Thinking Toward Easter...

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, 

but according to His mercy He saved us, 

through the washing of regeneration & renewing of the Holy Spirit,
whom He poured out on us abundantly 

through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Titus 3:5,6

Quite a Lovely Week

 Left: Grade 1 mural in progress! Right: Two worlds collide in my girly girl (note leopard strappy sandals and hair style) who loves to collect natural wonders like dead butterflies and tad poles. Lower Left: I got to teach art this week, since the art teacher was out. The kids did a great job of designing ads for our
class newspaper. (Note the flower of kindness on desk... passed on from student to student in honor of kind acts.) Lower Right: Ah, the creativity! Left over paper strips become beards, headbands, and golden earrings for aspiring pirates. Lowest Left: The whole primary school picture. Lowest Right: A broken but beautiful butterfly... Like so many of us. It's amazing we can still fly, but we can, by Christ's restorative work.

House Life

Here are my housemates: Ali, Emily, Rose, and Danielle. They hail from TN, N. Ireland, PA, and CT. I'm very thankful for the humor, encouragement, prayer, good examples, fun, and family that God has given us in our Tanzanian home.
We are pictured with our new house shirts that I designed for Christmas presents. Each person is represented by their favorite produce: Ali=papaya, Emily=butternut squash, Rose=popcorn, Danielle=peanut (butter), and I=mango... Popcorn and peanut butter might be stretching "produce."

New Slideshow -->

This new slideshow features photos from Christmas at home and in class last term. Watch for the medieval sword-fighting queen!

Kenyan Cooking

 Today I got to go to my friend Virginia's house. She and her friend Alice taught me how to make mtori, or banana soup. We used plantain-like bananas, potatoes, green pepper, eggplant, cilantro, and a few other ingredients. She asked me to teach her how to make spaghetti... Some of you might think that funny, considering my lack of pasta and meat recipe knowledge!

Virginia told me that Kenyans never measure ingredients because that would be planning to have a certain number of people, not being welcoming to whatever friend might stop by. By the time Virginia and I were finished, two other friends of hers had showed up. Together with Virginia's kids, sister, and us, we feasted with eight people!

The Word for the least, the last and the lost

From The Joyful Shepherd by Cyncie Smith.

The number of languages with none of God’s Word dropped to 1,976 in October. Though much work remains, this number shows good progress.

The progress comes little by little. Also in October, six languages in NW Cameroon received God’s Word for the first time, a collaboration of mother-tongue and SIL translators, with two other organizations. Bob Creson, the president of Wycliffe Bible Translators shared the story.

He said the people in the Misaje language cluster can now read  the parable of “the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin. In both of these, Jesus illustrates the heart of the Father and the extent to which He will go for one person--God extending His grace and love to the least, the last and the lost.” What perfect first parables to hear.

Paul Kom, a mother-tongue translator, reflected, "Indeed, the world allows the more important issues of life to go unnoticed... If it were an important government official coming into the village, the whole village would be mobilized. But here comes the Word of God (Jesus Christ)… and He comes relatively in the midst of oblivion. But God is using ‘the foolish things of the world to shame the wise’ and ‘the weak things to shame the strong’ (1 Corinthians 1:27)."

Heri ya Krismasi!

 "Heri ya Krismasi" means Merry Christmas in Swahili. And I certainly had a merry Christmas. It was such a blessing to be with family and so many friends during the two weeks I was home. I got to visit three churches, go hiking and stay at the beach with my family, eat lots of good food, and just be with people I haven't been with for a year and a half. It was wonderful.

I returned to Dar es Salaam this morning at 3:30 am. I unpacked, went for a swim in the school pool, napped for 5 hours, and had dinner with  friends. Tomorrow I'll go into school to consider term 2, which begins Monday. It's a bit disorienting to be back, with such a change in climate, people, and activity, but I'm excited to see what God has planned.

The Lord is my strength;

He will make my feet

like deer's feet,

and He will make me walk

on my high hills.

Habukkuk 3:19