Arusha Update.

(Nov. 1, 2007)

We have been pretty busy since the last of the Americans (Bill and Sally Sandford) left for home on Oct. 22. It seems like more than just a week and a half ago. Sunday, Oct. 21 (the day before Bill and Sally left) BF, Bill, and I were in the Maasai choir at St. Paul's church, what a hoot. Tuesday(Oct. 23) we just stayed home and chilled. During the rest of the week we did our shopping, went to the office to visit with Stanley Hotay about our role in the ministry and discussed his presentation for the meeting in the US. Pat’s dentist appointment turned out to be another bummer, the technician couldn’t get the new crown/bridge off to replace it and broke the crown removal tool, so we have to go back again this week. Pole Sana, TIA, Hakuna matata! One evening, at the banana market, a lady saw Pat’s necklace and asked if she were Maasai, Pat said she was and said some greeting in Maasia. They (several ladies) were impressed and started singing praise in Maasai, before it was all over Pat and I joined in the movement part of the song (trying to get more practice like Sally said I needed). It was quite a deal, all the ladies were having a good time, us too! We had two Maasai students spend the night with us on Friday night, they were on their way home because they graduated . Saturday we met with Stanley, then met with the student we help with fees and took him to lunch. Saturday night we had Munka and his wife (our landlord) over for supper. On Sunday we went to “Field of Salt” church for the second time and I preached on the need for continual self examination in the Christian walk. The brothers and sisters there were a real blessing to us (all 20 of them).
Sunday afternoon we took Neema (Stanley's secretary) out for a birthday dinner, she turned 29 about a week ago. Also on Sunday, Pat made some new friends in our neighborhood and had one of them over for tea yesterday (Mon. Oct. 29) evening. She spoke hardly any English but Sara translated and the conversation turned into a gospel meeting. Bwana Asifiwe! We spent much of the day trying to catct up on e-mails, etc. That takes much longer over here because of power outages and internet problems on an almost daily basis.

We are excited, yet concerned, about Stanley coming to the US. He hasn’t been back to normal since his last issue with malaria and some recent medicine he took for stress lowered his blood pressure to the point he felt bad. I think he feels better now but he is still trying to get everything just right before leaving, which is understandable. We meet with him on both Tue. and yesterday and went with him to the airport last night. His plane was to leave at 9:40(Arusha time) We have been going over things we he wants us to do while he is gone, as well as doing our best to help him be prepared for "life in America". He had asked us to work with Neema, Paul, and Saddok on some organization and editing of his notes and pictures. I hope that our very slight input was not detrimental to the over-all effort. Stanley is so full of ideas and energy, even when he should rest. Our prayer is that our American brothers and sisters will take good care of our brother, Stanley. We got a text message from Stanley this evening, Thur. Nov. 1, that his flight had been canceled and he was in a hotel, probably in Amsterdam. Please keep him in your prayers for the next several weeks, he will be very busy in the US.

Mungu Awa Bariki
John and Pat