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Published: February 26th 2008
Our New Living Room
After a Fresh coat of paint and some decorating... The computer is re-connected & We are all moved into the new house.
It's been a week of adjustment and change, with adding the two teenagers to the house and making the move final. Kelly and Callie arrived here in Tanzania safe and sound on Wednesday and we put them straight to work, as they arrived during the final preparations before we made the BIG move! And I tell you what, It was a week long move! For those of you who move often, you will know how you long to just be DONE. To get in the house, however difficult it may be. If you can just get your things all in the new house, then you can start from there. Working one room over at a time.
As we were cleaning up the mess from the tile work in the kitchen and all the painting, Callie and I loaded up a truck load of trash to take down to the nearby dumpster, to get rid of the Paint smell... Buckets of paint, old rags, paintbrushes that dried int he sun, under the watchful eye of the local fundis, and just random trash that had
A Little Piece of Texas in Tanzania
Thank you to my sweet friend Elizabeth, who sent this wonderful Texas Star over with her daughter Callie... WE LOVE IT! (It goes great with my new red wall) accumulated. We experienced a stench beyond words and something that only callie and I will ever be able to look into each others eyes to the shocking sence of "Jamani" or "WOW" as we stepped out of the truck to toss in the trash from the back... You've never seen two girls unload a truck so fast... I told Callie that I bet she would take cleaning stalls back home in Texas anyday over doing that again.. But we left as quickly as we could and returned home, only to find just seconds later the dumpster was surrounded with Tanzanian women who had come from out of the woodworks to sift through the freshly discarded goods... I mean to tell you they climbed right in there and began pulling out, what we had just chunked and considered useless by all accounts, and I try to re-use everything.. These were things truely deserving of the name TRASH... It imediatly reminds you of where you are and the circumstances in which the people all around you are living. A Reality check so to speak!
There were a few snafus in the process, slower time table issues than what we had hoped
My new Black & White Counter Top
And they said, "It could not be done!" for, but we are finally here. Everyone pitched in and got it done! After all the trials and attempts we finally found someone able to do the counter tiles in the kitchen, after we ripped off the old one ourselves. And yes, it is Black and White! That was a personal success for Julie! ( Since I was told it WAS NOT POSSIBLE! haha) That was about the time that Callie arrived and she said, "Man we have a long way to go!" and Brent told her that it would all be done by the end of the week. (None of us were fully convinced that it would actually work out that way!) But Here we are Monday rolled around and we are in, but not quite settled. I of course had to decorate right away and get everything up and "make it home" as quickly as possible. But there are the plumbing kinks to still be worked through, everything is functional now, just not quite right, but "it's better" is the phrase we're using. We do have hot water in both bathrooms, and that was key in my book to a happy home. We successfully painted the whole house,
Dave & Randall visiting Boma Ngombe
Brent is taking them around to see the local Agriculture all the way from Moshi to Arusha and all the little areas in between with a fresh new coat of paint... cleaned everything up, fixed what we could and are now living in the "New House" Just in time....because,
Last night we had two visitors to arrive at the airport, Brent ran to pick them up and Callie, Emily, & I made dinner.
Dave Goolsby and Randall McCadams, from Healing Hands International, they are here doing an Agricultural Survey trip of Tanzania to see what the immediate needs are to the people of Tanzania. Brent could have stayed up talking to them all night talking about different ideas with their vast AG background. But He will take them and show them around this week while they are passing through.
Saturday we had a Ladies Seminar at Moshi, similar to what we held this time last year, with a focus on "How Can I Serve" Joy taught three wonderful lessons, and the Men of the congregations prepared yet another amazing Tanzanian meal for the ladies so that they could all enjoy the classes. We had a great turn out, with 54 ladies present for the class and over 12 men around the building helping in the cooking process. Anita Hochdorf drove a group
We had another great Ladies Seminar
Covering lessons on "How Can I Serve" down from the Arusha Congregation and Danny & Nancy Smelser drove several down from the Kibosho area, where they are currently staying in the Staffords home, while they are searching for a home of their own. Please keep them in your prayers as this process of adapting and adjusting can be a huge undertaking as things in Africa take more time often than we hope for. Nancy is one of my favorite people, in this sweet life, you find those who encourage and lift you up beyond anything you could ever imagine and she is one of those sweet blessings! But the Seminar went really well! We had ladies escorted in by Innocent from the MOnduli congregation, along with many others. We often forget to mention that they ladies travel a great distance to attend gatherings like these and have to leave behind their daily duties and chores which causes more work when they return back to their homes, "Their light goes not out at night"
Psalm 31 Women to be sure!
Sunday we returned to the Machame Congregation, to worship there Sunday morning and encourage them. They have been hurting since Emmanuel left with his wife. He was
one of the first converts in the area and had been preaching and teaching there some over the last year as the church has been growing in that area, but more importantly he was the main encourager and gatherer of the congregation there. But they have 2 strong faithful ladies and about 6-10 men, and one little sweet precious girl named Queeny who is about 4 years old, all who meet there, in the old Orphanage building that we initially started the church in. But the men are a little nervous about speaking and teaching, reading and praying out loud, being young in the faith they have much growing to do. But we traveled up the mountain, where they were gathered and had communion prepared, but just intended on reading from the Bible and singing and giving and taking of the Lord's supper, no one had prepared to teach a lesson, and there was no interpreter so Brent taught in total Swahili. I am always so impressed when he does that, and takes what he knows and uses it in their own tongue to teach the gospel to them. He went back and forth giving the kids and I the
I'm loving having Callie around to work side by side with
She will be living with us here in Moshi for almost four months, through the end of the campaigns English version and then returning to teach in Swahili to the church there.
But it's been a great week. We got the Internet hooked up on Monday and here we are starting out a new week living in faith and service, working for a mighty God, who works all things out according to His purpose and in His time.
Tuesday we were able to head back out to work once again. We recieved a Call from The British girls, who are here in Tanzania, working as volunteers and wanted to know if we knew of anything they could do, as they had plans to fall through on a Cultural tour today. So we invited them to join us on our trip to Boma Ngombe to the Nursery School. Callie & I prepared our Bible Lessons the night before. Its so nice having another girl around to work with and talk to. Callie ended up teaching the Standard One Class with their English and then taught the Bible Lesson to the Nursery School Children. With all the visitors there, I ran from room to room making sure everyone had the supplies they needed. Emily taught the English Medium Class,
Holly taught the Junior Class, and Antonia taught the Baby's Class.
After leaving the school, we went by to visit the home of Mary Massawe, a member of the church and the head teacher at the Nursery school. She had been in the hospital for over a week with a severe case of Maleria. Her sister joyce had been watching the 5 girls and taking care of them with the help of the neighbors. I asked Joyce what could we do to help, and she said that if we wanted to take the girls for the night that would give Mary a good night's rest her first night at home to recover. So we are having a little slumber party with Agape, Susanna, and Rachel Massawe... Susanna and Rachel are two of the orphans Mary takes care of and Agape is her youngest daughter. The older two she said were able to take care of themselves, and would actually be a hellp to her to have around.... So we are coloring, playing, using our swahili to communicate around the house... and learning even more why it is that we love this family so very much! Mary text messaged me
to check on the girls like any good mama would, and wanted to know if they were behaving, and of course they are having a ball. We'll take them home tomorrow after lunch. Gracie is enjoying having her friends here at the house. But keep mary in your prayers as she has lost quite a bit of weight and looks pretty poor, right now, so that she may recover quickly and return to her wonderful service of teaching the children.
We have a group of 13 arriving from Oklahoma next week on the 2nd of March. Matt Richardson, Brent's older brother along with our Niece, Nicole Richardson, along with a good sized group of mostly newcomers to Africa from the Sayre, OK area. Keep them in your prayers as well, for safe travels as they make their final preparations to head this way.
Hope you have a blessed week where ever you are!
Love In Christ,
Julie Richardson
With Love From Africa,
Brent and Julie and Family
011 255 783 087 090
www.tanzaniamissionreport.com
PO Box 1727
Arusha Tanzania, East Africa
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Shasta
non-member comment
LOVE THE RED!!!
Can't wait to see all the colors in person!! Now it's my turn!!!!!