New Calf

This is Terry's latest calf, named Baraka, meaning blessing in Kiswahili. It is the calf of some M friends and we have a very good relationship with this family. The calf was born in late December and on this day Terry de-horned the calf. The one behind is Furaha, Happy, in Kiswahili, but Terry didn't do the artificial Insemination for this calf. Furaha was born just last week. P for continued opportunites to share with other M's.

Kondoa Girl's High School Graduation

The student in the middle is Clara Manoni, her mother on the right, Demetria, brother in the center, Daniel, and Nan on the left. On Thursday, January 20th, the high school had their formal graduation exercise, (over 300 girls graduated) although the students still have about a month of classes and final exams. We have been friends with the Manoni's for almost 10 years now. Clara's father died in December of 2007, but we have remained close to the family. It really was God's working that brought Clara to Kondoa in 2009, just after we got here. She had been accepted at a private high school in Dodoma, but then received the invitation to attend the government school here (much cheaper). It has been such a blessing to be near her these two years of her final high school courses and of course to have here mother, brother and an aunt be able to attend the graduation and stay with us. Clara has one other sister, Mpelwa, who is in Form I at a boarding school in Dodoma,(high school) Please pray for Clara that she will finish well and make good enough scores on her exams to attend a Government university. She wants to attend Mzumbe (Mm-zoo-mm-bay) University near Morogoro and study law.

And the rains came tumbling down

I hope you can see the rainbow. Some of the most beautiful rainbows we have ever seen have been here in Tanzania. We have been so blessed with rains, although they didn't begin as early this year as last year, but in December we had over 6 inches and this month already over 2 inches.

On Wednesday nights we have a short devotion time, just Terry & Nan, and every week we end with the song, Morning Has Broken. The second verse says, "Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven, like the first dew fall, on the first grass. Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden, sprung in completeness where His feet pass." The rainbow reminds us of His promise of never to destroy the world by flood, but it also is a reminder of His blessings here on earth. Count your blessings today!

Progress??

Thought you might enjoy seeing some of the progress in Kondoa town. They have been grading many of the roads and making ditches, the ditches were all dug by hand. As you can see, this house just happens to be in the middle of the road. The man on the left side is walking down a narrow path, as of this week the house has two big red X's on the front of it. The large tree limbs prevent cars/trucks from hitting the house. We shall see how soon this is torn down. The funny thing also is that on the other end of this road is another house in the middle of the road. Somebody didn't tell these folks where their property lines were! I hope next year to be better at keeping up on the blog. Pray for us to be diligent about His work.

Happy New Year

OK, so lets back up a few weeks! This was Nan's "birthday" party with some of our Peace Corp Volunteers and Swedish students and Dutch doctors. On the left of Nan is Jonas Burstrom, one of the Swedish students, Nan, Harry England, Jayce Kaiser, and Maureen Pacheco all PCV. We enjoyed having them on Friday night for pizza. Many young people find their way to our door and it is such a blessings to us and we pray we are a blessing to them.

Tanzanian Christmas Tree

This is called a Flamboyant Tree or Flame Tree. There are many in Tanzania and they only begin to bloom at the very end of the dry season and then into the short rainy season. As you can see this tree is in full "bloom" they are just beautiful this time of year and always bloom in late November and early December. We have had good rains this past week, 3/4 of an inch on December 1st, 2 1/2 inches on the 8th and then on the 9th and 10th a little over 1 inch. We are very thankful for these rains and how God continues to bless us here. We are excited because we are expecting many visitors during the Christmas holidays, our PCV, two new Swedish students and a couple of missionary families.

Happy Thanksgiving

OK, so we are a little late! We have so much to be thankful for. Our health, safety in travel here in Tanzania, our many friends...

Here you can see the group who celebrated Thanksgiving with us, we had seven (7) Peace Corp Volunteers, two (2) Dutch doctors, and one (1) young lady from the UK. We had a great time with plenty of food, recreation and fellowship. We each shared what we were thankful for and Terry read Psalm 100. We never thought we would be so blessed with Wazungu (white people) when we came to Kondoa, but many continue to come through our doors, and really from all over the world.

We have two new Swedish students who are living in the Kondoa region for the next six (6) months and we are expecting two (2) new Dutch doctors in January. Please pray for us as we have opportunities to have these young adults in our home and the opportunities to share with them.