Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

Ok this was a blog I was holding off on as long as possible hoping that God would answer my prayers in an overwhelming positive (for me) fashion.  But apparently He really wants me to work to learn this-Kiswahili.  I have spent hours every day working through my grammar books and dictionaries.  I have created flash cards and rewritten words I feel will be important to me to the point I have filled up two notebooks.  This is all after my time with a tutor for several weeks. Let’s start with the history of the language.  Kiswahili is what is referred to as a Bantu language meaning that it was formed by combining several languages into a new language typically for specific types of work or trade.  In this case the Spice trade which ran through Zanzibar during pre-colonialism started the creation of Kiswahili along the coastal region of Tanzania and Kenya and was first influenced heavily by Arabic languages.  During the colonial period, Germany took c...

I have another confession to make:  I have never read the Bible starting with Genesis 1:1 and reading in order until Revelation 22:21.  I have participated in Disciples I and II, I have participated/lead Bible studies on just about every book of the Bible and I am positive I have read from every book doing the reading tracts that come with most new Bibles.  But to say I read it all from beginning to end and in order-NO I have not.   When I laid out my spiritual preparation for becoming a missionary, and sought the council of my minister, Rev. Kanipe. I really looked at a lot of great Christian texts on being a missionary, the history of missionary work, the changes over time.  There were two books I had the privileged of reading before I started the latest leg of my journey.  One, Rev. Yon, gave me a copy of when he went to Seminary called Cross Cultural Servanthood .  The second was one through a Bible Study lead by a friend call...