Tuesday 20 October 2009

New Term

Dear all,

The new term has started this week at the university so the place is buzzing again after the peace and quiet of the last few months – it was beginning to get a little boring!

With the ink not quite dry on the timetable, Paul’s efforts are now being directed at registration of new students, sorting out seminar groups, oh and teaching 3 different courses (1 st year Physics labs, 2nd year Physics labs and a new third year education course “Educational Media and Technology”). Its all a bit hectic with study for the masters in full swing too but God is good and Paul is quite upbeat, trusting God to see him from one day to the next.

We are also extremely busy in the choir shop now all the students have come back and even more than last year. We are frantically trying to stock up to cope with the demand this week. Today I came home from town with over 500 bottles of water in the car!

Christine’s trips to Masasi and Manyoni for the small loans project evaluation went well. It was wonderful to see some of the projects the groups have developed and how much they have helped them in raising money for their groups as well as income for individuals and their churches and even helping their local communities in many ways, and all made possible with a loan of just a few hundred pounds. The first picture shows our discussions with members of youth groups in Masasi and the second shows a successful market gardening project which one of the groups set up. Please pray for funding so that we can continue this project in other dioceses.

The only down-side of the trip was the journey – it is a long way to Masasi – at least 12 hours drive, and we had an accident on the way being hit by a bus. We praise God that we were able to avoid what looked like a certain head-on collision, no-one was hurt, and though the car took quite a bashing it was still running perfectly and we were able to continue with the journey. Repair work is still on-going!

The boys have just gone back to school after a 2 week break. The climax of last term was sports day which was great fun, and a very colourful occasion as you can see on the pictures. During the holiday Christine and the boys spent a few days relaxing in Kilimatinde whilst Paul was busy registering students. We had a lovely time with our friends there. The picture shows our friends Amani and Faraja with their week old baby Nehemiah Daniel, and the boys with their friends Gift, Tumaini and Given.

Now the university term has started again we are re-starting the English service at the chapel and welcoming back our English choir who we have missed. This will be much better for the boys who find the Swahili service a struggle. We are planning to make a recording of the English choir this term, and also next month Christine will be recording with Revival choir. Please pray for both of these projects.

Lots of love and blessings to you all,
Christine, Paul, Daniel and Isaac. xxx