It's been a great 1st Christmas in Tanzania! The stockings were hung by the chimney with care... and even the Coke-Cola Santa was surprisingly there.... (in the form of a bill-board downtown!) the children all snuggled and nustled in bed... with visions of McDonalds all dancing in their heads.... (haha..) We have had a very special holiday season here in Arusha this year. Our first Christmas ever in Africa! The kids are happy and healthy, doing great and it's so very amazing to hear my children speaking in Swahili to each other already. Just after 3 months of living here, they have already picked up so much of the language just by playing with their friends from church. Gracie loves to tell the dogs what to do in Swahili... so now we even have Swahili ... read more

We have been so blessed by the work and the rewards of seeing the Lord's church growing steadily here in Tanzania! Here it is the holiday season back home and here we are ending the short rains and welcoming in the heat of the african summer... We just dropped off my family at the airport here on Saturday for their return to Texas, after enjoying a good visit and an early Christmas. The kids enjoyed having their Papa Gary, Julie's dad, and grandma Cindy here with us for a short visit. While they were here they wanted to take the kids out to see the animals for their Christmas break from school. So we took them out to the Ngorongoro crater. we had heard that this was a great time to go, with the animal migration ... read more

It'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 ... read more

Sorry this entry was lost in the Travel Blog Crash.. But at least we can still enjoy the pictures ~Julie ... read more

All week long Brent and one of our visiting campaigners Fred Cabler have been holding a week long Seminar in Usa River, with great sucess! It's been wonderful to hear fred preach and revivie the church there. It was a much needed boost for this steadily growing congregation. Usa river is one of our older small churches out in between Arusha and Moshi. Established back in the 70's with Andrew and Claudine Connally here working in this area. Fariji Paul and his wife Gladness have been serving as the minister there for several years. This area is always bustling with children as you come to visit you get the car chasing herds hollaring "Wazungu, wazungu" because they don't see visitors as often as the ones in Arusha and Moshi. Emily and I decided when we heard ... read more