Mid-April update.

Since the last blog, it has rained almost constantly. The shortcut to our house, from the pavement, is hardly passable, even by foot. Most of the roads in this area are horrible during the rainy season, not just rough like they are in the dry season. Actually, there is no good season for our roads. We have had many visitors in our home since we got here, what a blessing. We are still without internet and had no water all day Sat. (4-12-08), at least we had electricity. We have had passport pictures made to attach to the application for a resident permit so we can legally drive the vehicle, we surely do not want to do anything which would not be in submission to the authorities (1 Pet 2:13-15). It is quite a process so please keep us in your prayers. I taught on “Christian Submission” Sunday (4-13-08) at St. Helen’s in Arusha (their service starts at around 9:45), and then, after a hour into the bush, at St. Thomas’. It was a long day, but what a blessing, teaching God’s principles to two churches in the same day. The praise was great and the people were wonderful; and at St. Thomas they insisted that we eat with them. We had rice and a bit of “meat”. We finally got back home at 6:00 pm. (Thank you, Doug and Tani Vaughn, for the book “Liberated through Submission” by P.B. Wilson). God is so good and his ways are so far above our ways, He knows what to provide even before we know we need it. Stanley informed us on Monday that he had felt the need to preach on “Submission” at St. Thomas, because of some situations that had taken place there. Without us discussing the situation, God orchestrated the day the way He wanted it to go and I did the teaching without Stanley and I discussing it until after the fact. How cool is that! We both agreed that God was in control and that it turned out best since the teaching was done by an “outsider” from America.
The water is still off and on, no internet, and some electrical surges but it is beautiful this morning (4-14-08), it looks like the garden of Eden. Today we found out that it may take up to a month to get the paperwork approved for the resident visa. With no internet we, we have to go to town to use an internet café and it would be nice to be able to drive our truck; please pray for favor with the immigration service and that our application is approved quickly. Also keep Elizabeth, who works at Stanley’s house, in your prayers. She has malaria again! Diesel is over $5.00 per gallon but the value of the dollar is holding steady here. Yesterday (4-15) we did get to read some of our e-mails at the office but didn’t send any because we did not want to take much of Neema’s time from her work. Today (4-16) we just stayed home, did some reading (I’m reading “Four Pillars of a Man’s Heart” and Pat is reading “Meaningless Words-Broken Covenants”, which I already read. Boy, these are straight from the Lord.