Schedule Changes... and Changes... and Changes....

It has been a week of unexpected schedule changes.  When I prepare for my trip to Africa I make detailed plans for my visit to be able to make the most use of my time here.  I schedule every day here as full as I possibly can (to the consternation of many of my traveling companions), but it I also come realizing that things can and do change.  Change has been the word to describe the past week.  Here is a summary:

On Tuesday we were up before the sun to make it to the bus station for our trip from Korogwe to Makanya.  Our driver picked us up and dropped us off at the bus station.  It was a three hour ride to Makanya and while our bus did not break down on the trip, I was concerned that it might rattle apart!  We arrived in Makanya and debarked the bus to find Pastor Mshana waiting there for us.  He invited us to his home where we visited about the recent visit of the Mission Helpers and the work that has been going on in Makanya.  Pastor Mshana’s area covers a great distance in between Tanga and Moshi, and is in a very barren land.  We were planning to visit the pastor of a congregation that was about 30 km away from Pastor Mshana’s home in Makanya, but transport needed to be found first.  It turned out that we were not able to visit since we were not able to find a working car, and because we needed to return to Moshi yet that evening to make plans for a seminar for the Moshi district in the morning.

The barren (but beautiful) landscape surrounding Makanya

After eating lunch at the Mshana’s and greeting several of the pastors and elders from the congregations of the area, we caught another bus for the rest of our trip to Moshi.  It would have been nice to have spent more time here, but things were not seeming to work out...  If I only knew what was about to happen....

The Mshana family with Richard (left) and Russ (right)

When we arrived in Moshi, we arranged for our accommodations for the next three nights and then I went to arrange for a hall for the Moshi district seminary which was to take place in the morning.  This was a last minute arrangement set up because we had to shorten our trip to the Kajiado region in Kenya.  After making arrangements for a hall and space for our seminar I found out that our already reduced one day trip to Kajiado had to be cancelled because of an injury to the pastor’s daughter in that area.  Then I heard from our district leader in Moshi that pastors were not going to be able to make it for the seminar in Moshi in the morning either!  Since our schedule was now open for Thursday, we decided to try to reschedule the Moshi seminar for the that day, pushing it back one day to see if pastors could come that day.  It was quite a headache, and opened up our day on Wednesday.  If this would have been known hours earlier, we could have spent the day in Makanya, but it was too late for that now....

On Wednesday we worked to adjust our plans for the conference and the hall rental.  I spent most of the day working on preparations for the General Pastoral Conference by working on agenda, papers, and emails to attendees.  It needed to be done, so it ended up being a productive day after all.  But there was more change to come...

That night we found out that the people were not going to be able to make it for the seminar on Thursday either.  The notice was just not enough to make it happen.  This is the harvest season in the Moshi area, and many pastors are busy harvesting their own crops or assisting with the harvest of their members.  It was a disappointment, but there was nothing that we could do.  In light of this new information, we decided not to stay in Moshi for another day of sitting around.  Instead we made plans to continue on to Arusha where we would meet with Pastor Jeremiah before heading back to Nairobi.

It has been one schedule change after another the past few days.  And while these last minute changes and cancellations have been frustrating, we also remember that the Lord remains faithful and even brings blessing from seeming disaster!  Thanks be to God!

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

In Christ,

Nathanael