Hey wow, a picture (and of Libby too!)

After having a complete nightmare trying to upload pictures for the past few weeks, here is one that worked! This is Libby and Caleb on our holiday at 'Lazy Lagoon', over Christmas.

I'll have to try this again (unless that's pushing my luck).

We actually made it to the 7.30 church this morning (although not strictly speaking at 7.30). It was actually really good. It was English translated into Swahili (or Swahili translated into English, depending on who was speaking). Most of the songs were in English, and it was lively, with a Sunday school that was also half English. The preach was also good (although the other MAF people said this is by no means guaranteed!)

It's also nice because the MAF families who go there meet for coffee afterwards - and we got to go!

So, all-in-all, pretty good - so I think we're going to give it a shot (so you could pray that we manage to get up on time! - I think this will be the biggest challenge).

They also had a children's 'choir' and then an adults 'choir' perform midway through the service (this seems to be a common thing in Tanzanian churches, from what we've experienced - there's always some kind of 'performance piece' in the middle). I put 'choir' in ' ', because I can almost guarantee that the picture that the word choir conjures up is nothing like what I'm talking about. I'm hoping to take some video footage of it before we come back, so you can see what I mean.
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For advance notice, we are planning to come back to the UK for our furlough/home assignment/holiday in June/July, so hopefully we'll get to see a bunch of you then.
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Just for info, there are huge thunderclaps going on as I write, so I'm expecting more rain to add to the excess of rain that we've been having lately. It seems that this year is trying to make up for the drought last year. Unfortunately this means that there is the risk of the crops getting destroyed by too much rain instead! Please pray this doesn't happen. (It also means that every few days we start sweating as the rain gets to within about an inch of coming into the house!)
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Libby and I have been reading the books 'Waking the Dead', 'Wild at Heart' and 'Captivating' by John Eldridge. We thoroughly recommend them. All men should read 'Wild at Heart', whether you're a Christian or not. If you're a Christian, you should definitely read it (and 'Waking the Dead'). I think these are the first 'Christian' books (other than novels) which I've actually had trouble putting down (as opposed to 'trouble picking up', which is usually the case). We're hoping that the things he talks about we will actually be able to take on board and live out (as opposed to the usual 'water-off-a-ducks-back' effect - which is usually what happens).
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[At this point further photos failed to upload and I got fed up trying].