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Published: March 30th 2008
My Babies
everyone's growing like weeds! Well, After a long busy month, we decided to slow things up a bit and focus on our kids and the family. Getting the house back in order, having a “down” week so to speak, we had planned on taking the kids away to go camping, again which we seem to do about once every 3 or 4 months or so, but it’s the kids favorite get away! Camping was the plan… Flat tires seemed to be the set back… So, We’ve had to delay getting away until the first of the month, to be able to cover the unexpected side of life here in Africa! And this is something, and that you get used to, the unexpected. So we've been settled in quite a bit by the rains and that is giving the kids a chance to get caught up on their school work and myself on getting those lumming unpacked boxes undone and things put away in their propper places. The garage is finally a classroom as I had first intended rather than a storage room for all the "I dont know where to put that boxes" Being stuck inside we didnt take many pictures this week except
for the one pretty day where I took the kids out and took their school pictures for the grandparents and family to all see how they have grown. And we spent the afternoon taking Callie's Senior Pictures as well. With the rains come the power outages and the mosquitoes and once again the Nairobi Flies. ~ Muddy roads and washed out areas, and flooded fields of water so life in Africa begins to take on a new life of its own as the seasons change.
Somewhere in the middle of the swarm of things going wrong over the last couple weeks someone asked me why I hadn’t just broken down and cried yet, thrown my hands in the air and screamed. And I just don’t know. Sometimes that is just what you want to do. Hide in your bedroom safely tucked away from the world and pull the covers up over your head, then there are times you want to scream from the mountain tops, and it doesn’t matter who hears, how loud you get or what comes out, its just the release of that built up stress that you long for to shake off the old dust on
your feet and press onward in facing the tasks ahead and at hand. Life in the Mission field is anything but a bed of roses, and I think sometimes we do a great injustice to ourselves in painting that picture for everyone around us, in the reporting of all the good that is accomplished, we skim over the everyday stresses of living life in a third world country astranged from the customs of our homeland and the comfort of those who know us and love us unconditionally back home. We don’t share the trials and tough days as much as we do the glorious good and amazing ones. Nothing seems to be easy here, besides the openness to hearing the scriptures. I can get someone to stop what they are doing anywhere in town to study the bible with me, no matter where we are how much its raining or where they were headed before I stopped them. But what I cant seem to do is pay a water bill or electric bill or any small daily or weekly task you can think of without having to conquer some monumental problem in the process. No office visit is ever simple
Teaching from the Swahili Bible
Bible Class at Boma Ngombe this week or fast. The girls and I took one day to run errands and pay bills and we ended up walking up and down 6 flights of stairs several times that day to try to catch a lady at her desk. We found that on Good Friday everyone gets a 4 hour lunch break rather than the normal 2 hour one we’re used to here in town. Normal seemingly simple tasks are usually faced with great stress and the quote somewhere in the neighborhood of “You’ve got to be kidding me!“ Rings a bell.
I got the sweetest email today that made me smile all over with the simple statement of “you are living the life of a lifetime” and it takes little moments like those of checking yourself and your place in life, to realize sometimes the amazement of the fact that you and your family are actually living life in AFRICA! However awkward at times she may be, at the same time she is endearing and enticing to the heart. Living in Africa, raising our children in Tanzania, you wake up and wonder at times how did we ever end up here? You catch yourself at times saying,
"Can you believe we LIVE in Africa?" ~ Don’t get me wrong, we love this amazing and beautiful country more than words could ever describe. The people here are more receptive to hearing God’s word than anywhere I have ever seen before. This is an amazing mission field of open ended opportunities..There's more work to be done than labourer to do it! There are still unreached areas to take the Gospel to a lost a dying world. There is still the drive to Go and to Teach, to Send out the word and the good news! We find new and exciting Bible studies each and every day. We continue to be amazed at God’s hand in everything going on around us with the new church plant in Marangu Mwika and all of the growing congregations of the Lord’s church and His people. Sunday morning we were headed out to Kingore where we had not been in a while to check on the church in this area, and the rains were so bad that there was no way after our arriving that we could have made it through the muddy roads. So we backtracked a little down the road to check
on the church at Boma Ngombe. Currently they are renting a small building in town with 14 meeting there this week, 21 if you count our family of 7 (with Callie & Kelly here) and Brent was asked to teach Bible Class and preach upon arrival. With no translator he again preached and taught in Swahili, which I adore hearing him tackle with amazing clarity and a great understnading that I just wish I had, he went back and forth to teach us in English as well. The children and I all followed along in the text and the local brethren were so thrilled to hear the word being spoken in their own toungue from a visiting preacher! I think that is why they always ask Brent to preach when we arrive unexpectedly. But he is always prepared in advance. Then we traveled back up the mountain to Marangu Mwika for their evening worship service there. With is being easter weekend we lost several to their former dominational ceremonies going on and were a little discouraged but we know that with new growth comes the growing pains as well and then returned again for Midweek Bible Class in Mwika on
wednesday evening to try to encourage them further only to be rained out, so we had Bible Class in the rain and in the truck. The whole family played Bible quiz games waiting for people to arrive. I hadn’t had that much fun in a long time. We would race to see who could find the Book chapter and verse for whatever scripture someone threw out there. I was really amazed at how great the kids were at the drill as well. Callie chimed right in there with the competitive Richardson spirit in racing Brent and Kelly and myself to locating the text. We played for a long time, waiting on the rains to die down but they just never came to a stop and meeting outdoors under the trees without a building we just didn’t have anyone to show up, but it was one of the funnest afternoons as a family that we had in a long time. Laughing sharing, reading the Bible together all up on the mountain tops in the down pouring Tanzanian rains. How do you truly capture that moment in words, I just don’t know that I can. But I do know, that I will
treasure the memory for a lifetime!
So you can take a bad day here and turn it around for the good, but it’s the mind boggling stress of your daily routine and life in general is more the topic at hand. The frustrations of living in a backwards society from your own. A difference in priorities, procedures and the simple truth that if you can get just one thing accomplished in an entire day here, its to be considered a Great day in Africa! For all Missionaries, Teachers, Doctors, NGO facility workers it seems to be the same situation, all facing the same issues. We run into American families all over Moshi, and in meeting them you find out why they are here, what they are involved in, where they work, what they do, children or no children, their various backgrounds of faith and beliefs, and just as in America, you meet some amazing people and some strange folks all at the same time all across the city. Governmental issues and troubles seem to be faced by all, who trod this course. Then there’s the craziest stories you can imagine of just a lack of common sense in the
Callie's Senior Pictures
We took over 200 pictures for Sweet little Callie this week to have her Senior Pictures taken in AFRICA! It was a lot of fun! reminded me of my photography studio in OK strange things you see and hear. You can sit and talk to someone for hours sharing funny stories and encounters of dealing with life in Africa. People are always saying, man yall should write a book about this stuff… Its entertaining when its not happening to you at the present time, and funny to recount these things over the years, but in the midst of the adversities, they aren’t always so comical. That is unless you’ve reached a point of delirium and everything thing is going so wrong that day, that it just gets to you and it all seems funny, no matter what happens next, and you laugh uncontrollably.
The other night as the rains came pouring down again... (its raining daily here now in case I failed to mention that) We were in the house and at the computer I heard an awful buzzing noise in the hallway, then came the shreeking screams of the girls as they turned into the hallway as well to see what the noise was... Then came Kelly and garrett rushing in to save the day, yeilding towels and tennis rackets we all swung away trying to knock down the masses of
insects flying through the house. It was a huge swarm of flying sausage bugs, so dense that kelly and I had a hard time seeing each other from one end of the hall way to the other. I ran for the camera hoping to record a video of the craziness and the girls ran for the door to get out only to find that the whole house had been overtaken and the swarm outside was ten times worse than it was inside. So they began frantically closing all the windows and doors. Well I got a sideways recording that didnt capture much, but I did get a good aftermath picture of the death toll in the tub... we just had a carpet of dead insects it was Horid! So we let the dogs in to begin eating them up. They actaully love them... as do the Tanzanians... they like to cook them in the frying pan here. I wasnt quite that thrilled of the flying food hurricane myself... But afterwards we laughed hysterically at each others reactions to the chaos while we cleaned up the house. It was something you would have had a hard time believing if you hadnt
seen it with your own eyes.
And then Today for instance, the rainy season has begun, we are traveling to Arusha to of course purchase a new tire, patch the old one and be road ready once again for whatever may come our way. But while we were in town we decided to take the kids to lunch and as we sat down to order, soaking wet head to toe we read through the menu at one of our local eating establishments and began to try our best to wave down a waiter. Being patient as possible, about 30 minutes later we finally had a young man to grace us with his presence. So we began gathering up the children’s orders and placing them at the head of the table… First up, ok I’ll have the pork. No no he said with a head shake, sorry we do not have. OK, so then lets see…How about the chicken, he turns to the counter to ask, and Oh no no we do not have. Well, mmmm I guess I’ll have the pasta. Oh no no, another head shake we do not have. OK Callie is across from me laughing..(at
this point it was beginning not to be funny to me) ok let me think on it for a minute and Garrett you go ahead and order. I’ll have the Pizza he said. And then I looked up with the doubt but nieve hopefullness… to get the go or no go.. And then came the head shake once again, No, no we do not have… and I think at that point Callie laughed out loud. Brent just stood up and began to leave the table and we all laughing followed him out one by one.. As they didn’t have anything available on the menu besides Samosas I found out as we were leaving and the waiter asked why would we go, and I told him there was nothing here to eat, surprisingly asked again, “why do you leave? We do have Samosas.” I shake my head and continue to follow the kids out the door as they follw their dad to the truck. No one complains or fusses, we actually all find it somewhat humorous. ~ So… we went a few shops over to get the kids a scoop of ice-cream instead to tide them over and them went over
to the grocery store to buy some groceries to take home to cook… because that would be so much quicker! (even with the hours drive home) Well we got the tire fixed, our one thing accomplished so, It was still a good day in AFRICA!
What we face here on a normal basis, is not a rough life, they are not a trials and tribulations that can not be overcome.. it’s the little annoyances of the small things that just build up and seem to roll in one after the next at the most inconvenient of times. Crashing down on you like waves that you cant seem to catch your breath from. The Samfords are having more troubles than any of us this week, and in light of their struggles our little things seem not ever noteworthy, they are facing having to uproot their family and 2 small children to leave the country due to paperwork problems with getting their work permits signed here in Tanzania and their visas run up on Monday. So they are being forced to leave Tanzania and the last I heard traveling over into Kenya for the time being until the details can all
get worked out here with the Tanzanian Government. I know this is stressful on them beyond anything we could imagine, a new family with young children facing the unknown and loading up for an indefinite amount of time to travel to and unknown area. ( I would so much rather this be happening to us or tow someone who had been here longer) This is the major stuff. Keep them in your prayers this next week, and pray for a speedy process with the paperwork being taken care of on their behalf. The Hochdorf family will be facing the same issues in the weeks ahead with them being in the same boat and they have just a few weeks longer on their Visa stamps in country. The Smelser family is another one also having some troubles and frustrations getting their vehicle ordered, then getting their paperwork for their medical work and liscenses and the awfulest time trying to find a place to live. Nothing seems to be going right this month for these families and I know they are all struggling with these issues at hand. These are the things that need your attention and your prayers! On top of
the major problems being faced there are the TIA factors (This is Africa) that I mentioned above and combine those little things with facing a major problem, they can sometimes seem to get the best of you. Those waves that knock you off your feet and steal away your foothold. Please keep these sweet families in your prayers as they are facing these times of trials and stress.
I told Bonnie one day, that I had only thought we had a bad week with the pipes busting the 2 dogs getting run over and the series of 3 flat tires in a row, getting stuck in the mud and then Brent hanging over the ravine and even with all the cold showers this month, we really hadn’t suffered at all when we heard the news of what they were facing. Life is a perspective of events and how you handle each of those will determine how God can use them and bless your life and strengthen us through them. I will continue to pray for propper perspective on life as well.
It’s not all sunshine and roses over here right now. There are some serious issues at hand
The Attack of the Sausage Bugs...
the dead bugs in the tub after the swarm left the house and we are in need of your constant prayers and loving support from home. Thank you to all who have written and continued to send word of encouragement our way! You often times are the reminder that we need on a rough day, of why we are here and of all the good that is being accomplished.
I began this article on getting back to our families, and veared more into what's on all of our minds here in counrety at the moment so, I hope that this realistic side of missions doesn’t discourage you but opens your eyes as how you can be an encouragement in just a simple note and how we can be there for each other through it all and let that weigh on our hearts when we feel those frustrations that life throws our way so we can all come up for a fresh breath of air and establish another firm foothold!
Hope and Pray that God Blesses you and Uses you
In His Service!
Julie Richardson
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