Sights and Sounds of the Last Few Weeks

These past few weeks have been a bit crazy. I always have a goal of doing a blog weekly, but it doesn't seem to happen that way.  So here is what I have been doing.

Every Thursday a bunch of football (soccer) teams come
to play at HOPAC.  It has been alot of work to organize this
every week, but worth it to see the fun that the kids have
each and every week.  It is especially fun to have the
sala sala kids club have a team this year. 

On Mondays after school I help with kids club.  The
last few weeks I have been teaching the girls some
basic basketball skills.  The hope is to some day have
organize some of the girls enough to have a team that
plays against other teams, like the boys started this year with
football.  We have a ways to go, but I am excited about the possibility.

This is my 7th grade P.E. class performing there mile run.
In class I try to test them on different aspects of physical fitness three times a year. 
They usually dread the mile, but I think it has been fun for them to see
how they have improved since last year. 

I go out running a few nights a week, and I usually find kids
that I know from kids club.  Some times they give me a high five,
run along with me, or encourage me in words.  This particular night they were
out collecting firewood, so they could cook their dinner.  I stopped and took
some fun pictures with them and they enjoyed seeing them on my phone.
I then spent some time collecting firewood with them. The rest of my
run I contemplated why it is that I have so much in this life and
they have so little.  One thing I have learned is that even though they
don't have much they still always have a smile across their face.

Safari with Steph the views were amazing.  It was so good to
be able to enjoy God's creation in Tanzania and have a few
days to just sit back and relax.

Enjoying some time with Steph Allen.  The electricity was
actually out during this time, so I think I blinded her with my flash.
We had fun playing games with my housemates on this night.
I love the game of blokus and have enjoyed seeing the competive side of
my housemate Sarah come out when we play. 

Love these kids.  I had fun teaching them about King David during
the story time of kids club on this day.  After the story the girls
had fun coloring and cutting out these crowns they are proudly displaying.
They are so much fun !

Yesterday we had a blast with our annual Fall Festival.
Always interesting to celebrate this in 90 degree weather,
but still lots of fun.  Just like last year we were without power
for most of the day also, but that didn't stop us from having a ton of
fun.  Here two of the kids are enjoying apple bobbing. 

Two of the youngest kids at our party had fun playing in
water after we were done bobbing for apples.  They also had fun
playing with bubbles. 

The last actvity of the day was pin the tail on the giraffe.
It was a fun day to hang out with some great friends.

This past week I had great fun introducing the game of
scooter hockey to the 7th and 8th graders.  I even joined in
with one class as the primary principal pushed me around on the scooter. 

To end this post here is one of my favorite songs right now :)

Traveling in Tanzania

 

A week ago I had mid-term break and my friend Steph Allen was here for the week visiting. We had the chance to do a safari to the Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara. It was amazing ! I think pictures will show you much more than I can tell you about it. I will say one of my favorite parts was being cold enough to wear a sweatshirt and a jacket. I think it is the coldest I have been since traveling back to the States last December for a wedding. 

 

View of the crater

Sunrise picture from our hotel

 

Baboon with her baby

Ready to play :)



More pictures in my Facebook album

THEY SHALL RUN AND NOT BE WEARY....

WOW...I looked at this blog a few weeks ago and realized it has been a REALLY long time since I posted anything here.  So in the last few weeks I have revisted this, but would sit down and realize I have no idea where to start.  Life from this summer, happenings over the past months, or the here and now.  I have decided that going back and talking about everything was to big of a task so I am just going to pick up on the here and now.  Life here has been super busy, but in it all God has been working. 

Two weekends ago I had the chance to go with the 11th graders on a class bonding trip.  In 11th grade there seems to be a large number of new students coming into the class as other students leave to pursue studies elsewhere.  As a result you often times end up with half of the class being students who have been at HOPAC most of their lives and the other half brand new to HOPAC.  The school has found that taking the entire class on a weekend trip to focus on getting to know each other goes a long way in helping the class to bond together as one class. 

We left on a Friday afternoon to head to South Beach to a place called Bamba.  I wasn't sure I was up for going as I was extremely exhausted not only from work that week, but things that were happening outside of work.  It was just the trip I needed though.  As it is a weekend for the kids to bond with each other we didn't have a packed full schedule.  As leaders we played lots of team building games with them, but we also gave them a fair amount of free time to hang out and enjoy playing on the beach or in the ocean.  This also gave me time to just sit back and enjoy God's creation. 

On Saturday morning I woke up early, not really by choice as a rooster was being extremely loud outside my window, so I decided to go out onto the beach to spend some time alone with Jesus.  The weeks leading up to this trip were exhausting and I was just down right tired and needing some major refreshment.  As I sat there I was reflecting on the signficance of the place where I was sitting.  This was the exact place I sat with my friends from Faith Church in th summer of 2010.  On our first day in the country of Tanzania we traveled to Bamba for a cultural training day.  Before that though we had an amazing worship service, with a time of singing and communion.  One of our focus verses for that trip was Isaiah 40:28-31and I can clearly remember singing Everlasting God (Strength will Rise) on the beach that day.   As I sat on the beach during this trip, I opened up my Bible to start reading.  I have been doing a read through the Bible in a year plan, so I started out by reading my Old Testament portion.  I looked at my reading plan and opened up my Bible and started reading.  I didn't really think about it until I started reading and I got to the verses.  Yup, thats right on that exact day in my reading plan Isaiah 40:28-31 were the verses that were part of my reading.  I am sure if anyone was watching me they were a little confused.  As I sat there in awe and amazment, I smiled and almost laughed out loud.  God is good. 

As I walked away from that weekend and even through the last few weeks God really has been reminding me that He is my everything and I truly just need to learn to rest in Him.  My strength to live here can only come through Him and the more I lean into Him the more I will be able to run and not grow weary.  I came home from that weekend exhausted from the loss of sleep, but energized in knowing that God is in complete and utter control of EVERYTHING and He has me right where He wants me. 

Bamba Beach 2010 Worship Service

 

11th Grade Bonding Trip Bamba Beach 2012

 

 

 

 

Isaiah 40:28-31 (NIV)

²⁸ Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Cross references:

1. Isaiah 40:28 : S ver 21
2. Isaiah 40:28 : S Dt 33:27; S Ps 90:2
3. Isaiah 40:28 : S ver 26
4. Isaiah 40:28 : S Isa 37:16
5. Isaiah 40:28 : Isa 44:12
6. Isaiah 40:28 : S Ps 147:5; Ro 11:33
7. Isaiah 40:29 : S Ge 18:14; S Ps 68:35; S 119:28
8. Isaiah 40:29 : Isa 50:4; 57:19; Jer 31:25
9. Isaiah 40:30 : Isa 9:17; Jer 6:11; 9:21
10. Isaiah 40:30 : S Ps 20:8; Isa 5:27
11. Isaiah 40:31 : S Ps 37:9; 40:1; S Isa 30:18; Lk 18:1
12. Isaiah 40:31 : S 1Sa 2:4; S 2Ki 6:33; S 2Co 4:16
13. Isaiah 40:31 : S Ex 19:4
14. Isaiah 40:31 : 2Co 4:1; Heb 12:1-3

 

 

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION IN TANZANIA

What an amazing birthday. I can say it had some firsts involved in it. First of it was my first birthday in Tanzania. I did have to work, but the students made sure that they said "happy birthday" to me every time they saw me. Ali (one of my housemates) and the 4th graders also threw a party for me, before I had them for P.E. class. They had frozen juices, brownies, and popcorn.

Then another first happened in the evening. My housemates and a few other friends came over to enjoy dinner and some games. For the first time ever I had a personal chef come in and cook my birthday dinner. It was amazing. He came into our house and prepared and cooked everything. He made my new favorite food here, which is chips mayai. It is kind of like a french fry omelette. We also had some cabbage and other side dishes. The night was topped off with some cake and ice cream.

Overall I had a great birthday! Thank you to all those that were involved in it :) I am blessed to have great friends here to celebrate with and many friends back home who sent birthday wishes my way :)

THIS IS AFRICA !

Saturday I decided that I needed some time away from home to try to get my newsletter typed up. I decided to go to Wamama Kahawa,a coffee shop, which is about a 25 minute walk from my house. It was a very nice day and I greatly enjoyed my time there. On my way back as I was walking and it hit me... I LIVE IN AFRICA. Yes, you would think by now I would know that, but I still get those moments that it really hits me. So Saturday as I was walking I had one of those moments. I am walking down a dirt road, with big and little houses on both sides. Some of those that I call houses really are more like little mud shacks. There are little stores along the way where if I wanted to I could buy fruits, vegetables, candy, material, or assortment of many other things. I also could stop to eat or get my hair cut. Also as I was walking I literally laughed out loud at all the different sounds I was hearing. There were cows mooing, a prayer coming from a Mosque loud speaker, and some loud music playing that was coming from inside a house. Oh yeah and just at that moment a chicken crossed over the street in front of me. If anyone saw me at that moment they probably wondered why there was a big smile across my face. Here a few pictures that were not taken on that street that I was walking on Saturday, but give you an idea of the stores alongside the road. Also the pictures include some of the foods that you could buy at the restaurants alongside the road. So yes, I do live in AFRICA and these are some of the things that make me smile!

WHERE IS "HOME"?

Where is "Home"?
This is a question that has been buzzing around in my mind recently. I believe we all have a longing for "home" in us, sometimes when we are even at the place that we have called home for years. Why is this?

I recently read a book The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller. The book is about the parable of the lost son. "In Jesus's parable the younger brother goes off into a distant country expecting a better life but is disappointed. He begins to long for home, remembering the food in his father's house. So do we all. "Home" exerices a powerful influence over human life. Many of us have fond memories of times, people, and places, where we felt we were truly home. However, if we ever have opportunity to get back to the places we remember so fondly, we are usually disappointed. Home, then is a powerful but elusive concept. The strong feelings that surround it reveal some deep longing within us for a place that absolutely fits and suits us, where we can be, or perphaps find, our true selves."

A couple of weeks ago I went on a trip with the 10th graders for Service Emphasis week. We were gone for about 6 days and although I greatly enjoyed serving with them and getting to know each one of them better, by the end I was tired and ready to go "home". I think it may have been the first time in my mind that I really felt like I was going "home" since living here in Tanzania. I must admit it was mostly for the comforts that I experience at my house here in Tanzania; an air conditioner in my room (that works when there is electricity), a warm shower (again when there is electricity), and a quiet bedroom so that I could sleep. I was excited though to really truly have the feeling that I was going "home".

It is amazing how things can so quickly change in our minds though. After being "home" for a day, I had vistor's come from "home". Wait a minute ! Is this home, is that home, or is it neither? When I lived in Honduras we use to say "home" and "home, home" to distinguish between the place we were living and the place we just came from. I must admit as I have been thinking about this the past few days it has thrown my mind into a bit of a spin. It has especially been interesting for me to prcoss through as I think about the place I just came from. How often is a "home" a house you lived in? Well lets see the house I lived in, in Allentown, can no longer really be "home" because Kristin and Hugo are now married and living there. Oh yeah! and the house I grew up in can no longer be "home" because my parents moved this past summer. I think I may have slept in the new house a total of three nights. Does that mean I am "homeless" when I go "home" this summer? Am I really going "home"?

I think Timothy Keller explains my feelings well in his book. "There seems to be a sense, then, in which we are all like the younger brother. We are all exiles, always longing for home. We are always traveling never arriving. The houses and families we actually inhabit are only inns along the way, but they aren't home. Home continues to evade us. In the beginning of the book of Genesis we learn the reason why all people feel like exiles, like we aren't really home. We are told there that we were created to live in the garden of God. That was the world we were built for, a place in which there was no parting from love, no decay, no disease. It was all these things because it was life before the face of God, in his preence. There we were to adore and serve his infinite majesty, and to know, enjoy, and reflect his infinite beauty. That was our orignal home, the true country we were made for. "

I know on this side of earth I will always have a longing for "home", because I will not really be "home" until that day when I am called to my true HOME. I am so thankful that I have a Savior that died for all of my sins, and rose again so that one day I will be able to live with Him forever and there will be no more death, pain, crying, or grief.

Revelation 21:1-4

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth disappeared, and the sea vanished. And I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared and ready, like a bride dressed to meet her husband. I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne: "Now God's home is with human beings! He will live with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them, and he will be their God. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. THe old things have disappeared."

WHAT A WEEK !

As I sit down to rest a bit on this Sunday evening to think about what to blog about I am realizing this has been quite the week. I could say it has been one very difficult week, but that would mostly define the end of the week and not give the whole picture. The dilemma is this blog could become a book if I write about everything, but if I write about only one thing it doesn't give the full picture of my week. The goal will be to give you little glimpses into this week.
First of all the past few weeks my legs have been starting to bother me more and more. They started to just bother me a little, when I was running, but the last week or so they have progressed to bothering me more and more. I have been experiencing a lot of tightness in my legs and sharp pains in my right leg. I realized that I needed to either stop running altogether or start doing more walking with my running (which I am not a big fan of walking). For about two weeks now I have been running for about 20 minutes and then walking for 30 minutes or so. I have found this time to be an awesome time of praying for others and just enjoying God's creation. Well without going into to much detail with it really felt this past week that it was just a type of spiritual attack against me, because running here has been such an outlet for me. I was talking about it with a friend and said funny how I am able to experience God even in a closer way now that I am walking and able to focus more on Him, guess the devil didn't win that battle. I walked home from school that night and didn't have a lot of time before it was dark and was thinking man it would really be nice to just run tonight and not have pain. Well I was blessed to start running that night and realize that my legs felt amazing. I was able to run longer than I had in awhile. As I was out running I ran up on one of my housemates, and to make a long story short we were talking later about the whole story, and she said cool thing is as you ran up behind me I was praying that your legs would feel better to be able to run :) Love how God so clearly shows up in things like this. No, my legs are not completely better, but I am continuing to love spending time with God as I walk and do some running.
The next interesting part of my week was traveling to Zanzibar for a day as a part of my job. I am sure not many people can say they get to travel to an island for a day as a part of their job. The secondary principal, sports coordinator, and myself left at 5:15 a.m. to travel downtown to catch a ferry on Friday (of course we got some breakfast first). We took the 7:00 a.m. ferry over and got there around 9:00 a.m. We then traveled a little outside of town to visit a small international school. The purpose of the trip was to meet with the principal and discuss some ways our school might be able to do some sports with and against the school. The principal there really wants to try to give his kids some more opportunities since it is such a small school. It was fun seeing a different school in action and coming up with some ideas of what we could do. We then traveled back to the ferry and left on the 12:30 p.m. ferry (which left at 1:00). We got back to Dar around 3:15 p.m. and then had to fight the evening traffic back to school. We got back around 5:15 p.m. I was super exhausted and wouldn't suggest making a day trip to Zanzibar something on your list of things to do, but it was worth it to make some contacts with the school.
Then yesterday more fun was planned, but at about noon yesterday I decided that two full days of activities for my weekend is too much for me here. I was down right exhausted, between not getting a lot of sleep and being in the sun I was done. At any rate I took a trip to downtown Dar with a group of teachers from school. It was great, because I got to see some of the people that I worked with two summers ago when I came to Dar. We talked with the group that runs Youth In Dar and they took us around to some temples downtown after talking about what they do here in Dar. We then had Indian food for lunch and did some shopping for Indian clothing. It was a little weird to be around some of the places I was before, but being there this time as a person who lives here. At some point yesterday, not really sure when I unfortunately lost my phone, which meant that the day that I had planned to relax and recover from Friday and Saturday was going to have to become a day that I looked for a new phone. After much frustration with myself over losing the phone, feeling lost without a phone (not sure how we ever made it without cell phones :), and overall just feeling down, I was able to get a phone today, which is a praise!
So that was my week! I am praying that I somehow overnight feel rejuvenated and ready to go, because I am feeling worn out and a bit beaten down tonight.

Life Lessons through Basketball

Basketball has been a part of my life for a very long time and through the years I have learned some very valuable lessons through the game of basketball. I always thought that I would be a basketball player, but I never dreamed of how God could use my knowledge of basketball in so many ways and to teach me so many different lessons(I will not share all of those now because it would get to long). The past six years I spent hours and hours coaching basketball, and by last year I was honestly just getting to the point of being burned out. I started to lose sight of my love of the game and sharing that love with the basketball players. As I began to look at coming to Tanzania part of me was ready to have a break from basketball all together, but I have come to realize that God really has planted that love deep inside of me and He will continue to find ways for me to use that to glorify Him.

First of all I have been contemplating the past few weeks why it is always after the fact that we realize how much we really loved doing something. I have been greatly missing the girls basketball team back home and overall just the competiveness of coaching. I am trying to take that lesson into account now and really just "be here now", and enjoy every aspect of my life here realizing that there will come a day that I will miss what I have here.

Secondly these past few weeks I have had many opportunities to teach the game of basketball to kids who are soaking it up. It has made me realize again how much I love it. At the Sala Sala kids club the past few weeks I have been teaching the girls the fundamentals of basketball. Two weeks ago we were teaching them how to dribble and we happened to have enough basketballs that they all got to have their own. It was so amazing and humbling to see their faces light up as they each were handed a ball to use during the club. As I talked about dribbling and it was translated into Swahili, they were taking it all in. We then gave them the opportunity to practice dribbling on their own. It was so fun to see them try exactly the way I showed them and get huge smiles across their faces as they began to improve their dribbling skills. This past week we worked on lay-ups. This was a much more difficult task for them, but it was so fun to break them up into groups and allow each one of them to try. What a joy to see them all jumping up and down and clapping each time one of the girls made a lay-up, even if it wasn't great form. It has brought me great joy each week to teach these girls basketball. I love that God is bringing my love of basketball back again, and that He is giving me ways to use it to bring to glory to Him.

Finally, after much prayer and thought I have decided to coach the U18 girls basketball team. I wasn't sure about this because coaching here is going to be way different than coaching in the States (that is a whole different blog), but I am glad that I made the decision to do it. We had a "try-out" practice this Thursday and the U18 and U15 girls practiced together. I walked away feeling like I was back in my element. I absolutely loved it. I am excited to get to know the older girls a little better and to be able to teach them more about the game of basketball and how much it can tie into this "game" of life. I am also praying that it will be an avenue for me to show Christ's love to girls on the team.

This house is full of surprises ......

I am not exactly sure where time is going, but it is already January 15th and one of my New Years resolutions was to post on my blog once a week. I guess I am a little slow on starting that up.

My top excitement for this week was finding a new creature in our house. One night a few of us were out in the kitchen starting to get dinner ready, when Ali came running out of her room yelling....AHHHH....AHHHH....THERE IS A SNAKE in my room. All of us looked at her a bit funny, but decided we better go check it out. We all walk in her room and sure enough there is about a 3ft long snake, but thankfully it was fairly skinny. I am not a big fan of snakes and had no idea how we were going to go about getting the snake out of our house. We decided to call on our trusty Masai guards, who I think are getting use to our calls for help for all of our lovely creatures. Three of them come into our house and back into Ali's bedroom, probably not really sure what they were getting themselves into. I am pretty sure that they were not a fan of the snake either once they saw it, because they all just kind of looked at it. One of them happened to have a stick in his hand and he decided to start beating the snake to death with the stick. It was quite the site as all of us girls stood there and watched. After he was done you could tell they really didn't want to touch it, so they tried to pick it up with the stick. It wasn't working, so we gave them a plastic bag to carry it out in. So once again our trusty guards saved us, not from big bad scary people, but from another lovely creature.

It wa for sur the most exciting part of my week. I also had Thursday off this week for Zanzibar Revolution Day. It has been nice slowly working my way back into school. This will be our first full week back. On my day off I took time to read and relax. It was great. I also went to my new favorite place to hang-out. There is a coffee shop about a 20 minute walk away from my house that is amazing. The food is good and it is just a nice place to sit and read or catch up on emails. I don't get there often, but I think I might have to start making it a once a month Saturday morning thing :)