Habari

Habari!  "What's the news..?"  Last week's blog took a stroll out of office life, etc., so thought we'd do the same this week too

passing the inevitable roach or two...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and through lush garden

 

passing the neighbours car

We do miss the abundance of fruit on trees in our Dodoma garden (the mangos would be at an end but both lemons and avocado's would be ready...) A look up into the trees here shows us the jack fruits which are soon to be ripened

 

 

 

 

They taste like sticky bubble gum with a pineapple twist, not so easy to eat and not so appealing to look at, eh?!

 

Now back to mama Kambanga's account of the Kilimatindi safari's:

 

Chidudu has a lot of people and the increasing numbers of Christians are progressing well in learning the word of God. 

 

 The evangelistic team has purchased an old church that was used by the Roman Catholics for the Anglicans who were meeting under a tree.

 

 

 In November Mr Jez and Carina Simpson came to join us for the day as we shared the Gospel with the adults, children in a separate class and also the medical clinics offered.

 

 

 

 

 

 The Chidudu village elders spoke with Mr Jez and thanked him and MAF for transporting the evangelists and the medical team and to ask for the continued support from MAF.

“If the MAF flights stop there is a danger of many children dying from the lack of vaccination as well as the expectant women suffering from lack of relevant attention.”

 

 So it was with sadness that we learned our permission to fly has been suspended last month, tho then granted us an extension a few weeks later .. meanwhile this report arrived, from our Flight Operations Officer Emmanuel:

 

 

During our suspension we didn’t fly to the Kilimatinde safari. It was so hard to inform everyone in the village which we are flying to and the nearest villages who are also served in those clinics. Some people came from far to get the clinic and other services as normal and were very surprised when they were told ‘MAF are not coming, sorry come next month’.

 

The co-ordinator I work with is Mama Kambenga in Dodoma who told me about how the villagers received the news:

"Emma, I spoke with CHIDUDU, they are very sad because of the cancellation in January. When we announced the cancellation one of the pregnant mother didn’t get the news, she prepared herself for the Friday clinic. When she arrived at the clinic she was told the plane won’t be coming today. (picture the scene: searing heat, long walk-perhaps an hour or two, no shade, no rest/refreshment, further walk) When she was on her way home she felt the delivery pain, but the baby came out first with legs instead of head and NO one was there to help her, the mother died together with her baby.

The village elder said is hard to tell all the villagers and other villages about changes or cancellations so, maybe next time we should consider them and trying not to change the dates or even days. What I told them though it was hard, is to accept this for now and to understand how  things are sometimes changed from what we plan."

 

Moving on from village life, even further afield, we're pleased to show you a shot of our new Flight Training School......more pilots to reach isolated communities, down under in Meereba!

 

  

A stroll back to our house where a small pile of CHRISTMAS CARDS has just arrived and await us, they only took 2+ months to get here, better late than never eh!  Thank yououou!  Have a good weekend.  Gods blessings, our love, Jez and Carina xx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not by might, not by power but by My Spirit says the Lord

Oh hello there.  Welcome back to our world in Arusha :o)

 

Rather than tell you about the plague of cockroaches, ants, etc., this week we thought we’d step out from here and tell more of MAF’s work.   We've asked a dear Tanzania friend/worker Mama Kambenga to share in our next few blogs, short accounts from a few of the villages she flies with MAF to minister in:

Kilimatinde safari

"Kilimatinde safari is an evangelistic and health outreach safari to the villages of Mahaka, Mpapa, Dabia and Chidudu in the rift valley.

 

Mahaka.

 

 Since the year 2007 the villagers have continued to learn the word of God while meeting in the local church. The congregation is not big because some still go to ancestral worship. There are also those that have come to settle and are not believers therefore the evangelistic team has a lot of work ahead preaching the good news.

 

 

The people of Mahaka love to listen and learn the word of God.  One day a child of about 6 years climbed onto a roof top and fell down losing consciousness for quite some time. He was unable to sit or stand. His family grieved thinking he was dead. That was when a parent of the child prayed saying these words." You God, in the name of Jesus whom is being preached by the people who come by MAF aero plane, I plead with you to heal my child" Instantly, the child got up and started walking. Those who saw this believed in Jesus.   Praise and glory be to our God."

 

Maybe you’d be interested to hear a summary of some statistics:

*        MAF has more than 140 aircraft serving in around 25 countries

*        MAF flew more than 52,000 hours during 2013

*        Over 78,000 flights were carried out in 2013, flying nearly 200,000 passengers and

6.7 million kg of freight (not including passenger baggage allowances)

*        MAF flew more than 11 million kilometres in 2013 – more than 275 times around

the equator

*        MAF has more than 1,400 staff serving around the world

*        MAF flights serve around 1,500 organisations

*        MAF flew to over 1,700 destinations worldwide in 2013

 

Amazing eh!  Well this time last month we were en route from Dodoma to Arusha, via Dar es Salaam but we omitted to show you any photos from there – although it felt that way we didn’t actually spend the entire time trying to organise the Nairobi appointments, chained to the internet!  Here’s a local fisherman we got “chatting” with and if you look behind them in the faaaar distance you might be able to make out dozens and dozens of other's, making their living:

 

 

 

 

 

Catch of the day to be sold in the local market and hotel; day in day out they are there, fishermen making a living.... he also had crayfish, squid.. all sorts (and we've been swimming there lots, amongst them all, yikes!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A trip to the local market!  His English and our Kiswahili weren’t good enough to establish what these are – anyone familiar  They didn't taste at all like figs or dates, ripened or otherwise ...

 

Meet our fridge: there's plenty of room for you on it (send us a photo!) we try to store so much IN it!  On it you'll see a key verse!  We lost our electricity many times this week, possibly due to multiple thunder storms - one day alone it was off 10am-10pm, varying times on all t'others  days - it would be an understatement to say its frustrating to have it dictate ones' days activities...but grateful to have power at other times!  It makes Zechariah 4:6 even more pertinent, a reminder that we work "By His Spirit"! 

We had lovely temperature/temper cooling rain on the plain/plane/aeroplane ;o)  and snow on the mountains: this closing shot is of Meru.  It watered the swarm of ants that smother our kitchen and washed away a plague of cockroaches; thus far hasn't flushed out any scorpions hoorah! 

 

Enjoy your weekend – we’re just about to fall into ourssssZZZZzzzzzzzz…zzz.zz.z  xx j&c xx

 

 

Friday again :o)

Hi there ... don't you love this picture: "make disciples among all people" says Jesus.  Having spent several years with YWAM whose motto is "to know God and make Him known" this caption is thrilling to read, this MAF photo taken many years ago (let me know if you have read "from Jerusalem to Irian Jaya"); what a privilege to work for an organisation who uses planes to make it possible to reach sooooooo many isolated communities in 25 different countries!

 

So, how has your week been?  Here we have been busy meeting, planning and now implementing further ways forward having had Annie from our HR Ashford office and Andrew our East Africa-area finance chappie, shown here.

 

 

 

We're thrilled that our planes are no longer grounded but have taken to the skies, Jarkko flying in the Rufiji region and Kirstein is on a week long "medical safari", flying doctors/nurses from the Haydom hospital out to the isolated communities with life saving expertise.  Down south in Mbeya Steve is both working with MAF and Wycliffe, assisting the Bible translators in reaching isolated communities in the Mbeya area.

 

(Thanks for Andy for this photo)

 

 

 

 

 

At home we've been finishing unpacking and boxing up our belongings in the outside store, hoping we've taken the vital things and leaving the extras aside for now ('Christmas', warm clothes, etc.)....we'll give you a wee tour, self explanatory:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These photo's are taken from the SAME point in the middle of our little house, looking in different directions!

 

Then taking a couple of steps to look outward:

 

 

There you are, a tour of our wee place..... and a few photos in the garden if you're interested :o)

 

 

 

Hoping you'll have a splendid weekend.  We shall venture forth into the (dust and grime of the) local town: we've heard there's a couple of "real" coffee shops and even a food store or two (rather than relying on little 'shacks' - duka- and the market for all our stuff as we did in good ol' Dodoma!) plus an international Church fellowship as our Kiswahili isn't good enough to glean much from a Tanzanian service!

 

More next week then.  Sending love but no hugs, its too warm ;o)

God bless you,

Jez and Carina xx

Dodoma-Arusha-Nairobi-Arushaaaa

Greetings from (aerial view of) Arusha, about 50miles south of the Kenyan border and 500 miles north of Dodoma....the area where "wazungi" come to see the animals/game parks/"safari's"!  There are more amenities and shops here to provide for all the visitors - food prices appear double to Dodoma as a result but we are able to access more familiar goods!

After packing box after box after box of MAF equipment, guesthouse contents and our home we made the move - just one or two remained to wave us goodbye (who needs removal men when we have Jezzie!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived in Arusha (via endless telephone conversations/arrangement making, hovering in hallways to find wifi) in time to unpack some cases and boxes, to repack then disappear for our “Christmas holiday week” in Nairobi (which means 'cold' in Maasi, apparently, where temperatures were cooler=delicious!) for Carina to visit Nairobi medical centre then day surgery in the hospital for further investigations, meaning we saw very few sights in addition to sunbed, hospital bed super size sofa bed!

 

 

 

We’re thankful to report that all is well, praising God for good health and now we embark on the many tasks at hand here in the MAF Arusha office.  Halelu-JAH today the Tanzanian Civil Aviation  Authority granted permission allowing our 3 planes to take to the skies again: we don’t fly tourists on their jolly’s or provide convenient flights for businessmen around this large country (4 times the size of the UK) but offer life saving medical supplies and transportation out of isolated communities/medical evacuations/emergencies, flying in doctors, clinics and pastors where roads are impassable or just simply too far to walk (even for locals who are used to walking hours/days in roasting conditions, usually sick, sometimes injured and often heavily pregnant!)

 

We drove past Arusha airport where 2 of our 3 planes have been grounded at the airport the past few weeks. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Below is Mount Meru from the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some shots of Kilimanjaro and Meru from the air:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have had our first visitor, mama Ruth who came to help:She took a 9 hour bus journey north to be with us :o)  Here she's preparing passion fruit for juice!  Next week we have two more visitors to the Programme and we’ll “show you around” our new little flat and surroundings.

This photo of Jez in his current corner of the world.  You might recall an old Sunday school chorus: “Jesus bids us shine with a pure clear light, like a little candle burning in the night in this world of darkness we will shine: you in your small corner and I in mine” :o)

 

Happy February: enjoy your hats, gloves, scarves and woollies - with no aircon and often no electricity/internet the rising heat is strength-sapping, the endless flies and mozzies raising temperatures too (look closely and you'll see the "doom" spray on Jez's desk!) tho' our grass might look greener to you over there in rain ‘n’ snow it resembles brown scrubland in many places here – rains are due to reduce dust/famine.

Fond love from us both for now.

Keep shining :o)

Jez and Carina xx