Zac is home from school...... WooHoo! and so is Flash..

So happy to have Zac home from his boarding school today.
This morning I rushed into his room to make sure all was prepared and ready for him only to find a shocking discovery.
There, happy as a clam, was Flash, sleeping in the corner right next to the power board!!! He had been in there all night obviously and we hadn't noticed him.
David had seen him earlier in the day - he entered the living room while David was having a meeting. He wandered around the room, eyed our guests toes then disappeared down the hall... only to be found the next morning in Zac's room. Over 18 hrs in the house and without disgracing himself.

He seemed to be saying... " see mum, I have behaved all night! no mess here.... why wouldn't you let me use this room and fill in as you surrogate son while Zac's gone?"

Well, of course, it is not happening... His girlfriend arrives soon. We hope that will lessen his desperate need for companionship with people!!!

Margaret gets to see Jesus today...

A sweet African sister from our first class with the 'unreached people group' school, went to be with her Lord this morning. Margaret and Aaron were the oldest in the class and the most wonderful models of love. Their kids are all grown up and they were enjoying empty-nesting immensely. Whenever they spoke about each other, they were so tender and caring, often teary and untypically tactile.
Margaret missed a few sessions because of pain in her leg. We prayed for her on a number of occasions and she would get some measure of relief.
What fun to watch her at graduation - she loved dancing and really got into it, dressed to the nines in her tribal outfit, conservatively swaying as they sang, with such ease and rhythm.
Graduation saw her receive her first certificate, the only award or recognition of achievement in her life, and how delighted she and Aaron were.
Shortly afterwards she went for a major check-up and was diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer, the source of her chronic pain.

Pray for dear Aaron, his earthly love has gone .. his grief felt by us all but only really understood by the Great Lover, with whom he's walked for many years.
Farewell Margaret - may the seeds you have sown bear much fruit among your people.

It is heating up......

We just commented to each other today that life has never been so busy... and so rewarding.

New life is everywhere around us and we are experiencing such variety in the work we are doing. Never a moment of boredom. I have been prone to say.... "if I ever have to pray for another aunt's ingrown toe nail..... I think I will shoot myself". The comment is more a reflection of the frustration at not being "hands on" and "against the coal face", so to speak, rather than a hatred of ingrown toenails or their owners. In fact, please don't hesitate to ask me to pray for healing if you have an ingrown toenail. I would hate to think that because of this motto there are folk limping around with gangrenous toes, ashamed to own up to them for fear of being thought inferior.

No, this season is very full.
Take for instance our marriage seminar. The first one was to expats in a swank restaurant with a three course meal. We have had lots of feedback about the need for a longer seminar and many orders for Costa's book. The next marriage seminar we did was to rural tanzanian church planters. I we wrestled and nutted through cultural contexts for biblical truths. Very satisfying for them and for us.

Next, the Alpha course has almost finished with our celebration dinner on Dec 4th. We are inviting many friends of the former participants and God has moved in the lives of these people strongly. 5 baptisms all together and probably 3 first time conversions and a couple of recommitments. God is on the move and when the newly saved get excited... there is a ripple effect. They invite their friends and bring them to all the events they love.

Our ladies coffee on Friday afternoons is developing into a place to share and be known and is a delightful way for women to connect.

This weekend we are having our first Church family camp. Speakers David and Colleen Pedersen are coming from SA to help with this.

We are truly experiencing a surge of life... a wave that is fun to keep on top of..... a birthing that means lots of work in the nursery and changing the occassional dirty diaper. What fun!!

Excuse me, I need to go.... life is happening..... babies are growing!! :)

The Latest Exploits of Flash - the East African Leopard Tortoise

Flash very definitely needs company....
He has been seen many times negotiating the large steps at either the front or the back of our house in an attempt to get inside. This is no idle thing. It requires much maneuvering and a certain knowledge of physics, pivotal suspension and centre of balance. He rocks back and forth on the bottom of his shell, all the while clawing at the air in the hope of eventually making contact with a step, screen door or something solid on which to pull so he can lever his entire weight up to the next step. All of this takes quite some time considering there are around 6 steps at the front and 2 at the back.

Yesterday, exhausted after his mammoth effort, he lumbered contentedly over to David's feet. David, whose adolescent curiosity has been delighted by watching the clumsy attempts of "Flash" decides to see what will happen if he doesn't remove his toes from Flash's sight. Yes... we have noticed his appreciation for toes. All of us have felt a little vulnerable when he labors toward them with his sharp beak, and backed away. David, decided this was the day to see what it was, that Flash wanted. Meat or meet?

He eyed David's toes studiously then casually rested his head down on those toes as if they were the luxury pillow he had been dreaming of. It seemed such a tender moment. The rest of us onlookers immediately repented for thinking the worst of our friend Flash. It seems he never wanted our toes for meat.... rather he just wanted companionship....

Female Tortoise, anyone? We seriously need to get this guy a date....

Unless you become as a child...

In much of East Africa, there's a tendency to discourage children from making a personal commitment to following Christ until they're twelve or older. The fear is that they won't fully understand and might fall away and not recommit.
It has been a challenge to speak into this, looking at western statistics where we see that most committed adults became Christians in childhood.
A friend of ours in Canada has written, what I would consider to be one of the best books on learning how to hear God.
On its release, his son proudly took a copy to school and read some of it out for show and tell. Shortly after, he challenged his dad to write a version for kids, which he did. I have a copy of the kids' version here (Children - Can You Hear Me?) and used it in class with the tribal church planters. They loved it, so I asked Brad if we could do a Swahili version, along with African illustrations. It'll be great if we can do it, as it cuts through the religious veneer and presents Jesus in very approachable and real terms. I suspect adults will benefit as much, if not more than its intended audience!

Tomorrow I'll be teaching some CHE (Community Health Evangelism) material on parenting, addressing five areas - the Theologies of Suffering - suffering is normal (not new to most in these parts), Work (work is a privilege not a curse), Stewardship (managing one's life wisely), Holiness (making wise choices) and Grace (how to live grace-filled lives).
CHE does wonderful work in the area of teaching, training and development ... cutting-edge thinking and resources. Check them out (www.lifewind.org).

..... and now some time for rest and relaxation.....

My friend Jenny, noticing my frayed edges due to some of weeks of sickness and not much rest, decided to bless me with a couple of nights away at a lodge.

On arrival at the lodge, staff greet you with moist hand towels to wipe away the dust and fatigue. The delicious glass of pineapple and mango juice is a refreshing welcome, also.

The lodge is set in the Rhotia Valley and has a children's home on one hill and the lodge for guests on the other. The lodge supports the children's home and is very close to the entrance to Ngorongoro Crater. The scenery is breathtaking and serene. Peace is palpable. Huge hills are bathed in long streaks of sunlight and cows, goats and at night hyennas sing into the air. During our stay the rain drizzled down, a welcome thing in Africa, enhancing our feeling of snugness in our cosy tents. These tents are no ordinary tents. They have a roofing structure and en-suite with shower, verandah and fly screens. This is luxury.

For two days we slept, ate, read and chatted, all the while taking in the serene landscape around us. My soul was soothed.

Nevertheless, both the drive there and home again was quite dramatic....

The entrance to the lodge is via 5 kms of dirt road which is very steep in places. With a little rain it becomes a skating rink. The 4wd decided it wasn't working on one of the first hills we came to. Our car began sliding and slipping, no matter how slowly we drove. Sideways, looked like the best way forward at one point. After some more sliding, we approached a valley and after slowly sliding into the soft edges of the road, we decided this angle looked too much for our little car. We tried to negotiate back, then forward - we were stuck. At this point, one of the passers by came over. He seemed agitated and at first we were hoping for help. On the contrary, he began shouting "Thank you mama" in Swahili and hitting the car?? Soon it became evident that he was not in the same world that we were in. He began to pull on the head lights, aggressively - all the while dribbling and muttering. His aggression and fury with us was increasing. Finally, he looked us straight in the eyes, lifted his masai tyre-shoed-feet, up and wiped the 2 inches of mud on the bottom of them across our front grill and head lights. About 6 big lumps of mud adorned the front of Jenny's car - his face saying... "this is what I think of YOU!" Jenny, in the meantime, undaunted, pointed at him and authoritatively told him to take his leave. He was in the middle of another scraping when he looked up at her, stopped what he was doing, turned around and walked away. We giggled nervously and hatched a plan of escape. After phoning the lodge, they assured us that they would be back from Karatu in an hour and would find a place to safely leave the car and give us and our luggage a ride up to the lodge. Quite a crowd had gathered and it was time for us to practice our swahili and them, their english. Always fun! They established where we were from and they apologized for the masai madman.

With our car tucked safely away near the home of a villager we set off for our much needed break in the lodge truck..

Going home, proved equally adventurous...

After motoring along merrily, thankful for our restful time and that our car was safe when we found it, we drove into rain. The rain was wonderful. We watched the donkeys, goats and cows radiating thankfulness as they grazed in the rain.. . Then, we began to notice that there were puddles, in fact, water was streaming down the hillside. Soon the streams became swirling bodies of water tumbling over the road way. We slowed to assess the situation. Dala dalas were stopped, cars waiting. One car gingerly started to cross road that was covered by a torrent of swift flowing water, only to stop and reverse back after a few meters. This made us a little cautious. His 4wd was much bigger than our car. Shortly, a safari vehicle plowed through the water aggressively and made it across without mishap. We noticed that the water was rising. When the next safari vehicle decided to take the risk we decided to follow closely behind him to take advantage of his wake.

Mud sprayed everywhere, water sprayed onto Jenny's feet inside the car. The current was powerful and prayer pulled the little Rav 4 through the flooding. Our relief was short lived however, when we reached 3 more places where water covered the road - each of them as challenging as the last.

All the while laughter and prayer peppered our assessment of the situation.

Faith in God and a healthy love of adventure got us through all the dramas in the end.

A Maasai Creed (c. 1960)

We believe in the one High God, who out of love created the beautiful world and everything good in it. He created Man and wanted Man to be happy in the world. God loves the world and every nation and tribe on the Earth. We have known this High God in darkness, and now we know Him in the light. God promised in the book of His word, the Bible, that He would save the world and all the nations and tribes.

We believe that God made good His promise by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, a man in the flesh, a Jew by tribe, born poor in a little village, who left His home and was always on safari doing good, curing people by the power of God, teaching about God and man, showing the meaning of religion is love. He was rejected by his people, tortured and nailed hands and feet to a cross, and died. He lay buried in the grave, but the hyenas did not touch him, and on the third day, He rose from the grave. He ascended to the skies. He is the Lord.

We believe that all our sins are forgiven through Him. All who have faith in Him must be sorry for their sins, be baptised in the Holy Spirit of God, live the rules of love and share the bread together in love, to announce the Good News to others until Jesus comes again. We are waiting for Him. He is alive. He lives. This we believe. Amen.