Water Is Life

Someone asked me yesterday, “When was the last time you sent out a blog?” I had to think, but then realized it was almost a month ago. So, sorry guys!!! I have fallen down on my job of keeping you informed of what we have been doing.
Let me get to it and get some pictures on this thing for you so you can see us and have something to do today! HA! We wouldn’t want you to be bored.
Our biggest obstacle this month has still been the water situation. And I mean we have had water, no water, too much water! There is a monument in Moshi that has the inscription that “Water is Life”. This rainy season has truly shown us the best and the worst of what water can do.
First, as an update on our specific water situation here at the house, let me just say that I won’t EVER complain about any type of water issue in the states EVER again! A couple of weeks ago they got the pipes in the village fixed and we got water in our tanks. We were so excited. I am sure it was the same feeling for those first settlers when they were able to turn on a faucet INSIDE their house and see water running into the sink. I ran from sink to sink turning on the faucets just to make sure it was really coming out all of them.
Life seemed great; then barely two weeks later we were without water again! So, I leave word with a “guy”, who was supposed to tell the “guy”, to turn it on again. No problem he said. For three days there was no water. At this point I am really started to wonder - but I am patient. So, at 7:30 am, before Godson left to go do what it is that he does, I went to his house. This time he was there and when I asked him why he didn’t turn on the water, he told me he needed money first! Blackmail for water! I couldn’t believe my ears!! Give me money and THEN I will get you water! And he had already been paid! To top it all off …. That night was a bad rainstorm and the village pipes got clogged again! BUT - if he had done it the night I first asked we would have had water!
Now, the story gets better. We had been carrying water into the house in buckets - so I thought why can’t we just haul the water up to the tanks from the roof run off tank? Notice the height of that realllly sturdy ladder ….? After a while of me standing on the ladder pulling the water up, Anthony thought that the concrete ledge on the far side of the tank would support him and he could haul up more in the buckets than me. SO - he scaled the ladder, crossed to the wall, then climbed up on the ledge and I fed him buckets of water that he hauled up. The first night we did just enough to get by, measuring as we went just to see our progress. HOWEVER, the next day we were nearly out of water AGAIN! Now we are starting to think maybe we have a water thief - SO we filled again, measured and marked the water level on a stick before we went to bed, then in the morning measured again and look at the amount of water we lost!!! All that work and it drained right out over night! I made the call and the landlord said he was sending a TECHNICIAN …. I think that means a plumber! As of the time I am writing this he has dug up pipes, decided how to handle it and hopefully by tonight all will be well.
That is just our small water problem in our little house, the rains themselves have brought several different types of problems. The more rains, the better the crops, until there is so much water that you can’t get to your farms or the water washes the newly planted crops away. You can see that this much water takes everything in its path to whatever ditch it runs into. All the work that goes into planting by hand is lost and they either let it go and hope that some seeds held their ground, or they replant.
The rains affect worship services too. We continue to work with the Monduli congregation and find that even though they are having to walk miles to get to the building, we are still a good crowd. Many don’t make it, and they allow the children to stay home many days that the rains and mud are really bad. It is an eye opener to see just who is really willing to get out in it all. We drive right to the building and the only mud we really have to deal with is from the truck into the building. You can see from the shoes that they take it all in stride and keep on going.
Then of course you have the water issues when you are driving somewhere. As you can see in these pictures, a little calculation, a good rope, a helping hand, and you are soon on your way. There have been some places that we couldn’t get across or made the choice not to try, but this Saturday we were invited to go to the Lake Manyara Park with Sean and Anita Hochdorf and their family. The roads were flooded terribly, and in some places actually quite dangerous. But the rains didn’t deter the animals and you can see just how close we got to some of them. The hippos were particularly happy about all the water! You rarely see them OUT of the water. Notice all those bumps behind him …. Those are more hippos!
As for other things going on in our lives, Anthony continues to teach the Sunday morning Bible class at Monduli and also teaches each day of the week at the Andrew Connally School of Preaching. The classes usually end with some wild question, at least we think they are wild, but it shows signs that they are thinking and learning, and that is what we want.
On one of our dry days I had the opportunity to visit a Nursery school in Boma’ngombe with Julie and Callie. They have a period of time to study, play, pray and then a Bible lesson before they say their National Anthem and leave to go home. This particular Nursery School is run by Christians and hopefully a place where future members of the Church with come from.
Let me just say that there are so many opportunities here that sometimes we are torn as to which way to turn. We try to keep our focus on what is going to be the best thing to do to strengthen the Church here in Tanzania and to help them become congregations that will function on their own when we leave. We want to work ourselves out of our jobs and sometimes that can be difficult when we have to say ‘no’ to something that we know they can do for themselves. Like our children, we can’t continue to do everything for them or they would never grow up. Please continue to pray that we make the right decisions for the future of the Church. Quick fixes aren’t what we are looking for, we need to teach them, to teach others, so the only ‘water’ problem we have is the living waters which we find in Christ.

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