Advertisement
Published: December 1st 2006
Decorating
getting classrooms ready for the new quarter... Julie & Carolyn Minga at ArushaIt's an exciting time of year here in Arusha. It's so hard to believe that it's already December 1st and we're begining a new Quarter at the church in Arusha for all the different classes. Carolyn Minja, Emily & I used some of the materials sent over on the container from Northport, to re-decorate the childrens classrooms and begin preparing for the month of December! We had a great time Wednesday afternoon working on trying to get things to stick to these concrete walls here in the downpour of 3 days rain... a difficult task, but double sided tape and good ol' masking tape seemed to do the trick for now (we'll see how much is still up on the walls come Sunday morning). I am going to be teaching the middle aged children's class and Carolyn will be teaching the same class on Wednesday night. We also had one major bulletin board in the back of the building to change as well.
Like I said, its been raining pretty steadily here all week. The kids are coming to the end of their 1st semester of the school year, and Grandma Cindy is due to arrive tomorrow night at the
Kilimanjaro airport. So they are all excited! Life runs at a pretty steady pace here. John Hall returned home Tusday night and we are glad to have him back home here in TZ. We went to help unload the Brown's container Thursday night as it arrived before they even got into their home... So we had to go unload it all at the School building. The muddy roads to Cy & Stephanies house made for an uninviting option to use their garage. But we know they are just as excited as to have their things here and on the ground as we were. We are all excited about Shasta's Sew Be it project and all the material and craft supplies that we're getting ready to put to work. December 9th will be our first ladies sewing class in Arusha. Emily & I both hope to learn to quilt together.
Cy & Stephanie will be leaving for the states early next week and we will be here for our very first holiday season in Tanzania. We did manage to find a tree for the kids to decorate and hang their ornaments on. Brent went on a hike out back behind
the house with a shovel and a mission and he, being the sweet daddy that he is, came back with an adorable tree, and we're calling it our "Charlie Brown Tree" Its flimsy and leaning on the wall to stand up, but the kids love it and thats all that matters. It's so wonderful to begin making new holiday traditions for our family as we are serving here in the mission field. As a part of one of our first new traditions, we let the kids pick out 50 beanie babies that we brought with us and put together a care packet of crayons, markers, construction paper and glue and made a trip down the road today to the Camp Moses Children's Home. We let the kids go and hand out toys to each one of the resident children there and surprize the teachers with some much needed new supplies. As a result we were invited to come back and teach Bible stories to the children whenever we wanted to, and as often as we could. It was an amazing day! We saw from the eyes of our own children how very much they were blessed by giving of themselves
and learning to serve others and realizing that it is certainly more blessed to give than to receive.
James 1:22 - "But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves."
As we begin this busy season, let us all keep in perspective the importance of sharing God's love in everything we do and in every opportunity. We are a walking example to all those around us. In the hustling bustling Christmas shopping lines, let me challenge you in this way, let your thoughts drift to a little child in Tanzania, who just received for the first time in his little life, a toy to call his very own... and keep into perspective, how very blessed we are and how blessed our children are, just to have been born into the circumstances that we live in. Find joy in the simple things. Teach your children to give out of love. Try starting a few new traditions of your own...
In our family, we're going to write a note each day of the month to each one of our children to tell them how much we love them and place it in a box wrapped up under the tree.... The greatest gift of all, is after all, the gift of love!
We hope you all have a wonderful week in the Lord, and are enjoying the fellowship of family and friends in the upcoming weeks ahead!
May God Bless you in all that you are doing!
In His service, Julie Richardson
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God,” (Rom. 12:1,2)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.066s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 12; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0229s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Shasta
non-member comment
Ironic timing
Girl !! We must have pushed the save and publish button within minutes of each other on this blog ... I got your message within mins of gettting my notification!! Cute tree by the way .. I might need to borrow the shovel!!