Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

This last month has been busy, exciting, sometimes overwhelming and once again a beautiful reminder of the blessings I have in my life not only from the perspective of what is available to me in the states but also the love of those who support and believe in me. Let me start with some of the reverse culture shock then I will talk more about the wonderful things that happened during my trip home. I have been well prepared for the life I led in Tanzania because I believe myself to be very adaptable.  One of the best things to come out of my military training is the ability to accept conditions as what they are and deal with them.  With that said there were some definite changes in how I saw life when I came home to visit for the holidays and renew my visa.  First-at no time have I ever set in my parents house and asked for a blanket to cover me unless I was deathly sick but time and again after living in Tanzania temperatures I asked for a blanket when not active and I...

Hello everyone,  it has been a while since I could get internet and power at the same time and therefore it has been three weeks since I wrote a blog.  That means this one is going to be long.  Thought about breaking it out but every time I do that one blog gets a lot of attention and the other gets very little. Christmas Staff party Things that I hope to remember to cover: Feelings about this last week in Tanzania Work Done on Site Living inside the new house Building Furniture Eyeglass Program Graduating Kids from the Pre-school Barnabas Injury Report/Update Thanksgiving with Friends Christmas Party at the Site Nduguti Crochet Class Feelings about this last week in Tanzania Going into this I realized I would have split feelings over my life in Tanzania and my life in the USA but that has not been as much of the case as I thought it would be.  While I have made some friends here and couple that are good friendships it does not really compare yet ...

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 1:3 “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” Malachi 3:10  “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” 2 Corinthians 2:8-9 I have felt the need to mention during some of my previous blogs and facebook postings that as I describe some of the experiences here in Tanzania that these are not complaints but an attempt to share some of what life is like here.  This week as I got up and traveled pre...

This was another full week on site.  I had planned to head out early Monday morning but they sent an order for medicines in by text so I had to wait until the pharmacy opened Monday morning to go buy those items.  After getting the items and stopping to buy some bread for meals I was on the Noah bus (named because most of them are Toyota Noah minivans).  Once again we had to wait until we had a full load so it was about 40 minutes before it took off.  At the drop off in Katusha they tried to charge me for my backpack this time since I had other bags.  Argument lasted about 10 minutes with me not paying them anything before getting on the Piki Piki (motorcycle) headed out to the village.  So after the medicine delay, waiting on the bus to fill up and 3 hours of actual travel time it was around noon when I arrived. I had planned to jump right on painting the inside of the main cistern tank.  However, it had rained again.  So the first thing I had ...