The Blessing Of A Good Day!

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TANZANIA MISSION REPORT
Brent & Julie Richardson

PO Box 1727 Arusha, Tanzania East Africa
email: Brent - [e-mail] TZ phone:[phone]
email: Julie - [e-mail] TZphone:011 255 783 379 955
Sponsoring Congregation: Northport Church of Christ, PO Box 333 Northport, AL 35473

THE BLESSINGS OF A GOOD DAY!
1 Corinthians 16:18 "For they refreshed my spirit and yours: acknowledge ye therefore them that are such."

At first the title may sound a little bit rhetorical, but do we really know the blessings of the good days? In my case, I think that I may have forgotten to remember all of my blessings on good days and it took a few bad days to come around, reviving my spirit for that one good day again. As many of you know, mission work runs in cycles, just like life. There are summit highs, and there are also valley lows. We seem to have been in a valley for a few months now. It seemed that we were facing one problem after another, after another, after another. There are days in these lows were you are scared to even get out of the bed, wondering what bad thing is going to happen first. Its in these times, that I began to long and thirst for that refreshing good day to come again. Even if it was only one. This week, that day came...

On Tuesday we traveled just a few minutes north of Moshi to an orphan's home called Kili Kids. We met Margret for the first time just last week. Margret is a single 36 year old Tanzanian who has been very well educated, and speaks better English than I do. She has been directing this home for four years. She had in the past studied a few times with Christopher. Then after meeting Julie at a friends birthday party, she asked if they could start studying together again and she invited us to come teach the kids weekly Bible Classes and to study with the staff as well. Upon our first visit she was showing us around the compound, she took us by her lowly garden. A few of the teen agers in the home were trying their very best to get it to grow, but to not much avail.

So I traveled down to the local "co-op" as they are called in the south, and bought a few seeds and some fertilizer and a few tools and returned to help them get better prepared to grow some food for the kids. Tanzania is no exception to the rising cost of food felt worldwide. We also battle a very high rate of inflation too. So first, anything you can grow comes cheaper than it can be purchased, and secondly this will enable the orphans home to ensure its own food security in the future. The intent was to teach the "Garden Project Class" to a few of the teenagers in the home, and it turned into a community project where everyone around got involved. It is amazing to walk through a door of opportunity, to only have God open the door even wider.

In this class we focus on both spiritual and physical growth. God as the Creator, has ordered life, and in His Holy Precepts has also given us many examples of agricultural principles in them. Many of Jesus' parables were pertaining to agriculture. Dirt, water, growth, life and death, are so intertwined into everyones lives, whether you grew up with your hands in the dirt, or your feet on concrete, we understand them. There is also a saying that goes "They don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." I knew that we could have an impact on the orphans home, but little did I know what God had in store, nor do I think we have seen the full effect yet.

As we arrived, Julie and the children, along with Callie went inside to share a bible story with the kids, to do a craft, and a play a little. I began working with one older man, that is a kind of a care taker of the grounds, named Dale. We began clearing brush, trimming trees, and harvesting the very small "mchicha" that would have to be removed in order to build proper beds on which to plant. Mchicha is similar to a spinach, green, cut up very small and boiled, it is a main staple of the diet here. I then unloaded a tiller. Not uncommon to most who will read this report, but here in Tz, you would have thought I just brought out something as remarkable as penicillin, when it was discovered. I began working the ground, and then Dale wanted to give it a try. It only took a few minutes and we had a crowd. Baraka, a young Massai neighbor came forward, and he wanted to help, or at least try his hand at the tiller. (Baraka means “blessing” in Swahili) Then Frank came. Frank is Margaret’s brother, and he is the force behind trying to grow a garden here for the children and to raise the pigs and goats and chickens. Margaret said "That Frank is only ever clean for about 30 minutes before he finds something to do to get dirty again." Frank wanted his shot at taming this new fangled monster of a machine. Before it was all over we had over a dozen men taking turns running the tiller, as well as listening in. Which by the way, it is a front tined tiller, for those of you who have ever used these beast before, you know that on hard ground how much they can beat a man up. It was a blessing to have these men willing to "be beaten up" to run the machine. At the same time we were able to spread out a little fertilizer to help ensure this first crop. Normally, we teach organic gardening, as much as possible, through compost and natural fertilizer, you can get even better results. Going natural is the way God made it, so it should not surprise us when His ways work better than what we as men create. But due to the time frame of getting started, and getting a compost pile built, we were able to short cut a little to get a crop sooner, and then we will start on our composting and natural fertilizing skills as we are waiting on the harvest.

After breaking the ground we began to build raised beds, this gives us a bigger root zone, will protect the crops from washing away as bad. But it requires moving dirt, and moving dirt, and then moving more dirt. About this time the children came out of class, and decided that they wanted to help. Suddenly we had twenty more sets of hands, moving dirt, pulling weeds and throwing rocks. Some of them even wanted to try to run the tiller. Everyone was now involved, my family, friends, neighbors, even people that were just passing by. The children's laughter was contageous. To see these young children with there hands, and other things in the dirt, you could not help but smile and join in. I have often said, "That American children play in the dirt and turn black, and African children play in the dirt and turn white, and it is all the same dirt..." We serve an Amazing God. Most cases the above statement is true, save this dirt was wet and muddy as we are approaching the end of the rainy season. So by the end of the day we were all blackened to one degree or another.

Then before the day was over, the local government man, or community leader stopped by, after hearing of all the commotion in the area. His name is Charles. Charles said you are doing my job, and I did not even ask you too. Part of the governments plan this year to to clean up and utilize the environment better. He was so happy and excited to see someone assisting the children, as well as helping "his" environment. We have been invited by this government leader to assist him some more in the future. We have also been invited to his home were we can study more about the church of Christ, another open door for the Gospel!

We worked until dark, and then returned home sweaty and tired, but with a feeling that just cant be accurately described by words. Your hands hurt from the blisters, you back aches fromleaning over with the shovel, but your heart sings the sweetest song. We plan on returning in the next few days to finish building a few more beds. We hoped to get 5 done on the first day, but with so much extra help, that we ended up knocking out 11 of them. We plan on putting in 5 more, and then start planting. Lord willing, in three months we will have a harvest of the physical seed, and hopefully sooner, Lord willing, we will see a harvest of the spiritual seeds.

I thought it was appropriate to share with you those who refreshed my spirit this week.
I hope that they can refresh yours too.

With Love From Africa,
Brent & Family

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Photos

Teaching the Children
Proverbs 22:6
"Train up a child in the way he should go,Even when he is old he will not depart from it."

Working to Build up the Church!
Romans 10:15 "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

Busy little Hands!
Psalm 90:17
"confirm for us the work of our hands;Yes, confirm the work of our hands."

Margret excited about the Garden
Mama Margret runs the Orphanage here called Kili Kids with 25 children

Give her the Works of her hands!
Proverbs 31:31
"Give her the product of her hands,And let her works praise her in the gates."

Baraka, Learning how to manage the tiller
An Administrator from KCMC Hospital, who happened by watching on from the side

What ever your hands find to do....
Do with all your might! Ecclesiastes 9:10

We finished 11 beds in one afternoon
With the help of Dale here, and all of the other men and children who worked together in this Good Work!

Experiencing Tanzania
Callie is here working with us for several months, side by side involved with everything we do!

Little Upendo, Learning how to help in the Garden
She was out in the garden all day!

Working with their Hands!
Psalm 8:6
"You make him to rule over the works of Your hands;You have put all things under his feet"

kids of all ages from the littlest ones to the teenagers
along with the 9 Adults who work there and the entire neighborhood watching on.

Comments

[Jaime]

Callie
Callie when you get home you can help Daniel in his garden since you have learned to do that ha ha Love Jaime

[charlene harbin]

You and yours
Brent and Julie: I love getting the e-mails. I gave you my work address because I need uplifting here more often. Awesome, your lives have such meaning EVERY day!!!Charlene Northport church of Christ