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.

House to House with Glen Osburn

Gospel Meeting

Last Friday we had a wonderful meeting at the Nkoaranga church of Christ. The brethren there invited me to speak for them at an all day meeting. Of course I was very happy to do that and I arranged to speak for them on the topic of Spiritual Gifts.

There are a great number of Pentecostal churches in that area so the brethren were very interested to study on what the Bible teaches on this topic.

Harold was translating for the day

I started by teaching on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Most people here think that Spiritual Gifts are all there is about the Holy Spirit. I then went on to teach about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, speakingy in tongues and how spiritual gifts have passed.

After each of the four sessions we had a Q&A time. The brothers came up with some very good questions and through these questions I was able to deal with a numbers of issues I had not had time to deal with in the lessons.

Some of the brethren gathered

Half way through the day, after the second session, the sisters fed us a good lunch. Previously, at other times, they had cooked up a big lunch for these days. But this time they got some sodas for everyone and some bread buns for us to eat. These were totally sufficient and most importantly of all, it meant that the sisters were able to be in each session, rather then being away cooking.

We finished the day off in a wonderful way. After we had finished and the closing pray said, brother Mbise, the preacher there, asked a young man to stand up and speak. This young man, Bernard said he loved the Lord and wanted to be a Christian and wanted to be baptized, but later. One of the brothers asked him why later. The answer was so sweet. Bernard said that the preacher (me) was too tired. So it could be done later so I could get straight home. I assured him and everyone I was NOT too tired to assist a new soul into the kingdom. So we when right out to the truck to go down to the river. Once there Brother Mbise baptized him.

Mbise baptising brother Bernard

Bernard is in the stripes

What a wonderful way to finish the day.

Location:Nkoaranga Tanzania

What a Wonderful Day!

We had a great day today.

We have a regular study on leadership issues and this week we all meet at the church building at the village of Makamira.

The Makamira church building

It was a good study, we were studying on Worshipping in Song and there followed a good discussion with a number of questions coming from experience and enquires that the brothers had had regarding singing in worship and the use of instruments.

When we had finished I was told that a elderly man who was there, whom I had not met before, wanted to be baptised. So after we had finished we all climbed into the truck and headed down to the river for his baptism.

Rising out of the waters of baptism

After the baptism

With Jonah and Wilson in the background

Our new Brother, Jonah

What a wonderful day it was!

With Noah Msuya's children, Anna and Adoph.

Western Kenya Part 2

We had been told by George we only had 100kms to go (60 miles), but when we saw the state of the road, were so thankful we did not try to drive it in the dark. The pot holes were so big and so many! Most of the time I had to stop the truck and gently roll it down into the hole and ease it out the other side. George told us it was the over-loaded trucks that come from Uganda that cause all the problems.

You never know what you will see!

 Eventually we made it to the village of Ugunja where we met with brother George. He was a very kind man and was worried about us and our long journey. The first thing he wanted to do was get us settled into our hotel. It was a little ways out of town, but very comfortable. A definite step up from the “Resort” of the night before.

We then headed out to George’s house to meet his wife and the rest of his family. George’s wife, Jacqueline, had made us a wonderful lunch and we felt very much at home. We were then able to talk at length with George about the work in that area and how we could help. I was so thankful that Allen was there, as he was able to bring up so many things that were relevant. Hossiana and Jacqueline made a very firm friendship and were sitting under a tree in deep conversation all this time.

Myself and George

Here we are with some of George's family

We arranged to meet the following day for a Bible study, and so late in the afternoon we made our way to the hotel.

The study was to be at about noon. And so we headed into the village, met up with George and went to a little house behind a shop, where the study was to take place. We studied three men, brothers, who came from a Catholic back ground. We were able to study in English, but when it came to reading the Bible, they wanted it first from the King James Versions (“easier than my NASB”??), then in Swahili and finally in Luow, their local dialect. It was a great study – we looked at the Ethiopian Eunuch, with many questions. These three brothers will soon be converted I believe.

After the Bible Study

Our time with George was just about over. He came to the hotel the following morning and had breakfast with us. We agreed that it would be a good thing to work together and make ties between the Tanzanian work and the Kenyan work. We then started out long drive back to Arusha.

I decided early that we would stop in Nairobi and I made bookings at Hampton House (not a plush hotel of the same name, but the Baptist Guest House). We had a long and tiering drive there, and this time we made a point of stopping as we crossed the equator – my GPS telling us the official marker was about 20 meters off!

Standing right on the Equator (with George's son, Ken)

Hossiana and Allen at Hampton House

After a restful night in Nairobi we headed home to Arusha, arriving about 1.30 pm, tired, but very satisfied with our journey.

Sunday at Muriet - what a day!

Anne had been looking forward to last Sunday for a long time.

Solomon and his wife

We had been asked to go to Muriet, in the southern part of Arusha, for worship. This was going to be the first time we had been with this congregation.

The new church building (you can just see the pulpit)

This work was started by a brother, Solomon, from the Philips congregation in Arusha. Solomon is a Maasai man and he went to this village to visit his relatives and told them about the Lord's church. Because of his sharing of the gospel a small church has been started. Solomon and his family have been traveling there each Sunday for worship and last Sunday that had wanted us to come and help them.


Solomon had rented a partially finished house for the church to meet in, they had been meeting there for some weeks. Unfortunately the situation of the owner changed just last week so he had to "swap" houses. The church needed to move out of his new house and move into his old house the other side of the village.

When we arrived on Sunday we were told they had expected many more people, but they had not been able to contact them to tell them about the change of meeting place. We started with about 10 people (including the land lord) which was very good considering.

Solomon told me that they had song books but the man who had looked after them had disappears, so he had photo copied some pages from a song book and they used those. I really appreciate the attitude of this man.

We had a very good song service and by the time I got up to preach we had a full building!  I taught on the difference between the Lord's church and denominations - and how to enter His church and be saved. While Solomon had been preaching for a number of weeks and he has had good numbers present, he has not been able to convert any yet.

Well, we had a very nice service and everybody seemed happy with the new location for worship. We had just said goodbye, Anne and I had loaded Solomon's kids into the car to take them home (they live near us), and I was backing the truck out.

It was then the wheels fell off - literally! The left ball joint gave out and the car was resting on the ground. It was very fortunate that it happened then, I hate to think what it would have been like at highway speeds.

We had to leave the truck overnight - the landlord said he would guard it for us, and today (Monday) I went back with my mechanic to get it fixed.

Please pray for this new work.

Seminar (Gospel Meeting)

Last Friday we had a wonderful gospel Meeting (or seminar, as they call it here) at Nkoaranga.

The brethren there had asked me to teach a whole day meeting on the subject of "The Church". I therefore organised the lessons and the brethren organised the rest of the day. The end result was very successful. I was extremely pleased with the preparation that they had been made and how the day played out.

We started the day at about 11.00 am (time here works somewhat differently and the start time was a bit flexible). We had 4 sessions each starting with a prayer and then several songs. The lessons followed and Brother Mbise (the preacher there) organised for different brothers to do the translation. There followed a time when the brothers could ask questions. We finished with some more songs - the brethren at Nkoaranga LOVE singing and are very good singers! A closing prayer finished each session.




I was extremely pleased how well the lessons were received. As I have already stated the theme was "The Church". I taught on the church not being a denomination, true worship in the church, the church being the body and the last lesson was on how to enter the church.

Mbise leading the singing

While the majority of people there were members, we had some visitors. One of these was a young man Mbise and I had studied with a few weeks before. Mbise studied with him several times since then as well. At the close of services Mbise told us all that this young man, Jerimiah Urio, wanted to be baptised that evening.

As Anne was up at Nkoaranga in her car as well, we were able to take 13 other people down to the baptism spot. We had a wonderful time watching this young man being baptised into the body of Christ.

I cannot think of a more wonderful way of ending a great day. To God be the glory.

Location:Nkoaranga, Tanzania

Porch Studies

While Mike and Clint were here we had numerous studies with individuals. These studies we conducted in people's houses; the preachers arranged for us to visit some people to study with them.

We also had impromptu studies to which Clint coined the phrase, "Porch Studies".

The first of these session was held at Sombertini, a section of Arusha town, to the west. The preacher there, Dominic Owaga organized us to come there. He also asked Allen Mkita to come also, that way we had two translators and we could have two studies going at one time.

When we got there we also met with Alex, a young man Dominic had been studying with for a whole. The studies all went very well, with Mike and Clint teaching very clearly. There were a number of questions following each study that showed the level of interest.

We all met up after the last study and were getting into the truck when an old man, sitting on the porch we were parked next to, asked Clint a question. This led to a lively study in which many questions in a variety of topics were asked. Clint did a wonderful job as our speaker and proved more than capable of answering questions without notice.

Once we had got into the truck and were getting ready to head of, our your friend who had been with us thought out the day told us he wanted to be baptised and could we baptise him right away. Of course we were very happy to help and we headed right down to a small stream and our brother Alex was added into the Lord's church.

Alex, after his baptism

After the baptism

Simon at his stall

Another of the "Porch studies" happened in the area around the Philips church building. Allen Mkita was our translator for the day and he had arranged for us to study with a young man, Simon, who sells vegetables at a street corner near the church building. Even though he had work to do and we had to interrupt the study several times, Simon remained focused and asked some very good questions.

We then headed off down the street and Allen met another man, gave him a tract and asked if he wanted to study. Yes, he did want to study, but he wanted for us to sit under a tree first. We followed him and settled down and proceeded to have another study. Before long two young men came along and joined us. The study went along very well with the two young men showing that they were good students of the Bible.

After a while the first man said he had to go, he got onto a 3 wheel motor-cycle truck, leaving the two young men. We found out these two men were called Mark John and Joseph. They continued to have questions and after a while Mark John said he had to be baptised. After more study Joseph said he wanted to also.

Joseph after his baptism

Mark John about to be baptised

After the baptism

We headed down to the river and Allen baptised our two new brother.

Both of these men live close to the Philips church building and continue to be interested in learning form God's word.

What a blessing we have, being able to conduct these "Porch Studies".

Its Raining!

As I am writing this I am sitting on our back verandah enjoying the sight and the wonderful sound of rain.

We, together with all the people of Arusha have been waiting for the rain. Every day we have been looking to the heavens watching the clouds gather, only to be disappointed to see them disperse again with not a drop to show for it.

Coming from a dry country like Australia, rain has always been important to us. Back there it seems that it is always either a drought or a flood. But here the rain, or lack of it, takes on a more personal nature.  In Australia dry seasons are bad, the farmers suffer, the dams are low, but we always muddle through.

Here in Tanzania the lack of rain takes on a far more dramatic nature. As we go for a walk around our area we walk past small fields and we watch people planting after the last rain shower. We saw their hard labour, we saw how all the family were brought into this endeavour. We watched the fathers dig the heavy soil, the mothers weed and the children plan the seeds - one digging the holes, another dropping the seeds in and another filling the holes with their toes.

Having seen all this and then walking past weeks later and seeing the corn dying from lack of rain is heart rendering. All that work done, only for that poor family to go hungry.

The lack of rain means there is a lack of electricity. For ten or more years nothing has been done to improve the power infrastructure, as a result there are frequent power outages. A large proportion of electricity here is produced by hydropower. When there is no rain, there is no electricity.  While it is an inconvenience to us at home to have no power for hours on end, the shop holders are nearly paralysed without it. To keep working and to keep freezers running, they need to buy generators and run them with horrendous fuel bills.

And the dust! Oh, the dust - it gets everywhere. You walk down the street (most are un-paved) and you get covered with the stuff.  The house gets a coating of dust everyday, so everyday it is a top to bottom "spring clean".

But ... oh the rain, the lovely rain! The promise of saved crops, the promise of un-intereupted power, the end of the dust.

I love the rain!