Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

How do I describe this last week?  Surreal, hard to fathom, chaos, unbelievable?  After last week's blog about the wonderful gifts, the team brought me and the gift of their time and presence we move to my being recalled to the states. Why? As many will recall, I had to come home in April due to my residence permit expiring and not being able to get a new one due to the requirement that any resident must have a work permit first.  At that time, we had applied for the work permit 2 months prior to my coming home.  2 months is a lot longer than their promised 15 day turn around. This last week FDMC (the Tanzanian side) canceled all my work suddenly citing concerns about my not having the work permit and in the ensuing discussion FDMUSA (the US side) decided at their Thursday board of directors meeting to recall me because of those concerns.  I understand their liability concerns, even if I was willing to assume the in-country risk.  I have long been a believer that boots o

When I wrote up the review of the mission team and their activities a couple of weeks ago I left one major part out.  Not because I did not want to talk about it but I did not have the pictures to go along with it. Zawadi means gift.  When the team came over they brought me some of the items I like most that I can use here.  Spam, beef jerky, tea mix,  lemonade mix, cheese powder, sugar-free chocolate treats.   My mom and dad even brought over the remaining Vienna sausage cans my dad can no longer eat.   This is food with flavor which is not something I get a lot of. In case you can't tell from the faces of the team members in the photos we had a lot of fun with it all.  They even brought over some bar clamps for me to work with. Probably the physical item that I was not expecting was from Jerad.  He brought me a set of welder sleeves to protect my arms and a good set of welding gloves that will not melt.  But best of all he brought over a welding hood with Autodark

So the team brought over bears made with love and showered in prayers.  The people back in the states paid to adopt a bear to help raise funds for the team.  They got a laminated picture of the bear they adopted.  Now here in Tanzania, we give the bears out to the kids and people we come across with kids or to others who can benefit by being blessed with a bear that someone is praying for.  Can you tell I love this program?  If not I do.   To me, this program is basic Christianity.  Not TV or social media Christianity.  People who will remain anonymous to the recipients gave money to send a bear that was made with love and at a cost to the maker (she does not get reimbursed for materials to make the bear).  They do this so a child here in Tanzania who may not understand all of that gets a bear they will love.  These programs of making something and giving to others who need a boost or show of caring are what we are supposed to do as Christians.  It can be a bear, a prayer shawl fo