and that in his will and time that i shall stop and see the beauty that he has created, though i do know that this time here is just a time to rest and get ready for the next year i am so thankful that i have a new clear direction as to where God wants me to be going. i know that Arusha is where i'm called to be, and i know that The Joshua Foundation is where God wants me to be. this is exciting and new and i can't wait to begin the work there again. this next year has so much installed for it, as in i shall be studying again, at uni and we are starting a new nursery class, our school is going up to standard 5 which is huge, our teachers and myself shall continue on the mentoring course, completing a diploma in mentoring, this course has been so exciting to see the excitement in the teachers faces,, the passion that they have in wanting to learn more.  even for me i have learnt again so much in just the few weeks that i did the course. i'm so excited as we will continue to extend our school building, and as we do this we will get more kids, the school is growing. as the school grows we need sponsors for our children to addend school. 
they are just a few of the bigger things going on next year, and i ask that you please join me in praying for all of these things going on. prayer is powerful and you can make a difference no matter where you are in the world. 

So as i continue to rest, relax, and rejuvenate i pray that you too shall do the same thing. 
i would love to see those of you who are around, and i am free lots of the time, so send me an email, facebook message or even a text message. if you wish to contact me via phone then send me a facebook message and ill send you my number. 

i pray that you have a very happy new year and that God would fill each one of you with the promises, visions and ideas as the new year begins. 


  

No power but short update...

greetings friends to you all. 

well i hope and pray that this last month has been one filled with lots of great times for you all. 
i must say that this is now the 3rd attempt to write this blog, because every time i sit to write it i get part way through and then go off to do something, forgetting to save it. so let's see, oh yeh the last month. 
WOW what a whirl wind its been, i feel as though i have blinked and its almost over, as i'm sure many of you feel this way too. maybe it has something to do with every year older you become the quicker they go. or something to that effect. so as i sit here, typing to you i can now barley see the keys as we have no power AGAIN, and its getting dark...  this is now going on 6 days without power, well power coming on and then going off about an hour later or sometimes even minutes later.  so as i write i am hoping that my computer battery is charged enough to make it to the end of this blog... we shall see. so i am writing listening to the sound outside of the generator going, and going... i get excited when i see a light on, it gives me hope that i will be able to get the mundane things done like washing, and then to power up my computer and every other technical item that requires power, i guess its so easy to forget that without power you cant take hot showers, or that then the water might run low because its pumped and needs power to make it go. but you  used to using solar lights after days on end with no power,  and using candles placing them strategically in the house, trying to make sure that they are not going to fall on something and either drip candle wax everywhere, or burn something or better still someone. ( believe me i have done all of these things, including spilling candle wax all over my computer, its a hard job then to make it work). but i am thankful that we have gas, we can still cook using our oven and stove...  hot showers are something i become so thankful for.... but you would think i would learn to plug everything in when the power is on, but... NO often i forget and then it becomes too late,  because the power goes out, and again im left with no electrical things.but its ok because when we do have power it really makes me stop and be still. it often makes me go to bed earlier than usual, and gives me more time to be still rather than doing all of the time. (For those of you who know me well this being still stuff can be rather the challenge for me). but im not alone in any of this, as i have the whole of my base and the rest of Arusha all in the same boat as me... the power aside on other notes on the home front here, i recently applied for UNI and well i got accepted. this has been something that i have wanted to do for a long time now but never did, until one of my friends here encouraged me, along with some others to just apply and do it now. so i prayed about it and the timing seemed right, and after the application process i got in. so March next year i will be doing a bachelor of education. early childhood education. as i stopped and reflected that i got in, all these thoughts went through my mind, oh man. i am doing uni via distance and we have had and still have no power 6 days, and how slow the internet is....  how can i do this. but then i stop and just feel the presence of the lord upon me, with that peace that passes all understanding, that it will be ok.....  this presence that only God can fill me with. knowing that it is his will for my life to be stepping out to this next phase in life, and that i am his vessel, i am being obedient to his calling upon my life.  that gives me peace.
right now i am also completing a 1 year diploma in mentoring course at our base, this has been so encouraging, and really re started the fire that has been waiting to burn so bright. as i am hearing and learning i am so thankful for the people around me who share the same heart as me, who are all so eager to learn and furfill what God is calling them to. at this point in my life i am thankful for what God has and is giving me.
(on  a side note i need to either learn to type faster, leave out spelling mistakes or just hurry up cause the battery is going to die) 

we shall be finishing up school this coming friday and shall be having a thanks giving dinner that night so much we can be thankful for.... 
so as i leave enjoy and God bless.