LCR Journey to Irente

Safari and Home

2009-09-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, 8/13/2009 we were picked up at our hotel by Pastor Joyce and her two little boys as well as Alfred. It was time to leave Lushoto and make the 7 hour drive to Arusha, where we would be going on Safari. By this point we had become pretty good at entertaining ourselves in the car, so the 7 hours went by pretty quickly. It is just such a beautiful country, that everywhere you look it looks like a postcard. We seriously have probably close to 100 pictures of mountains and are not sure what was taken when. It was just alway so beautiful. We had to drive back down the mountain, and it was just breathtaking again. By this time we had been in Lushoto for well over a week, so it was nothing driving down the winding mountain roads while sitting sideways in the car. Trucks and buses coming directly at you were just normal at this point.
We, of course, had a flat tire on the way to Arusha. I think we somehow attracted them because we had several while we were there. So, while Kiondo and Alfred fixed the tire, some of us ~~found a nice private spot and turned it into a bathroom~~ used the facilities, and then once the tire was fixed we were on our way again.
On our way there we passed many Masai people. The Masai are tribal people, who are nomadic herders who still live throughout Tanzania and Kenya. The drought has gotten so bad in Kenya, that many of the Masai have begun to come down to Tanzania to join with the tribes here. This is a Maisi Village

We arrived in Arusha and we were staying at the Lutheran hostel. We got into our rooms and I just about had a little celebration over the fact that we had shower curtains. It was SO exciting. Seriously. Many of the bathrooms in other countries do not have any seperation between the shower and the rest of the bathroom. The bathroom is basically a room with tile, with a sink, toilet and shower head coming out of the wall. It is great for cleaning because you can just spray water all over, but this means that when you take a shower the entire bathroom gets soaked. I was particularly successful and being ablet to soak the entire bathroom in my ~~20 minute~~ 45 second shower. SO, now that we had shower curtains and would not soak the entire bathroom, it was very, very exciting. It was also very exciting that we had 2, yes 2 whole, rolls of toilet paper, AND soap.

The things we take for granted...

So after we got settled, we left the hotel and did a little shopping in Arusha. This was really the first, and one of the very few, chances we had to shop for anything. After that we went to dinner and then to our rooms to go to bed. We were being picked up the next day by the Safari company at 8am.

Friday morning came and it was time to say goodbye to our Shepherd, Alfred and Pastor Joyce, as well as our favorite driver Kiondo. We had a small prayer circle outside the hotel and said our goodbyes, as they headed back to Lushoto and we headed to Safari at Lake Manyara National Park. When we first arrived at the park, we were going to eat lunch first. We were told not to leave any food unattended and to close the windows of the safari car.

Why?

Baboons.

Apparantly if you leave windows open they will make themselves right at home.

In your car.

So after lunch it was off for the safari. It was an absolutely amazing experience and we had SO much fun. It was sureal to see so much wildlife all around us. It again left us in awe of the the beauty that God has created. It was really amazing to see all of these animals existing together.

Baboons all over the road.

A warthog. Or in Swahili: Pumba. Being on safari and learning all the names of the animals in Swahili gave us complete understanding of where they came up with the names for the characters in the movie, The Lion King.

Here are the hippos. We learned that they do not swim, they are standing in the water. We also learned that they are not the nicest animals.

A Giraffe or Twiga. Which we learned makes no noise

Zebra...can't remember the swahili word

Gazelle

Zebra crossing the road. Just another day in Tanzania.

We all loved this scene, because if you look closely you can see so many species of animals just happily existing together.

They did note that Tanzania is going through a serious drought and as we were driving through the national park, our driver would point out areas that used to be covered in water but were now just dry land. Please pray for water.

Bird's nests.

This used to be water.

Thursday night we stayed at a Safari Lodge. We seriously thought we were in hotel heaven. We didn't have shower curtains, but that didn't matter because there was a WALL between the shower and the rest of the bathroom. We also had a bathmat. Oh the excitement over the bathmat! We had huge mosquito nets over our beds. Why is this exciting? Because you were less likely to get tangled if you got up in the middle of the night. We had extra blankets for the bed. We had hangers! We even had more than one bath towel, and a hand towel! AND a wash cloth. We didn't know what to do with ourselves we were so excited. Lisa noted that she dried her face on a seperate towel because it was an option. I think I stood under the HOT water for almost a 1/2 hour. And not because I was that dirty, but because I could.

But along with all of our new, exciting accomodations, came alot of guilt. Pastor Sharon noted that our bathroom at this hotel was bigger than some of the houses we were in while we were with Irente in Lushoto. When and if they get to shower, it is with a bucket of water that they have to go and get and then carry back to their homes. As we sat around the table that night we were excited to eat, but the prayer we said was one of thanks. It is a very strange position to be in--thankful for all that you have--but SO aware of all that others are lacking as far as material things. Which led us to a place of realizing again that the material things are not what is important to our brothers and sisters in Christ at Irente. It was a concept we all wanted to be able to bring home with us. We talked about the beauty in the land and animals we had seen that day. We realized that we had met people that week who would probably never get to see this, and they live in the same country. We became keenly aware of the abundance that we would each be returning to and we thanked God for opening our eyes and our hearts to how others live and find joy in their lives. After a week of living in such simplicity it is a struggle to find words to explain the emotions that came with leaving. One thing is for sure, each one of us has left a piece of our hearts there with our new faith filled family in Irente, Tanzania.

Friday morning we were picked up at the lodge and we were headed to the Ngorongoro Crater.

The Ngorongoro Crater is the largest unbroken caldera in the world. It is full of animals, and on the side of the crater lives some Masai people. It was beautiful. We saw so many animals and were completely taken by the entire experience.

Catching a ride...

These lions are literally feet from our cars. At one point the mama lion came walking down the road--you know, completely normal, a lion just comes walking down the road--and she greeted all of the cubs, and then walked down a small hill and laid right between the safari cars and her babies.

Wildebeast.

Inside the crater.

It was amazing and the pictures really do speak for themselves...

After our day in the crater we headed back to another hotel. If you are counting, that is 6 hotels now since we left LCR on 8/1. We had dinner and then went to our rooms to pack and re-pack, and pray that the suitcases were still under weight. We went to bed for the last time in Tanzania. The next morning was Sunday, 8/16/2009. We were picked up and taken to the airport by the safari company. Our flight was not until 4pm that day, but we had the safari company come get us at 10am. We had to be out of our hotel rooms by 10am and we decided we would rather sit at the airport than at the hotel. Well, it wasn't the most well thought out plan because we got to the airport but we were not allowed to go in yet because we were too early.

So! What do you do outside of the airport on a Sunday morning?!

Worship.

~~duh~~ :)

We finally got into the airport, went through all of the security, boarded and then took off. On our way out of Tanzania we were given one last beautiful look at Mt. Kilimanjaro, as our plane flew right over the mountain. The pilot announced we would be flying over the mountain and everyone on the plane went to the windows to see.

Since I was one of those who completely slept through Kenya the first time and had absolutely no recollection of ever being there, I had to take pictures this time. So this is flying into Nairobi Kenya.

We had a nice welcome home lunch when we arrived back at LCR and are thankful for all the love and prayers that were sent out way during our trip. We hope you join us on 10/4/2009 from 5-7pm to hear more about our time in Tanzania.

Tuesday 8/11/2009 and Wednesday 8/12/2009

2009-09-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

Our last two days at Irente were Tuesday and Wednesday. We were to spend those few days visiting the Irente institutions that consist of the Rainbow School for Special Needs children, the School for the Blind, the Irente Children's Home and also the Irente Farm.

Tuesday we started out at the Rainbow School.

Joy--it's the first word that comes to mind when thinking of the kids from the Rainbow School. They smiled, and had flowers for us, and greeted us, again, like royalty. The Rainbow School was really piloted by Mama Munga. The Munga's have two children with special needs, one of which attends the Rainbow School. This is one of only two schools for special needs children in the country. The children do not live at the school and for very good reason. The children need to learn to live in their villages. They will not always have the luxury of living in an adapted environment, so they need to learn to live with and in their surroundings. In addition, their parents need to learn to care for them. Therefore, sending them home at the end of the school day allows their learning to continue. The school is divided into three classrooms by age, the youngest children, the children in the middle and the oldest children. They work with them on all types of skills. They even help them to learn a trade in hopes that they can one day obtain a job. It was probably one of the most eye opening experiences we have ever had. It is such a drastic difference to the services available to those in the US with a dissability.

There is much stigma that also comes with having a dissability in this country. However, the Rainbow School is empowering children who are differently abled as well as their families. It is showing communities and individuals that having a dissability does not mean you are unable. It just means you are a little different and need a little more assistance. It gives families a sense of value and worth for their children. And if you look at the faces below it is pretty clear that these children take pride in their lives....

Special needs classroom...

After the Rainbow School we went to the Irente Farm. It is a fully functioning farm and is incredible eco-friendly as is much of Tanzania. They are people who are extremely careful of the resources they have. They do not waste anything and they are very, very respectful of the earth. This was something we all wanted to bring back to the US with us. We literally brought home much of our trash with us.

We also spent more time at the school for blind children and they had prepared more songs for us to enjoy.

That evening during our group time, it was ovious that we had all been so inspired and moved by what we had seen that day. We talked about how they give SO much to God and just have this constant faith. They always put God first. It really made us see that when you take away all the material items, what you are often left with is what truly matters. Someone mentioned how thankful they were to see so many doing the work for the least of these. Every single person who gives of themselves to take care of all of these children at the Irente institutions are truly the hands and feet of Christ.

They do it without complaint.

Without adequate pay.

But always with love.

On Wednesday we went to the Irente Children's Home. OH. MY. WORD.

Cutest.

Children.

Ever.

I was very close to starting my own kid-napping ring. If it wasn't for immigration and customs ~~and many witnesses~~, and that rule that they insist on following about having to have a passport to leave the country, I'd be the proud mother of about 12 right now.

The Irente Children's Home is a beautiful space, home to 32 orphaned children. There are 17 children there who are too old for the home but have no where else to go. We met many of the children that day. We played with, held, and loved on sweet little babies. There were several rooms that we went into and each one was lined with white metal cribs Each crib had a baby in it, with a chubby, smiling face. Behind each face, a story. It was a little overwhelming to see such tiny babies, with such heavy stories. Some of the children are completely orphaned. Some have family members elsewhere in Tanzania who are either unable or unwilling to take care of them. Some of the children are HIV positive, which adds much complication to their story and often the results of this are that an adoptive family is unable to be found for them.

Irente Children's Home is for children up to two years old, however, Irente does not send children away at this age. If another placement cannot be found, they stay at Irente. This does create a problem, because these older children do not have anywhere to go and there are not many appropriate social outlets for them. It is also a struggle to find them appropriate housing at Irente. They need to have their own space and not live among babies. Irente Children's Home is working on raising funds to build a home for these children.

When we first arrived at the home, we were met by some students, who of course sang for us. There were a few small children also there, and they were quick to come up to each of us and shake our, hands, say "Jambo," and in turn, melt our hearts. As we were walking to where the babies were, one of the little girls who had greeted us, came up beside me. I took her hand. We all learned later that she is 5 and her name is Laima (Lame-a). As she walked, she held onto my hand, but was walking a little slowly, kind of looking around at all of us. I put my arms down, the univeral question for do you want me to carry you, and she reached back up. I picked her up, and she immediately just clung to me. If I had let go, she would have been attached to me with her arms and legs wrapped around my body. At this point, our group split and 1/2 of us went in one room and the other 1/2 in another room. I carried her into one of the baby rooms. I wasn't feeling particularly well this day, so I was a little "off" and not paying as much attention as I would have liked. I put Laima down and she cried, because she wanted to be held. Sandy took her and carried her around. We eventually left the room with the babies, and at this point, I believe Pastor Sharon was holding Laima. Somehow, at some point I had her back again. We were back with the other 1/2 of our group and I passed Laima off to Lisa, who then carried her around and entertained her for awhile. She really wanted to be carried, she wanted our attention and wanted our love.

After this we met with some of the adults who work at Irente. We presented them with the quilt from our VBS kids and they thought it was just beautiful. We talked for awhile about some of the needs at Irente and hhow the home works and functions. Children come here for many reasons, death of their parents, a parent who is too ill to take care of them, etc. There are times hwen a family can eventually take their child back after they come, but that is not often. If they have living parents, the parents must keep in contact if they ever want to be re-united permanently with their child. The parents or family also pays 10,000 Tanzanian Shillings per month if they are able to, to cover the cost of care for the child. 10,000 Shillings is a little over 7 US dollars. The average salary in Tanzania is 1 US dollar per day. After two years, they look for adoptive parents. Sometimes that is successful and other times it is not--as is the case for 17 of the children at Irente.

And it was after all of this conversation that we learned more about Laima. We learned that she is 5. We learned that she is small for her age. We learned that she is HIV positive. We learned that there was a family that had looked into adopting her. They had gone so far as to get the adoption permit from the Tanzanian government. When they learned she was HIV positive they decided it was not something they could handle and stopped the adoption process. But, she is still a little girl with potential and her story is still a hopeful one. Her story has touched people all over the world. At the moment, a Swedish church pays for all of her medications and she is doing well on the drugs she takes for HIV. A german woman by the name of Marion who is a volunteer there currentlt sponsors Laima's education. Laima cannot go to a regular public school. Because she is HIV positive she requires extra care, more rest and attention than healthy children as well as medication. Public schools in Tanzania are often too crowded and Laima could have found herself in a class with up to 90 other children. It would not be feasible to care for Laima in a public school setting. Thanks to sponsors she is able to go to a private school and receives the love and attention she needs to thrive.

When I got home I didn't think we had any pictures of Laima and I couldn't believe it. Thanks for Facebook I had seen most of the pictures within 24 hours of returning home, but none of Laima. Barb saved the day a few days later because she had the one and only picture that we have of Laima.

We were all touched by this little girl and we realize her story is just one of millions. She is just one of so many children who are living with HIV. We hear that HIV is just wreaking havoc throughout Africa, and now we have a face to go with that. For the rest of my life, when I hear "AIDS Orphan" I know I will think of Laima. And whenever I hear the word "fighter" and "spirited" I will think of Laima.

That evening we met with the church elders of Irente to discuss how we want to continue our partnership and to discuss ways to make this happen. We walked about the fact that we have been joined with one another in love and that we are one in Christ. We talked about the fact that it is our desire to continue to do God's work together. We promised them that we would find a way to put our experience into words. One of our biggest struggles is that we knew we would never have the words to adequately describe all that Irente has meant to us and taught us. They told us that they would not forget us coming and that our presence was historical. They told us that they have seen how we love them. We told them that through our experience and meeting them, we felt we had seen the presence of Christ.

They had another gift for us. Identical candle sticks. Pastor Sharon made the request that we leave one of the candle sticks there with them, so that we could have one and they could keep one. A symbol of our unity. They would keep a piece of us there with them, and we would take a piece of them home with us.

A candle was placed in each candle holder and they were lit by the two pastors. Pastor Joyce lit the candle that is in the candle holder that is not sitting on the Alter at LCR. Pastor Sharon lit the candle in the candle holder that remains at Irente.

The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one as we are one.

Monday 8/10/2009

2009-09-07T20:59:00.000-07:00

Monday was going to be a bit more of a low key day for us. We went to Tanga, which is about a 3 hour car ride from Irente and is on the coast. We were picked up at 7am by Kiondo. Pastor Joyce had her entire family with her and Alfred also came. We first stopped at a Port in Tanga. Pastor Joyce knew the manager, so we were given a great tour and saw and learned about things that were imported and exported. We saw a ferry boat that transports people back and forth from Zanzibar, which is a small island off the coast of Tanzania. It is a big tourist spot and many people go there to vacation.
Kiondo and Alfred just trying out the ship...

After our tour of the Port, we ate a snack at a restaurant we stopped at, and then went to the Amboni Caves. These are huge caves that are millions of years old and we were even told by our guide that there is a way to get to Kenya through the caves, but you have to have an oxygen mask with you. He then told us that there is a story of two people who attempted this and were never seen again.

Lovely.

There's a story you don't want to hear when you are inside the caves. It was amazing to see these and impossible to comprehend how God could create such a thing.

So, some of us thought the caves were really cool and were just completely fascinated by them and loved the entire experience.

Others of us may still be having flashback of crawling through dark, tight spaces and bats flying overhead.

Some of us were happier than others to, literally, see the light at the end of the tunnel as we exited.

I apologize for the lack of pictures, but I fall under the having flashbacks of crawling through dark, tight spaces and flying bats overhead category, which didn't make for a lot of great photos.

Either way though, the caves are amazing.

After this it was time to go to the beach. This was a highlight for all of us. We were SO excited to get to be in the Indian Ocean. By this time it was later afternoon, so we went to a beach club, where we had some picnic tables to put our things on and went and got in the ocean. We collected shells and stones from the ocean, the Spencer's went swimming, and we just had time to sit around and relax.

After this we got ready to leave and by now it was about 5ish. We had to stop at the Port again to say goodbye to Pastor Joyce's friend who manages the port. They are very formal in Tanzania, so stopping by to tell her goodbye again was the respectful thing to do. Pastor Joyce also asked what we wanted to have for dinner and we said pasta would be wonderful. So, we stopped at the market to pick up the pasta and a few other things that were needed. It was around 6 when we left Tanga.

It was a long ride home, but it was beautiful. I actually ended up in the front seat on this trip and when I looked out the window the stars looked so close it looked like you could almost touch them. They don't have other lights in Tanzania that are lit up in the sky at night, no buildings, not a lot of planes, etc, so it is so easy to spot the stars. It was so beautiful. We had been advised before we left not to drive on the roads at night. It isn't the safest thing. That is mainly because there are no street lights, and you could run into an animal. And it isn't like here where you might hit a skunk, or a squirrell, or maybe a dear in the worst case scenario. It means you might hit a zebra, or a lion or a gazelle or a wildebeast (even though we didn't just see these wondering around). Any person who walks on the road at night seriously takes their life into their hands. It was kind of interesting, but I can definitely see why it is suggested not to do it. And as an aside, it is kind of amazing that you just get used to the site of cars/trucks coming directly at you and one of you moves at the last minute :)

While two of us sat in the front looking at stars, the rest of the team occupied themselves and probably Pastor Joyce and Alfred by playing the alphabet game. The. Entire. Way. Home. Evidently they could not think of any word for the letter "Z" because from the front seat, every few minutes you would hear them shout "Zanzibar" completely in sync.

We got home to Tumaini and were really hungry. We really had not eaten all day. This is the point where we may ~~or may not have~~ had a melt down as a group. We had actually talked about this as a group. We discussed that we may get to a point of having a meltdown at each other because we would be traveling together for 17 days. It's a lot of togetherness :) We actually did great as a group, and our small melt down came after a long day of traveling and not eating much all day. We're Lutheran's. We get hungry. We went way to many hours between feedings :)

One down...

Two down...

Dinner was not ready when we go back to Tumaini, becauce, remember, we had the pasta with us. So, we never ate that night until around 9:45. It was just a part of the trip. The meltdowns happen and ours was very mild. The next day we apologized up and down to our hosts for the fact that we were less than pleasant after our day. They decided that they would not pick us up until 10am the next day. I guess they thought we needed the rest...or maybe they needed a break :) We all learned from the day. The next day, it was back to Irente and we were excited about visiting the institutions at Irente over the course of the next few days.

PS...the pasta had sauce on it and was sprinkled with cheese. Well worth the wait for me personally :)

Worship at Irente

2009-09-03T21:12:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: I read back on the posts I did while we were in Tanzania and evidentally ~~while in Tanzania I had forgotten all the grammer and spelling I had ever learned~~ I must have been a little tired because there are quite a few errors!

Sunday we spent the entire day at Irente. We were picked up around 8:30am by Kiondo and he had the car all decorated for this special day. We all noticed immediately that the seats were covered in a royal blue fabric and even the dashboard was decorated. Worship at Irente was one of the best moments of the trip. It was such a wonderful, uplifting Worship service. Most of us had African dresses made earlier in the week and we wore them that day for church. We loved having them on for this special day and Pastor Joyce said that especially the women from Irente liked that we were dressed like them and were happy that we wanted to be dressed like them.

Now guess how long Worship was.

Seriously. Guess.

Not 1.

Not 2.

But 3 hours.

And if felt like 20 minutes.

It was amazing. It is going to be another one of those times that I really struggle to put it into words. You just had to be there. There was alot of singing ~~fortunately not by us~~ by the different choirs and the children at the school for the blind also sang for us. When we first walked in the Sunday School children were praticing songs they planned to sing for us later.
They were adorable.

Alfred sat with us and translated for us what was going on.

It was interesting to see that when sitting in the church the men sat on one side and the women sat on another side. The choir was seated across from us .

The children from the blind school were seated next to us. They were the most well-behaved children for that entire 3 hours.Pretty early on in the service we were asked to come stand up front so that we could be presented with gifts.

This is when we did have to sing again. You would think that by now we would have punished these people enough, but I guess they liked our songs!

So we all got up and stood in the front. After a song and some marching, singing, and praying in the light of God it was time for them to present us with gifts. We were thinking there would be a gift or two from the congregation.We were wrong. Big time.

We were bombarded with beautiful gifts and we were SO overwhelmed by the love and time that went into each one. We received small little notebooks covered in fabric by the orphanage because they knew we were writing a lot of things down during our trip. We were so touched that they realized this and this was such a thoughtful gift. We received three wooden spoons that had been hand made completely from the carving of the actual spoon to the burning of the detail into the spoon. We each received a beautiful piece of fabric. The children from the blind school made us jewelry. We received tea, a beautiful piece of fabric which we hope to turn into a table cloth for LCR, handmade baskets, the children from the blind school made us a welcome mat that will be displayed at LCR. When we stood up there before these people, who have very little material items, and received each of these gifts, our arms were full.

Our hearts were overflowing.

It still amazes us that they have hardly anything in the way of material things and here they were giving us such beautiful gifts. We saw this everywhere in Tanzania. They gave the best of themselves to us, the absolute, very best.

We are honored.

We also had gifts for them. We presented them with the wall hanging that that the LCR quilters had made. We gave them a plaque for the church with the same scripture on it that we had given to each subparish and ministry within the church. Pastor Sharon has on a neclace that she had received from a pastor in Puerto Rico. She took this off and gave it to Pastor Joyce.

We also presented Irente with a monetary gift of 600 US dollars. Pastor Joyce opened the envelope and said "There are no words to thank you for this."

If we were not crying before this, which I am pretty sure we all were, we definitely were now.

We all also chose to write a note of thanks to Irente and read it out loud during the service. Each of us went down the line reading off words of gratitude to these amazing people, all the while realizing that the words just don't do justice the gratitude we each had in our hearts. Sometimes words just are not enough. This was one of those times.

After the presentation of the gifts, Pastor Sharon preached her sermon and it was awesome. She prayed first in Swahili, and during the sermon Pastor Joyce translated for the rest of the congregation.

Pastor Sharon was also able to do a baptism while we were there. She baptized a little baby named Charles. It was a very special moment, one that not many pastors have in their career. It was also very special to watch.

As she wrote in her newsletter article for August it is not the fact that we are Lutherans that unites us. It is not a common interpretation of the Bible that unites us. It is one Baptism; one Lord, that unites us. It is the words "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" that unites us.

I am so glad she wrote that because it is a much better description for this event then I would have come up with :)

Pastor Joyce and Pastor Sharon gave communion.

It was really special to kneel at the alter with our brothers and sisters in Christ from Irente. All week we had been hearing people say we were joined by the blood of Christ and here we were kneeling at the alter with them for communion.

After the service we all went outside to gather in the lawn outside of the church. We were not quit sure what we were doing and we quickly realized we were there for a type of auction. Yes, you read right. An auction. Many of these people live a cash-less existence. Meaning, they live completely off of the land. They do not have a monetary offering to bring to church on Sundays. Instead, they bring a good that they have and then that is auctioned off and the money given to Irente. It was so smart in so many ways, and most importantly it allows those who cannot give money a way to contribute to their church.

Once worship was over and we ate lunch, we were all sitting outside just visiting with the people and the children. I am not exactly sure how it started but pretty soon we began a little impromptu concert.

We were on the lawn with the kids and just started teaching them and singing songs with them.

We taught them "The Itsy Bitsy Spider."

We taught them and sang with them "Jesus Loves Me," as well as "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes". The more hand motions required, the better.

We then sang with them the longest version of "Old McDonald Had A Farm" ever known to man. We seriously did every single animal we could think of. We had a swahili book with us and would look up how to say the names of different animals. There was Old McDonald had a chamba (farm) E-I-E-I-O. And on that chamba he had a simba (lion) E-I-E-E-O. Old McDonald had a chamba E-I-E-I-O. And on that chamba he had a tembo (elephant) E-I-E-I-O. (I bet you are now singing these words in your head, not just reading them :) ) We even did Old McDonald had a twiga (giraffe) E-I-E-I-O.

Then we got to the part about what noise a giraffe makes and we all stopped and looked at each other.

What does a giraffe say?!

We had no idea so we made something up.

We learned on safari a few days later that giraffes don't make any noise. Good to know!

It was really sweet to see the kids catching on to the songs and the words. It was especially moving to sit with a group of children who were strangers just a little while ago and sing Jesus Loves me. We all agreed this was one of our favorite moments of the day and a highlight of the trip.

After our little concert, we went back into the church. The Sunday School children had beautiful songs to sing for us.

After this everyone at Irente split up into different groups, i.e. women, youth, blind school, children, men, etc. The 8 of us split up and spent time with a group answering questions and talking to them about LCR.

After this it was time to go back to Tumaini. We were exhausted. It was an emotionally and physically tiring day, but it was one of the highlights of the entire trip. It was so special to share in worhip with our brothers and sisters in Christ and it was very clear on this day, that because of Christ we are, in fact, one.

Saturday 8/8/2009

2009-09-02T15:56:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a bit of a low key day for us. We started out the day by going to a choir competition in the nearby city of Soni. It was a morning full of singing and was really fun to watch all the different choirs come out. The performers were really good, and they were so proud. It was fun to watch them and listen and to their different songs and see the dances. It was obvious that much work, time, effort and passion went into all of the performances. Alfred and Pastor Joyce sat with us to translate the songs for us so we could better understand the meaning.

These are children watching the competition from outside the hall we were seated in.

At some point during the competition, 3 of us got up because we ~~were going to explode~~ had to go to the bathroom. We had to walk into a neighboring area that had dorm rooms for a school to find a bathroom. We followed Pastor Joyce into one of these dorm rooms and she pointed us to the closest squatty potty. There were students who were there and while we took turns using the facilities, the other two of us went and were talking to the girls. Pastor Joyce told us that they were saying they were so happy we were there. All we were doing was using the bathroom. We began to talk to them some, asking their names and using what little Swahili we had to communicate and ask how old they were, what their names were and ask how they were. They asked the same of us. After we were done using their bathroom, we were showing them some of the pictures we had with us, introducing them to our loved ones back in the US. By the end of the bathroom excursion we had made some new friends. Pastor Joyce told us on the way back to the competition that they were just so happy that we had asked to stop there, in a way just proud that we were interested in their lives in the few minutes we spent with them. It is not always the big moments that matter most. Sometimes it is just those quick moments that you think nothing of that can mean so much. Who would have thought that a quick trip to the squatty potty would bring meaning to some teenage girls in Tanzania as well as us.

After this we went and met with two more subparishes. At one of them when we prayed they read Psalm 133:1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. It meant alot to all of us to sit around a table with people from Irente and have this scripture read. It was another reminder that we are all one in Christ.

At the 2nd subparish we went to there was a gorgeous view from this person's home.

Seriously. Can you imagine walking out your door every morning and getting to see this?!

Seriously, where do I sign to live here.

After this we walked to the Irente view point. It is certainly a view. I don't do so well with heights so the pictures I have are no where near the edge. On the left you can see three men sitting on the edge. Below their feet is nothing. It is a cliff. The drop off is hundreds of feet below them. Hence the reason I am standing way back. Lisa, Donna, Sandy and the Spencer's were very brave to get closer to the edge. It is actually a little funny to think back on, as they all walked to get a better view, and Pastor Sharon and Pastor Joyce stood way back yelling at all of them to get away from the edge. Alfred walked nearer to the edge with them, just to make sure no one got too close. It was beautiful though! Certainly a once in a life time to witness such beauty. We serve an awesome God.

After that it was time to head back to our hostel. I think it was somewhere around 6, but we were going back so we could rest for the next day's worship. Some of us went to the internet cafe and that was the first time I was able to post to the blog. Stephano and Alfred stayed with us to make sure we would then get back to the hotel safely. Such good shepherds they are :) After that we just went back to the hostel and rested for the next day.

Next post will be our Sunday worship. It was an amazing day!

Friday, 8/7/2009

2009-08-30T11:11:00.000-07:00

On Friday, 8/7/2009 we started our day out visiting SEKUCo.
We met with some of the head's of the university and then were given a tour. It was really nice to be able to actually see the university that we had heard so much about at home. We had a lengthy conversation with some of those who work for the University. They told us many things about SEKUCo, how it functions, some of the programs, etc. The said something that sent us all scrambling for our journals to write down:

Gather Knowledge, Serve Compassionately.

This is a motto that they function by, and upon our tour of the campus, it became clear that this is truly fitting and what is happening here. The university was started just a few years ago, much in part to Mama Munga's passion for Special Needs Education. One of their main focuses, is on special needs education. Both for those wishing to be special needs teachers, and for those with special needs attending the university. They also have other programs, including a program that is partnered with Penn State University. It was very interesting to be all the way across the world, and realize what a small world it actually is when they said they were partnered with Penn State. We were around the world, but found a connection that is very close to home for us.

We were given a full tour of the university.

We saw the dorms...

We saw many of the classrooms at the university...

The library...

We saw the computer lab...

We saw the Special needs education center...

With brail type-writers...

And brail that had been printed on paper...

We saw the way brail is printed...

We saw classrooms with widened doorways, and the outside of dorms that are especially equipped for those with special needs.

It was really inspiring to see all of this. In a country where having a disability has essentially meant that your life is worthless and you have nothing to offer the world, it was amazing to see an institution set up such as SEKUCo, that clearly sends the message that having a disability just means you are differently abled, not unable. SEKUCo gives an incredible opportunity to those with dissabilities and is helping Tanzania to see the value of a person with a special need.

Once we finished at SEKUCo, we went to the school for blind children and were met by Mama Rubin, who is the headmaster here. Mama Rubin is an incredible woman. She attempted to retire 9 years ago after being at the school for more than 30 years. Pastor Sharon remembered her from her first visit to Tanzania 9 years ago. Pastor Sharon mentioned to her that she thought she was getting ready to retire. Mama Rubin noted that she had, in fact, retired.

How'd that work out for you?!

Shortly after she attempted to retire, she received a call. From Bishop Munga. He was requesting her return to the school. She obliged. It is truly where she belongs. So today, she has been working with these blind children for more than 40 years. She is remarkable. She told us so many stories. She talked about how rewarding it is to see people who were completely shunned because they had low vision or were blind who went on to be teachers, or business professionals, some even leaving Tanzania for their career. Some are now teachers themselves at the Irente School for the Blind. As she talked about this school it became clear that this school has changed lives, and has begun to change the perception that people have of blind individuals in Tanzania. The school has actually gone in search of children who are blind and brought them to the school. The fact that this school is even here gives parents a huge sense of worth for their child. Even their child, the blind child who is deemed useless, has value and is worthy of an education. The blind school has several blind albino children. Being blind is common among albino individuals. Being born albino in Tanzania automatically means that your life is in danger. Their is the thought that these people are associated with witch craft, and are very often killed. If you kill someone who is albino, praise is given to you. It is a horrible practice and we were stunned to learn this. However, there are many working in Tanzania, including Mama Rubin, Mama Munga, and all those working at the school for the blind, who are working tirelessly to not only spread awareness and end this practice, but they are also speaking out and standing up for the rights of all those who are blind. It is not an understatement to say that the school for blind children is more than a school, it does more than educate children, it saves lives.

The children were so loving and we were met with beautiful songs that they had prepared for us, complete with hand motions. Once they were finished singing, Pastor Sharon offered a word of prayer, and we presented the school with gifts. We gave many of the institutions a wooden cross or plaque with our scripture on it that was our theme for the trip That they may be one as we are one. We also gave a bag of toys to Mama Rubin to hand out to each of the children. One of the toys included in the bag was a noise maker toy, that was plastic hands, which when shaken sounded like hands being clapped together. Because they cannot see, we thought something that made noise would be better for the blind children. We would venture to guess that the teachers at the blind school did not feel the same after a few days :) Days later when we were walking around at Irente we could hear the familiar clapping of those toys. Sorry, teachers :)

The school is a residential school, so the children reside there except when they are home on break or for the summer. We got to tour the classrooms and see where and how the children learn. We saw how the write brail, read it and type it.

The children themselves are just amazing. You very often see one child leading another. Some of the children have low vision and the rest are completely blind. It is common to see one child with another by the arm leading them in the right direction. Even for being blind the children do so amazingly well. They run around the premesis without a care. I would watch them run by and be absolutely certain that when they attempted to turn a corner they were going to run into the building. Never once did that happen. I would cringe when they ran by me and there was a stone that stuck up on the pathway. They never tripped and fell, they know where they are. I wanted to close my eyes when they were on the staircases. No need. No one fell, no one tripped. The eight of us on the trip have our vision and we even had trouble with this :)

We had FULL days when we were in Tanzania and this Friday was no different. After we went to the school for the blind we went to another subparish. It was a wonderful time, again.

We played outside with the children, visited with the adults, and spent time eating homemade snacks and drinking tea. We saw here how resourceful these people are, including the children. They had soccer balls made out of trashbags and rubberbands.

They had pull toys made out of empty plastic cartons. What is our trash, they used to make toys. Later in the trip, as we were packing to leave Tumaini we were throwing away plastic bags and someone noted that we were throwing away plastic bags, toys to the children here.

We felt guilty that what was our trash, was there treasure, and we wished we could do more, we wished we had more to offer.

After this subparish (yes, we're still going) we went to a beautiful viewpoint near Irente. It was a shorter hike and what was at the top was beautiful!

When we were ableto see things like this we were just left in complete awe at the beauty God has created.

Pastor Joyce had her little boy with us at this view point, and the only thing that was a ledge at the cliff was a stone wall, about up to my knees. So, to keep him occupied and away from this ledge, I put him in this huge flower pot to play in the dirt. And, it worked.

And Alfred also thought it was a good idea :)

After this we attempted to visit another subparish. What I mean by attempt is that the walk to get to this sub-parish was on the edge of a cliff, and the path was not more than 12 inches wide. Pastor Sharon was first in the line of us and when she and the person guiding us came to a spot on the path that was literally a 5 foot drop off, Pastor Sharon insisted that were not going to attempt this (and we all thanked her for this later on.) Remember the part about Tanzanian's not liking to give bad news. Well, we were not aware of the walking on the edge of a cliff part before we embarked on this journey. I didn't add any pictures of this because most of them were of the back's of someone's head and you really can't see the path, or the cliff on the edge. I think we were all much more concentrated on walking and not falling than we were on capturing the moment :)

Thursday, 8/6/2009

2009-08-27T11:48:00.000-07:00

On the morning of Thursday, 8/26, Pastor Joyce picked us up and took us on our first shopping experience in Tanzania. We went to a market down the road from our hostel. It was pretty much an all inclusive market. It re-defined "one stop shopping." You could get anything from food, to cleaning supplies, to clothing, jewelry, accessories and fabric. The market was very crowded, and a little bit overwhelming.

I should be clear that what I mean by shopping is that anytime we stopped walking we had like 9 people all around putting things in our faces that we could buy. It was certainly an adventure! One of the things we all bought was pieces of fabric. Fabric is pretty popular in Tanzania and it was all very beautiful.

Many pieces of the fabric have swahili sayings on them. Often times in Tanzania, this fabric is given as a gift. Rather than a greeting card, fabric, with a special saying on it can be given. We all bought some and I know it is a piece of Tanzania we will treasure. Most of us also bought fabric to have dresses made out of. Our plan was to then wear our African dresses to worship on Sunday, which you will hear more about when I get to that post.

After the market we were picked up by our favorite driver, Kiondo. I swear the man was magic. Anytime we were done doing any activity and it was time to go Kiondo was already there to pick us up. It was like he just appeared wherever we needed him to be. Even sometimes if we were visiting a village or something where we came back a different way, there he was just waiting to pick us up. Many times after hiking those mountains we were SO excited to climb into the back of the car, even if we did have to fit way more people than there were seats. Market day was no diferent. We come out of the market and there is Kiondo.

Kiondo took us to Irente where we shared lunch and then Pastor Joyce told us we would be going to visit one of the subparishes. Incase I have not explained it yet, a subparish is a group of people who live in an area and may have difficulty getting to church, many times due to the location of their village. We visited several of these while we were in Tanzania. We would go to the home of the elder of that particular subparish. This is where we were invited into people's homes and lives and where and when we experienced more true hospitality. Each subparish is visited by Pastor Joyce and also Stephano, the Evangelist, on many occassions. Each subparish also holds bible studies regularly. On Thursday, 8/6, we visited the first of several subparishes, and this one was called Kivumbe (I know I spelled this wrong, so if someone from the team has the correct spelling, please let me know) We were told ahead of time that what we would see in this subparish would constitute extreme poverty. This subparish is located high up in the mountains. We were told a little bit about the difficult life these people live. We were also told that for some people in this parish, this would be the first time in their lives they had ever seen a white person.

Now, understand that in Tanzania, it is not customary to give bad news. So, they simply don't do it. They really sugar coat things for you...

Oh yes, we are almost there. And 4 hours later you actually arrive.

Oh, no, the flight was only delayed a little while. 2 hours later you board.

Oh we are just stopping in to say hello. After dinner and conversation, you leave an hour later.

Oh your meal will be ready very soon. An hour later you eat.

So, Pastor Joyce tells us that Kivumbe is only a short walk.

Do you see where this is going?

Apparntly the definition of "short" in Tanzania differs from the one we use in the US.

Oh it's only a short walk. And 1 and a 1/2 miles later we were there.

Oh, and not 1 and 1/2 miles through a field or a paved road. Oh no, it was 1 and 1/2 miles up a mountain. However, there is a quote by Edward Abbey that reads "May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into, and above the clouds." That's Kivumbe. The climb up was more than worth what awaited us at the top, and not just for the view. Kivumbe is home to some people in Tanzania who left a huge impression on all of our hearts.

This was one of the days we started off in layers of clothing and then spent the rest of the day shedding them. As we were walking up the mountain, our group became staggered, as we walked at different paces. At one point Pastor Joyce, Barb and myself (Kara) were walking together. We noticed two little boys, maybe 8ish and 6ish following us. As they got closer, we waved and said "Jambo" (hello) to them. Barb was carrying a stash of Beanie Babies in her bag to give out and Pastor Joyce indicated it would be OK to give a toy to them. I handed each one a tiny little Beanie Baby and they looked at it like and I do what with these?

Very quickly they warmed up, and they followed us for quite a while after receiving this small gift. They eventually dissappeared though, heading home with their new toy as we continued up the mountain. It was sweet to see them staring at it, and excited over this new little toy.

As we were walking, we were met by the people of Kivumbe who hiked about a 1/4 of the way down to greet us. We were met again with singing, dancing, flowers and many hugs and handshakes. We began to hike the rest of the way with them. Some of us noted that at several points we thought we were at the top.

Nope. Not there yet.

It is easy for us to laugh and joke about the fact that this day we truly realized how out of shape we felt. In all actuality we didn't mind the walk. And we certainly didn't mind it when Pastor Joyce told us that these people walk all way to Lushoto for food. Barefoot. Lushoto is the small town where our hostel was located, and this was about another 1-2 miles from Irente, so they walk anywhere from 3-4 miles one way for food. Remember, barefoot.

Yes, we're still hiking.

I am going to have a hard time putting into words what it was like to meet the beautiful people of Kivumbe, and the pictures might really just speak for themselves, but I will try. When we first got there, they sang a few songs and danced for us, and then we sang a few songs for them as well. We introduced ourselves, telling our new friends our names and our jobs back in the US. Pastor Joyce said a few words to all of us and Pastor Sharon prayed before we went inside one of the homes to eat. During all of this, there was an adorable little boy who was maybe 2 who continually would slide down a dirt hill yelling "Beep Beep!"

After all of this, we went inside to eat. They had prepared so much food for us. We were so appreciative, and we also felt guilty. We realized it took them nearly all day to walk to Lushoto to shop for food and then come back up again. Here we were being offered the best of what they could give to us. When we were finished eating there were still many leftovers. There was some popcorn left, and another type of food that we all referred to as Tanzanian donuts, although I am sure this is not the official name. Lisa asked if we could take what was left and share it with those outside. They said it was fine to do this, so Lisa, Liz and myself took the leftover food outside. We began breaking off pieces of "donuts" and handing them out to each child. We filled little hands with pieces of popcorn. One little girl even picked up the bottom of her skirt and held it out so that Liz could fill her skirt with popcorn. It is my guess that not one of these children that we were handing food out to had ever eaten any kind of lavish meal. Who knows if, or what, they had even eaten yet that day. Yet there was no fighting over anything. No grabbing at the basket of food on the ground in front of us. No fighting that someone else's piece was bigger than what they were given. Just gratitude. We were a little nervous that we were going to run out, but we just kept breaking off small pieces of "donuts" and handing them out and there was enough for each child.

All of us also spent time outside with the people from Kivumbe, and they LOVED-LOVED-LOVED having their picture taken. Especially the children. They were just enamored over the digital camera and when they would have their picture taken and then turn the camera around to look at the picture on the back they would erupt in laughter. Lisa used the video feature on her camera and would record them and then play it back for them. They had never seen such a thing and were just in awe. I am pretty sure we could have stood there and done that for days and they never would have gotten bored.

Barbara and Donna traveled with a bag of tricks and had stashed some small toys in their backpacks to give out during our trip. At Kivumbe, Barbara gave the children a frisbe to play with and they had a ball throwing it back and forth to each other and to us. They were so filled with joy.

Before we left, Kivumbe presented us each with a gift. They had heard that we had been writing things down as we traveled, and we were. Each of us traveled with a journal and would note things in our journals that were important to us throughout the day. Because of this the people at Kivumbe gave us each a brand new, unsharpened pencil. It may not seem like a big deal but a few of us were brought to tears by the thoughtfulness behind this. For people who hardly have anything in the way of material items, to be so thoughtful and gracious to us was so moving to us and touched each of us.

Thursday was definitely a day that made an impact on all of us. As I said, many of the people in this area had never before seen a white person. The simple fact that we chose to get on a plane, leave all that we know and the luxuries of America, come to Africa, and then hike all the way up this mountain to see them meant so much to them. We were not coming bearing gifts (that they knew of). We didn't have food to give to them. We didn't have any money with us. Essentially, we had nothing with us that was going to necessarily make their lives easier or better. Except ourselves and our stories. And, as it turns out, that was enough. Their homes were made out of bricks that they made out of clay, and their roof was made from pieces of metal. They were so proud to have us in their homes eating food they had prepared. We were so honored to be there. I think it sent the message to them that they matter and that they are important. We cared enough to come, and that was all they wanted.

This was a big day for us also in the sense of reality sinking in for how absolutely blessed we are in our country. That night one of us commented that they could not imagine living up there in all of that dirt and never getting to take an actual shower. Being in their home, and having a glimpse of the simplicity in which they live really made us each realize just how much we take for granted and just how blessed we each are.

Pastor Joyce explained to us what a hard life it is to live up in Kivumbe, and despite this, these were some of the most faithfilled, Christ-centered people we had ever met. This was just the begining of what became a pattern to us in Tanzania. These people who have so little in the way of material things have so much faith in God. If you heard Pastor Sharon's sermon this last Sunday, you heard her say that these are people who talk about God. He shows up in everyday conversation. Their lives are centered in Christ. For us, Kivumbe was really one of the first real glimpses we had of how strong their faith us. It was the first time it became really apparant, that maybe all the "stuff" we have here actually has a tendency to get in the way of what really and truly matters.

We had much to learn from the people of Kivumbe and it was a day and an experience that none of us will ever forget.

When we left Kivumbe, the people there insisted on walking us back down to where they had met us on the trek up. They danced and sang all the way down, us following them. Children ran after us, and held our hands as we walked. Kivumbe also wanted to give us another gift and that was a basket of potatoes, as is seen being balanced delicately on the woman's head below. We don't know exactly where the potatoes came from, but we know it was a huge sacrifice for them.

Something I Forgot From Wednesday

2009-08-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry, but I forgot something very important from Wednesday! The days start to run together at times. Wednesday we met with the youth at Irente. It was such a nice afternoon. At first when they said we were meeting with the youth, we thought Aren't they in school? It wasn't until we were at the meeting that we realized that in Tanzania "Youth" is what we call "Young Adults." Their Youth are actually between the ages of 18-35. They were some of the most inspiring people we met while we were there and we were so moved by their motivation and committment to their church and to God. They get together and meet several times per week. They are motivated and driven. They do things such as handicrafts, and Aldred, our shepherd, comes in and works with them to learn woodworking skills. They have built many things, including many of the heavy wooden doors used at all the institutions at Irente. In addition to this, they also sing. Before I go any further, pretty much everyone in Tanzania can sing. We quickly realized that they assumed that everyone in the US can also sing.

Wrong.

Many times when we were visiting some place, Pastor Joyce would look at us and say "OK, and now you will sing a song for them."

Really?

We should have come with a warning label Don't ask us to sing unless it is to punish someone. I won't go into how good, or bad we were, I will just say that the next group to go to Tanzania will work with the choir director first. And good luck with that :)

So, the Irente Youth have a band and they are SO good. They sang for us and they did such a wonderful job. The only instrument they have is a keyboard, but they are so motivated and have goals they want to work towards with their music. They would like to actually record a CD, and purchase more instruments to make this happen. They raise their own funds to work towards this. We were very moved by them and are discussing some ways in which we may be able to help them achieve and more closer to this goal.

We also shared with the youth at Irente some of the things we are doing at LCR, including our new Coffee House ministry. We also explained that sometimes in America it is difficult to get people our age to come to church. We all made a connection with the youth at Irente, but especially our young adults that were traveling. We are happy to be able to call the youth at Irente our friends.

The youth are so giving and were so interested in the kinds of things we are doing in the US and about our lives. They asked us many questions about our life at LCR. One of us commented to one of the youth at Irente about how much they liked a piece of jewelry that person was wearing. The youth at Irente took it off immediately and gave it away. We saw that all over Tanzania when we were there. Just instant, unconditional giving. No matter what it was. Another one of the youth later gave one of us a picture she had of herself. When we were there we were asked by many people to take their picture, especially pictures of their families. These people don't own cameras and many of them have never seen a picture of themselves. This picture that was given to us, very likely, was the only picture that person had of themselves. Her reason for giving it away...So you remember me.

And, we will.

Wednesday 8/5/2009: A visit with the Munga's and the Women of Irente

2009-08-21T19:54:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday morning we had the honor and pleasure of visiting with Mama Askofu (the Bishop's wife) at her home. She was so warm and welcoming and her home is beautiful. She welcomed us with open arms and we joined her inside her home for tea and snacks. We discussed many things, including the success of SEKUCo, the Lutheran University. Mama Munga was the pilot behind this project. The Munga's have three children, two of which have special needs. As they were raising their children in Tanzania it became obvious that there was a lacking in the training for professionals dealing with special needs individuals. So, to rememdy that, Mama Munga started working to open the university, specialing in special needs education. She is an amazing women, working tirelessly for justice and human rights. She has a heart as big as God's world, and is so humble and genuine.

Bishop Stephen Munga, or Baba Askofu, is just as humble. It was really a pleasure to meet with him as well and share lunch with him. Bishop Munga was actually living in Sweden at the time of his call. He was asked to return from Sweden to Tanzania to take the call as Bishop. It speaks volumes to the person he is, and how much he was wanted for this position. Both Baba and Mama Askofu are champions for social justice and are truly God's hands and feet in our world. It was an honor to spend time with them. Please keep Mama Munga in your prayers, as she is currently suffering from back pain.

When we were meeting with the Bishop we were all still a little bit jet-lagged. We had not even been in the country for 48 hours, so we were still adjusting to the time and our bodies were trying to figure where we were and why we were not sleeping. Needless to say, we were not exactly as "on" as we maybe would have liked to be for a meeting with the Bishop's wife, followed by the Bishop himself. Thank God for Barbara Spencer, and her role on Synod council because she was able to fire question after question and saved the meeting! Thanks, Barb! We owe for the gift of being able to make conversation!

Later that afternoon we went to Irente and met with the women's group. They are truly an amazing group of people! They had prepared a lunch for us and welcomed us with song and dance (yes, we had already eaten with Mama Munga, yes, we had already had lunch with the Bishop. Note the trend, when you meet someone new in Tanzania, you WILL be eating with them). This was our first meal time experience at Irente. It is tradition in Tanzania that the guests sit at a head table and eat, while those host(s) sit and watch, not usually eating. This was SO hard for us. We wanted to share with them. We wanted them seated at the table with us. We wanted to eat with them. This was a hard lesson for us, but with Irente, we came to find a comfortable balance. By the end of our time there, our friends at Irente would eat with us, but we were always still seated at the table. Sometimes some of them would pull their chairs up to the table, sometimes sitting around us and eating. It was kind of a comprimise between what we were each used to.

We had a wonderful meeting with the women of Irente. They have amazing talent and make so many things including food, kitchen utensils, beautiful table clothes and napkins and many other things. They demonstrated for us all the things they have made and they were very proud of their work-and they should be!

Most of the nights we were in Tanzania, we would meet for group time after day. It was always a nice time to wind down, discuss things about the day, and we always shared laughter. We used a model called G.R.I.P and it worked well for us. We used this to guide our conversation, talking about our gratitude from the day, any regrets, what inspired us and what our purpose was. One of the things we discussed that evening was what our image of beauty is in America. I think we all could feel like none of us was ever judged by our appearance when we were in Tanzania. The standards are just so different. It never mattered what we were wearing--or if it matched! It didn't matter what brand things were, how old they were, what store it came from. It is such an unmaterialistic society and it was very refreshing to be in.

Tanzania Tuesday 8/4-Arriving at Irente

2009-08-20T14:58:00.000-07:00

If you read down to the post I did on Saturday 8/8, you can read a little bit more about our arrival to Irente. I will just say again, that none of us has ever experienced a welcome like we did when we arrived. The drive to Lushoto consisted of many hours on a highway (actually a paved road) and then the last part of the trip takes you up the mountain. When I say "up the mountain," I really mean up the mountain. When we would look out the window it sometimes appeared as if there was no edge, just a cliff. That was sometimes a good point to just start looking straight ahead, or close your eyes and go to your "little happy place" (I visited that little place often that first ride up the mountain) :). As an aside,by the end of the two weeks none of us thought twice about driving the windy narrow roads on the cliff while riding sideways in the car. We were all riding sideways in the car going up a mountain, over looking beautiful valleys. Again, it was breathtaking. We all had so many pictures of mountain scenes, but the pictures don't capture the depth or really do the beautiful view justice. What is not so beautiful is the motion sickness that comes along with a ride like this. I think we would all agree that whoever invented those motion sickness patches you can wear, or the maker of the medication, Bonine, should be granted some award. Those things saved many of us!

When we were almost all the way up the mountain to Irente we heard a band playing. As we got closer, we saw it was a band in the back of a pick-up truck. Pastor Joyce said "That's for you." Children from the village started chasing the car. Chuck mentioned that he had never before been important enough to be chased. Pastor Joyce also made sure we heard that the band was playing "Rock of Ages" as we drove up the mountain to Irente. Adults and children were following us and waving at us. We had our hands out the window waving right back and I think this was the first time we really used our Swahili as we shouted "Jambo," which means "Hello" back to them.

Before I talk about our actual greeting from Irente, I think it is important to note that we were hours late getting there. They were expecting us around 2 or 3 in the afternoon and we did not arrive until between 5 or 6. We had to stop at the bank on our way from Moshi to Lushoto so that we could exchange money and this process took longer than anticipated. We were in the bank for well over an hour. I have to say that Tanzanians are some of the most patient people I have ever met The lines in the bank were incredibly long. Some people that were in line when we came in where still in line over an hour later when we left. But there was not a single complaint about this. Some people waiting for us at Irente did end up needing to leave Irente before we arrived, but most of the people stayed and waited on us for hours.

The actual Church at Irente is situated on a hill. So, our car stopped at the bottom of the hill and Pastor Joyce told us we would get out there and walk. We did this, shoulder to shoulder, with those from Irente, up to the church and then listened to the many songs they had prepared for us. We were greeted like royalty. We were in disbelief and we were overwhelmed. We climbed out of the car to strangers who were hugging us and singing to us and giving us flowers. It took only a few seconds for our tears to come. We were just completely overwhelmed by their unconditional love and joy over our arrival. We saw the face of Jesus in each one of them as they loved us and greeted us as if they had known us their entire lives, not as the strangers from another country who were hours late.

And that quickly, we were no longer strangers.

That was the moment that Irente was no longer a place on the map, it was a place we belonged to.

That was the moment that being Brothers and Sisters in Christ became real.

I will repeat what Pastor Sharon said that night, because it is something I won't ever forget.

That is God's Grace.

They are a living example of what it means to love unconditionally.

That love does not come with strings attached.

We don't deserve it.

We do nothing to earn it.

But it is there for us.

Thanks, Irente, for showing that to us.

Tanzania 8/1-8/4

2009-08-19T20:05:00.001-07:00

Thanks everyone for all of your patience! I will try and go through and give a day by day of what we did while we were in Tanzania. Thank you so much for your prayers while we were away! We left LCR around 2pm on 8/1 following a short time of prayer. Thank you to everyone who joined us that day, or called in, or prayed from wherever you were. We headed to Washington DC in two cars, and stopped at the home of Barb Spencer's sister. She had prepared a wonderful home cooked meal for us. It was a great chance to just relax before going to the hotel. From Barb's sister's we went to our hotel in Herndon, VA. We pretty much went right to bed once we got there. We had to be up at 6am the next day to be at the airport by 8 for our 10am flight, and 6am is earlier for some of us than others. The next day, Sunday, 8/2 we were on our way to the airport by 7am after we raided the continental breakfast bar at the hotel. We were pretty loud and excited on the shuttle to the airort at 7am so we felt kind of badly for the other, not so enthused passengers who were stuck on the same van as us. We did get some interesting looks from those people when we announced to the driver that our airline was Ethiopian Airline. Seriously...it's a real airline with real airplanes! We went through security without any issues, and then went to the gate to wait to board. While we waited we did laps. Because we knew we had the pleasure of sitting for the next 19 hours so we were walking while we could. We also practiced our swahili words, while doing laps. We made the most of our time! After a prayer circle we boarded the plane. And then sat on the runway. And sat. And sat. And sat. It wasn't until much later we found out that there were some wild storms happening farther up north which explained our delay on the runway.

So there we were. Sitting on the plane for the next 19 hours. I don't even remember what we did. We tried to sleep. Some of us did sleep. We read. We played games. We got up and walked. We started to go a little bit crazy. We ate. They fed us so many times. As soon as you get on the plane, they put you on Ethiopian time. So when we boarded, they function as if it is 8pm, because that is what time it was in Ethiopia. So our first meal was dinner because it was dinner time in Ethiopia, even though we thought it was only mid afternoon. The next time we ate we had breakfast. But when that time came around our bodies thought it was midnight and we wanted to go to sleep, not eat omlets. And this might be about the time "going crazy" started to kick in! Although Sandy said she really liked flying. She thought of it as she just got to sit there for all those hours and read and people just kept on bringing her food. That was really a positive spin for us! But I was way past positive spins by the 8th hour. The first leg took us to Rome Italy and it was 8 hours long. In Rome we just stopped to change crews and bring on more food. Lisa jumped in front of the open door when we were in Rome so that she could breathe in Roman air :)

The next leg of the trip took us to Ethiopia. I wish I remembered more about this 6 hours, but we had been awake many, many hours by now! I do know when we landed in Ethiopia there was an airplane graveyard next to the runway. I am not sure whose idea it was to put that next to the runway, but I do know it was not that person's best idea! I also know that we were two hours late getting into Ethiopia and I do know I was a little bit panicked because our next flight was scheduled to take off at 10am and we were not going to land until 9:45am. Fortunately, in Africa, they have this thing we now call "African Time." It is similar to "Yardley Time" but it is a little more extreme. It basically means that you just add like 77 minutes to anytime someone tells you and that is when it will actually happen. It goes for airlines, too, apparantly. When we got to the gate there wasn't even a plane there yet and none of the airline workers seemed very concerned about that. We were so exhausted that some of us just laid down on the airport floor and started to fall asleep. Shortly after this, they called us to board and at noon we were on our way to Tanzania. We were all beyond exhausted at this point. Most of us fell right to sleep on this plane ride. Some of us fell so soundly asleep that we slept right through a layover in Kenya.

Around 4pm (Tanzanian time) on 8/3we landed at Kilimanjaro Internation Airport in Tanzania. It was SO refreshing to breathe in fresh air! The process of going through customs and immigration was quick. We got our luggage, went outside and met Pastor Joyce! It was SO nice to finally be able to put a face to her name. She came with her sister, Happiness, and her two children along with our driver, Dennis. From the airport we went to the Uhuru Hostel in Moshi Tanzania. We spent our first night here. I was SO thankful that we had made the decision NOT to drive all the way to Lushoto this first night. It was still 6 hours away. We were able to go to the hostel, have a nice dinner and get a full night's sleep.

The next day was Tuesday, 8/4, we left Moshi, stopped at the bank to exchange money, and then made the long drive to Lushoto. This was our first of many car rides in Tanzania in which we sat sideways with many people stuffed in the back. As the two weeks went on, we quickly learned the tricks to making this easier! The whole ride to Lushoto was beautiful. It looked like a post card everywhere you looked and we all took a ton of pictures! It is a beautiful country. We were all just so excited to be there and spent the ride talking to Pastor Joyce about LCR, learning more about Irente, and just taking in all the beauty around us. The hours in the car went by much quicker than the hours in the plane!

I felt really guilty about not being able to blog and update while we were in Tanzania, and one of the reasons I felt like that was because I learned once we arrived in Tanzania that our flight tracker had not been accurate. In fact, it had been so inaccurate, that it said that our pilot aborted our flight plan mid flight. This would have meant that our landing occcured somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. I wasn't sure if this was a really tactful way of saying the plane crashed. I know that some of us did sleep through a layover in Kenya, but I can assure you that never once did we land in the Atlantic. We were safe and sound, but if anyone was tracking us they were not given correct information!

Thanks for your prayers and support! More details and photos to come.

You Know You are in Tanzania Part 2

2009-08-18T18:54:00.000-07:00

1. Hand sanitizer is just as good as soap and actually washing your hands.

2. You discuss squatty potty etiquette and actually prefer these to Western toilets.

3. Any song you now have stuck in your head is in ½ English and ½ Swahili.

4. Someone is constantly asking what time it is, what day it is, and where we are.

5. You are shocked to find out that the car you are riding in has working headlights

6. You sit sideways in a car and no longer get motion sick because of it.

7. You see someone swinging a machete through tall grass and your response is “Oh look, he is mowing the lawn.

8. You no longer think twice about seeing a woman carrying pounds of stuff on her head without her hands. You wish you could do the same.

9. There are always at least 5 water bottles in your bathroom so that you have water to brush your teeth with.

10. You are already planning your next trip before even leaving the country.

We're Home

2009-08-17T19:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much to everyone for your prayers! We arrived home safe and sound today. We landed in Washington DC around 9am this morning and we were welcomed back at LCR this afternoon. Thanks so much to everyone who put together the lovely luncheon for us. The food was great! We had an uneventful trip home, or as uneventful as 19 hours on a plane can be. We were all exhausted and very happy to see a Starbucks in the airport.

I will do my best over the next few days to get up some better updates and stories from our trip. I will also add pictures for all of you. The one at the top of this post is of mount Kilimanjaro, as we flew over it yesterday on our way out of Tanzania.

Thanks for your prayers as we traveled! They were felt and appreciated!

Peace,

Kara

On the road again

2009-08-14T13:29:00.000-07:00

Hello! Just wanted everyone to know the TEAM is safe and sound in Arusha. They said goodbye to pastor Joyce Wednesday morning, as well as their favorite driver Kiondo and one of the church elders, Alfred. They referred to Alfred and Stephano, (the evangelist from Irente) as their shepherds. Because they would definitely have been lost and walking aimlessly through Tanzania if not for them.

Today they had a wonderful day on safari and saw so many animals in their natural habitat. It was amazing and left them in awe of the beauty that God created.

Please pray for water here in this area. There is a drought in Tanzania and it is affecting the animals and the tribal people who depend on them for survival.

If you were to look at a map of Tanzania, you will see that our TEAM is now between the city of Arusha and Lake Victoria, towards the Serengeti dessert.

Today they drove through the Plains land and it was beautiful. Tomorrow they are going to the Ngorongoro Crater. (Which is also called the 8th wonder of the world.)

Their new hotel is wonderful. Some of the amenities that they are most excited about:
-wash cloths,
-a bath mat,
-bars of soap.
-2 rolls of toilet paper- this means they no longer need to keep every last paper product that they find to use later,
-hot water for more than 30 seconds-tonight they all took long showers, and not just because they were really dirty but also because it was an option.

They also love having new, clean towels and Lisa said she dried her face on a separate towel because she could. :-) They are happy for an extra blanket for the bed and for hangers. They LOVE the wide mosquito nets that will not entangle them if they get up in the night and forget we are under one.

However, despite the excitement over the little things they all feel a bit guilty with their new accommodations. While in Irente last week, they were welcomed into members’ homes which were smaller than the bathrooms in their present hotel.

They saw and experienced things today that some Africans may never get to experience, even though they live there.

They are aware of the abundance that each of them will be returning to and thank God for opening their eyes and their hearts to how others live and find joy in their lives. After a week of living in such simplicity they struggle to find words to explain the emotions that come with leaving. One thing is for sure, each one of them has left a piece of their hearts there with their new faith filled family in Irente, Tanzania.

Arusha

2009-08-13T07:09:00.000-07:00

Hello!
Just wanted to let everyone know that our TEAM has arrived safe and sound in Arusha. They will be picked up there tomorrow for their safari. They are staying at the ELCT hostel in downtown Arusha. By their new standards for accommodations their rooms are wonderful. They have shower curtains AND clean bath towels AND rolls of toilet paper. Today they are going to walk around Arusha do some shopping and sightseeing and relax for a little while.

Another Update

2009-08-11T09:01:00.001-07:00

Hello! This is Kara again scrambling to type with my remaining internet time. irst, thanks so much for all of the e-mails you have sent to my yahoo account. I read them at breakfast or on the car ride up to Irente. We love to hear from you.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I didn't even think about sending cell phone pictures until today. Pictures don't even do it justice, but it is a start.

Tomorrow is our last day at Irente and that is about all that I can type about that without getting tears in my eyes. We will all be so sad to say goodbye Tomorrow we are spending the day at the orphanage. Lisa Rook and I are ready to live here. I am not sure the orphanage will be the best way to end this trip. The orphanage might just keep us here.

Today we visited the Rainbow school for special needs children and we also visited the school for the blind. It is important to realize the stigma that is facerd by the blind and special needs children in this country. Also, at the blind school there are 7 albino children. In this country, some believe being albino is associated with witch craft, and often these children are killed. Sometimes, when someone kills an albino person, they are praised, because of the beliefs that are directed at albino people. When a child is blind or has a special need they usually go unwanted and hidden. It is a disgrace to the family.

The Rainbow School and the school for the blind are both transforming lives and beliefs. Parents can now send their children here. They realize their child can live a full life. They realize they have a child worth educating, worth loving and worth something to this society. This parish, Irente, is so much more than a church. It is by no means to say that those two schools go beyond providing education to saving lives. The children are angels. They are loving and spirited and full of joy and life. It has been incredibly eye opening to see the contrast in how special needs children are regarded in the US and how they are regarded here. There are no inhome services for these children and there is nothing once they are adults either. But, Rainbow tries to teach them a skill to learn a trade. In addition to the 26 students, Irente also has 350 children in an outreach program. This mean volunteers go into the villages to children who cannot get to school to educate the children and the families. These schools and the people who work tirelessly there are truly God's work.

I am not sure how much more I will get to update before we are home. Please keep us in your prayers especially on Thursday as we travel 7 hours by car to Arusha. Thank you again so much for your love and prayers.

And Just for fun...

You know you are in Tanzania when...

1.) You wake up in the morning and there is a moth in your bed and rather than screaming you say "oh at least it is not a mosquito."

2.) You fit as many people as you can in a car. A lap is a seat. You discover that the more people the better because the more you are squeezed in the less you bounce around on the roads. FYI--our record is 16

3.) You don't care if your clothes match anymore

4.)When you say you're "doing laundry" what you really mean is you are wiping your clothes with a shout wipe, and you actually feel clean after this.

5.) you hoard toilet paper because you never know when you won't have access to a western toilet.

6.) You count Deet as perfume.

7.) What are clean sheets?

8.)You are way more excited than you ever were before about a clean bath towel.

9.) You marvel at the thought of just being able to turn on the faucet and have clean water run out.

10.) In the morning the first thing you ask is " Do we have electricity?"

Picture cards from Africa

2009-08-11T05:58:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from Tanzania.

Hey how did this one get in there? Children at the Rainbow School

Sleeping quarters

Their driver and his bus

Kids on a bus

Life is changing for them all, and they are learning and growing and loving God.

Worship

2009-08-10T08:23:00.001-07:00

These two pictures are from the TEAM.
One is a view towards one of the sub parishes, the other is of the Indian Ocean

Sunday’s worship was GREAT!

The TEAM participated in worship at Irente on Sunday Morning. The worship was three hours long, and it included our team as worship/communion assistants, and P. Shar as the preacher and baptizer. Even though the worship was longer than LCR folks are used to, they said that it went fast, and that there was lively singing, and spirit filled, with a great preacher. Since there was 1 child baptized by P. Shar,, there is a new member of the Body of Christ with an African connection to LCR.

The TEAM was welcomed to worship with open arms and they each got the chance to stand and say a word of Thanx and welcome. Some of the TEAM wore African outfits that were made for them. Worship was a true celebration!

Each morning Kara reads the e-mails that she receives from LCR members to the TEAM and it is a great connection to home, and a welcome morning ritual, so keep them coming.

Monday they will have the chance to go to Tanga and see the Indian Ocean with some members from the Irente congregation.

More Later

Peace Tim

An Update From the Team

2009-08-08T09:11:00.000-07:00

Hello All! This is Kara. I am in a little tiny internet cafe in Lushoto, Tanzania. I am SO sorry that I have not been able to update before this. The internet cafe next to our hotel closes at 6pm and we are never back by 6pm. It opens at 8am. well, the sign on the dorr says it opens at 8am. I have been down there several times at 8am and it is not open. So the sign really means that it will open whenever the person who works there decides to come and it will be after 8am.

Welcome to Africa :)

I have so much that I want to tell you all. But I am sitting here at a loss for words because it is so overwhelming and because there just are not words. We have fallen in love with the people of Irente. They have met us with such a warm welcome and we have all been brought to tears many, many times.

I guess the best place to start is the begining. We arrived on Monday about 4pm Tanzania time, after a long flight. Long. Really long. We went from DC to Rome and in Rome they did not let us off the plane. It was just to change crews. They did however lift up one side of the plane to bring on a new crew and Lisa jumped in front to breathe in Roman air :) We also took pictures of the runway, because, come on, we were in Rome and had to take pictures. We then flew to Ethopia and had about two hours to wait or the next flight. We also took picture, because we were in Ethopia. We boarded the plane and pretty much all fell asleep. We had been up nearly 24 hours by this point. Some of us apparantly feel so soundly asleep that we slept through the stop in Kenya. So, I have technically been to Kenya, but don't remember :)

We drove to Irente on Tuesday. It was a beautiful drive. It was a post card the entire way. Beautiful and words won't do it any justice. I will post pictures when I get home. I am not even going to attempt it here. We drove up the high mountains to Irente and before we got to the church, we were met with a band in the back of a pick up truck that played music for us to whole way to Irente. It was a parade for us. We were followed and chased by children with flowers and all kinds of things. It was just amazing. We have been met that way every place we go. I can't even explain it, but Pastor Sharon put it perfectly. We don't deserve this love, we didn't do anything to earn it but it is here for us with no strings attached. These people are a picture of God's Grace. We are visiting the homes of many people from our church. I can't even start to explain the poverty. But these people are just soooooo happy to see us and feel soooo honored that we came to see them. Many of the people we have visited have never, ever seen a person with white skin before. The spirit of these people....I can't even explain it. They are a joy.

This past week has changed each of us and we still have a week to go. We can't even think about saying goodbye on Wednesday when we leave for safari. It will be a mess of tears. These people loved us from the second they saw us. We always said we were brothers and sisters in Christ and now we are living and feel that. We felt their love and that we were brothers and sisters from the moment we were in their presence. Pastor Joyce always says that we are joined by the cross and by the blood of Jesus. We are all constantly saying to each other that we are one. And we are.

Be honored that we are partnered with Irente.

We are.

You can send an email to karaLBeardsell@yahoo.com and I can get that on my phone and read it with the team. That might be better than commenting here since it is very difficult to get to the internet.

Thank you so much for your love and prayers. We feel them!

Peace,
Kara and team

Aug 8

2009-08-08T06:44:00.000-07:00

Greeting all

The Tanzania crew continues to have struggles getting to a computer lab in time to send an update, so I will try to bring you up to speed.

They have been to several sub parishes in the mountain regions of Irente. The Sub Parishes are places that are a bit too far for the villagers to get into town for worship, so the pastor and church volunteers try to get out to them. Sort of like your CARE TEAMS on a village scale. Many of the villages that they are visiting are not accessible by car, so they get as close as they can and then hike in the rest of the way. At least one village was down a path that was only as wide as a triple d shoe. While the lives of the sub parish people are difficult, they certainly are receiving our team with open arms and with joy and dancing and song. The TEAM continues to be greeted with open arms wherever they go, and they are getting a new take on hospitality.

They have been to the university (it’s on break), and the farm and the children’s home, as well as several of the villages in and around Irente. Today they are going to the NED offices, and to several more villages. Then in early so that P. Shar can finish preparing her sermon and practice her Swahili for the baptisms that she has on Sunday.

They will continue to try to get to the computer café for an update in their own words, and maybe some pictures, and we will continue to keep them in our thoughts and prayers

Peace
Tim

Update August 5

2009-08-05T12:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings

I have received more information from our TEAM in Irente. The power was out this morning when they went to blog us, and the internet café was closed when they returned this evening so I am your blog go-between. Their trip was long but a good one. They arrived in Tanzania and were met by Pastor Joyce and several drivers, and they went to a hotel in Moshi. The next morning, they drove 4 hours to Lushoto where they met Bishop Stephen Munga and his wife Pastor Anneth Munga, and brought greetings in Swahili from LCR. They also met with a women’s group from your sister congregation in Irente. And tomorrow they are planning to meet the youth of the parish.

They have been met with much love and care and have been overwhelmed by the hospitality of those whom they encounter. They will be able to write a more in-depth update when they can coordinate their schedules to be near the internet café when the electric is on.

Peace
Tim Taylor

The TEAM has arrived

2009-08-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

Greetings all.

I have just heard from the group and they are in Lushoto, and settling in for the evening. It has been a long few days of travel, but they are safely there. They will try to get to the computers tomorrow and bring us up to date. Thanx for the prayers and the well wishes.

Peace

Tim Taylor

Excitement

2009-07-31T19:56:00.000-07:00

Most of us traveling to Tanzania wrote and read a testimony for the congregation as to why we are excited to go to Tanzania and what this trip means to us. A few of these are below...

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Elizabeth Spencer and my family starting coming to this church when I was 5 years old. Eighteen years later I am now a registered nurse. I am part of the small group that will be travelling to Tanzania in a few short weeks. Years of planning and anticipation are finally coming to an end. I look forward to the learning opportunity that God has granted me. Visiting with our sister congregation Irente will allow us to appreciate each other for our similarities as well as our differences. I hope to bring back many great memories and plan to share my journey of faith when we return. I ask that you pray for our safe travels and that God guides us along the way. -Elizabeth Spencer

As many of you know my name is Chuck Spencer. I was asked to speak about what this upcoming trip to Tanzania means to me. Years of possibility and planning is about to reach fruition. It is under a month until a small group of us from LCR visits our partnership congregation Irente. What has been a thought is becoming a reality. I am excited for all that we will learn from the Tanzanians and what we hope to teach them. This trip is an opportunity to build relationships between people, congregations and nations. We may experience different styles of worship, outlooks on life as well as dramatically different circumstances of daily living. I also look forward to returning home, hopefully with many pictures and stories of our experiences to share with all of you. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we travel, visit, and return. -Chuck Spencer

I don't really know how to pack light.

Every time I leave the country I have in tow bags of crayons, scissors, pencils, soap, shampoo, bubbles and tiny clothing to name a few.

I haven't left the county in the last 3 years with less than 200 boxes of crayons and I have seen many priceless looks on the faces of baggage attendants when I confirm, that yes, that bag actually is full toothbrushes.

Every time I leave the country, my parents' last words to be before the "be safe and I love you" is "please do not bring home any children."

So in August, when we leave to go to Tanzania, I have been told to pack light. We're not taking bags of items. No crayons, no pencils, no toothpaste. Just maybe a few small items for the children at Irente. And it's not because we won't meet people who need it. It isn't because we won't be thrown into situations where our hearts won't bleed for those we meet.

It's because, that is not what this trip is about. It is not about filling bags. It is not about handing out. It isn't about making sure each child gets a box of un-broken crayons. We may not be packing our bags and getting everylast one of those 70 pounds in, but our hearts will be filled when we leave. Mine already is. Filled with excitement, I am sure anxiety, antipation, love, and a desire to meet our brothers and sisters in Christ. And I have no doubt that when we leave Tanzania and return to the US our hearts will be over-flowing.

This trip isn't about what to take. It's about taking the offering of ourselves and receiving the offering of the people we will meet. It is about understanding, that, regardless of where you live, whatever story is, no matter how much money you have, the color of your skin, we're all brothers and sisters in Christ.

The purpose of our partnership is just that--a partnership. It is about going to stregthen the bonds and relationships that we have already established with those in Tanzania. This is about sharing our stories and who we are. And it is about listening to those in Tanzania as they share their stories with us.

I can't wait. I can't wait to meet these people who I simply refer to as "Irente" right now. I can't wait to see them, and embrace their lives and their stories and who they are. I can't wait to make this journey of a partnership even more real. I can't wait to walk should to shoulder, literaly with our brothers and sisters in Christ. I can't wait to experience what this partnership is truly all about.

And as much as I love to see the look on a child's face when they receive their first, brand new box of crayons, I really hate to pack. -Kara Beardsell

When We Will Be Where

2009-07-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

As many of you already know, we leave on Saturday for Tanzania. Well, technically we leave on Saturday for the hotel at the airport in Washington D.C. and on Sunday we leave for Tanzania. We will leave LCR at 2pm on Saturday. We are stopping at Barbara Spencer's sisters home. She has kindly offered to make dinner for us! We will then continue on to our hotel, which is a few minutes drive from the airport. On Sunday morning, at 10am, our flight departs Dulles Airport for Rome, Italy. A few people have commented that Rome is beautiful and we are so lucky to get to go there. We're not exactly going to Rome, but we will be able to tell you whether or not they have a nice runway :) Once we are done refueling in Rome, it is on to Addis Abba, Ethiopia. The entire duration of the flight from Dulles to Ethiopia is 15 hours and 15 minutes (YIKES!), including the stop in Rome. It's a long flight, please keep us in your prayers. From there we have a 4 hour trip to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. We will depart Addis Abba, stop in Nairobi, Kenya, and then head to our final destination. We arrive in Tanzania at 1:50 pm on Monday, August 3rd. That will be 6:50 am in Philadelphia on August 3rd. It will be over 24 hours of travel by the time we land.

Because Kilimanjaro is several hours away from Irente, we will not be making that drive upon our arrival in Tanzania. Instead, we will be staying in a hotel run and owned by another Lutheran Diocese in Tanzania. It is called Uhuru Hostel and it is located in Moshi, Tanzania. We will spend the night here and then make the journey by car to Irente on Tuesday, August 4th. We are very grateful that we will have this first night to rest and get a good nights sleep in Moshi before traveling the several hours to Irente. Pastor Joyce (the pastor from Irente) will be accompanying the driver to pick us up at Kilimanjaro.

From August 4th through the 13 we will be staying at Tumaini Hostel, which is only a few minutes from Irente. This hostel is run by the North Eastern Diocese of the Lutheran Church in Tanzania. We will go to Irente each day, spending time at both schools, the children's home and the farm. We will worship with them during their Sunday services and Pastor Sharon is even doing a baptism while we are there. We are also visiting SEKUCO, the University while we are there. Our time there is very flexible and will be very "go with the flow" as we spend time with our partner congregation.

From August 14-15 we are going on Safari. We will spend part of the day on August 16th in Arusha, just doing some sightseeing through the city. We depart Tanzania at 4:30 pm on 8/16 at 4:30 pm, which will be 9:30 am your time. We follow the same path home that we took to get there, and land in Washington DC at 7:55am on Monday 8/17.

Thank you for reading and journeying with us to Tanzania!