Rainy season

The rainy season seems to have started. We've been having dark glowering skies for days, but suddenly on Friday night there was a torrential downpour that continued all night. By the morning the ground was completely sodden and 6 of our neighbour's ducklings had died of cold. The temperatures are still 30 degrees plus, but the rain just takes the edge of the heat. Yesterday we drove through a huge cloud of flying termites. Apparently they all come out when the rain starts.

The power has been quite erratic this week. We've had the usual every other day 12 hour power cuts, but they also added a few extra hours this week. Sometimes they print a schedule of power cuts but they never seem to stick to it. It feels like there is some man switching it on and off just for fun. It is just such a pleasure to switch on a light switch when the power is back on. Caleb goes round the house saying "power, power, power"!

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I was challenged recently by reading a piece about micro loans. It kind of ties in with thinking about how to help people here in Tanzania, especially my house ladies. I quote "Simplicity. How much is enough? ...People deserve to have basic economic needs met. Starvation is not God's will. Watching your babies die is not good for any women. And beyond basic needs, people deserve beauty and festivity, but how much is enough?"

It says in Proverbs 30: 8-9 "Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain".

In Phillipians 4 v 12, Paul writes "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation".

The challenging bit for me is this: I know we shouldn't encourage an acquisitive spirit in those we are trying to help, but at the same time how acquisitive am I? How can I live more simply? It is possible to live happily with less? How is it possible to live simply as a christian in a western culture based on aquisition. What do we need, what do we have a right to and what do we just want? Not what to we need, what do we have a right to according to western societies' standards, but what do we need/have a right to as a Christian?

What would happen if everyone who could, gave 10% of their yearly home improvement fund to helping people in developing countries set up small businesses or helped them in some other way.

We can't do everything, but we can (and should) do something.

Money does matter.