October 31st - On to Moshi!

Friday, October 31, 2008

Today was another travel day, although not as much as Wednesday. We only had the short journey to Moshi from Arusha with a few unexpected changes in our schedule.

We went down to have breakfast at around 7:30am and then walked down to the internet café to check e-mail and send off some updates. It had been a while since I had checked mine so I stayed a little longer than Bruce and Russ. We were scheduled to leave town at 9:00 but were not sure that Charles would be ready to go. He still had a few remaining car repairs to finish, and we hoped that he would not be much later than that. At 9:00am we checked out of our rooms and went down to the waiting area off the hotel’s main entry to wait for Charles to arrive. We only had to wait about one hand of Rummy and he was there. We loaded our luggage into the car and headed to Pastor Jeremiah’s house.

Bruce with Pastor Jeremiah with one of his cows in the background.

Pastor Jeremiah lives in Usa River which is a "suburb" on the eastern side of Arusha. His home is off the beaten path but in a very beautiful area. He has a well manicured yard – very uncommon in this part of the world – with all kinds of beautiful flowering plants and shrubbery. He also grows bananas and coffee, and raises cattle and chickens in his backyard! We were invited into his home where his wife offered us coffee and tea, bread and boiled eggs.

Pastor Jeremiah's beautiful yard.

After finishing up there we drove by the church building. Since last year the congregation has poured a concrete floor throughout the church and sacristy. It looks very nice and is now much easier to clean. We met back up with Charles at the main road just before 12:00, and headed to Moshi.

The trip to Moshi was a quick one (especially compared to our last few trips - and this time with no mechanical problems). We arrived at the hotel at around 2:30 and Pastor Gondwe (from Tanga, Tanzania) was there to meet us. He had taken the bus from Tanga with the intent to be in Arusha for our conference yesterday, but the bus he was traveling on had mechanical problems. So we told him to stay in Moshi and meet us there, since we were planning to visit his congregations in Tanga anyway.

We were also planning to visit the Masai congregation in Misito wa tembo this afternoon. But the roads to that congregation are very bad and we were without a spare. So we decided to meet with Pastor Martin in Moshi instead while Charles took the afternoon to get our tire repaired.
We visited with Pastor Gondwe until Pastor Martin arrived about an hour later. When Pastor Martin arrived we sat down together and talked some more. The first topic of conversation was to inquire about Pastor Martin’s wife who had recently had surgery and has been at home recovering. We were glad to hear that she was doing better and will be returning to the hospital tomorrow for a check-up. Please keep Pastor Martin and his family in your prayers.

At about 4:30 we wrapped up our meeting and headed into Moshi to find the Bible Book Store. Pastor Gondwe had mentioned that they have a god deal on Swahili catechisms and we wanted to check on that. It turns out that they have them but they were not in stock. We will try to check back before we leave to see if they have them then. Almost all of our churches in Tanzania use Swahili (with the exception of the Masai and Ndorobo) so it would be very good to have a good supply of these Lutheran catechisms. The price for these catechisms is about 7,000 Tsch (that is only about $ 0.75 each!!!). So we want to make sure that we get a good supply for our churches here.

Late this afternoon I had a special treat. I went to the famous Pamm Internet café and was able to get wireless service for my laptop. I brought Bruce’s microphone and earphones, opened up Skype and called home! I was able to talk to my whole family for almost half an hour for less than $1 (and that was only for the internet use at the computer place. It was the first time since I left the states that I have been able to talk to my kids, and I really enjoyed it! I told Bosco, the internet café owner, how much I appreciated being able to do that, but I had to restrain myself from giving him a hug! I am glad the remainder of our time will be based out of Moshi, knowing that I am able to call home so easily and cheaply. The wonders of technology!

Tomorrow will be another long day as we travel over 350 km to Tanga. We will be there for only one day and will return again Sunday after the church service.

We appreciate all your concerns, thoughts and prayers for the great work here.

In His service,

Nathanael