Camp Mkunda: changing lives

This past week we were in the lovely village of Mkunda for camp. What a turnout! We had around 95 youth in attendance. Village life was different here, in some ways more comfortable, and in other ways more difficult than our experience last week in the village of Ngoma. I won’t share to much about that aspect of our week, although Shaina goes into more details about village life in her blog .

Skits with the translators. This one was about the effects of gossip!

Henry invited us into his home to meet his family. They are truly wonderful. I was so touched by their hospitality!

We visited an adorable old man that does iron forgery. So cool.

Thank you for your prayers this past week. God was truly working in the hearts of the campers this week. I’m amazed at all the little ways he intricately designed His plans for camp this week to honor and glorify His name. Darling reader, I have wonderful news: at least 14 people came to know the Lord this week! Praise the Lord! Be praying for these new members of the family of God as they return back to their villages and home churches. May they grow in the knowledge of God’s Word, show the fruit of His Spirit, and share the good news of Christ’s love.


Guys cabin doing their personal devotions

Along with that, I truly believe God was working in the hearts of the campers with the True Love Waits theme for sexual purity. It has been humbling for me teach about HIV and AID’s, a big issue here in TZ. Although it was a difficult topic and it wasn’t the easiest for me to answer some uncomfortable questions, I have become so passionate about enlightening these campers and encouraging them to pursue sexual purity. Here’s one story of God’s providence and a life changed:

memorizing scripture.

One of our counselors was going through one of her true love waits sessions and in her group was a young women who already has a child out of wedlock. Convicted of her past mistakes and burdened with the insecure future ahead of her, she asked if any man would ever accept her as a wife and take her child as his own. God’s hand was so upon this situation that this counselor had gone through the exact same situation in having a child out of wedlock and is now happily married with several children to a godly man. She shared her testimony of the many difficult years of waiting and raising her child without a father until she she met her future husband. For the first time in this young woman’s life, she was given hope for her future. May God give her the endurance and faith to pursue sexual purity and raise her beautiful child to love the Lord.

On a lighter note, this week several members of my choir attended camp. I was thrilled to have some familiar faces and get to know them better in a non-choir rehearsal type environment. Each night at camp we have a big evening service. Most of the village shows up and it’s full of singing, dancing, preaching, and skits from the campers.

Shaina and I looking out of our room window!

Village kids sleeping at the evening service... so precious!

Since it was such a big camp this week, the services lasted for around 3 hours each night. We definitely struggled to stay awake the entire time. Shaina and I were often huddled together in layers of Kongas, surrounded by curious village kids (we didn’t mind that so much because they kept us warm!).Each night my choir personally came and invited me to sing with them for the service. Not that I’m so great or whatever (as you’ll soon see) but they get a certain level of respect from the other choirs by having a Mzungu (white person) in their choir... Anyways, I was honored that they personally asked me to join them, and so naturally I couldn’t refuse. They assured me the dance steps were quite easy… yeah. right.
The first night, the M.C. called my choir up and I joined, nervously looking around me as the huge crowd started whispering excitedly at the sight of me onstage. The song began, and I caught on OK. This was one of the harder dance songs, but they stuck to the choreography we had practiced in the past so I survived, until… a spontaneous dance break. oh. no.
Now, around here there are some dance moves that are all the rage among the locals. For most of these, I’m pretty sure God created white people to be fully incapable of ever successfully imitating these “moves”. Well, wouldn’t you guess, darling reader, that it was one of these moves that my choir decided to freestyle. Although I was mortified at the situation I had been trapped in, I realized it was all or nothing, and braced myself to throw down some totally awesome white girl moves.
With my whole heart, I made a sad attempt to imitate them and the crowd just erupted with screams of laughter and shock. I can’t blame them, for I can imagine how comical the scene must have been. Although it was super embarrassing, in retrospect I had a great time and I gained a certain sense of camaraderie and humor with my choir members that I never would have had without that unfortunate experience.

Farewell, Mkunda. Kapenta, brace yourself... Camp is coming to you!

Camp Ngoma: life in the village

Last Monday, we traveled to the village of Ngoma for our first week of camp. What a wonderful and stretching experience!

Road to Ngoma

The whole week was basically a cultural overload for me emotionally, spiritually, and physically. I’m still trying to process it all. How can I begin to describe all that I learned, felt, and experienced? In a material sense this was probably one of the hardest weeks I’ve ever been through. I’ve never been so happy to see an actual toilet, sleep on an actual mattress, take a shower with running water, and eat “normal” (non- Ugali) food in my life…

Last night we were reflecting on the week and Ryan said some things that hit me to the core… He said, "My life is not my own. I have given my life to God. Therefore, I am called to serve Him. Serving Him is certainly not boring… there is much joy and blessings from it, but

it’s a sacrifice."

I was definitely feeling the weight of this sacrifice this week. Yet, God showed me his blessings through getting to know the campers. I got to teach, eat, talk, dance, sing, play, learn, read God’s Word, and simply do life with them for an entire week.

The village kids teaching me how to make rope out of Sisel plant!

Shaina and the girls at game time.

We did a skit with the translators for each chapel service.

Nathan sharing the gospel in his class.

This game involved a lot of running, throwing, and catching... Not my forte.

Girls hard at work during my craft class!

One evening I had some time off and I started walking through the village, watching daily life functioning all around me.

I passed a young boy cutting firewood, women humming to themselves while cooking over a fire with a baby on tied their back, some children laughing and playing in the dirt with garbage as toys, men chatting over a local board game, and a grandma with the most beautiful weathered face sitting outside her door taking in the cool evening air. How I wish I could have sat down and listened to her, for I’m quite sure that each deep wrinkle held a wealth of stories about life here in the days past… In the midst of living in such extreme poverty, I found that though they may not have material gain, but they are rich in so many ways that matter in this life and in the next.
To immerse myself in village life was something I really wanted to do... Having done it for a week has just shattered my outlook on life and turned my perspective upside down. And to think that I still have two more weeks to go. What new challenges, blessings, and lessons will God reveal to me next?

Village of Ngoma.

Please pray for the team next week. we will need God’s strength to pick ourselves up and do this all over again. May we be overflowing with the love of Jesus Christ and the fruit of the Holy spirit.

Goodbye, Ngoma... Next stop, Mkunda!

P.S. Here's Shaina's blog. You should definitely read it. She's great about giving some awesome details and stories in her posts!

Staff Training

This week we had staff training for all the counselors that will be helping out at camp. Over 30 people traveled to the TGBI compound (where Brook lives) and we spent several days teaching them all the activities, games, and lessons that we’ll have at camp. What a great time of fellowship. If this week was a little taste of what camp will be like, I’m so excited for what the next three weeks will hold. for the sake of time,I’m not going to say much about staff training, but I hope the pictures help show all that we did! 

Game time at Staff Training

Henry did an great job translating some really difficult content for my immune system class.

Staff picture

The translators and us looking "swagga fresh" as they like to say...
 new words for them!

Camp is finally upon us, and it’s quite hard to believe. I’m in the middle of all the crazy preparations and it still doesn’t feel like we are really going to head out tomorrow. I covet your prayers, darling reader. These next few weeks will be a stretch for us, but I’m confident that the Lord is going to do some amazing things! Here’s an overview camp:
-We will be living in the village. That means sleeping on mats on the floor, bucket baths, sketchy outhouses, and Ugali for food. It sounds a bit daunting when I write it all out, but I’m really looking forward to immersing myself in village life for a few weeks!
-The theme of camp this year is Tunda la Roho, the Fruit of the Spirit. There will be chapel times throughout the day and evenings where various people will be preaching on Galatians 5:22-23, and the students will be looking at different bible stories in their personal devotions to look at how each story applies to the fruit of the spirit.
-Purity is a major focus on the rest of camp. It’s a God thing in how that worked out, because we didn’t originally try to make it all coordinate. The counselors are going through “True Love Waits” sexual purity curriculum with their campers, Ryan (another addition to our team) will be teaching how to make Water filters from drinkable water out of supplies readily available here, Shaina is teaching a class on water borne illnesses, I’m teaching a class on an overview of the immune system and how it works, and Nathan is sharing the gospel in his class.
We all have one more activity to teach throughout the week that’s more hands on. I am doing a painting craft to help them share the gospel with their friends. The female campers will learn how to make friendship bracelets and how to cook Chapatis (kind of like thick tortillas). The guys will learn how electricity works and how to apply it to their homes using basic supplies, and do soccer drills.

counselor's learning my craft!

The rest of the days are full of group games, skits, and lots of music and dancing, of course. Our days will be jam packed with events so if you could pray for strength and energy, as well as continued good health, we would so dearly appreciate it. Also please pray that the Lord would soften the hearts of the campers so that they would be receptive to the gospel message. I can’t wait to share with you, darling reader, the many stories and experiences we’ll have in the next few weeks!

Also, be sure to check out Shaina's blog. She shared some great stories from staff training!

blessings,

Em

A Day of Déjà vu

Right now, I’m sitting at a quiet little guest house in Dar es Salaam, enjoying the quiet evening as our newly arrived guests sleep off some of their jet lag. Meet Shaina and Nathan, a brother and sister who love each other and love the Lord so much. That was evident in spending merely one day with them! I’m looking forward to serving with them at camp in June. 

It was so interesting being on the receiving end of the journey this time. As we entered the airport to wait for them to walk through the gates, the nervous, overwhelming, yet exhilarating feelings that were so familiar to me on the day I arrived came rushing back… I felt like I was in a déjà vu the entire day, as if I was re-watching myself go through all the culture shock, jet lag and the surreal feeling that I had actually arrived. In a way, I really was watching it through Shaina and Nathan.

I hadn’t realized how independent and confident in the language and culture I had grown through these last few months until I had returned back to the place where my journey began… obviously I have a LONG way to go in all of this, but it was encouraging being able to feel like I sort of new what I was doing. I also hadn’t realized how much my perspective has changed. Oh darling reader, how dearly I appreciated a chance to use clean restrooms with actual toilets, classy restaraunts with soothing atmospheres, and of course, a chance to order a good latte.

Enjoying the view at the Indian Ocean.

But not only have I come to appreciate these simple comforts I used to take for granted, the lack of cleanliness no longer makes me turn away, the smells associated with poverty no longer makes me cringe, and the sight of all things unfamiliar and foreign no longer frighten me. I suppose living in a 3rd world country will do that to you.

I can’t say that none of that bothers me, I hope it always does to some degree. For the moment that I become so comfortable with all of the poverty and needs surrounding me will be the moment that I cease to care. I hope that day never comes. I hope I always care enough about the world around me that I always do everything I can to better it. May I see the world through Christ’s eyes, so that I can be His hands and feet. …

I covet your prayers as we prepare for camps in June!
Blessings,
Em

P.S. Bartering at souvenir shops is much more fun when you can speak some of the language. Hooray for some successful good deals!

Graduation week

If I wasn’t halfway across the world, I would have been busy with graduation last week… To be honest, darling reader, there were a few bittersweet moments, knowing that I wasn’t around to celebrate all the hard work from these last few years with my friends and family, but TZ had many wonderful activities to keep my mind off all the events at home!

This included an scrumptious pizza party, a birthday party for Jenna (one of the missionaries serving here), and a trip to town. One of the biggest highlights though, was camping on Mt. Memya. The Mumba missionaries packed up some gear and hiked up the beautiful mountain and camped out to see the sunrise in the morning.

I’m not typically the “outdoorsy” type (is that an understatement?), but I enjoyed the trip immensely! Being surrounded by the breathtaking view, the challenge of the hike, the camaraderie and fellowship with friends made it the perfect little getaway.  Here is a link to an album detailing our trip. (you don’t need a Facebook account to view!)


can you spot us?

cue the Lion King theme song...

Sunday, we had a joint service outside with three of the area churches and I got to perform with my choir.

To top it all off, my little Mumba family threw me a surprise graduation party last night! They had me wear a cap (homemade by Jenna) and gown for the evening and we celebrated with cupcakes and tea. I was so touched! In retrospect, my graduation week was lovely, and knowing that this is where God has called me I wouldn’t want to be any where else in the world…

TASGRACO Conference: Damu ya Yesu

Today was the last day of the TASGRACO (Student Bible club) Conference. After this week, I think I can understand a bit more of what Paul was saying in Philippians 2:17,

“But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of You.”

The only way I can describe what I felt after each long day was this complete emptiness, in that I had poured out every ounce of Christ’s love that I had within me, and yet I was so full of joy for all of the students and how the Lord was working in them. I’m realizing that the more I give of myself to those around me, the Lord fills me with more and more of His love, His strength, and His grace.
That, darling reader, is a beautiful experience. '

The conference was a blast. I was worried about being able to get to know the students, but they quickly opened up to me. It’s amazing how you can connect with people using so little verbal communication.

We simply laughed at my poor Swahili, played games during the breaks, and during the services they taught me some of their dances. My goodness, they dance a lot. It’s so great. For those of you who are curious about what the dancing here looks like, think line dancing with a lot of African flavor.

As far as my teaching sessions go, I was just blown away by the ways God used my feeble attempts to reach out to them. I knew you were praying, and I reminded myself anytime I grew discouraged or tired. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. God is good. It’s not very often that girls and guys break off into different groups for their classes, thus these girls don’t get a lot of teaching on issues like sexual purity, self-image, gossip, etc. You know, girl talk. And oh yes, girl talk is one thing I can do! My goal was to give a biblical perspectives on these issues and provide practical ways for them to implement them in their lives. I pray that I was able to cross the language and cultural barriers to accomplish this task. I will say this, they were certainly listening, and that’s huge.

Teaching during the breakout sessions (Brook was translating)

Just before one of these sessions the Holy Spirit was heavy on my heart to spend more time on the sin issues we had been discussing. I sensed that they were grasping the concepts but something was missing. I completely tossed my lesson plan and just talked to them straight up. (well, as straight up as you can get with a translator.) I challenged them to take action during those moments and prayerfully consider a specific sin their life that they wanted to turn away from. I had them write it down on a piece of paper and fold it up so that it was just between them and God. From there we went to their cooking fire and circled around it.

With the phrase, “God’s grace is greater than our sin” just bursting from within my soul, I challenged them to throw their pieces of paper in the fire as a symbol of letting go of that sin. I will never forget the sight of them one by one tossing their papers in as the warm flame grew larger, and the crescendo of their voices grew stronger as they sang,

damu ya Yesu inasafisha kabisa

(the blood of Jesus cleans us completely)
nguvu za Shetani zimeshindwa

(the power of Satan has been defeated)

Oh how I wish you could have been there with me. The presence of God was thick in that little room with the crude dirt floors. Their sweet harmonies left an echo within my heart.

Rukwa Valley: a well-watered garden.

I have to say, spending time with the missionary wives down here has been so encouraging. They are great examples of godly women who show such strength and courage by ministering here.

To put it simply,
I’m inspired by them.

One of their ministries is doing a women’s group each week. Right now, the women get together and learn how to crochet different things, which provides another opportunity to make a living through selling hats, baby booties, etc. After crocheting together for a bit, they have a devotional and spend time in  prayer and in the Word. I love that they are able to impact the women by meeting both their physical and spiritual needs.

busy working and catching up with friends

I loved holding their darling babies too!

The missionary ladies were finishing up a bible study called “Loving Well” by Beth Moore. I was able to sit in on the last session. Get this, we looked at a passage that has been so instrumental in my decision to come serve in TZ. Perhaps the Lord new that I needed a reminder as to why I came and what I have been called to do… If you received my sponsor letter, part of it is printed in the margin:
 
“and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.”
Isaiah 58:10-11

I have come across so many women on the mission field  who are spending themselves by serving the Lord, ministering in their communities, and caring for their families. I can only hope to someday, in whatever I’m doing and wherever I end up, to be that kind of woman. The kind of woman who looks only to the Lord for her source of strength and refreshes those around her through the outpouring of His love.

 "What a privilege we have been given by God to be able to spend our lives giving His love away."
 -Don Lessin 

Well, darling reader, Thanks for listening.
Until next time,
em.