We have now been back in Tanzania for a week! Time is such a strange thing. While at times I can't believe a week has flown by, I also can't believe it was only a week ago we were at the Basingstoke TKS Celebration before heading to the airport; it feels like another life an eternity ago! It is great to be back home and it's been a very busy but good week of meeting up with people and starting to unpack the house and sort everything out! Time to enter another season! After leaving in such a hurry at the beginning of the year, it was so strange finding all these things just left abandoned so many months ago, so many things left undone! Where did that time go?!
The girls were happy to get back to school and reconnect with all their friends! Louisa has started Secondary School and although she was a little concerned about missing the start of the year, is now all caught up and apart from the greater load of homework, enjoying being a Year 7 student! And early on our first day back, Tim started teaching again at the Bible College.
There seems so much to catch up on! While much remains the same, time changes things. So much has changed as people have moved away or moved in, babies have been born, there are new roads ... and far more expensive bananas!
It has been great to have our "team" all together for the first time. We were able to share a meal together at the Ewings home on Tuesday, attend Mkuyuni church yesterday, where we were all warmly welcomed and able to share another meal together with their leaders and then today we had our first Monday morning team meeting all together!
Amisadai and I were happy to finally meet Simon and Victoria and their two children, Tabitha and Reuben! And it was so wonderful to meet little Ethan, the new addition to the Newby family! And it was lovely to have Esther visit with her baby girl, Praise! Born the day before Ethan in May, she too is no longer a little newborn! Esther is doing well and hoping to start doing a couple of days a week for the agriculture project.
I met with the Mamas Group on Saturday for the first time in many months! It was wonderful to see everyone again ...and discover Mama Laurencia has given birth to twins! More on that later too!
But today has been a difficult and sad day. We are grieving the loss of a good friend, Martin Shaw who died very suddenly in Dar es Salaam last night. Martin, like us, moved to Tanzania from Tadley. His wife Esther, in Dar es Salaam, and his children in the UK are much in our thoughts and prayers at this difficult time. As our pastor in Tadley, Greg, said so well, "We are grateful to God for Martin's clear Christian faith, his commitment to God's kingdom, and his sure hope of eternal life. Martin was a man of boundless optimism and confidence in the future, a man who always made big plans, followed where God led, and who saw many of those plans come to fruition. I will certainly miss his enthusiasm, can-do attitude and practical outlook." We will all miss him.
And so I end up reflecting on the fragility of our time here on Earth. The priorities we set and those things done or left undone. Those things that time changes and what remains the same. What will I do with my time? And I am left thankful for a solid hope, eagerly anticipating an eternity without time.
The girls were happy to get back to school and reconnect with all their friends! Louisa has started Secondary School and although she was a little concerned about missing the start of the year, is now all caught up and apart from the greater load of homework, enjoying being a Year 7 student! And early on our first day back, Tim started teaching again at the Bible College.
There seems so much to catch up on! While much remains the same, time changes things. So much has changed as people have moved away or moved in, babies have been born, there are new roads ... and far more expensive bananas!
It has been great to have our "team" all together for the first time. We were able to share a meal together at the Ewings home on Tuesday, attend Mkuyuni church yesterday, where we were all warmly welcomed and able to share another meal together with their leaders and then today we had our first Monday morning team meeting all together!
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| The EI team with leaders from Mkuyuni Church |
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Warmly welcomed by Mkuyuni Church
(Their building has progressed amazingly in our absence!)
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| With Esther and baby Praise |
Peter is doing a great job carrying the Agriculture Project! More on that another time, but just to say he is very busy this week with four days of training in two villages with over forty farmers! We have already had a little rain here and are praying for good rains this year!
But today has been a difficult and sad day. We are grieving the loss of a good friend, Martin Shaw who died very suddenly in Dar es Salaam last night. Martin, like us, moved to Tanzania from Tadley. His wife Esther, in Dar es Salaam, and his children in the UK are much in our thoughts and prayers at this difficult time. As our pastor in Tadley, Greg, said so well, "We are grateful to God for Martin's clear Christian faith, his commitment to God's kingdom, and his sure hope of eternal life. Martin was a man of boundless optimism and confidence in the future, a man who always made big plans, followed where God led, and who saw many of those plans come to fruition. I will certainly miss his enthusiasm, can-do attitude and practical outlook." We will all miss him.
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This photo was taken before either Martin (centre) or ourselves moved to Tanzania,
but here we are with our good Tanzanian friends Huruma and Zakayo at John and Tania's house in England!
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SO sorry to hear about your friend! :( Praising GOD that He is with Jesus and you will see him again. And it is always a good wake up call for those of us left behind. May we be wise and faithful stewards of the time God gives us! Love you guys--we must do tea!
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