Buzz trip to Arusha

Things are going well here in Iringa and as you may have imagined there is a lot going on. Over the past week I have been taking what time I can to work with the people we are buying our vehicle from in between class, homework etc. We have also been keeping very busy with the language learning as well. We have continued to grow our ranks here at the language school as two single gals from various mission points have joined us along with three couples and one single guy from SIL, another gal from Australia and one from England, two couples with Soma Biblia who are all from Denmark, another three adults from Denmark and last but not least three couples from Church of Christ. With the influx of adults there have been a total of 10 kids 5yrs and under- which tends to keep everyone hopping and more than entertained. There is a pedal tractor here that I am sure if we had installed an odometer would have logged well over three hundred kilometers already. ☺ The language training itself is many things and brings with it a wide range of emotions. It is fun, hard, funny, challenging, brings a tear to the eye, humbling, hilarious, brings loads of comic relief, discouraging and lastly and most important, encouraging, Please continue to pray with us as we plow through all of these emotions and our homework while we strive for the goal of good communication through Kiswahili with our new friends and neighbors. This weekend has been a big weekend. First, our teammates  arrived in Arusha, Tanzania on the 8th of this month! All of their travel plans went well- all luggage arrived safely, etc. Secondly, Stephanie’s dad Burt, flew into Arusha and is spending some time there with work. 18 hours later (34 broken down semi trucks, and almost as many police stops (nearly half of which we had to stop and show our information to), we were able to drive up to assist where we could and to welcome our teammates to the country. It has been such a treat to see Burt as well. B (to whom didn’t tell who we were meeting was priceless), his reaction, “Is that Papa?! Where he came from?!” It didn’t hurt that Papa brought many special gifts and treats from America (thank you Grandma M and family, Care Team, Small Group, and others who heard Burt was coming). Please pray for our travels back from Arusha and all the details there. We took two days off of our studies, so please pray that we will be able to fit back into our classes without too much struggle. Between the driving here taking so much more concentration than we are used to and our two year old, we weren’t able to effectively study on the road. This has been our first trip in this vehicle and we have been discovering several issues that need to be addressed during the initial ‘shake down’ on the way up. Please pray that it performs well for our trip back and that any necessary adjustments we were not able to make in the 1 ½ days in Arusha will be able to wait until we get back to Iringa! Please continue to pray for: 1. The adjustment of our teammates in Arusha. 2. Special last moments with Burt before we leave. 3. The hearts of each person we come into contact with. We have had several really good conversations with Tanzanians in relation to questions that they have had. 4. Pray for open hearts with fertile soil and that we would be able to plant new or water existing seeds that have already been planted here in Iringa. 5. Please continue to pray for our work permit as it has been approved, however needs the finalization and printing of official documents with delivery to us in Iringa from Dar es Salaam. Mr. Motorcycle