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.

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

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

Sunday at Ugunja

Things have been very busy here over the last few weeks and as a result I have not written as much as I have wanted about how we are getting on. Let me now go back to our time in Kenya.

I was really looking forward to worshipping with brother George and the brethren at Ugunja. While I had been in that area in June, I had not been able to see many of the brethren.

The congregation there meets at 7.00 am. George told us the reason for this was that the brethren did not want to wait to worship, they wanted to worship God as soon as they could on Sunday morning.

It took us a hour to drive to the church, maybe due to my slow driving, or may be due to the rough roads. But it meant that we were a bit later than we had planned.

This did not seem to be a problem, however. While they were waiting, the brethren were singing songs and praying to the Lord. When we had got there, very quickly they organised themselves and the worship service started.

Even though they only had one song book, the song service went very well - everyone singing from memory. Delmer was then invited to teach us. We were taught very well from James chapter one. The brethren were very interested in the lesson, showing great interest.

Mike was then asked to teach a lesson on the Lord's Supper before officiating over it. I then was asked to teach on the collection. So the brethren got 3 lessons that day - and the looked very happy with it.

Before we left, the brethren wanted to give us some refreshments. So someone went and got some sodas for us. They are some very hospitable people there.

Afterwards brother George invited us to his house where his wife Jacqueline had made some lunch for us. We were able to get to talk to each other more and Jacqueline and Anne became fast friends.

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