Life is but a dream

I remember I woke up in a cold sweat with the sheets wrapped around my legs - it had happened again - my nightmare. And today my worst recurring nightmare became a reality.

Let me explain.

I went to primary school (grade school) on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands. My school was called St. Georges Preparatory School, and it had a certain Dickensian feel to it. It was housed in an old mansion and was privately owned by the family who ran it. Mr Job was the head master and we boys (only boys in St. Georges) considered that his mother, Mrs Job, was St George's dragon. We were all terrified of her!

This school had a strange custom concerning shoes - we had to have 3 pairs. Out-door shoes (Black leather lace ups), in-door shoes (black leather slip ons) and white plimsols (canvas sport shoes).

One of the strictest rules in St. Georges had to do with NOT wear your out-door shoe in-doors. In fact it was so strictly policed that if you broke this role you were dealt with by none other that Mrs Job herself, a.k.a. The Dragon!

All this would have been alright and even little boys with their heads in the clouds (and everywhere else except their school work) could manage, but for one little thing.  You see y, we had lockers where the shoes you weren't wearing were kept. All you had to remember when you arrived at school was to change your lace ups for your slip on (not to hard, you just did what every else did). At play time you changed into your lace up, again following the crowd - you see, even us boys could do that.

No, that was not the problem. The problem was that every weekend you had to take all your shoes home for cleaning - EVERY WEEK END!  Of course that meant you had to remember 2 very important things. 1. to clean them and 2. to bring them back to school on Monday!

No we come back to the recurring nightmare.

I can still see it as clear as day. There I am at my locker reaching for my indoor shoes and... you guessed it. They were not there. I had done the unthinkable. I had left them at home. Now I was going to face the wrath of The Dragon!!! This would be enough to severely age any little boy, but it gets worse.  In my dream, the dream that recurred again and again. While I am am dealing with the shock of forgetting my indoor shoes I then look down, expecting to see my out door shoes on my feet, but no! They are not there!Oh no, the shock!! I am wearing MY SLIPPERS!!!

It is at this point I always woke up sweating and breathing as if I had just finished the cross country race (cross country races are another horror story that will have to wait).

This dream terrified me for all of my time at St. Georges. And today the dream became reality.

You see, we are packing up to leave Tanzania. The last 3 weeks here we are going to spend at a guest house and this weekend we are moving out of our house.  This morning when I was getting ready for church I realised... I had done the unthinkable. Did not have my shoes. The only thing I had to wear were the striped boat shoes I used as slippers.

So I had to go to church this morning IN MY SLIPPERS!

Fortunately, a lot of years had gone by and it really was not as bad as the nightmare. In fact it was kind of funny.

But then again, I didn't have to face Mrs Job.

Quick fix - tyre repairs!

One of the constant things we have to deal with here in Tanzania is bad roads and damage to tyres (sorry, tires for my U.S. readers). There simply is no maintenance at all done on the roads and they become a dumping ground for all sorts of things. On top of that people cart loads of scrap metal in hand carts that are not covered and things often fall off. I while back I put a four inch tear in the side wall of one tyre that could not be repaired.

While I could do nothing with that tyre, there have been many punctures that I have fixed and I am getting pretty good at it.

Tomorrow I am heading out to Singida for a couple of days and as I was checking the truck I noticed that one front tyre was down some. Time for some repairs!

Fortunately this puncture was in a nice position and was easy to find.  It was just a case of digging out the offending object (in this case a screw) with a pair of needle nose pliers.

Then you have to ream the the hole with a special tool so it is ready for the plug.

Putting the plug in is the next part. This is the hardest because it is obviously a tight fit. The plug has this "goo" on it to make it stick.

All that's then left to do is cut off the excess of the plug and check for leaks.

Then inflate the tyre to the required pressure and you are good to go - until next time!

Home at last

Well, we finally made it home safe and sound!

It was a wonderful trip that we had - great company with Anne coming with me! And the work in Mbeya went very well. We had a great Gospel Meeting and then the three baptisms on Sunday were encouraging.

Thank you all for you kind comments and your prayers - they have really helped!

Anne and I are rather tired, driving here in Tanzania is tough, there are so many potential dangers on the road, it takes a lot of concentration.

It sure is nice to be home!

On the Road Home

We got into the very nice Tan-Swiss Lodge in Mikumi about an hour ago. Anne was brilliant! She insisted that the first thing we do is have a "cuppa!" There is nothing more refreshing after a hard day that a nice cup of tea (that's if you're Australian, of course). We are now sitting on the verandah of our room as the sun goes down. The geese are out and having a lovely time - who needs guard dogs!

We started off from Mbeya this morning after breakfast. Just about everywhere here is "bed and breakfast" and the breakfasts are ALWAYS the same: tea, eggs and bread. The Karibuni Centre toasts the bread, but that is unusual. They always serve it with BlueBand® and Jam (Jelly). BlueBand® is a sort of margarine, but one that does not need refrigeration! Who knows WHAT they put in it. I never have Marge, or Butter so that's OK. You always get a choice of eggs, but if you want anything other than omelette, you take have to trust your luck. Karibuni Centre is much better than the normal places where I stop at when I am working. They did a great job with the eggs and their Spanish omelette was very nice.

We left around 7.30am and had a good trip. The weather was beautiful - the sun was out all the way and the scenery was breath taking. We made it down from the Southern Highlands via a very steep pass. It is a narrow two lane road - quite dangerous in places. But we made it just fine.

There are no places like MacDonalds to stop for lunch, but we found a little cafe attached to a service station. We were going in just for a cold Coke, but saw they had some food too, so we got a Chapati  each and I go a Mandazi (like a doughnut). They were heated up in a microwave and quite tasty!

Just before we got to Mikumi we were stopped by a police officer and told to pull over. I thought this was a standard licence check, but he did not come over to the truck. In stead he had stopped us due to a truck accident.  An Army Semi-trailer  had crashed and they were using a huge crane to get it back on the road. Anne and I lost count today of the number of truck accident we saw today (another reason never to drive after dark!). These drivers are crazy.

Anyway after nine hours of driving we made it into a really nice lodge - we feel we deserve it. Tomorrow we are planning on driving six hours. Another six hours on the road the next day should get us home to Arusha, Lord willing.

Worship at Mbeya

We have had a wonderful last two days.

Yesterday afternoon Samuel Mwakasungula had organised “follow up” studies. We had 5 studies in the area close to the church building and studied with 11 people. Some of them had been studied with before, but for 5 this was the first time they had been studied with. Of course, after each study we asked them all to join us the next day for Lord’s day worship.

The worship in Mbeya town was very nice indeed. The singing was terrific. The harmonies that the brethren here use was just beautiful. While most of the songs were brand new to Anne and myself we enjoyed just listening to the praises to God.

I taught on the Conversion of Saul. Three of the people we had studied with were present and my lesson had a very good reception.  All things in the worship service was orderly and scriptural. After services were over, they have a habit of leaving the building all singing a song. As each person files out they form a line and as you go down the line to join the end you shake hands with everyone – it is really nice.

After the morning service we went to the Children’s prison. The brethren here go each week to encourage these children and I was very pleased to be asked along (I have been two time before on my previous visit.) When we arrived they were all outside playing a game organised for them and soon they had finished that and orderly moved into the classroom.  When we went in, we were welcomed in the most respectful manner – it was clear that they really like this visit. We sang some songs – one of the boys lead a couple of them, and then they had me teach. I taught on “The Day the Church was Built”. I had them answer questions and they showed really good concentration. When I had finished I asked them if they had any questions. The only question they had was, “Could you pray for us, so that God could take us out of this place”. I tell you it nearly broke my heart. We prayed there and then.

The brethren meet for evening services here at 4.00 pm and we had another good service. I preached on “Speaking in Tongues” The Pentecostal church is very big here. The three visitors from the morning service were in attendance too and afterwards they let it be know that they wanted to be baptised.

We all got into the truck and headed down to the river and Samuel Mwakasungual baptised them. It was such a wonderful end to a wonderful day!

Mbeya - Video blog

Mirrors and "The Body"

I wrote about how I had a motor bike hit the truck yesterday and the driver’s side mirror was broken. While driving to the study yesterday I realised how much I use my mirrors. Without it there it seemed like a black hole on my right and I felt decidedly unsafe. As a result I gave myself the task of getting the mirror fixed today.

I had some wonderful help by one of the workers here at the Karibuni Centre, Joel. He took me to several places, all of which were not able to help. We eventually found a second hand mirror with the all the fixtures. The price they were asking was ridiculous - especially when all I wanted was the mirror, everything else was fine.  We ended up going to a glass place and having a mirror cut and glued into place. Maybe not the best practice, but hey... it works. Driving this afternoon was much nicer!

We headed out to our study again this afternoon. It is the end of the rainy season here and both days we had a lot of rain as we drove. We go over some steep sections of roads, so CAREFUL is the way!

It was another excellent study today. The crowd was much bigger - a lot of children with many sitting on the floor. I taught on The Body what what we can learn about the church through studying the body. I also looked at the Lord's Supper and how we partake of one bread because we are one body.  I was very pleased with the response of the brethren.

Tomorrow we go back again for another study. I am really looking forward to it.

The great crowd we had yesterday

Outside the building

Hitting the road and Motor Bikes

Well, I have not kept up like I had planned, but I am back on the job now.

Let me catch you up with the rest of the trip to Mbeya.

We left Mikumi in good time and immediately started to climb. The region we were driving through is called the Southern Highlands and the scenery is outstanding. It was hard to appreciate though as the road was quite rough - the tar dug out into rivets by the large trucks heading to Zambia. Also the truck drivers are MAD. We lost count of the number of truck wreaks we saw that day - most of them VERY bad. I think there are a lot of fatalities on that section of road.

We went though a section called the Valley of Baobabs. There are literally thousands of these majestic trees - probably hundreds of thousands. The valley is very steep with a raging river at the bottom, but the sides of the valley look very dry - thus these baobabs.

We also went up a very steep section as the road climbs the western side of the Great Rift Valley. Once again the scenery was fantastic, and the trucks driving was atrocious!

We made it into Mbeya about 5 o'clock and were able to get booked into the Karibuni Centre (Karibuni means "Welcome" in Swahili). Both of us were exhausted, but thanked the Lord for the safe journey.

Yesterday morning I had to go the the ATM and the supermarket and as I was just turning off the highway to the Karibuni Centre and piki-piki crashed into the side of the truck. Even though I had stopped, had my indicator on, this man still did not see me. I think he was going very fast. After he hit me he skidded off the other side of the road into the ditch, as I rushed up to him, I was thankful that he seemed not too badly hurt. It turned out to be just bruises and cuts - he was VERY lucky! The truck gained another battle scar on the driver's door and we lost the driver's mirror. Small things when you think about the alternative.

Yesterday - Wednesday, was the first day of our gospel meeting out of town. Brother Samuel Mwakasungula and brother Felix came to the Centre to head off to the village at about 2 pm, so I was able to have a relaxing morning.  It took nearly 2 hours to drive there, about half the way on the highway to Zambia, the rest of the way on dirt roads.

The brethren were waiting for us when we arrived and after 2 songs we went straight into the meeting. I taught on the identifying marks of the Lord's church, focusing on entrance into the church and worship. All the brethren were very attentive to the teaching and told me they were looking forward to me coming back. The plan is to go back today and Friday. This is a little congregation that has recently come out of digression - it is in Felix's home village. He told me that most of the members are related to him!

Mikumi

As I promised you yesterday, I plan to keep up to date with my blog on this trip.

We did not have a very good night last night. We thought we had hit the jackpot with our hotel but alas, this is Tanzania. The room had a really nifty mosquito net that went up and down on a string (a bit like a holland blind). It also had a bar fridge AND and air conditioner.

The problems started when we turned out the light. The hall light shone right through the gap under the curtain over the window above the door. Nothing we could do would stop that light. But hey! We could live with that. Next, in the middle of the night a bearing in the air-con went out - sounded like it was killing it self. Then it got REALLY hot! So not a lot of sleep.

The alarm went off at 7.00 am - just when it had got cooler and Anne and I found we could not move. So... we left at 9, rather that the 8 o'clock start we had planned.

The drive went well, but I was really glad that Anne was with me 'cause I was getting really tired, so her driving some was a big help.

We drove through Morogoro, where we stayed on previous trips and were making for Iringa.

The road took us though Mikumi National Park and there were several signs along the way telling us it was illegal to "game view" without paying park fees. (the park head quarters where you pay is in the middle of the park). So Anne and I tried our best to overt our eyes when there were animals around. Unfortunately we were not quick enough and saw some zebra, some gazelles and some monkeys - fortunately there were no park rangers around at the time!

We got through the park and stopped at the Tan-Swiss Lodge for a late lunch (about 3.00 pm) and by the time we were finished we both thought it might be a good idea to stop here rather than go onto a place we knew nothing about in Iringa.

So, we are staying here tonight. It will mean a longer day tomorrow, but we were both really tired out and are looking forward to a good night's sleep.

So, hopefully more tomorrow.

Keith

Heading off to Mbeya

I was supposed to be there by now, but last week when I was going to be leaving for Mbeya I suddenly came over with dizziness. Here in Tanzania they call that "kizunguzungu". Interestingly enough they call westerners in Swahili "Mzungus". I'll leave that for you to work out.

Anyway, Anne and I are now on the road to Mbeya. We left right after worship this morning and made it as far as Korogwe 350km (215 miles) and 6 hours of hard driving later. We are staying overnight in a motel in town and then plan to head off for another hard days drive tomorrow.

I plan to keep you up to date with this trip.

Keith


-- Post From My iPhone

On Safari with Glen and Reba

We took a day off our busy schedule and spent the day at Tarangire National Park.

It takes about 2 hours to drive there from Arusha and it is truly worth it. They say it has the largest concentration of elephants of anywhere  in Africa. Even though I have read of other Parks making this claim, Tarangire would not be far off.

Enjoy the photos.

A quick coffee break on the way

This was our "greeter"

This safari business can be tiring!

Two great people!

Tanangire Safari lodge - where we had lunch

Glen and Reba with Baobab

Keith and Anne

Looking down to the Tarangire River

Giraffe

Just some of the hundreds of elephants we saw

A young water buck

Warthog - they are very cute (from a distance)

This guy graduated with an A+ from Safari school!

My favourite antilope (and the smallest) - Dik Dik

One husband and one hundred wives

Elephant

Just after I got this shot - this guy told us to GO!

Makamira / Rivertrees

Today, Sunday, we had a great service at Makamira. Brother Noah Msuya had asked me to have Glen come and teach for them on his last Sunday here. So we went up the mountain again to worship with the wonderful brethren there.


It was a very nice service with everything in good order. The singing today was particularly good. Glen taught on Angels in the Gospel and did a wonderful job.

Glen teaching at Makamira

After services we went and had lunch at Rivertrees - a favourite of Anne and mine. We had a wonderful lunch and then had a walk amongst the trees.

Good friends

Keith and Glen

River trees

Two Beautiful Ladies - note the African made outfits!

The dinning room

Down by the river

Rivertrees

We had a wonderful day together - firstly worshipping our God, then enjoying His creation.

Highlights from Ephesians.

Yesterday we had a full day seminar (meeting) at Nkoaranga, which was the last of the meetings that had been organised for Glen Osburn on this trip.

The preacher there, Aminieli Mbise, had told Glen that he wanted Glen to preach on, "Ephesians, Ephesians, Ephesians". So that was what Glen did!

Glen and Mbise at work!

In his first session, Glen taught on Ephesians the 3rd Chapter and did a great job. The way it works here, we have a translator for all our teaching - as we cannot speak Swahili. Mbise did a wonderful job keeping up with Glen and the brethren were appreciative of his work.

After Glen had finished his first talk there followed a lively Q&A session, where the brothers asked Glen some great questions.

Glen preaching

For his second session, Glen preached on Ephesians Chapter four - dealing firstly with the 7 "ones". He ten moved on to the structure of the church starting with the apostles, prophets, then the evangelist, pastors and teaches. Again this was warmly received.

We then stopped for a short lunch break. The brethren supplied us with a bottle of soda and a bread roll. Previously they had the women cook for these meetings, but they found that the woman missed out on the teaching, so this is their solution - it works really well.

After lunch it was my turn and I taught on the Bible being the word of God, using Hebrews 1:1-2 as a basis. I was told to keep it short, so they received a "whistle stop" lesson.

It was a great day and the brethren there really showed their appreciation for our coming up the mountain. They are very good people and they LOVE Glen and Reba.

Tent Meeting

The Philips church of Christ in Arusha was happy to host a tent meeting with brother Glen Osburn

Reba and Anne at the Orphanage

While Glen and I were out doing home studies, Reba and Anne were visiting the orphans (James 1:27)

For more great photos, check out the orphanage's web page: http://www.cradleoflove.com/

House to House with Glen Osburn

Glen and Reba

We are blessed to have two of the most beloved and respected people we know with us at the moment - Glen and Reba Osburn. We have know them since 1988 - Anne was baptised by Glen and I would not have become an Evangelist without the encouragement of Glen and being able to sit at his feet and learn. Reba is a constant encouragement and a wonderful example of a faithful Christian - we love them to bits.

Since they came last Wednesday night (11.30 pm) we have been busy with studies and seminars, as well as taking a little time for ourselves.
We have visited brethren's homes and had some wonderful studies with small and large groups.

Glen taught at Nkoaranga church on Sunday and everyone was up lifted.

We have been to Arusha National Park and seen some wonderful sites.

Today we had our first seminar - this one at the Makamira church building. Glen taught on Ephesians His wonderful lessons were followed by some great questions by the men gathered.

On Friday we start a 3 day meeting here in Arusha town. We have hired a tent, so it's going to be a "Tent Meeting".  Come back here and see the updates.