Minority World Problems

One of my favorite YouTube videos other than Jeff Dunham and Achmed the Dead Terrorist is a water charity having Africans read people's problems from what is normally referred to the First World but I typically refer to as the Minority world since those that live in those conditions are in the minority.

So I have talked about my trouble sleeping during this time of the year (not a minority world problem a veteran problem) but how I cope with it in town sometimes leads to minority world problems.  For example I have been in town most of this week getting things done before I come home for the holidays.  Only my Virtual Private Network has not been working all week and Netflix knows I am in Africa so they will not let me access their site to watch programs at 2 AM when I finally give up trying to sleep and look for something to do to occupy my time.  

On the other hand I have always been pretty good at working through the nights at least until I can't focus my eyes any more.  This time over the last couple of weeks I tackled a big issue for my trip home.  Some promotional materials to use in telling people about our ministry here in Tanzania.  I bit off a bit more than I should have but got it done anyway and thanks to Gary Hyman for stepping up and helping me get an edit done quickly as well as tracking down USA photos and logos for it.  It is done and I am having a small print run done as this is being typed.  In addition we created a PDF electronic version so people could download copies and distribute to other people as well.  You can download it at http://www.fulldimensionministry.com/news_files/FullDimensionMinsitryInformationalMagazine.pdf.  Fair warning it is about 18 MBs because it is 24 pages long in full color.  Anybody that wants a print version should contact me to discuss (we can get print runs as small as 1 copy done but I will see what I have left after our talks are completed).

In addition to working on this lately I have been working on year end reports for the site and now need to start turning that into Newsletter copy for the end of the year.

The rains have been coming down and that means it is time to plant fields but first you plow them.

The main style of plowing in the valley.

I also had a friend come out the site to look over the potential of joining us in our work.  He is a Peace Corp Volunteer who has extended his stay in Tanzania.  An extendee must work with a Non Governmental Organzation as part of their extension.  Unfortunately for Kyle, his NGO work has not been all he hoped it would be so he is looking for opportunities to do more work. It goes a lot deeper than that and he has been doing the right thing along the way to work with them but they just are not stepping up on their end.  So he came out to the site to look over living arrangements and potential work as well as to learn how to weld which I had promised to teach him.  He did a great job both respecting the power and danger but also not fearing it so he could learn to be a good welder but he has a lot of potential in so many things that I hope we get to our site.  

 

Kyle with a new frame he welded up for our sitting choo (toilet)

So now I sit in Arusha and look forward to going to what I consider my home church here in Tanzania, Arusha Vineyard, and work to set up talks and meetings for my trip home.  It never really is a vacation.

So far I am scheduled for December 20th at Advent to speak to a Sunday School class, Jan 7th at Woodmont HS and the FDM USA board meeting, Jan 10 at MUMC men's fellowship and LIVE worship sermon, Jan 12 at MUMC United Methodist Women's gathering and Jan 17 at MUMC Traditional Services.

I will be home late December 15th and leave January 20th.  If you wold like me to speak to your group or are willing to help me get additional speaking engagements, please contact me at steveintanzania@gmail.com.  I will be speaking a lot more about the ministry this year since last year I talked a lot about my life here, but if it is your first time to hear me let me know which one you want to hear.  Don't forget if you just want to meet for a diet soda and catch up I am all for that to.