From the UK Half

Apologies! The blog has recently been seriously neglected!

Rachel and Amisadai are now in the UK while Tim and Louisa have stayed in Tanzania. Amisadai is undergoing tests and seeing doctors to try and get to the bottom of what has been going on with her health. We have been here two weeks now but many blood test tubes later, don't have a whole lot to report yet! After a rather difficult journey, Amisadai is actually doing much better now we are here ... which is good, but a little unhelpful and confusing! We are making the most of special time with Grandma and have enjoyed seeing cousins and friends. It feels extremely cold here, but we are very grateful for warm clothes and shoes lent to us by kind friends for our time here! In between appointments (medical and social!) Amisadai is working to keep up with schoolwork assignments!

In Doha Airport: Not so good

At Grandma's with Roast Beef Dinner: much better!

It was very special timing to arrive in time for my Grandad's funeral. He passed away, sadly just a few days before we arrived. Last week, it was really wonderful to have the unexpected time with my parents who came over from Canada, and then on Thursday with all the extended family at the funeral. It was a really special day, honouring a wonderful man who has left us such a rich legacy of faith, love and prayer.

Wonderful memories of fun with Grandma and Grandad!

Meanwhile Tim and Louisa are doing a grand job of looking after each other! The first week was half term and wonderful friends made it a very fun time for Louisa! Last week it was "back to school" and Tim had a busy week of teaching at the college. They were in Kayenze on Sunday where Tim was preaching on Romans 8 and are thankful and happy to report that it has been raining! Farmers have now been planting both in Kayenze and Sengerema so please join us in praying for the germination and growth of these seeds, for good rains and a fruitful harvest to come.

Before coming to England, I was at the ECHO Agricultural Symposium in Arusha with Peter and also our Iringa colleagues, Andre and Jesca. At the time, it was hard being away that week with so much going on as travel plans were being arranged for Amisadai, who that same week also went down with malaria, and then with my Grandad weakening and passing away. It seemed hard to focus on pigeon peas and weeds at the time. But ECHO is a fantastic organization and in hindsight, it was a great time with other people doing similar agricultural work to us. It was great to have all we are doing reinforced and encouraged as well as good to learn new things and feed thoughts and ideas for future work.

It was exciting to pick up on the buzz about pigeon peas this year!

We are already pigeon pea enthusiasts! I could write a whole blog post on them ...

The medicinal garden at ECHO inspired me to persevere with this in Mwanza!

I came back with Chaya cuttings, excited about working with our farmers with this "spinach tree!"

It has been rated Number 4 in the top leafy plants for protein and I could write

another whole post about its benefits and uses!

We learned all about this aggressive and terribly damaging weed,

Parthenium hysterophorus. Watch out for this wicked one!

As I close this post, I must say how incredibly grateful we are for wonderfully loving and supporting friends everywhere! So many with Tim and Louisa in Tanzania. So many here in the UK with Amisadai and myself. And many others encouraging and supporting us from other places! Thank you all!