Up, Up and Away!

You will go out in joy

    and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and hills

    will burst into song before you,

and all the trees of the field

    will clap their hands.

                                   Isaiah 55:12

After a lovely, full two months in the USA I have returned to Tanzania. The time in the states was full of blessings: friends, churches, family, travels (including a 40 mile circuit of Mt. Hood!), berries, sweatshirt weather, and more. My flight back was peaceful, a good time to reflect and brush up on Swahili. (I lost my computer bag once, but it was thankfully recovered!) Now I am in Dar, visiting my old students and housemates.... and hopefully the beach:) Tomorrow it's time to take a bus ride to Iringa, where I'll begin language study on Monday!

Around the World in Sixty Days

I've continued to enjoy a very full summer. It's been good to visit churches, including the house church I was connected with in Seattle, pictured here. It was lovely to see my Tanzania house-mates in the States. Two are pictured above with the Brooklyn Bridge, NYC. It's been sweet to spend time with family. My mom and brother Michael and I are pictured on our Olympic Peninsula trip. I'm thankful for the love and support I've received in these three mentioned groups, which are just glimpsed in the pictures. I'm thankful for the opportunity to travel; it's made my break seem longer.

God willing, I will go back to the other side of the world on September 2, after 2 months in the USA. I need to cement my financial status before I can leave, and look forward to more trips and visiting in the meantime... Along with a bit of rest!

He Leads Me Beside Streams of Still Waters

Goodness, I left Tanzania, went to Kenya, stopped in Istanbul, arrived in Portland/Camas/Vancouver, visited friends and family, drove to Sunnyside, hiked a couple small mountains, spoke at churches, and am now vacationing at the beach... Lovely, lovely places and people. Yet, at one point in particular all the busyness and different-than-what-I'm-used-to-ness built up to where it didn't feel fun anymore... Then I found myself beside the stream at my parents' house, laying in the moss, reading a very light book (cats who solve murder mysteries). It wasn't ultra-spiritual, but it was a deep refreshment, and I'm thankful He provided it for me.

Goodbye. Hello.

From a house of crazy lovely friends to a group of crazy lovely family and friends! I left Dar (last day of school pictured here), and am now in the Pacific NW (hike up Table Mtn. with family and bro's friends pictured here). I am blessed to have "family" in many cities and even countries. The body of Christ is a theme I wrote about on one of my first blog posts, and I my thankfulness is renewed, as people receive me here with open arms and support me... and as friendships from Tanzania continue.

Reaching Out

At HOPAC Service Learning is highly valued. For older grades, this means weekly class trips into the community and/or on campus service. Primary gears up by developing an understanding of needs and doing smaller service projects.
My class, grade three, gets to focus on disabilities. We visited a craft shop where the workers are people with disabilities. We had Disability Day, where each child was assigned a disability to pretend experience for the day. They have also watched movies and had many in class discussions.
Last Friday we got to go to a hospital in Dar where children with disabilities receive treatment for free. My kids got to tour the facilities. They saw people with cleft palates, missing limbs, bone and face deformities, and more... very eye opening for some. Then my kids got to do a craft with the kids at the hospital, and share a snack of juice and cookies.
My students enjoyed the smiles of the kids getting to color, and were impressed with the talents they saw. They felt sorry for the kids and enjoyed seeing how the hospital helps.
I hope and pray this experience stays in their minds as they grow, especially because these kids at HOPAC have the means, educational and otherwise, to become powerful agents in Tanzania and abroad.

Bible Translation News Clip

This news clip talks about the progress in Bible translation happening in recent years. It shows the work and people enjoying the Word. Even though it's about Wycliffe work in general, I noticed many parts are from Africa, and at least some from Tanzania, as I recognized two of the translation consultants!

Your Race

"...Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith...."

Hebrews 12:1-2

This is my student and me after our school's 5K fun run. I haven't run a lot, but took it up for the 5K. My student was funny, because he would walk the race until he saw me closing in on him. Then he would sprint enough to make sure I didn't catch up. 

For me, I was thinking about how I didn't have to compete with other people, but only focus on the race marked out for ME... My goal was to run the whole thing, and finish faster than last year. Other people passed me and pushed on for other goals. I was thinking of the metaphor between races and life, and that God doesn't give us all the same race, the same challenges to meet and good works to do. It's been a struggle here, in a community of missionaries, not to compare my life with others in a destructive way. 

I haven't completely figured it out, but I do know that the solution is looking to Jesus, and His work that supplies my righteousness and continues to work righteousness in me. It's not trying to find or make righteousness in myself, which is what I naturally tend to do.