You Know You're in Africa When...

Our internet has not been too friendly to us lately...if you've tried to have conversations with me in the last two weeks you know what I'm talking about. It was very frustrating. But supposedly today we got it fixed. We'll see how that pans out over the next few days and you'll understand why when you read this story. Today I had the thought...you know you're in Africa when...and I have two things to complete that sentence...one, when you call someone to get a technician out and they tell you when he's going to be here and you expect it to not happen and then are surprised when they are early! Yes, the tech did come out today after we called yesterday and they were early. No we'll be there between this time and this time but we'll be there at such a time. And he was early...the only unfortunate thing was I was still in bed after waking in the middle of the night and not being able to go back to bed until 6 am. And the other is when the tech comes and sits in a chair and just moves the modem around to see if he can get a stronger signal. Nope he really didn't do anything we haven't tried except turn the modem to face the other way. Surprisingly the internet has been working much better, but then again it started to work much better this morning before the guy came. We'll see if it lasts. Oh and by the way, if you are in China and you need to connect from here we have a cord that I believe will reach you. I think this cord will reach to kingdom come. It's long enough so that if we need to we can take the modem into the kitchen and face it out that window since the attenae is out that way and still sit in the living room connected to the net. Oh you should definitely see it. We can now connect from the living room and sit outside on the porch if the weather is nice. It's absolutely crazy. Anyone need to connect from Tanzania? I think I have a cord for you!

Wedding or No?

Saturday I went to a wedding party. I was invited by my good friend Martha (she's in the pic at the right). Her sister is getting married and she was able to invite a couple of friends. So I got to go. It was great especially because I think Martha is the greatest! She was the first girl I met at the church I attend and then one day Laura Lee had invited her over for lunch and I found out later that Martha told LL not to tell me she was coming because she wanted to surprise me. I felt very loved by this and welcomed here. So I was invited to this wedding party. And well basically it's kind of like a reception but it's before the wedding, which actually takes place this coming Saturday. Lots of funny things happened while I was there so I get to tell you all about them. First off to the left was my date. Yup, I had a date...oh wait I can't do that here. If you couldn't tell that's Whitney, she was my date. So don't worry everyone, I'm not breaking the no date policy. Basically we arrived and sat down at a table and got a bottle of water. Then we moved to another table because Martha's brother reserved us a table, now I'm not exactly sure if it was her biological brother or a cousin, but everyone here is a brother or sister. When we got there, I think we were asked like three times if we wanted something to drink or not and finally we gave in and said ok we'll have a Coke too. So we had a Coke and a water. Then they came back and asked if we wanted more and by this time we were just tired of everyone asking if we wanted something to drink so we just agreed. I think we ended up with about 6 drinks on our table before we even got to the food...so there were a lot of potty breaks. I guess a quick description of the party would be long. But the long description would be that we got there and found out later that the groom's side of the family was late. So there was some dancing before they got there, which I was out there doing. Then they finally got there and a representative of the groom family went and sat on the ground in front of the bride's family and they had a conversation. From what I got there was a lot of explanation and apologizing for being late, but that's about it. Then the bride came in and she had a friend with her (she stayed by her side the whole night) and there were children dancing alongside of her to bring her in. Then there were introductions of each family and speeches and all kinds of things. Then we got to eat, which I enjoyed. And then there was a presentation of gifts. If you know nothing about African culture then know this, with everything there is a presentation and most of the time it's done with dancing. So the gifts were brought in groups. For example, a group of people from the bank she works for brought a gift. So they would dance up the sidewalk (we were outside the whole night) and put the gift on a table and then hug the bride and go off to the side and dance some more. Then another group would come and present the gift and so on. Then the band came back and played some more and there was more dancing. What I forgot to include was that in between introductions and dinner, the band came and played songs which we all know. First there was Backstreet Boys to which Whitney and I looked at each other and giggled a little. But the lady that was sitting next to us, who was probably in her 40s, knew the Backstreet Boys. So she said to us "Backstreet" (insert British/Tanzanian accent here) and we said yes, then she said "you like?" to which I responded "it's interesting that they are playing Backstreet Boys". I had no idea what else to say...a bit of a loaded question if you ask me. Can you really respond with a lie of yes I like the Backstreet Boys...I don't think so and I couldn't break her heart and say that I didn't. Then she proceeded to sing along. Then they played a little Shania Twain and then to top it off "Sexual Healing". I found out later that they pretty much play that song at all the parties. Other funny incident was Whitney's bathroom experience. She went off to the port-a-potty by herself this time and came back probably 15 minutes later. That's when I found out she got locked in. Poor girl, good thing they didn't smell very bad. She didn't know what to do. As you know she hasn't been here very long so she doesn't know much Swahili so she couldn't really yell for help. She said all she could do was say hello? and shake the door to try to get it open. She was finally able to get out to a mass of people looking at her. To which she said "Asante" or "Thank you" and left. What's really funny is our friend Martha asked before she left if she needed someone to go with her and Whit said no I'll be fine. Haha...guess you should always accept help when it is offered. After all of these crazy things happening, you would think that that was it. Well it wasn't. By the time the band came back and played it was already 12:15 am and we were exhausted from a very busy day. We missed the actual send off of the bride (which we heard today that didn't happen until 3 am, so I'm glad we left) but oh well...sleep was calling and we couldn't ignore it any longer. So we started driving off to a horrible noise that our car was making. Now mind you we have a car, yes, but it's years old (I'm a jgirl and well we get the runt of the litter). It kept sounding like something had lodged in our tire and it would dislodge and then lodge again...it was very disturbing, but it did keep me awake on the drive home. Then to top all of this off, I just missed my turn to get out of Centre City and right at the intersection there is a sign to tell you it's a one way road and do not enter. So I turned around 2 seconds after I passed the sign and all these officers came out of the woodwork. I think there were about 5 of them. One came and we did all our greetings and then he started spouting off things in Swahili to which I replied I only know a little so another came and talked to me in English. This is what he said (remember to use a British/Tanzanian accent) "You made a mistake. You made a mistake. You know what you did is wrong. You know what happens when you make a mistake." To which I responded in a like British/Tanzanian accent, "Yes I know I made a mistake, I just saw the sign and I just missed my turn. I'm turning around. I'm turning around. I know what happens when I make mistake but I'm turning around." Surprisingly he let me go without too much hassle. You know what happens when you make a mistake? You either have to pay a bribe or be taken down to the police station and well the police don't have cars around here so they hop in with you which I don't feel comfortable with so I'm very thankful that he let me go. Prayer is amazing. So that was my crazy Saturday night...anyone else have something similar take place?

So these pics: top left, the women dancing, right, the bride's family table, then the representative from the groom's family sitting before the bride's family explaining why they were late and apologizing, then there is the schedule of events (funny to have a schedule in Africa, that was kind of thrown out the window), then more dancing (yup that's me, the white girl, can't really see me because of the shadows but I'm on the left in a black dress), then more dancing, and then the kids dancing the bride in.

He provides!

Yesterday was probably the first day I went on campus intentionally. And as most of you know, I was scared out of my mind. I am not one who can walk into a crowd of people and start a conversation. I am not one to go up to some stranger and say hi and continue a conversation. Oh I would say Howdy at A&M but that was the extent of the convo. Besides most Americans aren't keen on having a stranger coming up to them and starting a conversation out of the blue. So needless to say I was quite a bit out of my comfort zone. My insecurities started to seep in and my stomach was in knots. I felt a bit like Moses, wondering why in the world God was choosing me to meet girls. I kept thinking about how I'm not qualified to do it. But alas, I knew that was what I was suppose to do. That God had told me to come here and make friends with the students and that since He told me to do it He would provide for me. So I went to campus. I sat and ate lunch and as had happened many times before sat with some girls who were very quiet. So it didn't go all too well. We left lunch and headed towards the library where there were masses of people all waiting to take their ID picture. We split off and I went and sat down with three girls and just started talking to them. It was amazing! I didn't know I could do that. Oh wait, I can't, it was definitely God. And as I sat and talked with the three, other girls started trickling over. So by the time I left, I had met probably 6 girls. I got numbers from 4 of them and will hopefully meet them again soon. I'm thinking maybe lunch next week. So it was a pretty incredible day, watching the Lord work in His mighty ways. He is the Jehovah Jireh, the Lord Provides. How can we second guess that?

My Housemates

So now that I have an established household here, I thought I would talk a little bit about them. Of course all nice things because they look at this too :) (Just kidding, I really do love them!) Whitney arrived about 3 weeks ago now, wow time has flown! It's been fun getting to know her even better. I knew I would like her when I met her at her screening conference, but you still have your doubts you know. I think it will be a good two years working along side her to further the Kingdom. We've done a lot of movie watching around here and she has a great collection, of course there are a few exceptions (like Love Song for Bobby Long...a bit of a snoozer if you ask me), but I don't hold that against her since some of them are ones she didn't really choose and she hadn't seen yet. And we've been cooking each night or at least trying too. We both don't know that much about cooking but we've been holding our own and she's been branching out on her cuisine which is a good thing. For all of you who know her, she may come back quite a bit different. Of course all of us across the ocean will come back different I'm sure. We did have a funny incident with salsa the other night. We made it a little too hot. It had a great after flavor but man did it burn going down. And our fingers were burning too, which lasted for a couple of days, that was not fun. Trying to get my contacts out was a bit difficult too. But we had a good laugh as we took each bite of our quesadillas.
There is also Keri here...who has been here for almost two years now. She will be leaving in December which makes me sad, but at least I get 4 more months with her. She's a lot of fun and has great wisdom for us newbies. It's great to have her around and be able to ask her questions that help us get started. I feel like I am kind of walking around like a chicken (haha, makes me think of another funny story about chickens--Debbie) with it's head cut off, but I know who to go to for advice. And I always seem to catch her in her clumsiness, that's always fun.
We went to the waterpark the other day and had a lot of fun. Much cheaper to go to waterparks here, you pay to get in and it includes food! So here are some pictures of us crazy girls.

Insights from Matt 13:24-43

"Let them both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn." (Matthew 13:30)
This morning, this was the parable we talked about. It was great to hear the insights and really dig into this. So I thought I would share them with you. As it is explained later in the chapter, the field is the world, the sower is God, the wheat is those that are sons of the Kingdom and the tares (or weeds) are those that are the sons of the evil one. If you describe tares more fully you will understand even more, for tares are actually weeds that look like wheat on the outside. The only time that you can tell the difference is at harvest time. For then you see that the tares have not produced a good crop of grain, in essence they have not produced "fruit". Man, you get so much out of the Word...it's unfathomable. There are so many times that we judge by the outward appearance...we label, we put people in our box and then when they step outside of the box we judge, we make up rules that we think everyone else should follow, yet these rules could very possibly not be Biblically based, just our own interpretation for our lives. But all in all, this could sidestep us from a true relationship with God. We become so focused on the outward that we forget about the inward...the heart and where the heart truly is. Is it focused on checking our boxes or on sweet communion with God? Did Christ die for us so that we could go on living with our boxes or so that we could have a direct connection to the Father? And then there is the fact that He doesn't want the tares taken out of the wheat until the harvest time. Why? Well, if you uproot the weed, you will most likely uproot the wheat as well. The roots are so intertwined that it is impossible to take one out and not the other. And so if you pull a believer out of the world, what happens to everyone else around them? Well my guess is that it's one less person they will see the Gospel through, one less time they will hear the workings of God and this is not good. People need to hear the truth! They need to hear that the Father loves them through all of their junk. They need to hear that He will always love them. They need to hear that He will always be there even when it seems that everything else is falling apart. They need to hear that they don't need to be perfect to come to Him. That's why He came and died and rose again, so that we could come and die to our flesh and rise in Him and be perfected through Him. There's lots more to this parable. You should read it and check it out. It's a good one. So my challenge to you this week is that you check your inward appearance. Is it right with God? Is it following hard after Him?

And the Wind Blew...

The other day the wind was blowing quite forcefully around here. A bit strange for Dar weather, but it brought a nice breeze and I was totally fine with it. Anything that makes the day cooler I welcome. As I laid there on my couch listening to the wind blow, I began to think about how God speaks to us. And I thought about Elijah and how God told him to go stand on the mountain before the Lord. While he was standing there a great wind blew, but God wasn't in it. Then an earthquake came, but God was not in it and a fire came but God wasn't in it and finally a gentle blowing came and Elijah heard this and went to the entrance of a cave (1 Kings 19). I began to think about how we always look for God in the big things but we hardly ever do in the small things. And I think that is one reason why He does allow the great tragedies of hurricanes and tsunamis and earthquakes and wars and many other things. If these things never happened would we ever hear God speak to us? Would we ever seek Him out and wonder what's going on? We don't strain our ears long or hard enough to hear Him speak in the quiet whispers. In a day and age where noise is the norm and busyness is what keeps us going, it's hard to sit still and listen for His still, quiet voice. I mean, it's hard enough for us to sit in the presence of others and for things to be silent. There is usually a radio or TV going to keep from feeling awkward when there is no conversation. If this is the case when others are actually in our presence, how much harder is it when you can't physically see the presence of God? It is definitely difficult, but it is definitely needed. Being still before the Lord is something of this life that is not always easy to do, but it is something the He tells us to do. "Be still and know that I am God."(Psalm 46:10) We may have to die to ourself to be still before the Lord, but what is worth more than being able to hear God's quiet whispers? NOTHING! Something that I challenge myself and all of you reading this to do is to take a day, a Saturday or a day that you have no work or school, and be still before the Lord for hours. Sitting in silence and just asking Him to come speak. Don't worry about errands you may need to run and what not, they will get done. And they are not worth more than gaining more insight into who God is. Drop what you are doing and strain your ears to hear His voice. He may tell you something you need to know about Him, about yourself, about what you need to do. Great things don't happen all of the time so if you are looking for God and waiting for Him to show up in those things, you may be waiting a while. "Be still and know that I am God."

Overwhelming American Abundance...

Now that the group has left, I think I may have some more time to update this thing. But don't hold me to that. I'm still pretty exhausted, but I think it's more so now because I haven't been sleeping well it seems. Maybe it's because I'm just so excited that Whitney's here! She finally got here yesterday after a flight cancellation, and then a detour through Johannesburg. I'm sure she was exhausted from all of that but she was a trooper I'd say. Because we rushed her to her new home, got her on the phone with her mom, pushed her into a shower, then dragged her to our final goodbye to the vols that were in town. But she got an amazing dinner at Barbecue Village out of it.
So the vols that were in town...they left today. I do miss them, but I'm not going to miss the schedule. There were many of them that were greatly changed through this trip and quite a few of them said that they believe God is telling them to move overseas when the timing is right and that's always huge. They had a great time sharing their stories of how God brought them to Himself and also sharing various stories in the Bible. Many Tanzanians lives were changed as well. So all in all, it was a good time of refinement. And this week I got to use a bit of my Swahili to help them bargain for souvenirs, that was a lot of fun. They did get to go to the beach last week and swim in the Indian Ocean. I believe that most of them were very happy about that especially because they're from the Northwest where it's too cold to get in the ocean. A few of us played ultimate frisbee so there are some pictures of that. They were able to go to Mikumi for a safari and I believe they enjoyed that. And the rest of the time they spent fellowshiping with each other and sharing their lives with everyone around town. Last Sunday we all went to different churches around town and it was neat to see what that was like. The one my group went to was all in Swahili so that was interesting. And it was really cool to see some of the people the group shared with and that had decided to entrust their life to Christ come to the church. So below are some pictures...mostly from the beach (frisbee and otherwise), then the other two are some of the girls that I got to hang out with for the past two weeks.