Eden Valley Foster Care Mission

NOW WE DON'T HAVE INTERNET

2011-11-20T01:03:00.000-08:00

Well, today is November 20 and we are at Kibidula for a spiritual week with Frank Fournier. It has been great messages and we have also been helping with a workbee taking down the old boy's dorm here. Back in Mago, well, the container comes tomorrow and so we won't get the pews out until next year. The fundis did as much as they could this year but was in the middle of building the new garage waiting for the container. Little to say, it won't get finished until next year. They did build side walks at 4 staff houses, between the new kitchen and preparation room and steps at the new kitchen and also the newest staff house. Looks great. Been slow towards the end of the year, which is good because that gave us time to get some kitchen cupboards started at Janet's house and also we had 3 girls from DayStar Academy here for a few months and Jerry Harris came for a week to pick them up to meet with other DayStar people in Zambia to do one-day-churches. While he was here that week he got us plumbing inside the house. This is great! Flush toilet, water to shower stall, water in kitchen. We even did a few loads of laundry in the washing machine with the help of a generator. Work is going good otherwise. Going to post this now, sorry for the late posting. The internet did not last long in August and I couldn't post anything until coming to Kibidula. Will be leaving mid December to come home. Not sure of another post until arriving home. May the Lord bless as He directs each one of us. The rest of the blog was done in August.

Well, we did have internet. It seems it comes and goes. I don't quite understand it, but really, who does.

We have been keeping busy since Janet has been gone; which she will arrive in Africa on the 6th of September. We have the roof on two of the three buildings and the septic tank hole dug and is almost finished. Jason has called Joel (one of our fundis) home for about a week so that he can help build 2 one-day-churches with the Czech people visiting there. He had to take the two drill guns that we use for the one-day-church so we can't continue on that part, but have plenty to do with out that. We need to finish the brick laying, install windows and then plaster the inside walls of the two buildings with roofs.

We are digging up the ground by our two existing containers making room for one more and also two garages between the three. We will also have a cement floor under these containers; now that will be fun to accomplish. Yeah, right! We will have to empty all containers, use a come along that hopefully Janet will not forget, and logs under the containers to roll them back on the cement floor, then load containers back up. We may have to unload, load, unload and then load again, depending on time it takes to get the floor done. Want to help?

We have started breaking ground for a garden in one of our long shambas (fields) and giving the campus a face lift. We have done some slashing (can't wait for lawn mowers on container), raking and picking up trash, papers, etc. all over campus. We have, also, thinned one of our forest of evergreens and cut the low branches off of them, and chopped down some of our bamboo on the property. It is really looking nice. Still have some other stuff to do, but in time this will come.

I don't know when this will get posted, the date today is August 28, Sunday, and I have tried to get on the net but didn't succeed. I had 2 towers (which isn't a lot) but is better than what I have been getting and still couldn't get on. Maybe tomorrow.

Janet said that she will be bringing a lady her for a few weeks and then next month 3 girls from Day Star Academy will be here for 3 months. I hope they will be blessed, truly blessed by being here.

Sorry to all of you who read this blog; it has been slow coming. Maybe will be better as time goes on. We will have to see.

Just a spiritual note I want to share with you that I read this morning our of 3T p237: “Some are easily stirred and frequently become irritated; and, if abused, they retaliate. This is just what Satan exults to have them do. The enemies of truth triumph over this weakness in a minister of Christ, for it is a reproach to the cause of present truth. Those who show this weakness of character do not rightly represent the truth or the ministers of our faith.” This spoke to me and I am not a “minister” but I do frequently become irritated. I know you are praying for me, and I appreciate it very much, but I ask that you will pray for me in this specific area, also. And if this quote is speaking to you, my prayer is that we may all overcome as Christ overcame, for He did not become irritated or retaliated when He was abused.

This is all for now....
Signing off from Mago, TZ

Deniece

WE HAVE INTERNET!!

2011-08-17T06:47:00.000-07:00

We have been in Mago, Tanzania for about 3 months and just yesterday (Wednesday) was able to get on the internet. We have tried a number of times but did not get any service. It is so nice to talk with my family and friends back home.

So, what have we been doing during these three months. Well, we had 2 of Janet's grandchildren here which kept her busy in a lot of respect. But finally, we got three buildings started and the fundis are more that half way done with them. We have another staff house (possibly for Mechanic teacher), we have a kitchen for our cook to cook for the students, and a storage building to store lumber for our carpentry class. At the end of the building is a 12x20 room that we are building a mechanic's pit to work under the vehicles. We had a visit from a potential mechanic teacher which appears to be interested and will be back when Janet comes back. Oh, by the way, Janet is in America at Eden Valley. She went home for ASI convention in early August and will return the first part of September. We have also thinned out part of our forest behind our house, fixed our driveway and slashed (cut weeds) along our road to make it look neater.

We have near 50 students, 27 in carpentry, 7 in advanced sewing, and 15 in beginner's sewing. We have room for 32 students in each dorm and right now we have about 12 students in each dorm. The rest are village students. Our Bible Worker just told me yesterday that 40 of the students are interested in bible study. He has a bible class every weekday morning and this morning passed out the studies to the students. Earlier this year we had 18 people get baptized and out of the 18 was about 12 – 14 students. The Lord is working on the hearts of these young people, but sad to say, the enemy is too. We have some troubled students that are rebelling against authority and we need prayers for these young people.

Baraza and I have been working with a lady in her 60's who has a big sore on the bottom of her foot. It looks like it has been burnt, but her and her family says that she didn't get burnt. Anyway, we have been doing wound care on her and she is improving. She wanted to pay us after the 3rd visit, but I told her my Boss (pointing upwards) pays me and she started crying. She is a dear lady and she wants to come and visit here when she can walk again.

I am going to sign off now, until another time...

Goodbye from Mago....
Deniece

Africa, Here We Come

2011-04-17T19:45:00.000-07:00

Well, it is that time again and we are getting ready to go. Our container which has sat here for over a year is nearly full. Jason and Frank worked on it last year around the time of ASI filling it up with all the things Janet and I had set aside. Janet, if you remember, did not come home for ASI and so the job was left up to the guys. They did a good job, but is was incomplete. Since we have been home we have gathered more stuff to put into the container to make it as full as possible. We have room for about 5 more boxes and we have about 8 plus an exercise machine for one of our friends at Kibidula and also some wrestling mats. No they are not for Janet's and my wrestling matches. We will be using them at the day care. Anyway, we will see about getting everything in. Where there is a will there is a way - and if Janet wants it, her will will get it done.

I have started to pack, but have a lot more to get together. Upon getting our tickets, Janet and one of her granddaughters and one of her grandsons ended up on a separate flight then myself. They will be leaving on the 8th of May with an overnight layover in Washington DC and then going thru another country in middle east and arriving in afternoon on the 10th. I leave on the 9th and have about a 6-7 hour layover in London and arriving at 7:00 the morning of the 11th. She will meet me at the airport and I think Jason will have been there to pick her and the kids up so they will probably be there and more that likely we will leave from there to head back to Kibidula than onto Mago.

I am looking forward to going and getting some much needed work done. As soon as the container comes we will unload some pews that EVI Church gave us. I want to get them ready and installed in our little church over there. It will be so nice to actually have padded pews instead of boards to sit on. Also we would like to get water to the houses, Janet's kitchen set up, pipeline dug for our hydro-plant, and a couple of buildings built (1 staff house, 1 pole barn for the wood for the carpentry class, and maybe a garage). We also have our tractor on there which will be used to get the ground ready for planting this year (maybe) if we have time.

Mariam (our translator's wife) is due to have her 3rd child at the end of April first part of May so we will have another little one to "play" with upon arriving or shortly there after. We have 50 students enrolled in the school over there with 30 living in our dorms. I am so glad we were able to get the dorms built and as ready as we could for them.

Please pray for us as we head back and hit these projects head on. We need to finish this year if possible and I know all things are possible with Christ who strengtheneth us day by day. I have been memorizing Bible promises about strength for that is something I am lacking in my life - that is spiritual strength. One quote from EGW - (paraphrased) is that the power we have available to us from above is more than all the power of Satan and his angels combined. All we have to do is want it and believe we will get it upon asking for it. And I do, but we have to die to obtain it, that is the hard part. Then again, that is where faith comes in.

And this is where I go out....

Signing off from EVI, Loveland CO

Deniece

Another Post, Yeah!

2011-02-07T12:27:00.000-08:00

I keep getting the thought that it is time for another blog entry, but I don't know what all to write. We are home and Janet and I are working on mapping out some areas where the new houses will be built. We did this in Africa and so our experience is coming in handy. The container that has our new John Deer Tractor is still here. It is not full yet and we want to use all the space we can to put things in that we can use over there; we have already added to the items in there. We are hoping to get it shipped soon. It will take about 4 months to get it to our place so we want it shipped so that it will arrive shortly after arriving there ourselves.

I am in Georgia now and have been to 1 of 3 churches where I am putting on a powerpoint presentations that shows the things we have been doing for the last few years. It was well received on Sabbath in a church in Tennessee. I have 2 more to give in a couple of churches in Georgia. My mother came down from Wisconsin to see me for about a week and it has been a good visit. I am staying at my sister and brother-in-law's house for the three weeks that I will be here.

I want to thank everyone for their support and prayers while the work is going on over in Tanzania. The Lord has blessed in that the work we have done could not have been done without Him; and we are thankful for His watch care and love for us while there and also here.

That is all for now, from GA

Deniece

Home At Last!

2010-12-31T09:31:00.000-08:00

We are home at last. Janet, of course went home a week before I did. My flight on the following Tuesday was canceled Tuesday Morning because of a snow storm hitting London, England (which was where I was to fly into from Dar Es Salaam). Janet called at 4:00 am Dar time to let me know. My ride to Kibidula was leaving in 5:00 am and British Air's office did not open until 8:00 am. What should I do. The only thing I could do was to pray and wait. I could have gone back to Kibidula, but then I couldn't have gone to British Air (BA) to reschedule. What a perdicument. Anyway, I prayed and let the Lord open and close doors as He saw fit. I went to BA and she said it didn't look good and to come back at 2:00. Well, I was bored at 10:00 am and decided to go back to BA. She had found something - when she got off the phone she said she found a flight leaving on the 24th and arriving on the 25th. She said she was trying to find something sooner and did find something going into Zurich, Switzerland but couldn't find a flight from there. Anyway, to make a long story short, she finally got me a flight leaving on the 23rd going into Zurich, a flight from Zurich going into Frankfurt, Germany and then the last leg leaving Frankfurt coming into Denver on the 24th. This was just 1 day difference from the original flight.

While staying in Dar the two days waiting for my flight, the power went off on the first day for about 12-13 hours and it was hot. We didn't have air but we did have a ceiling fan to move the air. Well that stopped working - this with the high temperature and the high humidity made life miserable. But, God is good. It rained also, and that cooled things down some.

Upon arriving home, my friends here at EVI had "cleaned" my house and made a welcome home sign and also left me some fresh fruit. They had also left me some left overs from their Christmas dinner they had on the 23rd.

I do miss my "home" in Africa but I am glad to be home in Colorado; even if we are getting snow at this time.

So long from Colorado...

Deniece

Going Home

2010-12-14T00:19:00.001-08:00

Well this will be my last blog from Africa this year. I am sitting in my room in the house I am staying in at Kibidula. Janet left this morning from the airport and is now on her way to London. I will be doing the same next week at this time.

All went well in Mago. We put up 7 structures above ground and 4 below: 2 staff houses, 2 dormitories with bathhouses and a separate bathroom facility near the school. The three bathhouses and one of the staff house had a septic tank built (with bricks and plaster) underground to hold "stuff". These structures kept us busy all year. Starting in January we will be housing some of our students in the dormitories and we have water to all the bathrooms. We have families living in both staff houses built and have water to their places. Now the water is only a tap outside to the house. One of the families, the Baumans, almost has water inside. Fred is still working on it. The other place, and of course Janet's house, has water outside but not inside. Next year we hope to complete it.

Janet has said that the building will slow down next year. I think this is so she can get her house completed and also concentrate on the academic structure of the school. I don't know how many we will have when school starts in January, but we have room for at least 20 in each dorm. We have a cook lined up already and some teachers. Beverly, lady from Canada, is on tour now viewing Tanzania but will be back in Mago first part of January to teach some more English. Baraza (our translator) will continue with her class when she leaves the last part of January.

I am finishing the financial books while here at Kibidula. I am praising the Lord for He is so good. I do not have to take a 13 hour bus from Kibidula to Dar Salaam. There is a family going Dar at the same time to pick up family members the evening before my flight. So they have offered to take me down. It is so much more comfortable in an individual vehicle than in a public vehicle, if you know what I mean.

About the last month at Mago we lost internet service. I think it came back, but you had to walk up the hill and I wasn't up to it. With all the work, rain and stress to get things done I have come down with a "cold". I did not get a diagnosis, but a nurse called a doctor friend in Dar and she said to give me an antibiotic which is good for bronchitis and pneumonia. Even I felt that I may have one of these; but was too busy to do any major treatments that it has hung such a long time. Anita, the nurse here at Kibidula, gave me fever bath last night. Before the bath she had boiled some water and put some eucalyptus oil in it and had me inhale it for about 15 minutes. After the bath she brought me home, plastered me with vicks and gave me ginger and licorice root tea, cut up two onions as a "room freshener" and gave me the antibiotic and said get some sleep. She had prayer with me and then left. I slept better than I have for days; hardly any coughing. This morning is a different story, but I am feeling better. I don't know exactly which of the items did it, but to me now, it doesn't matter.

Anyway, all is well; I am almost done with the books. Irma, who is helping me, had something important to do immediately so she has told me to take a day or two to get better and then we will finalize on the books. This sounded good to me when she told me yesterday, that I took a nap. I will be leaving on Sunday with the family to Dar and so until then I am not doing much of anything. I am able to do some reading. The following is a quote on Dan. 1:17 found in 4BC 1167 - 17. God's Blessing No Substitute for Effort.--When the four Hebrew youth were receiving an education for the king's court in Babylon, they did not feel that the blessing of the Lord was a substitute for the taxing effort required of them. They were diligent in study; for they discerned that through the grace of God their destiny depended upon their own will and action. They were to bring all their ability to the work; and by close, severe taxation of their powers, they were to make the most of their opportunities for study and labor. While these youth were working out their own salvation, God was working in them to will and to do of His good pleasure. Here are revealed the conditions of success. To make God's grace our own, we must act our part. The Lord does not propose to perform for us either the willing or the doing. His grace is given to work in us to will and to do, but never as a substitute for our effort. Our souls are to be aroused to cooperate. The Holy Spirit works in us, that we may work out our own salvation. This is the practical lesson the Holy Spirit is striving to teach us (YI Aug. 20, 1903). {4BC 1167.6} May we all learn from the Holy Spirit what is necessary for success.

Signing off now from Mago (Kibidula)…..

Deniece

PS – Will write more when I get back to the states. Maybe even have some pictures I can post.

Human Interest Stories

2010-11-14T04:42:00.001-08:00

Well, Frank was not able to get Janet seat on my plane but did get her a ticket booked for December 14. We contacted Butler Travel and I could have changed my ticket from 21^st to 14^th but it would have cost me $430.00 to change it for one week. I could not justify spending that much money for just one week so my ticket stays. The Lord is so good, though, we had talked about me traveling with her to Dar and staying there for a week by myself and then fly out. She had left to go pick up Beverly, a lady from Canada who is here for 3 months teaching English and being girl's dean, and the more I thought about it, I really didn't want to spend a couple of hundred of dollars for my stay in Dar. I also did not want to deal with the heat, mosquitoes, traffic, people who don't speak English, etc. by myself in Dar – and besides, what can I do for 7 days, it would be so boring. Anyway, when Janet got back I told her that I really did not want to spend my week in Dar by myself and told her I would stay at Kibidula and see if Bill could take me to Dar. She told me that Jon Luke would be going on the 19^th and he said I could ride with him. The Lord had it all worked out before I did. Also, there is another girl from Kibidula going at the same time to Dar with Jon Luke so there will be three of us. Jon Luke is picking up his kids from the airport who is coming home from school for Christmas break. I will stay in Dar for one day and two nights. Marianna's flight is also on the 21^st but later in the afternoon; mine is at 8:40 am. God does look after His own. I am not worthy of His loving care accept for Jesus making me worthy.

We have been so busy with work here that that is all I have talked about. This blog is going to be more of a "human interest" blog. We have done four clothes distribution to the orphans so far this year and are planning for 3 more before leaving this year. Work is slowing down and so that is freeing us to do them. When the children come they sing songs to us. We can't understand the words but we do hear Jesus' name every once in a while so we know they are singing about Him. These kids can really sing well. I can just sit a listen to them all day. They have one person who leads out by herself and then the rest will repeat. I am going to try and get a video of it to share. You will really enjoy it. The kids are so grateful to get the clothes we give them. We also give them all a toothbrush and some toothpaste. We share with them a flyer with a bible verse on it in Swahili. Some of the schools are a couple of hours walk away from us and the kids still walk here. Some of them come on a day after the distribution day and still wanting clothes. Some come, even ones that are not orphans, to get clothes. We get a list from the schools that lets us know which ones are orphans and which ones are not. Those that are absent on the day the others come arrive on another day and we check their name against the list and we share clothes with them also. It is hard because by that time we have put everything away; but we find something to give them that they can wear and they are happy. Some of the kids that are not orphans come for clothes and we have to send them away. It is sad, but we know that if we share with them, then we will have the whole village here for clothes and we just can't do it. We have to draw the line. I noticed she gave some young kids some toys that had been given to us and she passed them out to several of the "non-orphans". I was working in the church where we do the distribution a few days later and there were 5 real little kids, not even in school and a couple just barely walking They were sitting outside the church watching me for the longest time. I came out and smiled at them and said "Habadi" which is hello, how are you in Swahili. Almost all of them said "Nzoodi" which is good in Swahili. (I am not sure if my Swahili spelling is correct, I am just spelling it like it sounds.) I think they came for something and I didn't have anything to give. Janet was down at the school and so I went to Miriam to have her check and see if they need anything. When I went back, they had left. I just wished I could provide for these little ones all that they needed.

Here is another story, some of you may know (and some may not) but Janet is an extractor of teeth. She doesn't claim to be a dentist because she is not, but she can and does pull teeth. She averages 5-6 patients each week and they come from all the local villages around the area. She gives the lanacain for deadening the gums and then she pulls the tooth/teeth. Well recently we have been having an influx of even more people. It seems that her "fame" has gotten around that people are walking 2-3 hours to her place to get their teeth pulled if for no other reason than that she doesn't charge anything for the service. We had two come one day from Makete (3/4 hour drive) and then about 2 days later we got a couple more and then another the same week. Pardon the pun, but word of mouth gets around and more people are coming. We give them toothbrush, toothpaste and a religious tract before they leave. She takes care of wounds and even takes people to the hospital; some have come and ask for a ride to hospital or she sees them on the side of the road and sees their need and offers to help. Sometimes she may be up by the clinic in Lupalilo and the people at the clinic ask her to take one of their patients to the hospital. Some of the people that she tends to in one way or another are so thankful that they come back and give something for their gratitude such as dried beans, potatoes or maize for the service. Janet in turns gives the "gift" to her students which are in need of food. It is such a blessing to be able to help on both parties.

I find that sometimes I don't feel like doing something but I have to do it anyway. When I read what Christ went through for me it is easier for me to live by principle and not by feelings. Christ did not feel like going through what He did for us in the garden as is written in these words: "Stronger Than Human Desire.--The human nature of Christ was like unto ours, and suffering was more keenly felt by Him; for His spiritual nature was free from every taint of sin. Therefore His desire for the removal of suffering was stronger than human beings can experience. How intense was the desire of the humanity of Christ to escape the displeasure of an offended God, how His soul longed for relief, is revealed in the words, "O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done." {5BC 1103.8} Yet Christ had not been forced to take this step. He had contemplated this struggle. To His disciples He had said, "I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" "Now is your hour, and the power of darkness." He had volunteered to lay down His life to save the world (ST Dec. 9, 1897). When it seemed like His weakness was too much Mrs. White writes that an angel came to strengthen Him in Gethsemane. When it seems that our weakness is too much we have the same promise in Heb. 13:5 – "[Let your] conversation [be] without covetousness; [and be] content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Let us claim this promise and watch unto prayer until He comes to take us home.

Signing out from Mago, TZ Africa

Deniece

Almost Complete

2010-10-24T07:17:00.001-07:00

Well it is Saturday evening and we are showing the Jesus video again. Three of our sewing girls came and requested it, so we are showing it for the second time this year. We also have been having quite a few of the village young people coming to our video night so this is a good video to show. We have been showing videos every Saturday night; we have been showing Planet Earth to them and they enjoy looking at the various different animal species and the habits.

We have now only 5 fundis to finish the work. We were told on Friday that two of them will be leaving which will leave us with 3 to finish the jobs. The five are trying to finish the boy's bath house/toilet building and the septic tank that goes with it. After that is done all that is left to do is a 2 stall bathroom with septic and a septic that goes to a staff house. When these jobs are completed then all the fundis will leave. We have a plumber coming on Monday to connect to the 2" pipe line which we installed last year. The pipe we are tying in with will go to the dorm and the Bauman's house. We will then install the hot water tank that we will have at the dorm. We will have a fire built under it to heat the water. We will also install the drainage pipe at the girl's dorm to go to the septic. When this is done we will move the girls up to the dorm. Hopefully this will take place within the next week or two. We still need to paint the boy's dorm and the girl's dorm is half way painted. Time is running down and we still have lots to do. I am completed through September with the finances. I told Janet I need to work on October because of the time left to work here. In November she is planning on taking the staff to Kibidula to a series of meetings by James Raferty of Light Bearers ministry. I am hoping while there to get the help of the girl who helped me last year with the books; so that I won't have to go later in December. My flight leaves on December 22. Janet still hasn't gotten her flight yet. Frank said he was going to try and get her on my flight but she doesn't want to wait that long. I said if she gets a flight earlier in December I would like to change my flight also to come home a little earlier. She said she would email Butler travel and have her check. I am not sure what will happen but I want to get the books completed to a point so that it won't take a lot to finish.

Here is a quote from Desire of Ages which has me thinking alot lately and I pray that you will see the importance of it also: "He who would confess Christ must have Christ abiding in him. He cannot communicate that which he has not received. The disciples might speak fluently on doctrines, they might repeat the words of Christ Himself; but unless they possessed Christlike meekness and love, they were not confessing Him. A spirit contrary to the spirit of Christ would deny Him, whatever the profession. Men may deny Christ by evilspeaking, by foolish talking, by words that are untruthful or unkind. They may deny Him by shunning life's burdens, by the pursuit of sinful pleasure. They may deny Him by conforming to the world, by uncourteous behavior, by the love of their own opinions, by justifying self, by cherishing doubt, borrowing trouble, and dwelling in darkness. In all these ways they declare that Christ is not in them. And "whosoever shall deny Me before men," He says, "him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven." {DA 357.2}

I also pray that you will contemplate on these things and examine yourselves.

Signing off from Mago, Tanzania…

Deniece

Listen to the Lord

2010-10-18T08:32:00.001-07:00

It has been a while since I have written. I have no excuse except that I have been busy, not enough battery time on my computer and I have been real busy. And another reason is that we have been real busy. We have completed two staff houses enough to where the families have moved in. The girl's dorm needs paint in the rooms and water to the bathroom and we can move into it. The boy's dorm will get glass this week and then it will need painting. The bathroom for the boys is getting the floor poured tomorrow and then the fundis will start the brick work. We have two bathrooms to complete and three septic tanks and our building projects will be completed for this year. I am getting pictures and will put them in a power point presentation upon arriving back into the states in December. At the beginning of the building projects we had nine fundis working. Three more came a couple of weeks later and so for about five months we have had 12 fundis. Now we have five fundis working here. The others have gone back to Kibidula to work on projects there. We need to tie up loose ends before leaving in December so that is what we will be doing in November and December. In fact, we have already started to tie up a few loose ends already.

Some of the things I have been doing is: painting window frames, doorways and doors, walls and varnishing the bunk beds. I am working on tables for our cafeteria. We have 6 table tops that have been purchased and we have had our carpentry class make 6 tables that the tops will go on. Hopefully they will be completed in a week or two. I have taken off 14 doors and have helped to paint them and have installed them again. I work on any plumbing problems that come up with the water line going to the fundis. I have helped with laying out of some of the buildings early on and even with the bathrooms that need to be done now. Again, one of my jobs is teaching English Monday through Thursday for about an hour to an hour and a half; and also being girl's dean; I do the finances, also. Other things I do are too many to list and fills in a lot of my time and they are the things that Janet needs me to do to help her with projects she is working on and also at times retrieving items from the container, church, her room, ect. These jobs are small in and off themselves, but if you can imagine keeps me busy along with all the other things I have been given to do.

If I repeat myself from previous blogs, please forgive me. It has been a long time since the last blog that I don't remember what I wrote. I have been staying down at the girl's dorm with the girls and it has been a good experience. The girls and I have got a good relationship going; I am also their English teacher. We have a good time together. But it is hard to communicate with them when there is not translator to help out. It would be easier on everyone if they could speak English or I speak Swahili.

I have been reading "Empowered Living" by Jim Hohnberger and have been trying to listen and obey the still small voice of the Lord directing me all through the day. This is a lesson we all need to do and Jesus is there just waiting on us. One day last month I went down to the school; Carolyn was with me. When we finished the task at hand I was going to come back up the hill a certain way. A "thought" came into my head to check in my room at the make shift dorm and go home a different way. I obeyed, and it was a good thing. One of our workers 2 ½ year old son was getting water from our spring at the school and had fallen head first into the water and couldn't get out. I ran over, grabbed his shirt and jerked him out of the water. I had lost my balance in the mean time, but Carolyn was there to hit his back and he started spitting and coughing and everything turned out. If I had gone home the original way that I was going, we would not have heard or seen Ema and he would most likely have drowned. There has been other times when I didn't listen and it came back to "bite" me if you will. I am learning, though, and it is exciting to see how the Lord is willing to direct if we are willing to follow.

Signing off from Mago, Tanzania

Deniece

Bauman’s Are Here

2010-09-22T07:52:00.001-07:00

The Bauman's arrived and are adjusting quite well with only about 4-5 days down time with illness. Eating the food here and drinking the water takes a little adjustment for our bodies to get used to. I went through it last year. Carolyn is busy home schooling and doing their laundry. Two of their carry ons had to be checked in and so they got lost in the traveling to Dar and arrived later than they did. A lot of their everyday clothes were in the back packs and so laundry is needed to be done more often than once or twice a week. Janet has been gone since Friday. She has gone to Dar with Jason to do some business and to pick up Bauman's luggage. She should arrive either tomorrow or Thursday. Fred has been busy working on windows and doors that have been installed in the new buildings and also in Janet's house; he has been straightening up the new ones and repairing the old ones in Janet's house. He has also been looking and studying about the hydro-electric gizmo that we have for electricity and seeing what is needed there. He also has been getting the solar from the empty house where Waggonner's lived and trying to fix it up for their house.

Speaking of their house, the cement work will be done today and so cleaning up, installing the plumbing, installing glass in the window frames and also installing the doors and then they can move in. They are looking forward to moving out of the one room "apartment" as they call it, into their new home. Four people, 12 containers and 4 bicycles along with beds and chairs are just a little tight in about a 12x18 room. The girls dorm has some plastering done but after Jason came and put on Bauman's roof the fundis moved from girl's dorm to their house to see if they can get it finished. Anyway, finishing the plastering, painting, installing glass in windows and installing the doors and the girls can move into their new abode. We are working on the hole for the septic tanks for both Bauman's house and girl's dorm right now.

About a week ago, Carolyn and I were down at the school and had just finished some business there and were on our way up when we passed by the spring at the school. There was a 2 ½ year old boy at the springs trying to fill up a water bottle. He was standing on some boards crossing the small stream and fell in head first into the water. He started screaming about the time we arrived and then he stopped. We looked over and then started running over to him. I grabbed his sweater and pulled him out and then Carolyn grabbed him and held him in a bent over position and hit his back and he started spitting up water and coughing. His mother was over by the school doing her laundry. I called for her and when she came running I tried to explain to her that her son almost drowned. I don't think she understood me, she yelled at him for getting into the water. As Carolyn and I started to walk away and praising the Lord that we happened by when we did, we heard him yelling again; the mother had put him back in the water and proceeded to yell at him again for playing in the water. I was going to have our translator explain to her, but she had decided to go home for a week. They are back now and I still think about it every time I see either of them.

I have been sleeping down with the girls now from Sunday night through Thursday night. Also, I have been teaching English Monday through Thursday after sewing class. Today (Tuesday, 9-14) is a quiz. We'll see who has studied and who has not. I am also teaching English at night to the fundis from about 7:30 to 8:30; they requested it when they found out I was teaching the girls. Who would have ever believed it? While going to high school and also college English was my worst subject. Maybe, I need it too. J Anyway, I need to leave now and prepare the quiz.

God is gracious to allow us to serve Him, as sinful as we are. The closer we get to Jesus the more miserable and retched we appear. May He continue to pour His blessings on us and may we be willing to make changes in our lives that will glorify Him and bring us closer to Him. Remember: "The Father's presence encircled Christ, and nothing befell Him but that which infinite love permitted for the blessing of the world. Here was His source of comfort, and it is for us. He who is imbued with the Spirit of Christ abides in Christ. The blow that is aimed at him falls upon the Saviour, who surrounds him with His presence. Whatever comes to him comes from Christ. He has no need to resist evil, for Christ is his defense. Nothing can touch him except by our Lord's permission, and "all things" that are permitted "work together for good to them that love God." Romans 8:28.:" {MB 71.2}

That is all for now…

Signing off from Mago, TZ Africa

Deniece

Sewing Class Bursting at the Seams

2010-08-22T06:17:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the play on words, but if you were here you would have to agree. We have 22 girls in both our sewing classes on campus. We need to put the girls into a new location where they can consolidate their space and food. We need the house some of the girls are staying in and the room the other girls are staying in. So, we are going to use two of our classrooms to house the girls. They will be right next to each other and will be able to utilize same areas in kitchen, bath area, toilet area, etc. Their food will be combined and will be documented how much they have put in and taken out and then we will assign a couple of the girls to cook each of the meals. Right now they are all responsible for their own food and fixing it. But it is getting to be too big a project to have 11 fires going at one time or having the girls stand in line to wait to fix their food. We have a cafeteria and kitchen area that they can use at the school so we are going to implement it this week.

We have been so busy here; getting bricks, sand, gravel for our buildings. We have the walls up on 3 buildings and the walls will be started this week on our fourth building. Once the walls are done on the fourth one, the fundis will be assembling our metal trusses for the rafters and then our metal roofs will go up. I think we will be putting up T & G (tongue and groove for those who don't know what T & G is) wood slats for our ceilings in these four buildings for they will be housing people and we need a ceiling to keep the temperature warmer in winter and cooler in summer.

We have the Bowmans coming in about two weeks and we are really looking forward to them coming. Time is really flying quickly, and it really does when you are having fun or when you are busy. I guess you can say we have some of both – fun and busy times. Anyway, the Bowmans will be living in a room off of our house until their house is ready.

Janet has just left to go to Mafinga to pick up 13 bunk beds for our girls. When we told the girls, there were a lot of smiles and hi-fives being done. Some of these girls are sleeping on mats or the floor. So this is really exciting for them. The Lord has really been working on campus and is blessing the work we are doing here. We are not without troubles. Satan likes to do his work too, but greater is He that is with us then he that is in the world. One of our springs, the one that houses our drinking water has either dried up or there is an issue with it where it is producing hardly any water, and what is coming has a foul taste. So we have to boil water to drink until we can dig up the tank and see what the problem is.

The Lord has never promised us life without problems, but He has promised that He has provided a way to get through it. So it is in each of our individual lives, we may have problems, but the only safe way to get through is God's way. Trusting in Him and doing things His way we will survive. Life may seem full a problems or just one big problem, but God has the answer for each and every one. Look to Him, talk to Him and He will direct your path.

Gotta get back to work.

Signing off from Mago, TZ, Africa…

Deniece

Good-bye to Barry

2010-08-08T07:26:00.001-07:00

We have had a young man here for the last 2 months from South Africa that has been helping out here. He has driven Janet's big truck to fetch bricks, gravel, and sand from either on campus to job site or from off campus to our job site. He has also helped construct ceiling trusses for our houses using the one-day-church parts. He has been a great help with the labor force but spiritually also. For the last month he has preached 4 sermons at church, which means they were in English and I was able to go to church for this past month. Baraza translated for him into Swahili so we were all truly blessed. It was good to go to church and listen to a sermon instead of watching a DVD on computer.

He will be going back home and letting the Lord lead him as to where he will go next. He has left the work force a couple of years ago and really feeling the Lord leading him into the mission field. He is a relatively new Adventist being baptized 4 years ago. He is open to the Lord's leading and is trusting in His direction. He says he has been humbled by working here and prays the Lord never to let him forget his experience here.

We have started bricks on our girl's dorm. We put in the plumbing under the floor for a legitimate bathhouse. We have 3 shower drains installed for 3 actual "running water" showers, 3 squat toilets and one sink all feeding into a septic that is being dug. It is exciting to see progress in this area. Now to see it in our own house, we have yet to see. Janet says it would be a shame for them to get one before us. We have contacted a plumber who says he will come and install ours. Janet has his number – we'll see, it does seem to be closer now than what it has been…. The footer has been poured for our fourth building this year which is another staff house besides the girl's dorm. So, this year, we have a boy's dorm and staff house down at the school campus and up the hill next to the church and across the walking path on our newly purchased property is the girl's dorm with another staff house. None of the buildings are quite done, but we hope to have them done by December. Down by the waterfalls Janet wants to build another staff house. I don't know if that will be this year or not; depends on money and time.

Last night (Saturday night, 8/7) we, Barry, Janet and I went over a schedule that we would like to incorporate here when the dorms gets occupied. We do not want a lot of idle time on the kid's hands. We are planning classes two nights a week, vespers Friday and Sabbath evenings, prayer meeting, game night, and campfire night. We would like to incorporate the young people in the sermons and prayer meeting nights and in some of the other meetings so that they can witness to other young people and also gain experience at leading out at church. It is getting close to the time that this will be put into action. Praise the Lord!

Our Advanced Sewing class starts tomorrow in one of our new classrooms; and Janet would like to move the carpentry class on campus by September/October. There will be a lot of activity going on here soon and we hope that the Lord will be seen on campus. Please continue to pray for us and the work that is being done here. Also pray that the people will see Jesus in us.

As I have been reading the Bible and also Jere Franklin's book about survival in the time of trouble, the quote that says something along the line of: "We have nothing to fear accept when we forget how He has led us in our past…" keeps coming to my mind when I look at my life in the last 10-15 years and can see how our Heavenly Father is leading in my life. That quote that I quoted last blog from Mount of Blessings also keeps coming to my mind and I can say without a doubt that even though at times I did my own thing and even at times strayed from the Lord, He has been faithful to not give up on me and to continue to work in my life. I praise the Lord for His ever loving patience with me, His guidance, and as I continue to grow I praise the Lord as He works with me day by day. I also pray for you and that you will gain an experience that will draw you even closer to the Lord. May His will be done in each of our lives.

That is all for now…

Signing off in Mago, Tanzania

Deniece

Doors and Glass Being Installed

2010-07-22T07:16:00.001-07:00

Well, today is July 22 and work is going well. We were up again at 4:00 am Wednesday morning to burn grass and brush that was slashed earlier. That makes 4 times we have burnt this year. We will probably burn every Sunday morning and Wednesday morning until all brush is gone, which I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel. We have a lot of grass slashed and some more to slash. Janet bought two small pieces of property that connects to our property that we have to make fire breaks around. We had slashed around the first piece (about 10 acres) when she bought the other piece connected to the first piece (which is between 3-5 acres). So, needless to say, we slashed part of the first boundary when it wasn't necessary at this time. Oh well, work goes on. The rest of the fundis have arrived so we have, I think, 12 fundis here working. The boy's dorm is completed up to the ceiling and roof which still needs to be installed; the first house is near finished to same point. In fact, it should be done today to that point. The girl's dorm, being built up by the church on the new piece of property has footers completed and will be ready for pouring the floor tomorrow after we fill in area with dirt from the gravel pit.

The fundi which makes our windows and doors is here and has installed our doors, (on finished buildings) and shutters so that we can open windows. Janet has bought the glass and the fundi is installing the glass in the classroom building now. Things are really looking good. As soon as we get the glass in our new sewing room, our bulging sewing class will move to the new classroom. We have 11-12 girls staying on campus. The overflow is staying in the church. We need the dorm already, but of course it is not ready. We will be using one of the classrooms as a girl's dorm until we get the dorm finished. Another problem we have developed is that some of our sewing students are mamas and they have their baby with them; I think we have 3 or 4 babies crying, playing and jabbering through the day in class. Janet and I have been working and setting up a day care in one of the rooms at the church (in fact it was Janet's "bedroom") so that the babies can stay there during the day. We have rearranged the storage room at the church so that we can accommodate Janet's bed, the other girls beds, who is also staying in the church right now are in the sanctuary. I don't know where they will go by Sabbath. We'll see……

Oh, I did want to let you know that the posting of the blogs are easier now. It works going through Word and choosing "blog post". It posts directly to our sight after a little set up. It is fantastic. I just have to take the time and get the blogs typed up.

I just finished a book in which a quote from Thoughts From the Mount of Blessings was reinforced over and over again and I wanted to share it with you. "The Father's presence encircled Christ, and nothing befell Him but that which infinite love permitted for the blessing of the world. Here was His source of comfort, and it is for us. He who is imbued with the Spirit of Christ abides in Christ. The blow that is aimed at him falls upon the Saviour, who surrounds him with His presence. Whatever comes to him comes from Christ. He has no need to resist evil, for Christ is his defense. Nothing can touch him except by our Lord's permission, and "all things" that are permitted "work together for good to them that love God." Romans 8:28. {MB 71.2} Imagine, everything that comes our way comes through Christ first and He allows only what we can bear. When I contemplate on this thought, I realize that we have nothing; NOTHING to complain about for all things comes from Christ. His will is being done in our lives to develop our characters for heaven. If we are trusting in Him and want to do His will, we should rejoice in all things. Not saying we have to enjoy all things, but we should rejoice and be glad for Christ is working in us His will. Sure our choices changes what comes, but Christ is still in control of all things.

My prayer is that you will think on these things and rejoice in the Lord.

That is all for now, signing off in Mago….

Deniece

Busy, Busy, Busy and Did I Say I Have Been Busy?

2010-07-04T07:41:00.001-07:00

That describes what it has been like for the last 2-3 weeks. Janet arrived with some fundis and also with her daughter in law, Antonette with her three daughters. Jason was away building one day churches for a couple weeks so Antonette decided to come and help where she can. She was a great help. Guess what she helped with? Janet brought some window shutters so that we can open some of our windows and they had to be painted with the brown oil base paint I have been painting with for the last few weeks. So we worked on that and as I said she was a great help. She did most of the painting for I was off at times doing other things that needed to be done. I think we had 40 something shutters to paint and we got them done. She also taught health classes to the sewing students.

Our sewing students graduated – we had 11 that graduated on Friday, June 25. The next day, Sabbath, we had eight people get baptized; four from sewing and I think we had a couple from Lupalilo and also a couple of boys from our carpentry class. It was great to see the commitment that was made from these young people. Janet handed out bibles and also bible studies for them to share the gospel with someone and then challenged the congregation with the bible studies also to see who will work also in sharing the gospel. She handed out over 40 bible studies just to the congregation besides the eight that went to those that were baptized.

We have nine fundis working here now and today (Sunday, July 04, 2010) we poured our second flooring in the second of our two buildings we are working on. We have brought gravel, bricks and had sand delivered to the sight so that they can work continually. We also piped down water from our spring water tap that was by the house. We have had a problem with the water. We had a diversion before our dam that collapsed and almost dried up our water before the dam. The pipe was exposed and so we built a wood barrier and put dirt behind it to block off where the water was going so that our dam pipe would fill up our settling tank. This worked for a while and then we ran into more problems. We ran out of problems again and Janet walked out to the spring and dam. We ended up with mud above our 2" pipe in the settling tank. Janet worked with it and got the dirt out, but it was slow going there for a while. But prayer and a little work got us the water we needed to finish the job.

Talking about prayer; I was thinking about that today before we finished the job. The Lord is waiting to answer our request. I was thanking the Lord for His blessings helping me with the first onslaught of water problems and then we had it again. We get tested time and again and we need to show patience and perseverance when things go wrong. I prayed for strength, He gave it to me, both physical and spiritual. I prayed for wisdom, He gave it to me and I was able to fix the problem. I prayed for patience and He gave it to me and as I was contemplating on the many blessings, of course we received more problems. But God is faithful and answer our requests if we just put our trust in Him. He is there for you also. Sometimes it seems He is not answering or listening but that is where trust comes in and waiting on the Lord. My prayer is that we realize that He is there and we just need to trust and obey.

That is it for today and I am signing off here in Mago….

Deniece

Good Bye to Theresa and her Boys

2010-06-09T07:09:00.001-07:00

Well, I am giving something new a try. I found this on Word as a Blog post. I don't know how it works, but if it does work it will save me on cutting and pasting plus I hope going out and posting. We'll see.

Anyway, guess what I did today? Yes, I painted some more. We are just starting to put on the second coat of oil base paint on the window and door frames in the class rooms; next will come the café and then the mechanic/carpenter shops. Sounds exciting, huh? The second coat of primer is about complete with our last building and all the buildings really look nice. I think Janet is getting some white semi-gloss (washable) for the café and also for the classrooms. I think she may just leave the primer on the carpenter/mechanic shop, I am not sure. Word is that Jason suggested leaving it white wash because it is going to get dirty anyway; we'll see on that one also.

It is Thursday (6-3) and Theresa and her boys are going to be leaving Sunday so tomorrow they will probably get things all together for their trip back home. It has been good to have them here, especially since Janet has had to be gone these few weeks. Not sure when she will be back to stay longer than a couple days; hopefully this next week. Anyway, I have plenty of work to do, yes, painting.

When we came we were told that the rainy season was over. Wrooonnnggggg! We have had rain some part of the day on about 75-80 percent of the days since we have gotten here. It has been cold and miserable today. I am already tired of the rain.

Today is Monday and Theresa and her sons left yesterday. Janet came to pick them up. While she was here she received a phone call with some bad news. A young girl we knew at EVI drowned a couple days ago in the canal by EVI after going in to rescue her puppy that jumped in. Britney was only 22 years old. Her mother, Cindy, also works at EVI. Please pray for the family for the lost of a loved one. Britney worked on our farm and was a great help. She will be missed in a lot of ways. Cindy, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Janet has 8 more nights of meetings left in the evangelistic seminars that is going on at Kibidula and surrounding areas. She says she is hoping for about 25 baptisms out of one of the five churches involved in this series. There has been a great turnout of Non-Adventists showing up and hopefully more interests for baptism will result from the entire series. Anyway, the seed is planted and now the Holy Spirit can water. She is hoping to be home here in Mago come either Sunday or a couple of days after that and she is hoping to be bringing the fundis with her to start the construction we have to do here. We will see what develops.

I wanted to share something again that I read in the Great Controversy: "Those who would share the benefits of the Saviour's mediation should permit nothing to interfere with their duty to perfect holiness in the fear of God. The precious hours, instead of being given to pleasure, to display, or to gain seeking, should be devoted to an earnest, prayerful study of the word of truth. The subject of the sanctuary and the investigative judgment should be clearly understood by the people of God. All need a knowledge for themselves of the position and work of their great High Priest. Otherwise it will be impossible for them to exercise the faith which is essential at this time or to occupy the position which God designs them to fill. Every individual has a soul to save or to lose. Each has a case pending at the bar of God. Each must meet the great Judge face to face. How important, then, that every mind contemplate often the solemn scene when the judgment shall sit and the books shall be opened, when, with Daniel, every individual must stand in his lot, at the end of the days." {GC 488.2} Boy, did this talk to me. May we all examine ourselves to see if we are lacking in anything that we can do better. Awesome thought

That is all for now from Mago….

Deniece

Still Painting

2010-06-02T07:31:00.000-07:00

Well we have been here for almost a month and I haven’t done much of anything but paint window and door frames. The buildings that we had built last year needing painting inside before classes can start down there. Janet has windows and doors ordered but in the mean time she needed the inside of the buildings painted. She has been busy coordinating evangelistic meetings for the conference near Kibidula, but before leaving she left primer for the walls and oil paint for the window and door frames making sure she left enough work for us since she was going to be gone for almost 3 weeks.

Theresa and I have been painting the window and door frames and her boys have been putting two coats of primer on the walls. We should finish by Thursday or Friday. This is a good thing for they will be leaving on Sunday to come back to America. Sure was good to have them here. Theresa taught health class to the girls in our sewing class and also touched on Basic English. There was a lot of questions and interest in both.

Nothing much else happening, just keeping busy and staying away from splinters.  Oh, Theresa and I also have painted Janet’s kitchen and Living room/dining room for her while she has been gone. She was here briefly and saw the kitchen but has yet to see the living room/dining room. The paint she got was a little different than what she wanted but it actually doesn’t look that bad. We’ll see when she comes on Sunday.

We still do not have indoor plumbing yet, but having the water right next to the house is a far cry better than hauling water from a distance away. Maybe when Janet comes to stay we might look into it.

I am reading the Great Controversy again and am on the chapters covering the midnight cry. This book always amazes me as to how accurate it is, but then again it shouldn’t for it came from the Lord who is all knowing. Something I had read earlier this week on p. 397 - "The spirit of error will lead us from the truth; and the Spirit of God will lead us into truth. But, say you, a man may be in an error, and think he has the truth. What then? We answer, The Spirit and word agree. If a man judges himself by the word of God, and finds a perfect harmony through the whole word, then he must believe he has the truth; but if he finds the spirit by which he is led does not harmonize with the whole tenor of God's law or Book, then let him walk carefully, lest he be caught in the snare of the devil."--The Advent Herald and Signs of the Times Reporter, vol. 8, No. 23 (Jan. 15, 1845). {GC 396.2} It is so important for us to seek guidance from the Holy Spirit and pray that we won’t believe a lie and also for us to be studying God’s Word ourselves so we will not be deceived into believing that we are right when we are wrong. This is my prayer for each one of us.

That is all for now from Mago, TZ Africa

Deniece

2010-05-23T00:29:00.001-07:00

Ring Those Bells
We have been here in Mago for about a week now and Janet has had us painting, of course this was after a day of settling in. She (Janet) is anxious to get the sewing class down in their classroom for the class is more than twice the size as it was last year and is bursting at the seams (pardon the pun). We have eight of these girls staying here on campus and their little house is also quite crowded, so Janet is turning one of our classrooms into a dorm room until the girl’s dorm is completed. She is asking me to be the dean which is going to be a new experience – not necessarily deaning, but deaning to non English speaking girls. We will see how it works out.
A friend of ours, Sally Smith, who works at EVI in Colorado purchased and donated some (13 colored bells) for a kids bell choir here in Africa. Would you believe the first Sabbath in Mago we had special music with 4 of the village people playing them. It was so good to see. Samuel, one of the boys from TX plays bells at church back home and he was a great help in directing us, he also played with the village people that first Sabbath. We are going to let the Africans take it from here with some direction and I think they will do well. They seem to be enthusiastic about it. Theresa has been also teaching some English, health, and will be teaching cross stitch and embroidery to the girls while she is here.
The fundis which we had here last year is busy at Kibidula building an addition to a primary school and also they will be building a church; so they won’t be here until they finish with their work there. This is fine for we really do have plenty of work to do with the painting that needs to be done. Janet has the window glass and doors for the school on order and cushions for the sofas at her house on order. Things are shaping up.
Along with the painting of the school Theresa and I painted Janet’s kitchen. It is a peach color on two walls and a lighter peach color on the other two walls. The cook is back to cooking over an open fire until we are done. Janet wants the cupboards to be built before going back to cooking on the cook stove, so hopefully that will happen soon also, but she has said that the painting is priority.
The rainy season appears to be over, but we have had more clouds than sun since being here. We have had a few sprinkles but nothing more than a few minutes here and there. The days are warm when the sun is out – probably in the 70’s but when there are clouds maybe upper 50’s to low 60’s.
I am typing this on the 23th and hope to get it posted later today or tomorrow. Not sure how often I will be able to blog, but will be typing ahead of time so that I can copy and paste it into the blog so that I don’t take too much of the internet time.
Hope this finds everyone well and praising the Lord. There has been a song that keeps coming into my mind every day and I wish the promises it has in it for each one of you. I sing it daily, sometimes too often I think, but it is a promise from the Bible – Isaiah 41:10. I am sure we all know it and it promises of strength, help and the presents of God in our lives. This is my prayer for each one of you. Thank you for your prayers, God is good in sustaining us and teaching us to be content where He has us working.

Correction from last blog. Theresa’s two sons is Jarus and Samuel not Jarod and Samuel. Sorry!

That is it for now from Mago, Tanzania
Deniece

2010-05-23T00:29:00.000-07:00

Africa At Last!

2010-05-07T07:46:00.001-07:00

We (Theresa and her two sons, Jerod and Samuel) arrived this Friday morning at 7:00 in Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania, Africa. God was merciful for safety on our travels. Janet was waiting for us. She arrived here yesterday and had to do some business on Friday after our pickup so we are staying through Saturday night at the YMCA in Dar. Right now we are in an internet cafe in Dar right next to the "Y" and I thought I might as well write a short blog being that I am here and I don't know when I will be able to get one posted once I get to Mago.

It is hot and humid in Dar today but should cool down some by evening. There was some flooding yet here in Dar so the rainy season has not ended yet.

Sunday morning we will catch the bus for Kibidula at 5:30 am. In Kibidula we will get Janet's truck and leave to go home shortly after that.

Again, I praise the Lord for His watch care and His love that He shines along our path to reasure us of His direction and guidance. May He show you too, the same for you as you look to Him daily.

Signing off for now in Dar,

Deniece

Africa At Last!

2010-05-07T07:46:00.000-07:00

Time Is Approaching

2010-04-25T08:11:00.001-07:00

Well,t I have 10 days left before I leave for Africa. It seems like it took forever and yet it also seems it is here with no time to spare. I have finished the project of church pew ends that Janet had given me to do prior to her leaving in March for Africa. The container is here with some things loaded, but Frank is to take the "bull" by the horns and finish the job as complete as he can prior to return in July. (She is coming back for ASI and also to ship the container.) I am to meet up with a woman and her two sons in London and we will be traveling together to Dar Es Salaam. They are leaving Texas about the same time that I will be leaving Denver. Her and her sons will be working with us for about a month. We also have a couple and their two sons coming to stay at Mago with us in September when Janet comes back to Africa. I talked with him and he is familiar with the type of hydroelectric plant that we have to install - things are starting to look promising for us to get electricity this year, of course Lord willing, that is; and I can't figure out any reason why the Lord not to will it for us. It has been a long time coming.

Janet said she was going to start working on a staff house for them and hopefully it will be done or at least close to being done by the time they get there. I am sure there will be plenty for me to do to assist the completiong of the project.

I am looking forward to being used by the Lord while there. I have in the workings to teach English to the people over there (do I really know what I am doing? No! but thru Christ I can do all things!!); I am still going to be doing her finances and anything to everything else she needs me to do.

I hope this year will fair better than last as far as me being comfortable and at ease over there. Please keep us (Janet and I) in your prayers. Everyone needs to know that prayers are going up for them and I know that that is happening for us. The Lord has trials for each of us to chip away the much needed worldliness on our character and I think I am ready for this to happen in the way He deems best. I have the promise that He will not bring on me nothing that I can't handle with Jesus by my side. That was my strength last year and He will be my strength this year. I know He sent me to Africa last year and is leading me there this year. What else can I do but follow.

Back to packing at this end and work here at EVI. I am hoping to take off the last week of my stay here from EVI work schedule so that I can get all ready and not have to run around the last minute for things.

Seven and a half months seems like a long time but before I know it I will be rushing around there to get ready to come home in December.

That is all for now, not sure if I will have another one before leaving.

God bless all of you and may we be ready for what is coming upon us like a storm.

Signing off from EVI,

Deniece

Back to Africa

2010-04-04T09:19:00.000-07:00

Well, I have l month before I leave for Africa. Janet and Frank is there now and I think Frank is due back on April 8 and Janet may stay in Africa. She ordered a container before she left and it should arrive this week. She also purchased a new John Deer tractor with 4 implements to put in the container for us to use over there. The tractor will surely cut our work short, for sure. The EVI church had donated some of their church pews for us over there and they will be going into the container also, with a "few" other items that will be put in for us over there. I am making ends for the pews for we will be cutting them in half for our small church and so the ends will be used to cap off the cut end of the pew; and I am almost done with what I need to do with them here. I am going to meet up with a family at the London airport who Janet had made arrangments with before she left that will be coming with me to Africa and will stay and help for about a month. I think there will be the mother and two of her sons. I am thankful because I have not traveled overseas by myself before and sometimes, I fear, that it can be intimidating to go through customs and all. Anyway, I am looking forward to arriving and getting to work over there.

In my last blog someone made a comment that they wanted me to post pictures of Baraza and Mariam's baby "Isaiah". I can attach them now, but when I get over there I cannot for it takes up so much time and memory on dial up internet. So below are some pictures of Isaiah.

I will try and post at least one more blog before leaving, possibly two, depending on how busy I get between now and then.

Signing off from EVI, CO
Deniece

Sooner Than You Think

2010-02-21T08:28:00.001-08:00

Well, I have been thinking of writing a new blog since we have been back from Africa, but for some reason kept putting it off. Sorry about that and so I will not postpone it any longer. May is coming around sooner than you think. Janet and Frank will be leaving in March for a tour of theInstitutes over there (Riverside, Kibidula and EVIFCM) with an ASI representative who is going to do articles on them. Janet is about convinced that she will be staying because she will only be here for 3 weeks before going back. She is thinking also of getting a container this year. We have quite a bit of large items that needs to go.

I will still be leaving in May, probably around the 5th and anticipate getting back to work quickly. Today, in fact in about 1/2 hour I will be having surgery again on my hand. If you remember last year I had gotten a splinter in my hand and Janet had operated also the Doctors at the hospital but neither could find the splinter. I still am getting infection in the area and there is something hard about an inch long that still brings pain upon rubbing up against it. I do not want to go to Africa without having it removed. So today is the day. The Doctor's here at EVI are going to do it. May the Lord guide their eyes and hands.

Anyway, now that I have started the blogs up again, hopefully I will continue at least every week or two. Thanks for hanging in there with us and my the Lord continue to bless you and EVIFCM.

Signing off here at EVI in CO
Deniece

2009-12-03T04:08:00.001-08:00

Almost Time!

Well, the time is drawing near for us to leave here. It is hard to believe that it has been over 3 months and all the work that has been accomplished. We thank the Lord for his blessings and for the fundis for their dedication to finishing a job well done. No major injuries or set backs during the whole time, praise the Lord! When we were short material, the Lord came through and we received what we needed before the fundis finished with what they had. We have three buildings close to completion – paint, windows and doors are all we need to complete the buildings and they will be ready for classes. The fundis are on the last room, as I write, where they are plastering the walls. We have the two heavy large doors that are going in the Mechanic/Carpentry shop due in possibly tomorrow and we are going to have the fundis install them. The work really looks good. Next year we will finish the dorm and house that we had started this year and more than likely start another dormitory and house hopefully they all will be completed before coming home next year. I am almost done with the financial books before I finish up here; then Janet says we will be leaving here earlier so that we can spend a few days at Kibidula to complete the books there and leave them with Irma for the accountant next year. I need to sit her down for a short time to go over it here. (Yeah, right). 

Yona and I have finished the lobby ceiling at the church. I have also installed some door knobs in the doors at our house. The water is just behind the house in the woods a distance and next year we will bring it on to the house and down to the school. There is so much stuff left to do on our house, but our concentration has been on the industrial school so that we can get our classes started for the new year. It looks like the carpentry class and possibly the sewing class will be able to be in their new facility come next year.

I am anxious to be home and yet there is a little sadness in leaving. But just a little, for the enthusiasm of going home overrides the sadness and also I know I will be coming back, Lord willing. My older sister has not been well and I will be going to her house in Georgia for Christmas till the middle of January then back to EVI where I will work until I come back here in May. If I don’t see you on this trip, maybe next time. I will try and continue writing on the blog or maybe I can try again and get Janet to write. 

That is all for now, signing off from Mago….

Deniece

2009-11-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

Matema Beach

Today is Sunday, the 22nd, and we are at the beach on vacation at a Resort in Matema, Tanzania. We woke up to the sound of the waves on the beach and an 8 piece band playing down the beach. The sun was just coming up over the mountains when I stepped out on the porch; the morning promising to be warm and inviting.

Janet and I left Wednesday evening around 7:30 to go to Kibidula. We stopped around 11:00 at the Lutheran Guest house in Makambaka for a few hours shut eye and got up Thursday morning at 4:00 and drove the rest of the way which was about 1 hour 15 minutes away. Jason and his family were up and getting things ready to go. We stayed and had breakfast and then we loaded up and left. It was about 6 hour drive, all on black top accept for about the first 30 minutes and the last hour and a half. We traveled through some very lush and green mountainous area that grew just about anything that you can grow in the area and abundance of it – various types of mangos, bananas, avocados, jack fruit and other things that I wasn’t familiar with. We bought a few things to take with us and kept on our way. The area was so beautiful. Yes, I have taken some pictures for later. Upon arriving around 4:30 Thursday in Matema I was awe struck with the area at the resort. It was like some of the pictures you see of resort areas. We had reserved a beach house that was about 50 yards from the water’s edge; nothing between but sand and a few small trees. They even went swimming Thursday night – I just took in the sight and enjoyed the fresh air and the view. (They even have sit down flush toilets); no hot water, the water piped into the beach house and the faucet outside comes from the lake which appears to be around 92 degrees. I took my swim after my worship and before breakfast Friday morning at around 7:30. Couldn’t believe I was swimming at 7:30 in the morning on November 20. Upon coming back to the beach house after my swim, Janet told me of a “bed partner” I had during the night that was found this morning. In a jar on the table in the beach house was a scorpion found on the blanket at the foot of my bed. Now we don’t know if he was up there all night or climbed up the mosquito netting this morning; but in any case I was thankful for the Lord’s protection sparing me from the sting of the scorpion. The sun is hot and some of us have received a little sunburn, but sunscreen is preventing anymore. Some of the foods we have brought and fixed, some we have brought and are having the kitchen here fix, and some food we are having the kitchen fix altogether. We have plenty of fresh fruit. We are eating mangos, bananas, plums, pineapple, avocados, and oranges. We have had spaghetti, potatoes, raman noodles, peanut butter and honey, bread and did I mention plenty of fresh fruit. We are really enjoying the time to get away and relax. I have been lying around a lot, just relaxing; I did swim quite a bit on Friday and will probably swim some today. We have had little rain everyday but today. Did I say how beautiful it is here?

Monday morning at 7:00 I went swimming and had an enjoyable time until I got water in my left ear. Later in the morning we canoed over to an area where we saw some colorful fish in amongst some rocks. They were beautiful. Janet, Jason and Antonette went snorkeling and saw more. I decided to wade in the shallow and see what I can see. I still had a slight earache and didn’t want to get any more water in my ear; but I enjoyed it just the same. We got back to the beach house and packed up to leave. We got to Kibidula at around 8:30 Monday night and Janet and I left for home the next morning. We stopped and ordered the big doors for one of our buildings and did a little other shopping and continued on our way. We arrived home at about 4:30. We went right down to the school sight to see what has been done while we were gone. The Mechanic/Carpentry building was about done being plastered – looking real good. We ordered the big doors and they should arrive next week. The kitchen/cafeteria building is about completed today (Wednesday) and Janet is trying to finalize on some things that needs to get done before we head home in about 3 weeks. The fundis believe that they can finish the plastering on all buildings before we leave. The timing is going real well so that by time they get done we will be leaving probably within a week. Janet is moving extra material left over into an area that can be locked up while we are gone. She is quite pleased with the work that has been done and that is getting done. She is smiling quite a bit lately. Maybe the vacation did her some good too!

Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing most of you. I would say all, but I know I don’t know all and won’t see all, so I am saying most of you.  Can’t believe it is almost time to go. I am putting in small amounts of internet time on the computer so that I don’t have any left over when I leave. So I might do one more blog here and do more upon arriving home.

Goodbye for now from Mago…. AND HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Deniece

2009-11-16T23:04:00.000-08:00

The Lord Came Through Again

I am sorry to all my avid readers that I haven’t written a blog lately. No real reason but I am going to give a couple . One is that I was waiting for Janet’s articles. I copied and tried to paste, come to find out she did it in Word 2007 and I have 2003 and could not convert the articles. So I asked her to cut and paste into an email and send it to me that way. Come to find out last night, she is having problems emailing and can’t do that either. So we will have to wait on that. Also it has been raining everyday and some days all day long. I charge my computer batteries but I Skype my sister who has been sick and use up all my battery for that. We used to have sunshine all day where I could charge my battery a couple times, but not much more. Yesterday was the first day in a month that it had not rained all day. It was beautiful, and I charged my battery twice. I am going to try and get me one of those extended batteries that last longer than one hour. Anyway that is my excuses for not writing, for whatever it is worth .

We have also been busy. The Mechanic/Carpentry shops are about done; doors needs to be installed, glass put in the windows, and the walls plastered. Cafeteria/Kitchen building also needs doors installed, glass in windows and walls plastered and it will be done. Of course, in both of these buildings, we need cabinets, benches/tables and shelves built, but the building themselves will be done. The 4-classroom building is going up; last of the bricks are being bought today. The ends of the building and the back of the building are up, the front of the building should be completed today and the walls dividing the classrooms are half way up and will be done this week also. Then all we have left in that building will be the doors, glass in windows and plastering the walls. The Lord is so good. We thought we would have to send the fundis home early for we did not have enough sand or bricks and the road is too bad for trucks to come down to the sight. The last truck got stuck and it took close to 5 hours just to get up the road. Then, Janet found some bricks she is hauling with her pick-up and about 6:30 the other night, 2 trucks of sand came and we unloaded it where we had some other sand sitting up on top of the property. We are expecting to more loads coming this week. It always amazes me how the Lord tests our faith in Him and He comes through when we need it most and just in time.

Sabbath evening, Nov 14 around 7:00, two of our Bible Workers – Delilah and Jamila, were on their way home and was passing on a trail next to our property. They came across a lady sitting on the ground, crying and saying she can’t get up. She said she was visiting her husband who was in jail. One of the girls stayed with her while the other came for help. After talking with Baraza, our translator he told me about it. Janet was busy with a carpenter who was measuring our windows so that he can make windows that will open and close. I went to her and told her. She got in her truck and went down to the end of the trail that the lady was sitting on. Upon arriving she looked at the ankle and it was quite swollen and she decided to take her to the hospital. The girl cried all the way there saying who is going to take care of her children while her husband was in jail (she has three children). Upon arriving at the hospital the doctor said they would x-ray the ankle in the morning. At the same time we had send a message to her family. Early the next morning the family came to find out more information and they thanked us very much and went on to the hospital to see the girl.

Well that’s it for now, signing off from Mago….

Deniece

2009-11-05T05:01:00.000-08:00

Fire Again!

(Written on 10-30-09)
Tuesday morning started out like any other morning – and Janet and I were getting things ready for laying out two more buildings – a house and a dormitory. We were heading for the truck so we could go get material when one of our fundis, up on the roof of our mechanic classroom saw fire and told us about it. We decided to go have a look and ran into Baraza (our interpreter) who was coming to get us. He told us the other boys had already gone and that the fire was quite close. Janet went back to the job site and collected the fundis. Upon arriving we could see that in reality the fire was about a quarter mile away from our property; a lot closer than the other fire we fought a few weeks back. Anyway, while walking up we passed a young lady carrying a baby on her back; she just stood there looking guilty as we walked by – holding head down and just barely looking up at you. I wondered if she had anything to do with the fire. Come to find out she was burning her field when the high wind blew it out of control. Last year this area burned and the village people milled the good wood off of it. Upon doing this they left piles of slab wood just waiting to catch afire. That is exactly what happened. Well, we fought for about 2-3 hours and finally beat it. There were a total of about 50 people all working together for one cause – get the fire out. We had about 30 of our group there and the rest were village people. The Lord blessed and no one got hurt and no houses were damaged.

Janet and I was able to lay out the perimeter walls on our 4th and 5th buildings yesterday (Wednesday). Things are moving fast and we have a lot to do before coming home in December. The fundis are getting the first building ready for roofing sheets that should be coming next week. They will also start plastering some of the walls. They are currently living in a “canvas” garage that Janet had, but when it rains it comes in and gets them wet. Once the roof is on the first building and the walls are plastered, they will move into there to give them more room and also to be out of the elements. Rain has started early this year. Although, we don’t get it everyday, we do get rain that will soak you to the bone if you are out working in it (which I have ). The first step of our Gazebo is completed and it looks nice – we are hoping that the kids will be able to use it on Sabbath, but it still has to cure some more. We’ll see…..

Oh, Janet wanted me to ask for recipes. The foods that we eat are: potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, wheat flour, white flour, corn meal flour, beans, rice, spaghetti, and greens. They fix them, and they are good but it is the same ol’ same ol’, if you know what I mean. We get tired of it for one but also we want to hold cooking classes and would like to teach them various other ways to prepare these foods. Do not send the recipes here. Once we get back to the states I will put in another request and tell you where to send them. I repeat, do not send them now. I would greatly appreciate it and thanks for your help.

I had other things to write about but Janet told me she would write on the items and I could use it for a blog entry. WHOO! WHOO! But as of yet I have not received them and I am writing the rest of this blog on 11-2. I know it will come because it will be a couple articles for EVI’s Faith Venture magazine; so I should get it soon.

Jason, Bill and Eric are here from Kibidula until Thursday helping us. We received roofing sheets, One-Day-Church parts and have been busy putting these things up. I sure do wish I can send pictures with me blog. With Jason here I will ask him. I believe I may know how I can with out it taking all my time up. Anyway, things are really looking good down there. The 2” pipe is here also for our water system, but that is on hold until at least Jason and the others leave. We want to use them on the buildings as much as possible.

A side note. I have been invited to join Janet and her family to go to the lake (Matemba, I believe) on vacation for a few days before we come home. When, I am not sure, but I think it will be soon. I am looking forward to seeing a place that is new.

This is goodbye from Mago….

Deniece

2009-11-02T02:00:00.000-08:00

Roofing Sheets Are Coming!

(Written Tuesday 10-27)
Janet called Jason last night to ask him some questions and we were told that the roofing sheets were done and that Ezekiel will be going to get them today sometime. Janet was excited that they were done a couple days earlier than expected. So this means, if all goes well, that they should be here this week or next at the latest. Our 2” pipe should be coming too. With the roofing sheets installed we can plaster the inside walls of our first building. Then all we will have left is windows and doors. And we should also have the material for the other two buildings so that the walls can go up on them. The fundis will be real busy once the roofing material arrives.

The floor did not get poured yesterday like anticipated on our third building, but it did today; it was really busy down at the sight. The cement mixer was going almost non-stop (unless they stopped to eat or fill tank up with gas) and we were all making sure they had all that they needed to complete the job. It was pretty neat to see how they get the job done, even though I have seen it three times now. I took some pictures of the progress and will have them available at a later time.

Yesterday we dug a ditch at the side of the house that our drain pipe will lay that comes from our septic tank. It is not quite done but when the ditch is it will be about 6 feet deep and 1 1/2 feet wide. We will have gravel, the pipe and more gravel and then the dirt on top of it. We have two men we have hired to make gravel. We have paid for the rocks on property next to ours and they go and using pick and shovel dig out the rocks and then with a hammer they break the rocks into gravel. They have quite a few piles that we will use at our construction site and where ever we need gravel and this is quite handy so we don’t have to pay to haul it to our place from some other town.

Sabbath, I was going down to fill up my water bottle when I head the snap, crackle and pop of fire. I looked and saw flames taller than me and I ran back and got Baraza and we went to investigate. It looked like it was on our property but I wasn’t sure. Janet was resting and until we knew for sure I didn’t want to bother her. Well, when we got down to where the fire was, it was on the property next to ours. Baraza went down and talked with them to make sure it was totally under control. Later on we had nature video that we showed the people after Sabbath. Janet was on her way to church and heard another fire. This was a little farther up from the other, but sending Baraza up he investigated and found out that it was quite a ways from our property. Once you have been close to having fire near you, you seem to be more aware of them around you. It appears that we are the only ones with a forest on our property and we don’t want to lose them. We have fire breaks all around our property and Janet says next year we will make it twice as wide just to protect our property from everyone’s fires that they start each year at this time.

Well that is it for today, bye for now from Mago…

Deniece

2009-10-25T01:53:00.001-07:00

A New Gazebo

Hello from Mago. It has been awhile since I have written. The last I wrote was that Janet cut open my hand and stitched it back up. Well, I took the stitches out the following Sunday, but it was still hurting quite bad. Janet and I both felt something may still be in there; so on Monday she took me to the hospital. We weren’t there long when she saw someone she knew and they talked and they got me in right a way to get an x-ray done on my hand. We needed to ask the right questions (which we didn’t) and we wouldn’t have needed the x-ray. Wood does not show up on x-ray, but we didn’t know that until after the x-ray was done. Anyway, that left minor surgery again. They scheduled me for surgery real quick. Janet had gone to town to find veggies and also to eat lunch. She was going to come back and check on me and if I still wasn’t done she would come back some time later to get me. Well, when she got back, I was in getting prepped for surgery. I had an infection in two spots but they found no splinter. So I have an incision of about 1 ½” long. The Dr gave me only 3 stitches because he wanted it to drain so no infection would develop. I took the stitches out this morning and praise the Lord no infection. They were going to give me antibiotics, but I declined and claimed the promises from the Lord about using natural remedies for healing. I took garlic for breakfast and lunch along with my Epicor; I also took 3 capsules of Echinacea at each of those meals. I claimed His promises every day for healing and the Lord is so good, He answered my prayers.

Back to work – we have started on our third building in just over a month; actually our 4th if you want to include the Gazebo; more on that a little later. We have our purlins up on our carpentry/mechanic classes waiting for our roofing (which will get finished at the manufacturing plant on Wednesday), we have our kitchen/cafeteria floor poured and waiting for more material on it, we are going to be pouring the floor tomorrow on our building that is housing our four classrooms; that building is 86 feet long. The classrooms and the kitchen buildings (as are the remaining of our buildings) are going to be built out of the “one-day-church” buildings that have been donated to us for this purpose. Janet and I will be laying out another building, probably a house either today or tomorrow. She also wants to lay out a site for her garage up here near the house.

The children’s department in Sabbath School has been meeting outside on either chairs they carry out or boards laid on top of bricks. Janet got the idea of making a Gazebo for the children to meet in. Janet and I laid out the floor plan and some of the fundis have gotten the floor poured. So they had the wall up on Friday and today are building the seat for the kids to sit on. I have pictures that I will show later. Next year upon returning we will be putting a thatch roof over it. It will even be nice during the week just to sit under and enjoy the weather when we are not working (when ever that is).

Work continues to keep us busy. We are still waiting for our 2” pipe to finish our water project. The ditch has been completely filled in as far as possible at this point and we have a lot of water coming from our dam. The roll of pipe should be coming with the roofing material which we are waiting to get done by Wednesday.

Good to read your comments, hope all is well with each one of you.

God bless and good bye for now from Mago….

Deniece

2009-10-12T06:32:00.001-07:00

Ring of Fire

This month, October, is preparation month for the people to be able to plant next month. One of the ways they prepare their fields is to burn them. So October is burn month. October is also one of the windiest months of the year. Wind and fire do not go together, if you know what I mean. Anyway, Wednesday there was a “controlled” fire that got out of control up on the other side of the mountain from Mago. Janet and I drove to it and it was quite a distance from our property. By Friday it was on this side of the mountain and moving down. We kept an eye on it but did nothing else. Sabbath morning when the people went to church Janet told me to get walking shoes on, we were going for a walk. What started to be a walk to view where the fire was came very close to a disaster. We watched it as it moved into the valley close to the school. Janet and I knelt for prayer and put the fire into His hands. We watched as tall pine trees flared up in a huge flame. We could feel the heat although it was at least 100 yards away. It was so devastating to watch. We were standing in a field of tall dry grass and I told Janet if it comes into the field it will move fast and not to get down in the field too low. A little while later, I think she knelt and prayed again while I was down standing by a small tree. There were others standing around watching and talking with some people who had just came out of the forest that were fighting the fire. All of a sudden I see it hit the grass. I took off running up hill yelling to Janet that it had hit the grass. She repeated it as a question and I yelled yes as I kept running. Running up hill is very hard, but when you have fire chasing you, you need to run faster than you thought you ever could. We got to the group of people who were standing around talking and when they saw it, they started to run. I was scared, I don’t know about the rest of them. I ended up standing in a garden area that had been dug up and was taking pictures. Janet, in the mean time had gotten a blanket, got it wet and was trying to beat down the fire in the grassy field. She and some of the guys around there were trying to save a couple of houses that the fire was heading towards. Part of the time she was by herself fighting the fire and then some men and ladies came to help put out the fire. They got some of the fire and started another section of the field to burn itself up to the other fire so that it will burn itself out. It worked. The fire was out there, but raging other places. We came back home to get our fundis to help fight the fire. We were busy most of the day fighting fires. We were able to help save a few more homes and the people were very thankful. The last fire we fought was purposely started and the 2 men were caught and taken down to the authorities. The mindset of some people – they had lost their home and felt others should to.

Later that evening it started back up again and Janet and I both thought it would reach our property before morning. So we took turns staying up most of the night. It slowed down after 1:00 so that Janet slept on the sofa and I slept on my bed with my work clothes on. The Lord blessed and we were safe. She hired 2 men to go and put out the fires that seem to be threatening us so that we could sleep better the next night.

The fires kept raging on the other side of the mountain. It ended up at the top of the tall mountain like 2 arches. Then the arches joined together and ended up as a huge ring of fire about a mile wide. My camera could not pick it up but we had some visitors from Kibidula that took some pictures and I am hoping they will turn out.

It was exciting to say the least and we all gave up a prayer of thanks for our safety and the safety of the village people.

Today Janet had to do minor surgery on my hand. I thought and she thought that I had a huge splinter a little over 1” long in the palm of my left hand just below my fingers. She gave me a shot of Lanicane and froze the area. Then she probed and cut and couldn’t find anything. Still not 100% sure she stitched me up (3 stitches) and bandaged it up. We will watch it for a few days and see how it feels. Right now I am typing with my two middle fingers numb. They feel funny.

Well we are pouring the footings to our second building today and we have Bill and his family here for a few days from Kibidula. Bill is building our rafters for our first building. Things are happening fast.

Well so long for now from Mago,

Deniece

2009-10-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

Be Content in All Things

Well, today is Friday and Sabbath is drawing nigh and is promising a good Sabbath rest. We have been busy this week with the going up of our first building. The carpentry and mechanic building is waiting on rafters which Bill from Kibidula will be here on Sunday to work on those and Jason will be here a couple days later with the roofing. Right now they are digging the footers for our second building which will house our cafeteria, kitchen and wash area. When you drive into the area you see the first building. You would have to be here to experience the excitement of seeing a building where there used to be nothing.

Also, this week I went down and connect our 2” pipes together, altered the water to go towards the dam which was recently built and to fix the settling tank to receive and send out water both into our 2” pipe and also into the overflow so that extra water will continue to flow. I prayed prior to working on it so that there would be no issues. The Lord came through and success was gained. An abundance of water was coming out the end of our 2” pipe by the time I got to i 600 meters later. I gave out a yell that the neighbors probably wondered what was going on. But again, you would have to be there through all the digging, measuring, laying down of pipes, etc. It was exciting to say the least.

My cold is for the most part over; just a little cough now and then. One of our cooks has it (which she had it before I did and never really got over it) and is out of commission. I guess a lot from Kibidula has had it also. Glad to be feeling better

The Lord has taught me this week through my studies (children of Israel going through the wilderness in Numbers) and my work that we need to be content and not complain where He has us. And it is easy to abide when blessings are received like we have this week, but we also need to be aware of the good even if it is hard to find. Keep looking up and He will be there for each of us.

Bye for now from Mago….

Deniece

2009-10-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

Epicor Just Wasn’t Enough

I have come down with a cold from all the dust I have inhaled while working in the ditches and other places. It isn’t too bad. Yesterday, Thursday, was the worst. I started coming down with it on Wednesday, didn’t sleep real well Wednesday night and was in bed most of the day on Thursday. Thursday night I slept better but I was still in and out of sleep. Today, Friday, I am feeling better yet still not quite over it. I have been taking Epicor faithfully. I think I missed one day early on when I first got here. Other than that, I have taken it every morning at breakfast. Janet took one of the fundis back home to Kibidula today. His wife is due to deliver if she hasn’t already. So now, Janet can pick up some of our plumbing items that Jason got in Dar. She will be coming back early Sunday morning. Janet told me that she would have taken me with if I didn’t have a cold; which I understood because I wouldn’t want to give this cold to her grandkids. They evidently just got over having a cold. Anyway, today and Sabbath will be extra days to get over this thing so that I will be ready to work again next week when she gets back.

The days here have been hot. I think, the way Janet talks, that we got into the low 80’s last Sunday and possibly Monday. She says this is the hottest time of the year and as we near the end of October and on into November the temperatures will be dropping some. Then the rains start in mid to late November and continue most of the time through April into May. This is why we will be leaving in mid December to come home. We will then leave in May to come back. I have been thinking about it and am looking forward to coming home, but I am also thinking about coming back and am anticipation the return trip. There is so much going on that will keep one busy for a long time.

Our cooks are adjusting to using our wood burning stove in our kitchen. Their outside kitchen was not available to be used because of the work being done on our septic. The gravel, sand and cement were mixed right by the entrance to their kitchen so they had to make other arrangements. They both say that they like the wood burning stove and we are teaching them how to use the controls on the side. We are also teaching them how to do dishes with two wash basins and hot water. We are also working with them to keep the kitchen nice and clean unlike where they used to cook and do dishes. It’s new for them, but I think they will like it once they have gotten used to it; especially once we get the cupboards and kitchen sink installed with running hot and cold water. I know I am looking forward to it.

I guess that is all for now. Bye from Mago….

Deniece

2009-10-01T08:09:00.000-07:00

The Floor is Poured

Today was a big day for the industrial school. The floor was being poured. We didn’t get the pipe to work to assure the fundis of enough water to pour a 4” thick 23’x71’ floor so we had to haul water. We had some 40 gallon drums (5 of them I think) and some tubs along with some 5 gallon buckets. We went down to the river and I stood on some rocks in the river filling the 5 gallon buckets and handing them to one of our men who in turn handed it to another man up the hill a ways and he took it to Janet who was standing in the back of her truck emptying them into the 40 gallon drums. We did this 4-5 times yesterday and twice today. The work was being done this morning and so we started hauling water yesterday. The water was enough and they finished this afternoon; looks good – now tomorrow they start laying bricks.

Yesterday I went out to the springs with 3 of our regular fundis and buried most of the 2” pipe. So all we have left to bury is about 50 meters on the end closest to the house and about 30 – 50 feet on the other end. These ends have to be connected to another end of a pipe and we are waiting for pipe or connectors to be able to complete the task.

The septic tank has about 6 more layers of bricks to go up and then they will finish plastering inside and out and fill in dirt on the outside. We also have to install the intake and output pipes in the septic at that time. Then the task of making the lid will be the next job. We are keeping busy with the jobs we have going.

Since I have been here I am amazed at the different bird calls I hear. I would like to get a bird book for this area (if they have one) and try to identify some of them. I would almost bet that one night I heard a whip-o-will. I only heard it once, but it sure sounded like it. Stan and I used to lie in bed and listen to them on into the night when we lived in Tennessee. It sounded so peaceful. The Lord is so good to give us things like that to enjoy and that will direct us to Him. If you haven’t experienced it lately, listening to the sound of the bird calls, try it some time soon; if you are sitting/lying and see if it doesn’t direct you to Him. My prayer is that it will and will bring you peace.

That’s it for now… Bye from Mago…

Deniece

2009-09-29T07:24:00.001-07:00

Busy, Busy, Busy

Thursday, Janet and I worked on the ditch which has our pipe that is going to bring water to our house. We still need one more roll of pipe to bring it to the house, but in the mean time we needed to get the pipe level. We will get air locks in the pipe and the water will not flow properly or not flow at all. Anyway, Janet used the transit and I had the measuring stick. About every 8-12 feet we would measure and I would either put dirt under the pipe or take some out. If you can picture this, (which I did get a picture of us both at the end of the day), but if you can picture – the ditch ranges from about 3’ deep to approximately 5’ deep. The width of the ditch is barely 8-10”. First, we measure; most of the time I have to shovel dirt into the ditch on top of the pipe. Then I stand in the ditch so that I can bend down to lift the 2” pipe up on top of the dirt. Remember that the ditch is barely 10” wide and I am bending sideways into the ditch. Most of the time I am standing on one foot the other is somewhere in the ditch behind me but some of the time I have to have both feet behind me because the ditch is so narrow. From my head to my feet I am in the ditch. I was so filthy at the end of the day that if I worked much longer you would think I was a native of Mago, Tanzania. Janet wasn’t too far behind me. She was in the ditch some, but it just didn’t work for her. We did this most of the day and my back was hurting when we got home. I had a catch in my right hip area that finally went away by Sabbath evening. A day of rest really helped. Janet thanked me for the work and I told her it was a dirty job but, someone had to do it. We both laughed.

Sunday and Monday I spent filling in the ditch under the pipe in between the dirt piles that we had made. This was also a hard and dirty job. It was hot during the midday and so I quit on Sunday until late afternoon and then worked until sundown. Monday morning she sent 3 of her workers out to help me. I was very thankful for the help. Surprisingly, my back bothered me some on Sunday and I was expecting it to hurt on Monday when I went back out to shovel, but it wasn’t too bad. I praised the Lord!

Some of the fundis are framing for the 8” concrete “starter” for our bricks for the school and that doesn’t take all 11 of them; so one of the fundis is building a brick sofa/loveseat in our house. It sounds crazy but it really looks nice. I have pictures and will have them in my presentation for you to see. Another group is working on our septic tank. They are building it with bricks and then putting a plastering on both sides of the brick to seal it. So there is a lot of stuff going on. Oh, also we had 3 of the fundis build our dam out at the springs and it is done. All we are waiting on to get water to the house area is one more roll of pipe which Jason got today from Dar and we should be getting it sometime this week (hopefully).

With all of this going on, this blog was late getting written let alone getting posted. I am writing this Monday night after I went to bed. Hopefully I can post it tomorrow.

Hope all is well where you are… Bye for now from Mago…

Deniece

2009-09-23T06:33:00.000-07:00

Am I Lonely?

Lonely – as described in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (I don’t have Webster’s Dictionary, which I prefer) describes lonely as “being unhappy because you have no friends or people to talk to. That does not describe me because Janet is here and we talk sometimes, Baraza who is our translator – I talk with him sometimes and his wife, Mariam, also speaks a little English. So in that manner I am not “lonely”. I am lonely when I think of my friends and family that I would talk to regularly and I miss them and that is when I get “lonely”. I think reminiscing is good for the soul if you don’t let it control you, and maybe it sounded like I have been. My apologies for any misunderstanding, yes I am lonely for my friends and family, but I don’t think I am “lonely” to the point of despair. I have been here only one month and I am sure that in time I will adjust. When I was at Andrews, I remember seeing a sign that had a picture of someone by themselves and it said something along the line of - I may be lonely, but I am never alone; meaning that Jesus was always there. This is how I feel. I have been talking more and more with Him because I am by myself a lot. In this manner, this is a good thing.

Enough of that “philosophy” and on with other news; construction has started on our school and I am getting pictures but I can’t include them in the blogs. I will be putting together a power point presentation using them to show to when I come home. Anyway, the ditches for the footers are pretty well dug and now the rest of the ground is being leveled. Once the footers are poured and the bricks are starting to be laid, I was told that these guys are good and that the building will go up fast. We need to get water to them, so Janet has just left to go get some “inexpensive” piping to tie into our current water system that we drink to get water to the construction site. We have to go to Dar to pay and get the better kind and we just don’t have time now, so we are doing something temporary until we can.

With campmeeting going on, either Baraza or Janet fixes breakfast and I have been getting lunch. There are only four of us eating so that isn’t too bad. Supper is generally leftovers or Baraza will fix something for him and Disma. Janet and I generally do not eat supper.

Some of you who have my gmail account please email me. I have recently set up Outlook and the contacts did not carry over. So I need to reset them up. Thank you. Also, please do not send pictures, that just slows down the system and also takes a lot of megabytes to download which turns into money lost with my system over here, just text please.

Bye for now from Mago…

Deniece

2009-09-21T07:55:00.001-07:00

Fundi’s Are Arriving

Today is Monday, September 21, and I have been in Tanzania for 1 month and 2 days. Come the 24th, Thursday, I will have been here in Mago for 1 month. It really has not been as bad as I had thought it would be. The Lord has given me strength each and every day and He has been with me this month also. When I am by myself (which is quite a bit) I find myself talking out loud to Him. I was doing that the other day going to the springs and a donkey sounded off just as I walked past him. He was loose in the brush and I didn’t see him. I knew it wasn’t the Lord answering me, but it did startle me and I didn’t know what it was at first.

We are starting at digging the footers on our Industrial School. The laborers (fundis) are starting to arrive yesterday from Kibidula. Some are coming by bus and others arrived with Janet. She went down there Sabbath so that on Sunday she can pick up some things for the project and load up with as many men as she can from there. They will be digging the footers and also laying the bricks. It should go up quite fast. They will also put in our septic tank and our sofa (made from bricks and then we will put cushions on them).

We laid out the 2” pipe in our ditch on Friday, but we ended up short about 100 meters. We are trying to locate some so we can finish the job. So far we haven’t found any we can get a hold of. We can order from Dar but it will take longer than we want to get it. We may have to anyway. When we get that pipe we will bring water to the house and also pipe it down to the construction site for their water needs during construction.

We are waiting on a quote from a guy who came the other day that is going to do the plumbing in the house. We want water here by the time he is ready to start so that when he is done we will have indoor plumbing. We have a 9 foot deep hole ready for septic tank construction also. So there are a lot of different things going on.

Janet has been meeting with our Bible Workers every morning at 7:00 to get a run down on what they are doing. There are several bible studies going on and lots of visitations. Today begins campmeeting in this area and some of the Bible Workers have gone to it. Two of the men have stayed for they are translators for us and with the new workers coming we needed at least one of them. They both decided to stay. Both our cook and the house boy (who cooks also) have left so we are trying to find another cook. We may be doing our own cooking, which will be alright if I can cook on the stove in the kitchen in the house instead of over a fire in the outside kitchen. We’ll have to see.

Bye for now from Mago…

Deniece

God Is So Good

2009-09-20T03:15:00.000-07:00

Since I have been here I feel that my health has improved. I do a lot of walking. Sometimes walking up the hill my heart rate gets up around 150 but the recovery rate is good. The exercise strengthens my heart so that most of the time my resting heart rate is in the 60’s. I enjoy the weather here. I think I have worn a long sleeve shirt only 2-3 times and that was early morning when we had a frost over night. While working it does get hot although it really isn’t – it is probably in the 70’s. I remember talking with a friend of mine back at EVI and remember saying that if the Lord was sending me I would be happy here. I have heard that happiness is a mind set. I can choose to be happy in the worst situation; or I can choose to be miserable in the best situation. So in that case, yes I am happy although I do sorely miss my friends and family.

When I pray I pray for patience. In answer to my prayer the Lord brings situations and trials to test my patience. I have been tested and tried everyday and yes I fail some, but mostly at the end of the day I can see times where the Lord had strengthened me at the right time and the victory was mine. I still have a long way to go for trials still come, but I have prayed for the Lord to change me to make me ready for heaven; I feel He is working on me still and praise Him for it. The victories bring happiness to me also.

I believe that the Lord brought me here and I can see myself staying here longer as long as the Lord is keeping me here. If I didn’t have contact with family and friends it probably would be harder. Also knowing I have friends praying for me helps. I know that as long as the Lord is with me there is nothing too hard to stand.

My co-worker, Janet, is actually my boss and she is doing what she does best. She gets things done that needs to get done in her way. She is good at what she does and accomplishes a lot.

have a variety of work that she gives me to do and I enjoy the variety. I like keeping busy and there is plenty of that here. But….

I am beginning to befriend the village kids. In one of my blogs I mentioned something about 5 girls that sat with me while I worked on the computer. Well we decided I would teach them English and they would teach me Swahili. Ever since then, I believe they have told most of the kids in the village. When a group of kids see me, they call out my name and wave. If I am close enough they point at something and ask what it is in English. These aren’t even the girls I originally talked with. This is exciting for this is how Jesus worked. He befriended the people, healed their bodies and souls. When I work with the kids, yes I feel like a missionary. I feel like I am accomplishing something and it is coming naturally, not something that is planned and I have to make appointments and the like. It just happens any time of day. I know the other work I do is important and needs to be done; somebody has to do it and I do enjoy it; but, when I work with the people I really enjoy it, especially when I don’t plan it and it just happens. Please pray that my Swahili will steadily improve. I have started reading a condensed book about the Swahili language and I am praying that it will happen soon.

I hope this puts peoples mind at ease. Love and miss everyone. I could be happier if some of you were here.

Good bye for now from Mago…
Deniece

2009-09-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

Completed But The Lids

Hello to everyone. Today is Monday the 14th and Janet has gone to direct our guest to our location. Steve Grabner, his mother and two other women will arrive this afternoon for a two day stay here. They will be looking over our operations here. On Wednesday they will arrive back at Riverside for their board meeting. We hope their stay here is uneventful and yet full of events.

We completed yesterday our water containment system at the beginning of our spring. We completed at least all but the lids. It was a little rough going yesterday. I built the boxes so that the boxes can be taken apart easy after the cement dries. Well they were put together a little too easy and they started coming apart while putting the cement in. We nailed put to no avail. We ended up bracing it on all sides with boards going up against the embankment and then other smaller boards going perpendicular to them, hammering down until they are tight. When we left last night it was still intact. Prayer is now what we are using to keep it together. This was a learning experience for me. This was the first time I had built a form for cement like this one. When I saw it coming apart, all I could do was pray hard. God is so good! We were able to get it done by a prayer.

We will be using the water at our house and also at the industrial school at least for the construction right now. We now have to string out the pipe line from the containment system to here and onward to the school. We need the connectors and more pipe which Janet will be ordering soon if not already.

There is so much needed to get done that one just has to do what they can. Our house needs painting, door knobs put on doors. All the doors squeak terribly. Kitchen cupboards built and bathroom, kitchen and laundry room set up. We did have someone here who is to give us a price on doing the plumbing which needs to be done. So things are slowly getting started.

The church ceiling still needs completed, but I needed to work on something else first. In time it will get done.

Don’t know when this will get posted, today hopefully, if not by Wednesday for sure. Love every one and miss you too.

Goodbye from Mago….

Deniece

2009-09-09T00:45:00.001-07:00

What Do We Eat?

This question has been asked a number of times. Well, here is the answer:

Yes, I do eat rice and beans, but not every meal. Sometimes I eat beans with potatoes or with spaghetti. Sometimes we have a “gravy” sauce with TVP in it to put over our potatoes, rice or spaghetti – which ever is being served. Sometimes the rice has potatoes in it, sometimes it don’t. We have spaghetti with chopped onions and chopped Roma tomatoes in it. Mariam, our cook, bakes bread most every night so that we can have bread for breakfast. We put honey or jam on the bread. Sometimes we have avocados to put on our bread. We have cabbage to eat. She cooks the cabbage with tomatoes and onions in it, which is very good. We also eat the cabbage raw, which also is very good. This morning we had conde; which is something like our hominy with beans mixed in it and had some bread to go with it. Sometimes we have potatoes cooked in a kettle, sometimes boiled, sometimes baked. As far as fruit goes, right now we eat bananas and sometimes oranges. Right now there is not a lot of fruit in season.

I don’t eat supper right now for two reasons. One - is that they eat later than what I would like and, two - sometimes it is too heavy of a meal. I am planning to buy some popcorn and make some of that at night. Right now on some nights I just make me a cup of hot carob drink around 6:30-7:00 to drink while I am reading a book before I go to bed. Sounds cozy, huh? Janet has made some biscuits a couple of times for breakfast and I am thinking that the next time she does, I may make some gravy.

So there is variety in our meals and I am satisfied with what I am eating. Yes, there are some things that I miss, but the Lord is good and has supplied my needs when it comes to the variety of food I eat.

Love and miss each one of you and hope is well at your side of the world.

Until next time…

Deniece

2009-09-08T08:20:00.001-07:00

The Work Begins

Janet arrived back today from Kibidula with her son, Jason. We went down to the site where our industrial school will be built. Jason, his co-worker Eric, Janet and I laid out the first building with stakes and string. We will probably start digging the footers as soon as Janet gets back. It is happening! She just left to take Jason and Eric home. They should arrive at Kibidula somewhere around 11:00 tonight.

While working on my computer, to get internet I go up the hill and sit on a section of a tree lying down next to a stump. I use the stump as my table. This set up lies near the path that the students take to go home from elementary school. Well, yesterday 5 girls stopped by and watched me work. In “talking” with them (me English them Swahili) we decided I would teach them English and they will teach me Swahili. I got their names and they mine. Well, they saw me coming from the bathroom and called to me. I went over to the path and talked with them. I remembered their names, Praise the Lord, and they even remembered mine. We went through some items such as house, machete, and bucket – them learning English and me Swahili. Am I learning, well, some but it sure is slow going. We also went through the face features such as eye, ear, nose and mouth and a few other items. We will probably have to go through them every day for a while. But Rome wasn’t built in a day, and I have a older mind that is getting older by the day and has slowed down substantially.

Anyway, things are still going on to keep us busy.

Tomorrow, Lord willing, I will tell you about the food we eat here. Some have wondered before I left and my sisters have inquired on Skype.

Until tomorrow…

Deniece

2009-09-07T06:55:00.000-07:00

Hello again from Mago,

I know I had said I would post a blog every night; and I know that I had said I would email. Well, I did not know the whole picture over here regarding internet. If you can imagine living in a remote area on a mountain in Tanzania, Africa, a 3rd world country, you will understand that we don’t have cable, we don’t have high speed (like I thought with satellite), nor do we have a land line. We have a “gadget” that we load a cell phone card on and it gets converted to megabytes. It is considered dial up. Anyway, to make a long story short – access is not as easy as anticipated. I even have to walk a distance of about a football field up a hill to get good access.

I have been talking with my sisters on Skype at night (that is my time) and that is about it. I can’t get email yet with out it costing a lot. I am trying to set up Outlook, but I am getting an error message and can’t figure out the problem. Hopefully I will find out soon. Steven Grabner and family and friends will be arriving and I have hopes that he might be able to assist in the matter.

Janet is out getting the lumber for an industrial school project today (Friday) and she already has brick, gravel, and sand. She was going to get the cement last week and she did get some, but she only got 20 bags and this is for our septic tank. She needs to order something like 200 plus bags for the school project. She has laid the plans out on paper and we should probably start digging for the footers this next week.

Yona (one of the Bible Workers) and I have been putting up the tongue and groove ceiling in the church foyer. We have about a foot left in the foyer to do plus the hallway and pastors study before completion. Pictures will come. Right now the conference pastor is using our church for meetings with all the Bible Workers in this district/area and so our work has come to a stand still until next week.

Today is the 7th and Janet has gone to Kibidula for a few days. I got water from the ditch to do laundry and also to water gardens. Such a blessing, water that is. Tomorrow we continue with the ceilings at the church.

More later,

Deniece

2009-09-07T06:54:00.001-07:00

Hello from Mago, Tanzania!

Sorry for the delay, this is what I wrote 1 ½ weeks ago. Also, no pictures until I get Outlook working.

After leaving Denver we landed in London and had about a 6 hour lay over Wednesday the 19th. We were met by Bill and Irma at Dar es Salem early Thursday morning. We then traveled about 10-12 hours by Land Cruiser to Kibidula where we were warmly welcomed by Janet’s son Jason, his wife Antonette and their two daughters Trulisa and Emily. Their third daughter, Shilo, was sleeping. We spent the weekend and left after breakfast on Monday for our last leg of our journey.

We finally made it through the final leg of our trip and arrived on Monday evening, I think somewhere around 5-6:00. We received a warm welcome from Baraza, Mariam, their sons Abraham and Isaiah. We had a good nights rest and then all day Tuesday and Wednesday morning we were running all over lining up deliveries of sand, gravel, lumber, brick and cement. In fact right now (Wednesday afternoon) Janet has left to go to order cement and have it delivered tomorrow. Soon we will be starting our industrial school. We will get pictures as we begin the project.

Another project we are working on is getting water to the house. The ditch is being dug a good 600 meters from the spring to our house. They hopefully will be done very soon. They have a short distance from behind the church and then continue to the back of our house. I am not sure, but I think also when the water gets to the house we will also get our septic tank made for our indoor plumbing. To be honest, I don’t mind walking out to the bathroom/outhouse nor do I mind bathing and washing my hair with water in a basin, I enjoy camping; but it is the convenience of having everything close at hand in the house that I miss, if you understand what I mean. J

Anyway, we are doing well, just keeping busy. Today, Wednesday after lunch, is the first time I actually have done any accounting work or blog entries. This blog was typed the Wednesday, August 26, after arrival here and it is getting posted on September 4.

Most of you might remember Desima, the young man who has epilepsy that keeps falling into the fire. Well, we saw him two different mornings sleeping on the side of the rode. This morning Janet stopped and inquired about him and we out that he keeps running away from his step mom and also his grandfather and uncle. We brought him home and he evidently has had another seizure and fell into the fire again and has his left knee and left shoulder burnt real bad. Janet cleaned the wounds and they gave him a bath and clean clothes. He will stay with us for a while.

There is so much to write but I don’t want to write a book right now, so I will write more hopefully tomorrow.

Bye for now.
Deniece

2009-08-13T07:26:00.000-07:00

Home at Last

Well, Janet made it home. I tried to get her to do the next entry into this blog, but we were so busy between her arrival and ASI that we didn't get to it; down at ASI the internet was not as readily available so it didn't get done there either. Her and Frank are now in Spokane and so I have decided to do the entry.

Tuesday (less than a week) we will be leaving for Africa. We knew before hand, but down at ASI we were told again that we have a container of 1 Day Churches coming to our mission. That is 30 buildings that we will be putting up for various usages. Hopefully we will have more on it later when I can get Janet to write on it.

It is hard to believe that we will be leaving in less than a week. We are pretty much packed, which is a good thing, because they will have to drive from Spokane to EVI leaving Sunday afternoon and get here by Tuesday afternoon so that we can load and get to the airport in time.

Once we get settled over there I am planning to do daily postings. Some short and some may be longer, but hopefully it will be daily. It also depends on the internet over there. Anyway, more later.

Deniece

Showers of Blessings

2009-07-22T09:54:00.000-07:00

Hello to all.

I am back from my vacation and the Lord truly blessed and confirmed to me that I am to go to Africa. I received showers of blessings while in Georgia and Tennessee. The Lord truly blessed with a donation of a little over $1,300.00 and one of the churches I went to has approved to sponsor me $100.00 per month. That is two churches now sponsoring me and a couple others are still considering. I am so overwhelmed with thankfullness from the Lord revealing His will to me.

While in Tennessee I stayed with my cousin, Lori. I was also able to see 2 other cousins - Linda and Judy. I got a picture of Lori, her husband Jeff, son - Cameron and daughter - Sarah. They live in the Sequache Valley between Pikeville and Dunlap, Tennessee. The mountains there is so beautiful to see. Pictures do not do justice. The longer I stay in Colorado, though, the more I am enjoying the mountains here.

Janet will be here on the 29th - one week from tonight. Word has come that, her son Jason is going to build a landing strip in Mago where Janet is. This way he can come and visit in less time.

The August 18 will be here sooner than we think. When Janet gets here on the 29th of July we will have 7 days before ASI. Coming back from ASI they (Frank and Janet) will drop me off and hi-tale it to Spokane where Frank will speak. His last meeting is on the 16th and we fly out on the 18th. Real tight schedule.

I am going to try and get Janet to write the blog next week. Well, we'll see anyway.

Bye for now,

Deniece

2009-07-15T12:12:00.000-07:00

God is so good!

Well, I left Eden Valley on July 8 as planned. I almost missed my flight; I forgot to print out my boarding pass from the computer. Anyway, I did make it and I arrived in Atlanta a half hour early – thanks to the jet stream. My mom and my sister picked me up and we have had a grand time. I arrived on my sister’s birthday and will be leaving on my mom’s (July 16). I told them both that this was my birthday gift to each of them. We all laughed. Pictured is my sister, my brother-in-law, my mom and myself. I will be going to Tennessee on the 16th to see some friends and relatives. I will also be putting on some presentations there also hoping for some sponsorship. I be coming back to EVI on the 21st.

Frank sent me an email with Janet’s and my itinerary for our leave back to Africa. Janet will be here on the 29th (I was originally told the 28th, but that is when she leaves there). We will then leave on the 18th of August. She will be here only 3 weeks and then we will be returning. We have a convention to go to during those 3 weeks. Will we get everything done that we need to get done? By God’s grace we will.

Just received news from Frank who had talked with Janet; she had some good news. There were some men grading the road from a long way off and Janet asked if they could continue onto her property. For 350.00 of US funds they continued all the way to the new construction sight. God is so good! She also has all the gravel needed for the new Industrial School, which is the next building going up, and most of the sand. More sand will be coming when needed until project is completed. Currently, she is in Dar Salaam working on her new By Laws for her ministry over there.

I went to church Sabbath with some of my friends and we met at Callaway Gardens in west central Georgia. While setting up, there was a young lady feeding turtles with what appeared to be her two daughters. They asked if they would be in our way if they were quiet. My friends said no, we were just having church. Well, when church started, we started singing – I saw that she was singing with us even though her back was to us. I was silently praying for her, hoping she would gain an experience with the Lord by listing. After singing, the pastor asked for prayer requests and I raised my hand. I asked for prayer for the Lord’s guidance with me going to Africa and for financial support. This young lady was impressed after prayer to give a donation for the cause. I was so taken back that this person who don’t even know me, nor I her, would give a donation. I could understand if she were a “sister” but she did not appear to be one. I was just praising the Lord that he could and would use anyone to help. I put on a PowerPoint presentation and the people truly desired to help. I received some donations and promise of more coming. God is so good. I will be giving another presentation this afternoon where I used to work before coming to EVI. I will also be going to a prayer meeting tonight to put on another presentation.

Bye for now, Deniece

2009-07-07T10:26:00.000-07:00

Almost Here!

Reality hit me yesterday when Frank called Janet and talked with her. She has asked him to get our tickets for our return to Africa. I thought we would be leaving in early part of September, but she wants to return the third week of August. She doesn't even want to come home because she has so much work to do. But she will be here on the 29th anyway. "Butterflies" started acting up in my stomach, to think that the time is almost here.

She hasn't been able to check her email at home for quite some time. She had a visitor yesterday, David Roeske, whom she was going to get to look at her comptuter to see why she can't get email and to see if he can fix it.

She just comleted a Youth For Christ Seminar and had 9 students graduated. She is excited over the results. July 15 will be the next seminar.

There are 18 students currently in her carpentery class.

She also says that she is needing the whole gang from Washington back again. Sounds like she is ready to do some more construction.

Tomorrow I will be leaving for Georgia-Tennessee. I will be meeting with various different churches in the area re: support for me in Africa. I will be busy. I will also be able to see my mother who is visiting with the sister that I will be staying with. I will be gone for 2 weeks.

We had a double rainbow the other day so I had to get a picture of it. Below you will see it in two pictures.

You can see the second in the first picture here, but you could see it in both areas live.

So long, until next week.

2009-07-02T08:25:00.001-07:00

Anticipation

Good morning to all. Anticipation is such a hard thing to go through when what you are anticipating is just around the corner, but yet not close enough to say you are there. I will be leaving next week for Georgia; will be back on the 21st. Janet will be here on the 28th. We will be going to ASI on the 5th of August and returning on the 10th. At that time we will be working toward our trip to Africa. It sounds real busy, but the anticipation is building up so that I am anxious for it to be here.

I have been keeping myself busy by training the new accountant in, planting raspberry canes (1100-1200) in about 3 hours and still needing to plant the rest of 10,000 plants. Pictured in the forfront is one of our ag. students Tejan, then Adner and then Frank. I have also been helping with putting up hay. So far in our first cuttings we have put up over 1,000 bails of hay from two fields and the largest field is yet to come. I enjoy physical labor and it also keeps me busy and occupies my mind on other things and not just leaving here.

Not a lot of news from Janet in Africa. She did text message Frank asking for a recipe for Angie's Hot Biscuits. We don't know if she needs the recipe NOW or for later on. Anyway, it has been a week since she sent the message and we still have not gotten the recipe. Angie, if you can get the recipe, send it to your father's email, thanks.

2009-06-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

Unsolicited Gift

Things are never static (quiet) with our African project even in America.

Just lately, ASI announced that they have awarded Janet an undisclosed amount of money. Then Harold Lance, who is in charge of Missions, Inc, paid Frank a personal call. Frank said that he knew at once that something different was up. It turns out that there is a special donor in the bushes who has offered ASI an extra $100,000.00, announcing that he would like $25,000.00 of the $100,000.00 to go to Janet and her project. The only stipulation being that she write a letter to ASI telling them what she intends to do with the money. Frank contacted Janet by text message at around 3:00 pm here which was about midnight there. When the message came into Janet's phone it woke her up and she called Frank. They had just a minute to talk and Frank told her again and she said something like this: "I have only built 2 of the 7 buildings that I need to build. I have plenty of needs for more money for the rest of the buildings." So Frank has already written the letter to ASI and they in turn asked for pictures of the 2 buildings that were done. One of the buildings is a church and the other is Janet's house. The one pictured here is Janet's house. He sent them pictures while the buildings were under construction. The buildings have now been completed, but we do not have pictures yet of their completion.

We praise the Lord that even when we aren't asking directly - He shows us that He wants the project to continue going forward by sending money unsolicited.

Now, as for me, I am anticipating my service to Africa. I have recently sent a letter out to my 6 siblings and to some of my friends asking them if they would present the letter to their churches to see if the churches would be willing to sponsor me through out my stay in Africa. Monies have come in from people here on campus already. The church here at EVI has voted to sponsor me for two years at $100.00 per month. The Lord is so good and has been showing me open doors like this sponsorship all along the way.

I will be leaving for two weeks in July to go back to Georgia and Tennessee to present to some churches the letter also. My plans, Lord willing, is to try and get sponsorship enough for me to come home once a year for a few months before returning back to Africa. When here in the States during that time I would like to be able to present to the churches, that will be sponsoring me, a Power Point presentation of our work in Africa while I was there.

2009-06-18T14:27:00.000-07:00

Hello, this is the first, hopefully of many posts to this blog.

The time is drawing nearer when Janet will be home from Tanzania. She is right now trying to get my work visa. I have faxed her all that she has requested and am waiting to hear if she needs anything else. She will arrive on the 28th of July. We will be going to ASI Convention on August 5-10. Then the last weeks in August will be filled with purchasing things, packing, and getting things ready for our return to Tanzania.

This will be my first time to Africa. I am looking forward to the experience of not just working with Janet, but also of working with the people over there. I am also excited and looking forward to the adventure of living in Africa and working for the Lord in a country far removed from everyday conveniences that we experience here.

The Lord is blessing and I have started to receive funds for my trip. I still need more, and am trusting that He will bring to me just what I need; trusting Him daily for His guidance and direction.

I am hoping that I will be able to post an entry every week to two weeks on the blog while I am still here in the US, but will be doing a daily blog entry while I am at Mago, Tanzania.

Deniece