A busy month and Lydia Rose!

We have some good news to report. Our son and daughter-in-law are the proud new parents of their fourth child, Lydia Rose Tefertiller, born Aug. 8, 6 lb 13 0z and 19 in long. Needless to say we spent several days trying to get e-mails off and respond to questions, etc., about the health of Shelly, our daughter in law, and Lydia Rose. Lydia's birthday is a national holiday here in Tanzania, called Nane Nane, on which all schools are closed and workers have the day off. It is like a giant farmer/stock show in which thousands turned out to enjoy the exhibits and buy some crafts, etc. We walked from our house to the exhibit area, which is about 2-3 miles from our home, just a brief walk for us seasoned walkers.

Since our last blog, we have attended two training conferences (three days each). One was at St Paul’s where we went out into the neighborhood, with the 5 truths booklet, after the last session, which was on a Sat. If I remember correctly we had about 45 people who accepted Christ. The group I was in, with Paul (Stanley’s asst.) had 15. The other conference we attended was the Pastor’s conference on the other side of Moshi. It was a great success.

Pat has had four dental appointments because of an infected tooth and some dental repair work that had to be done. She still has a couple of visits left. These visits usually take half a day or more because we have to wait for a taxi, then wait at the dentist and than call and wait for a taxi to return.

We met with Stanley Hotay(national director of Here's Life)on several occasions in July, but have only been to the office two or three times because of the studies, conferences and the many days when we were very busy. We have been blessed to have been able to establish a personal, as well as a working relationship with Stanley and have been very blessed by his cooperation, assistance and pastoral attitude in helping us fit in, not only with the ministry, but as brothers in Christ and in helping us gain an understanding of the local culture. He loves the Lord and is extremely dedicated to the ministry and to uplifting and encouraging everyone in it.

Our problems have been very few but the travel, and different culture are sometimes areas for concern. We have found that the more you try to hurry, the longer things seem to take. I think our time in Mexico missions prepared us for Tanzania in a way that many Americans would have trouble understanding. Things often just don’t seem to happen in the same time frame the way Americans would expect and we just have to get used to that. We have come to love the people and to accept the way of life in our community. Our biggest problem is with the things that take many hours of frustration because of the internet provider, power surges, slow e-mail, computer problems and some things that I just can’t get to work. I have spent hours going through reports and trying to organize them only to loose the whole thing because of a power surge or because the internet connection all of a sudden went to local only. Just the other day I spent over an hour writing an e-mail to our supporters, only to loose it when it was sent because of a power surge or something. Another was deleted because, according to the computer message, it was sent to an illegal e-mail address.

Pat and I try to spend time each day in study and prayer and we continually pray that our day might glorify Christ and that we may be good stewards of our time and the money that God has allowed us to use. We do not have a TV, have not been on safari since the medical mission in June, and have only watched four DVD’s since we got here at the end of May. Each day we try to spend a bit of time mentoring Sara (our housekeeper), visiting with the workers across the road (we were invited the other day to eat our first ugali with them and we used the opportunity to share Jesus), and being good neighbors (we took some food to one of our neighbors who’s daughter died suddenly, another opportunity to share Christ’s love). Our hope is that our time and money has always been well spent and used for the glory of Christ. Most of the time it seems as though the days are just not long enough.

Since our last entry we have had earthquakes that shook our house, made dozens of walks, heard people call Pat "Moma Kijenge" (the place where we live), took our first ride in an overcrowded mini-bus, preached at a new church, out in the country, called "Mbuga Ya Chumvi" (In English it's name is "field of salt"), and one day on the way home with BF they had traffic stopped for some really important person, in a limo, with military escort (the next day we found out it was Bill Clinton). Except for having to wait for the motorcade, we have been very blessed!