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!

Tent Meeting

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

Zanzibar

Anne and I were able to take a few days away on the beautiful island of Zanzibar in January. I hope you enjoy seeing some of the sights.

Teaching, teachers and babies

I have just returned from Morogoro where I delivered 2 babies! But more about that latter.

Just outside of the town of Morogoro there is a teacher's college. I was taken there in August and was introduced to a group of Christians who are studying there. I was really taken by these young people, they gather together and they are trying to do the right thing by God. They have not had a lot of teaching and they long for more.

Since that first meeting (I was only able to study with them one time) I have been trying to get back to see them. That opportunity offered itself just recently so Allen Mkita and I drove down there.

Allen and I with Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background

It is a long, full days drive to get there and we got into town in the evening. We were planning on seeing the students the next day, but knew we had to contact the administration before hand. I had phone them up before I left Arusha, but they were not very clear with their instruction.

We went anyway and after we had arrived, signed in two books at road blocks, we were finally able to study with the young christians there. It was so encouraging teaching and looking out at those eager and interested faces. When we had finished the study we had questions.It was clear they were not used to asking the teacher many questions, but after a while they got warmed up, they had some great questions. We arranged to meet again the next day at 4.00 p.m.

After our study

When Allen and I got there we could see none of the Christians. There were plenty of other students about - there were exams starting on Monday, but the people we were looking for were nowhere to be seen. After about 1/2 an hour they started to arrive and we began our study.

That is when I delivered my first baby. While I say delivered, I guess I need to explain myself. Just after we had started a young woman came to the classroom saying someone needed to go the the hospital and there was no way to get there but by my car. It turned out that a woman was having a baby! Of course I said I would take her and left Allen to continue with the lesson.

So... I delivered mother (and her baby) to the hospital. I was told the next day she had a little girl and the young people were joking that they were going to call her Keith!

The little hospital (clinic) where I delivered mother (and baby) to.

The next day was Sunday and Allen and I stayed there had worshipped with the brethren. It was clear that they had not been taught about true worship, but they were keen to learn, so Allen and I took the whole service, explaining carefully each step.

Worship was early - at 8.00 a.m., so we were finished by 10.00, so Allen and I hit the road to make it back to Arusha that night.

After worship services

That was how I came to deliver my second baby - we were driving down the road and a policeman waved me down and asked me to take a woman to hospital to deliver her baby. Of course I said yes, I was happy too. I ended up wondering if the white Toyota looked like an ambulance. We got her to the next town and I think it was going to be OK, though it was a close thing.

All in all we had a great trip. Please pray for those young Christians at the teacher's college

A very new and VERY nice food stop over on the way back

Back at Dakawa Teacher's College

The reason Allen and I traveled all the way to Morogoro was to visit the Christians studying at a Teacher's college about an hour to the north of the town.  I had first visited them in August and since then I had wanted to come and encourage them once again.
To see the students we first have to get permission from the staff at the college. While they are nice people, it has been a trial getting through to them and  working this trip out. But we managed it and this morning Allen and I have a good visit with our brethren.
After signing in at the first gate, signing in at the second gate we were then directed to the Admin. block where Mr. Milton was waiting for us. He was in a meeting so he asked us to wait - in the mean time some of the students came up and greeted us.  We managed to get through everything the faculty asked us to do and we were able to visit with our dear brethren.
We had a very good study that was followed but questions and then general discussion. I taught on how the church is the original - all others that have come after it are copies. While copies might look good, they will not be as good as the original. They made us feel very welcome and asked us to come again.  We agreed and plan to go back tomorrow and then again meet with them on Sunday.
Please pray for these young Christians.

Photos from Singida

We did a lot of this - waiting in line for fuel! For some reason there was no diesel in Singida for sale (there was only a little petrol). Each fuel station was either completely closed or had lines of traffic waiting to see if they would sell any fuel. Oh, by the way, the tanker 2 ahead of me was not delivering fuel, its tank was empty too!

Sister Dorcas from the Singida congregation, with her daughters. We had a very good study with these people on Friday.

Marabou and the moon
These Marabou storks are huge birds and about 20 of them hand out at the Catholic Guest House where I was staying.  Have a look at this link to find out more about them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marabou_Stork

We traveled out to Nkalakala village to study with some of Samuel's family. As there was too many people to fit into the house we had our study sitting under a tree. They really appreciated the tracks we left with them

Time for a Photo!

People here LOVE to have their photo taken and when they are able to see the results strength away often hilarity follows. Here is the family gathered in front of their house. (Samuel/s mother is in the purple in the middle and Samuel and his brother are standing right behind her.)

The country side around Nkalakala village. Note the road!

Sunday after services at Malade. For those interested you can see Yohana 4:24 (John 4:24) and "roho na kweli", "spirit and truth". I think my Swahili is improving (a very little)

Samuel Nandi and myself.

On the way home from Singida

Dakawa Teacher's Training College

Yesterday we headed out of Mbeya. I has been a very busy 10 days we spent there, but very good. We had so many studies I can’t count them, and we were well received wherever we went. Two brothers were added to the Lord’s church and after their baptisms they attended every service, which encourages me greatly for their future in the church (the church here meets twice on Sundays and on Wednesdays and Friday evenings).

So, we headed out, but out but our work in this area was not done yet.  Samuel Mwakasugula had asked me if I would be willing to visit and study with some students at a college near to Morogoro. Of course I said I would be very happy to do that. Arrangements were made and we planned to visit them last night when we arrived from Mbeya. We were also taking Felix, who had graduated from the college last year and knew these students very well.

We arrived in Morogoro at about 6.30 p.m., after a long and adventuraous drive. It took us 11 hours to get here and we were not short of entertainment, what with road works and rolled over trucks.

Because of the lack of time we headed straight out to the college here. I have learnt that distances are rather flexible here, so I was not at all surprised to find a college “near Morogoro” was in fact 1 hour’s drive away. We got there at 7.30 and could hear them gathered together singing. Felix was in almost constant phone contact with one or the other of them. Unfortunately, the administration would not let us see the student, so we had to go back to town. We arrived at the hotel very tired and were happy to be able to lie down.

Today we headed back to the college, this time were were going to see the Principal and get permission from him. We first met the Vice Principal, a very nice man called Mr. Msange. He then took us through to the principal’s office where we met Mr. Elasto Nyagwe, who made us feel very welcome and even apologised for last night.

We were finally ready to meet the students.  It seems that while Felix was at the college he baptised 18 students. Some, like Felix, have graduated and moved to other areas, but there still remains 9 students who regularly meet for worship on Sunday. They tell me that many of the other students visit as well.

The study was in one of the class rooms, and when we got there they were all ready to meet us. We were made to feel very welcome and showed a great deal of respect. I was very please with how they all listened to to the  gospel preached.

I taught on how Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. How He built the church - His church and He only build one church. And I also taught how to obey the gospel.  There followed some questions, but not as many as I expected. College students here are very much different from what I am used to. They are expected to just sit and listen to the teacher and not interact with him.

Samuel had some tracks and booklet he wanted to hand out and then we had a song and finished our study with a prayer. It was after that the they all started to relax. We were taking some photos and they started gathering around me and asking many things. I even got an invitation to come the their graduation next year.

I am really looking forward to meeting with these wonderful young people once again. Until today I did not know that there was a congregation meeting here.  I will try to come and worship with them one Lord's day, if I get the chance.

A Wonderful Day Doing the Lord's Work in Mbeya

There are days here in this work that are just down right frunstrating. There are other days that you say, "Yes, that was a good day." And still other days when you say - "What a fantastic day!"

Monday was a fantastic day! The Lord blessed us richly. We had arranged to to meet up to do some house to house studies at 11.00 a.m. and so I headed out from the Karibuni Centre is good time. It only took about 10 minutes to drive to Bro. Samuel's house and we were ready for work. Bro. Samuel was not there, he had a call from some other brethren, but he left me in the able hands of Brother Larent and Brother Isaiah. We were going to study with a man from the Moravian church.

We had a very good study there on the One Church. This man was a good student of the Bible and he told us he could really see what the Bible was saying and that Jesus did build only one church. The denominations came later. He told us he would have to think on these things and welcomed us back.

We then had some studies on the road side. The brothers with me were handing out tracts and talking to people. This lead to several other studies.

After a nice lunch that Bro. Samuel's wife had left for us we headed out again, this time with Bro. Samuel (having finished his work with the other brothers). We were to study with 2 men whom Samuel had been studying with before. They had studied about baptism and now they wanted to study about the church.  We studied about the church being the Body and Christ being the head. Again we had a good study and after these men heard that we are baptised into the one body (1 Cor 12:13) they wanted to think about things for a while. I was about to leave, but they then said they NEEDED to be baptised.

So it was off to the river. Samuel baptised both of these new brothers and we praised God together.

Please pray for these young brothers.

Lord's Day at Mbeya

Our first Lord's day at Mbeya was really nice. We were told that services started at 10.00 a.m., so Anne and I were there about 20 minutes early (We had been show where the building was the day beforehand).  As is often the case here, many of the brethren were not there at start time, but Bro. Samuel started anyway, I believe he had an extra long song service to give the late comers time.

The singing here is some of the best we have heard in Tanzania (and all the singing is good). They use different song books to which Anne and I are used to, so we were not used to many of the songs. It was very uplifting though.

The whole service was very orderly and respectful. All listened actively to my lesson and the Lord's Supper was conducted with the respect it truly deserves. When we had finsished Brother Samuel told me he was disappointed that more had not come - some of the newest members were not present. But we had a wonderful service anyway.

After morning services Bro. Samuel told me they had an arrangement to go to the Children's Prison to teach there and they wanted me to come. So, after dropping Anne off at the Karibuni Centre we headed off.

We reached the gates that were half open without any sings or guards around. We then drove up through a dusty field to the prison building. Still there was no one around. I followed the brothers right through the first door into to prison - it was standing open. We then reached the second door which was latched with a bit of wire. Samuel was having trouble opening it, so one of the boys inside opened it for him.  Still there was not guard, in fact no security at all!

We were greeted very respectfully by the boys. Here a younger person will say to an older person "Shikamo". The elder will respond with "Marahaba" Literally this translates to "I kiss your feet" and the response is "delightful". While it sounds a but funny and it take a bit of getting used to, it is good to see the respect that is shown here.

We were shown to the office where we were to sign in - everyone was very nice. An older man looked in charge and there was a very motherly woman in the background. While we were signing in the boys quietly moved into the class room next door. They sat respectful and listen well.  The translator, Felix then asked the boys if they knew any hymns. They raised their hands and Felix chose one at a time. They sang one line of the song and the rest of the boys would then sing along. They did such a good job. In all they sang 4 songs and clearly enjoyed every minute of it. There were boys there ranging from 10 years to 18 and all were actively taking part.

It was then my turn to teach. On seeing the garden out side I decided to teach them about the parable of the sower. They all knew about farming, sowing seeds and different types of soils, so they were sitting very interested. After about 30 minutes I stopped and asked for questions. What they really wanted to know was what was Australia like. "Was there children prisons there?", "Did children live on the streets?"

While I don't know their stories or their crimes, I know they were just boys who had left their mothers behind. My heart went out to them.

The congregation in Mbeya has evening services on the Lord's day - none of the other congregations I work with here do.  They meet at 4.00 p.m. and Samuel had invited a man we had studied with on Saturday - he is a follower of William Branham. So Samuel had asked me to teach on prophesy. Again the service went very well. The visitors were respectfully received and everything was performed in a goodly way.

It is a real privilege to work with such Christians.

Felix and Lorent