Miracle

Last weekend I was in a stress because Josh and Bethany both had skin aliments and I wasn't sure what they were. I have various creams and books but I wanted to be sure that I was treating the right child with the right stuff. The American clinic that has been set up, has recently fired the American doctor who was working there and now there are only quite young fairly inexperienced local doctors who seem to want to always prescribe antibiotics. I went to the local 'doctor' who does our malaria tests, (not even sure whether or not he really is a doctor) and he said it was a fungal infection. I wasn't sure he was right, but wasn't sure what else to do. Anyway I was on my way into town, mulling all this over, or rather stressing and decided to pray about it. I prayed, "Lord I need a doctor, I know it isn't an emergency but I could really use your help right now" and then carried on into town.On my way back I was just looking in my side mirror, and who did I see standing near one of the small shops near out house, Dr John from Magumbua. he's an American doctor, who doesn't even live in Dodoma, he works out in the bush and only comes here occasionally. I stopped the car immediately and asked him to look at Bethany. It felt like such a miracle to me and I really felt God was saying, I didn't have to do this, you would have managed without me, but I just wanted to let you know I am here and I do care.

Be encouraged, pray in every situation, at all times and without ceasing.

It turns out Josh has ring worm-again (nothing to do with worms) and Bethany has a bacterial infection which is taking a long time to clear up. Oh the joys of living in Africa. Caleb has also been sick this week with a cold/flu type thing. On Tuesday he fell asleep at 4pm and didn't wake up until the morning. He had a high fever, but I was able to take a blood sample for a malaria test without him waking. It came back negative, as I expected, but you always have to do it if you have a fever because you never know.

Things continue to be very busy here and there always seems to be some crisis to deal with. This weekend we have the farewell for one of the pilots who is leaving MAF but staying in Tanzania to work with the local church. He will be the first of 4 people who are leaving this year. You have to get used to a way of life where people come and go all the time. This is especially hard for the children who make close friends only to find them gone again in a few years.

Just so you all know, because of Daniel taking over, we will not be returning to the UK this year, next time will be 2010. However, anyone who is passing this way is welcome to pop in !!!!

Party photos

Bits and pieces

Late again with the blog. I was waiting for Daniel to do it, but now he has just left for Dar!

Two weekends ago we had Caleb's 4th birthday party. Suprisingly it was another sunny day in Tanzania so we had games and food outside. The children never seem to tire of the old favourites, 'pass the parcel' and a big treasure hunt round the compound.(Will try posting photos again, it's not working today!)

Things remain as hectic as ever. Daniel is in Dar at the beginning of the week and we have meetings every night from Tuesday through to Friday. In April the MAF Tanzania Program Manager is leaving, so in the interim Daniel will be taking over. I guess things will get even busier then as he juggles his usual job with the managing the whole program. Please pray for strength and endurance and wisdom for Daniel as he grapples with this challenge.

We are both enjoying reading the Jungle Doctor books at the moment. My mum brought them for Joshua, but they are interesting to read because they are set in a hospital just an hour away from here.(The hospital I was driving to last year and almost got driven off the road by a bus)

Last wednesday my American friend who works for Wycliff Bible translators was attached by her dog. She was bitten on the neck and face and had to spend the night in hospital. Fortunately the new American hospital was able to deal with her injuries and both herself and the dog had been vaccinated against rabies. She is out of hospital now, but undertandable traumatised by the event. At the moment we don't have dogs, although lots of people do for security reasons. It makes you wonder though, if it had been a child that had been attached they would never have had survived!

Not much else to write for now. Hopefully Daniel will write something next weekend.

Birthday boy

A few photos, I uploaded earlier of the birthday boy. Real party photos to follow.

Currently...

...very busy which is why we are getting a bit slack on blog entries. My work permit came through so and spend all morning and bits of the afternoon and evening working.

Enjoying: The rain. This seems to be coming steadily everyday at the moment. The children love it and as soon as the drops come down they take off all their clothes and run outside shrieking with delight. They can spend hours (literally) dancing in the rain and playing in all the mud that it produces. For the Tanzanians owever, the rain has come too late and many of them say they will have no harvest this year. For us it also means lots of power cuts. As soon as the rain comes on the power goes off. We have all our candles in strategic places and we have an automatic process to switch into power cut mode.

Not enjoying: The fact that we have no water in the bathroom and are having to fill up buckets to flush the toilet. Hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow.

Watching: Alias season 3, McLeods Daughters season 7 and House season 1. That looks like all we do is watch DVDs!!!

Reading: The autobiography of Patricia St. John (Daniel). Actually a recommendation from me that he took up. I am sort of reading Fan Tan by Marlon Brando, but only because I have nothing else to read. I am not really enjoying it and need to find some more books.

Praying about: We have kind of started a home church in our house. It meets intermittently at the moment because we are all involved in other churches, but it’s good when it happens. We are praying about the way forward for this.

Wishing for: Nice chicken (again), although we discovered that the fish you buy here is a bit like chicken. A crisp, cold, day with blue skies.

Planning: Caleb’s 4th birthday party on Saturday. We came to Tanzania when he was one, so for him this is home. Last week he announced that he wants to climb Kilimanjaro!! Well he’s been on safari more than once; been to Zanzibar; been snorkelling over a coral reef, flown in a Cessna 208; eaten dinner by candlelight on a beach; met a Maasai; climbed all the trees in compound B; swims like a fish. It’s the logical next step for a 4 year old. What he really wants for his birthday is a skateboard. Unfortunately there is nowhere in Dodoma to Skateboard. Everywhere the ground is hard and bumpy.

Daniel is planning all sorts of things at work, and is sometimes out of bed in the middle of the night writing strategy papers and goodness knows what else. It’s fun that we are both working on the same thing now and can discuss work together at home.

Stressing about: a difficult situation at work, which I can’t really tell you any more about (how’s that for annoying). Even so, I would value your prayers as we try and deal with the situation. I may be able to update you later.