People often ask, why is it that you love Mission work so much? And Why Africa? And I begin to think, OK... Do they really want to know? How much can they comprehend or process at one time? Where do I start? Am I going to overload them with what I'm about to say? It's not that I don't love America, Yes, we'll miss our families, but it's just....... Oh, the thoughts that begin to roll, the faces, the kids, the smiles, the willingness to study, the daily reward of feeling tired and worn out in His service, the satisfaction of [View Full Entry]

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As we travel along the road: A glimpse of life in the car with the kids... Garrett ~ "What state are we in now?" Gracie ~ "How far to the next bathroom?" Emily ~ "Where are we going tomorrow?" Kelly ~ "Zzzzzzzz" While we've been home we've been blessed to share our time with some amazing friends and family! We've traveled a little over 12,000 miles so far, back and forth along I-20, fundraising and reporting on the work done this last year and we're not done just yet! So far we've been in 8 different states across the south, but [View Full Entry]

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On the ROAD.... REPORTING ON THE WORK IN AFRICA & VISITING FAMILY!! We're about half way through our furlough trip home now and we've been all across the southern states from Texas to Alabama and back. Brent & Kelly both have been preaching and sharing with different congregations. Kelly has decided to begin raising support to return to the states and attend the East Tennessee school of Preaching in August of 2008. Brent is presenting the Mission Work in Tanzania with those who have supported us this past year and a few new contacts as well and preaching the good news [View Full Entry]

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We're all packed up and ready to go! The suitcases are all lined up in rows in the living room and this morning we are going to worship in Moshi to say farewell to the brethren there and then George will be driving us up to Arusha where we will visit with the congregation there this evening and stay the night with Cy & Stephanie before getting up Monday morning to catch the 7AM bus to the airport in Nairobi, Kenya. The adventure home begins... Safari Njema will be the phrase for the day... "Have a good Journey!" Timothy came by [View Full Entry]

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Sept. 20th 2006 to (today) Sept. 20th 2007 Our First full complete year in Tanzania “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works” Hebrews 10:24 As we have been gathering together our pictures, facts, and stories from reading through all our past reports we find ourselves a little in awe of what all has happened this past year. We are encouraged and given a new zeal and excitement for the work through the little reminders of all the good that has been accomplished in such a short amount of time. And to top it all [View Full Entry]

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What a change 4 months can make…. As I sat on the short little wooden couch in this dimly painted blue living room at the orphanage house in Machame, the memories came flooding in and thoughts of amazment overwhelmed me with how God steps in and uses our lives to accomplish His plans. I remembered back to the first time I had entered the room a little over four months ago to hold a Bible Study, in this home, where I didn’t know anyone upon arrival but was welcomed in by all who were around. We had the Northport group from [View Full Entry]

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I have been promising a couple of young friends of ours that I would send some animal pictures for them to see the "WILD SIDE" of Tanzania. And we haven't had time here in the last few months to actually go out and see them ourselves, but I remembered that during the campaigns it was so busy with all the visitors and news being reported that I didn't have the time to share pictures I took from our trip to Tarangire National Park and Ngoro Ngoro Crater. So I figured you wouldn't mind a few pictures from back in June, when [View Full Entry]

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The Short Rains have begun.. Last year it all started around the end of September, but it seems to be getting started a little eariler this year! We've been warning the Jensen's that Rain= POWER OUTAGES, and many of them. Welcome to AFRICA! We've had three days this week with significant power loss, and had to crank up the good ol' generator to keep things in the refrigerator from going bad. But its not bad during the day.. at night well you might as well just go to bed early and try again in the morning. The difficult part is [View Full Entry]

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Born August 21st, 2007 ~ Elineema Martin Most of you know and love Elly & Neema Martin just as we do, they are more like family than friends to all of us living and working in Tanzania. We've been waiting for a call for some time now, we were just out at their house Saturday and she had no idea when the baby would arrive or what she would name it. Neema went into labor early Tuesday morning and we after dealing with the hospital on our own for other reasons, made the drive down to Arusha to see their [View Full Entry]

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Brent has been working towards getting this project started for some time now, and after outlining the plans and getting the first class underway, he is more excited than ever to be "breaking ground" in such an amazing area of growth for the Lord's church here in East Africa. There's nothing new under the sun, but often times a more efficient way of getting it done and that is what he is hoping to accomplish through teaching this survival garden course. Brent taught the first class this last week, which consisted of 8 Tanzanian men, along with Emily, Garrett, Gracie, [View Full Entry]

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