Today is our little Emily's 10th Birthday! And We asked her what she wanted more than anything else.... (stressing that we do live in Africa, and there are limitations to what can be found) But She said that she wanted to learn to sew on the sewing machine and for us to make her a quilt together! So how could I resist! A little nervous, having just learned myself with the "Sew-Be It" quilting class that Shasta Brown taught in Arusha, and seeing how I have never made one myself, I was just as excited about the idea as Emily was! I had always wanted to learn to quilt, but just never had anyone to teach me (A Huge Thank you to SHASTA, who has shared with us a love and a passion for quilting and ... read more

We traveled this last week down to the Tanga region and while we where there, we were able to walk around and take a historical tour of the Pangani coastal village. Settled just North of Dar es Salam along the Indian ocean off the eastern coast of Tanzania. The largest town near Pangani is called Tanga, which is about 47km away. We have a church that meets in Tanga, but we were unable to locate it while we were there but no church of Christ meeting in Pangani. In fact the locals said that there are no Europeans, Americans, and very few other nationalities of any kind living in Pangani proper... They said maybe one Indian family and that was all that they could think of. Since we have returned home we've located the phone number ... read more

It seems as if I am always taken in and struck back by the excitement of each new week living here in Africa. You just never know what's going to happen next and what lies in store for you just around the corner. God is doing wonderful things all around us that makes just being here a great blessing in and of itself. We went to the village of Karatu to begin the Lord's church in this area, and Sunday Jan. 21st 2007 Brent preached for the first ever, worship service that was held out in this little red dirt town. Anthony & Shasta Brown joined us and we all went with Bibles, communion cups and song books in hand.... It's a long trip from Arusha. We passed lots of animals on the way. Brent actually ... read more

It's already almost half way through the month of January.... 2007 and we've just completed the first seminar of the year up at Kioga...There were 2 baptisms and over 100 present for worship on Sunday morning in this small mountain side building which usually runs around 40-50. The church is growing daily here in Tanzania! This month Brent will be going to language school out in Usa River, starting Jan. 15th. He will be taking a 3 week intermediate course in Ki-Swahili.... improving on his language skills. Tonight during dinner, our dear friend, Moses called from up at Kioga and I sat and listened to my husband talk and have a compete conversation in a different language and I thought to myself, wow. How life has changed in the last 4 months since we have arrived ... read more

2007 is here and away we go! We're hanging the new calendar, seeing what we have in store for the month ahead of us. Seeing what needs to be accomplished... making those resolutions, to Do more than we did yesterday, but less than we will Do tomorrow..... or something to that effect! ~We can always do more and we can always try to be better than we were before... I guess the typical resolutions run true for everyone, to study more, to eat healthier, to be more positive about everything in general.... One day at a time. We can. One day at a time. We will. A long time ago, I heard a story about an African brother here, who once traveled to the states and in his memorable experience of American life and fast foods, ... read more