The Beauty of Tanzania

I am here!  It has been a long wait to get here.  Wow!  I thought it would only take about 10-12 weeks to get my residency for Tanzania and I would be back here in no time.  Well, as many of you know, that "no time" turned into almost 7 months!  Boy is it good to be back in Africa!

The trip from OKC to Chimala Mission is no quick trip.  I left OKC around noon on Thursday and arrived at the Mission on Saturday evening at 5pm (which is 8am OKC time).  Long trip, but so worth it. 

It is the rainy season here and so everything is really green and beautiful.  Of course, I think it is beautiful even during the dry season when things were brown.  I have a small house, 2br and 2 bath.  It is going to be awesome!  I will post pics of the outside, but give me a little more time to get settled before I post pics of the inside.


This is the front of my house 
 
 
And this is the back !
 
This is the view from the back of my house.  You cannot tell in this picture, but there are mountains back there.  This direction is south, and my house faces north.

On Sunday, I attended church at a village called Uturo (pronounced oo-too-ro).  I wish I had taken some pics of the village, but I didn't.  They have their crops in and they have used all available space.  The crops are all around each little house.  There is only a small space around the house for doing the household chores like laundry.  It was amazing.

I do have several pics of the church I would like to share.
This is a picture of all who attended church on Sunday morning.  The preacher, Issac, graduated last year from the Chimala Bible Institute and is working hard to grow this church and it shows.  Last year when he graduated and arrived in Uturo there were only 8 people present at church.
Garry Hill preached on Sunday.  He is the Director of the Chimala Bible Institute which is on the Chimala Mission training men in Biblical Studies.  His interpreter is Ezekial.  Ezekial speaks 13 different languages fluently.  Wow!  I am lucky to speak English properly.  I am hopefully, though, to learn Swahili and speak it well.

I love the children.  They are so beautiful and innocent.  Not to say, I don't love the parents!  I just really love the children. 
This little guy was so loving to his mom.  He was laughing and giving her kisses for about the first hour of church.  After that he was sleepy and a little cranky.
These two little guys watched me like hawks throughout the morning.
 
 
I titled this post "The Beauty of Tanzania", but I have only shown you an "itty-bitty snippet".  There is so much more.  And, of course, there will be things that don't look so beautiful as we go along.  But I pray you will take this journey with me.  My prayer is that I will be able to be an example of the light which comes from knowing God.
 
 
 

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