Elections, Evangelists and Enjoyment

Dear friends,

Playing Golf

The year is going by very quickly and we are now approaching the rains again with the weather hotting up rapidly. We have had a busy time since our last blog beginning with a very enjoyable visit from Christine's old school friend Rachel. We had a lovely time camping in various parts of the country and showing Rachel some of our life in Dodoma.

With Rachel

We recently had national elections in Tanzania, which for the first time ever were hotly contested as the opposition party really stood a chance of winning. The ruling party did, however, get into power again and Tanzania has a new president John Magufuli. We praise God that though the elections were controversial they were peaceful. Please pray for the government of Tanzania under its new leadership.

Please pray for the university which is working itself out of long term financial troubles that have not been helped by the government's decision to delay the opening of all colleges and universities until after the election. This has made for a longer than usual break when Paul was able to take a little time off as well as finding time to devote to things that have been "on the back burner" such as e-learning developments and his research. With just a few days now before the majority of our students return, Paul is very much back in work mode with the timetable to complete as well as new courses to teach and maybe some new responsibilities. In all the busyness and changes, please pray that the university is able to live up to its aim of being a centre of excellence for developing humankind holistically to learn to serve.

Daniel's Birthday

In September we celebrated Daniel's 12th birthday with a "Narnia" party. He also began secondary school this year, a relatively easy transition here as he is continuing in the same school with the same class. He is very much enjoying the challenges of secondary school and is doing really well. He has also joined an after school Christian discussion group which he is enjoying. Isaac is also doing well at school and continues to be very keen on his music. He came second place in the school talent show this year and has been helping to lead worship at the cathedral. At the moment the university English church is having a break during the long university break.

Music School

Christine has been very busy at work and we praise God for a very fruitful time. In August we held our annual music and worship school which was a huge success and blessing as always. The picture shows Godlove, one of our previous students, who along with former student Leonard, helped with some teaching this year.

Evangelists Training in Tunduru

It is wonderful to see the fruits of our work in this way. In September we carried out the second of our training courses for lay evangelists in Tunduru, Southern Tanzania. It was an amazing course with over 100 evangelists being trained and carrying out evangelism in the local area. You can read more about these projects on my work blog http://actmission.blogspot.com 

ACT Amani FM Research Team

We are also in the process of developing an Anglican Church radio station. With the help of some funds from FEBA UK we carried out research amongst local communities to determine the priorities of the radio station. The picture shows 2 of our research team with the "ACT AMANI FM" T-Shirts. Please pray as we try to get a license for the radio and search for funding to make it possible.

With Christine's family

Christine is currently having a short visit to the UK to see her mum. The picture shows us enjoying an autumn walk with Christine's mum, sister and nephews.

Welcoming Mama Welby

Kikuyu Gospel Singers, Christine's Swahili choir was involved with the welcome of the wife of the archbishop of Canterbury "Mama Welby" when she came to Tanzania as the guest of honour at a Mother's Union conference. This picture shows her being welcomed as her car approaches the conference centre. We were also involved in singing at a community health event singing songs which we wrote a couple of years ago to raise awareness about various health issues. We continue to sing at various churches in the area and to hold prayer events at our local church. Please pray for this work.

Son of Justine and Salome

With Grace and family

We recently visited Justine, who Christine used to work with in the Youth department of the Anglican church, and his wife Salome who have just had a baby boy, shown in the picture below. We also had a lovely weekend recently with Grace and Festo in Kilimatinde and met their new baby, William. This picture is in Kilimatinde with some of their family and friends.

With love from
Christine, Paul, Daniel and Isaac.xxx

Servers, Singida and Seminars

Much has happened since we wrote our last blog. The container finally arrived at St. John's shortly after, to much rejoicing. This picture shows the container after it was opened and before the hard work of unpacking, cataloging, testing and distributing it all which is still partly ongoing. The need for these items such as the computers was highlighted recently when in the middle of Paul's course on educational media and technology, which takes place 

largely on-line using the university's Moodle system, the server on which it was based suffered a fatal hardware fault and needed to be replaced with another which had come from England in a previous container. 

The picture shows Mr Kungura, Paul's friend and colleague doing emergency surgery on the servers before getting the system back up and running.

This semester Paul has been catching up from when we were away, teaching extra courses to the usual which has kept him busy but he has also found some time to work on getting a smartboard from the container working, writing some software for student examinations processing, 

getting stuck in to some electronics research together with an Indian lecturer from a neighbouring university and writing some presentation papers for an upcoming research conference. 

The picture shows the Physics lab in full swing during a practical session.

In March Christine went on a ladies retreat at the local catholic centre. This picture shows the group of missionary ladies and some of our Tanzanian friends who are involved in various forms of ministry here in Dodoma. It was a lovely relaxing and refreshing weekend. 

At the end of March Isaac turned 9 with a "minecraft" themed birthday party as those in the know will see from the cake!  We had a lovely time celebrating with him. 

Isaac has also been enjoying using his talents with his guitar and singing, helping us lead worship at our English service and also leading at a couple of services at Dodoma Cathedral which were led by the school. The picture shows one of these services. 

During the school Easter break we were able to have a short holiday on the beach in Bagamoyo, near Dar-es-Salaam, which was a lovely break. 

Christine and the boys also had a trip to Singida to visit our dear friend Musa Njagamba and his lovely family who can be seen in these pictures.

The English choir is going strong. We have new choir robes, and also managed to buy a new sound system for the chapel with the proceeds from the CDs we sold in the UK. A few weeks ago we were invited to sing at a service at UDOM, another university in Dodoma which was a great time of fellowship. We also recently had our "graduation" party for those choir members who will be graduating from the university and leaving us this year - an annual event which is always a great celebration but a sad time too. 

The picture shows us with the 3 graduating members this year. Though the choir is doing well, the English congregation, is shrinking significantly and we would value your prayers, that God would show us how to go forward in the future.

Kikuyu Gospel Singers (Swahili choir) is also doing some good work. The pictures show our open air mission event which we held in April this year in the local community - a wonderful time of outreach to the local community. Also we have recently recorded our second CD which is now in the process of editing and finishing.

At work, Christine organised the annual conference of diocesan mission and evangelism coordinators in May which was a great success and a great encouragement to all who attended. A few weeks ago was the annual week of prayer and evangelism of the Anglican Church of Tanzania during which Christians across the country joined together in prayer for the church, the community, the country and the world as well as planning many seminars, missions and prayer vigils. Christine is also busy with plans for the development of an Anglican Church radio station. Please pray for the development of this project.

With love
Christine, Paul, Daniel and Isaac. xxx

New Year, New Bosses, New Opportunities

Dear all,

We’re glad to be back in Tanzania again and settled back into our home, work and school environments. We’d had a great time in the UK visiting many of you and enjoying what the UK had to offer but it’s good to be back home, to see friends again and to not be living out of suitcases any more. 

Our last few weeks in the UK were spent enjoying Christmas and New Year with family around the country, and even seeing some snow in Derby, much to the boys delight, as they were able to tick off one of the final items on their "to do in England" list and build a snowman. We also had a final week in St. Austell to say our final farewells to all our wonderful friends there and to load the container and send it on it's way to Tanzania.

We’d like to thank all of you who helped in ways both large and small toward the container project. It was packed and left the UK a few days before we did, thanks to help from friends in the Besom Project St Austell and is now in Dar-es-Salaam whilst the clearing process is being completed. Your prayers for this please – we are looking forward to its arrival any day now but are aware that things can very easily go wrong at this stage.

Paul got back to the university as the first semester was closing and so has had a very gentle workload so far being mainly occupied with project marking, third year project supervision and the occasional visit from a school group. The photo shows a group of girls from Queen Esther School in Mpwapwa who came to do some laboratory practice at the university last week. It was good to meet the new Vice Chancellor Prof. Mbennah who started his position while we were back in the UK and during a difficult time for the university. He seems to be a Godly man with a vision for the university and we welcome your prayers as the university starts its next chapter under new management.

Paul is now planning for the forthcoming semester, which will be a busy one, but is also excitedly looking at a few other opportunities to start something new at the start of our new term of service to be hopefully revealed in future posts.

Christine is back into the swing of things at work and enjoying working with the new General Secretary Dr. Johnson Chinyon'gole who again began in post whilst we were away.  She is busy developing plans for the coming year for the mission and evangelism department, including seminars, conferences, training of evangelists and training of worship leaders. Please pray for God’s blessing on this work and especially for the funds and resources we need to make these projects possible.

Both Kikuyu Gospel Singers and the University English Choir continue to go well despite some turnover of members in our absence and we are enjoying fellowship with them again. In January we were also involved with a video recording for our friend Amani Shabani who is a wonderful evangelist and musician and the picture shows the boys dancing with him for the video.

The boys are glad to be back at school after a good break and are loving their new teachers at Canon Andrea Mwaka School. Here is a picture of them in their new school uniforms. Our household has also been swelled recently by the arrival of four guinea pigs. The pressure was on for Paul to build a hutch in time before our friends the Madindas, from whom they came, left to travel to the UK. The boys are loving the novelty of feeding and looking after George, Ginger, Prince and Shadow and will hopefully keep it up once the novelty wears off.

Shortly after we returned we managed to find time to visit our great friends the Kanunghas in Kilimatinde. It was great to see a very active Zephaniah and to get chances to chat and catch up with Grace and Festo as well as to meet up with other friends there.

With much love and blessings,

Christine, Paul, Daniel and Isaac.xxx

Winter in the UK

Dear Friends,

On the Cornish Coast

As the dark evenings draw in and the days get colder we are beginning to think about preparations for heading back to Tanzania in the new year. First we have Christmas to enjoy, when we will be visiting family and saying our farewells as well as visiting our final link churches. The boys are already getting excited with Christmas preparations which are very different to those in Tanzania.

In the Lake District with cousins Tom and Adam

At a link church

Harvest at Heligan

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time in the UK up to now. It has been a great time of relaxation and refreshment and a chance to catch up with family and old friends, and we thank all of those who have helped and supported us in many different ways to make this time enjoyable and fruitful. We have also enjoyed our visits to various churches and thank you all for the warm welcome that you have given us, and for your continued support financially and prayerfully.We also had a wonderful holiday in the Lake District at half term with Christine's mum and sister and her family.

At a link church

 

Daniel's 11th Birthday

The boys have been very happy in school and have enjoyed making lots of new friends. It is great to see how well they have adapted and how much they have enjoyed school, but are still looking forward to returning "home". They have also benefitted from extra swimming and music lessons and have enjoyed all the exciting activities that are available in the UK. In September Daniel turned 11 and had a wonderful "lego movie" birthday party with friends.

Packing the container

Packing the container

As well as relaxing and enjoying the delights of the Cornish countryside we have kept ourselves busy. We have been very much involved with the life of Holy Trinity Church in St. Austell and have appreciated the support we have there. Christine has been spending time studying for a short module in church ministry with St. John's College , Nottingham, whilst Paul has been continuing to collect equipment to fill a container to send back to the university in Tanzania. He has done really well, collecting over 150 computers, lots more IT equipment, text books, laboratory apparatus and more. We are very grateful to everyone who has helped us by donating equipment and finding contacts for us as well as helping us store and transport what we have gathered. We hope to send the container on January 6th, and follow ourselves soon afterwards, leaving the UK on January 10th. Please pray that the container arrives safely and clears customs with little hassle or expense, and pray too that we travel and arrive safely, and settle back quickly into life in Tanzania.

With Christine's Mum

Back in Tanzania things have been changing. A new vice chancellor, Prof. Emmanuel Mbennah, has been appointed at the university. Also, a new general secretary, Canon Dr. Johnson Chinyong'ole has been apppointed for the Anglican church of Tanzania, following the installation of the previous general secretary as Bishop of our diocese, the Diocese of Central Tanganyika. This means new leaders for both of us in our work roles. Please pray that both may be good and effective leaders and that we will have good working relationships with them. Pray too that God gives us a renewed vision for our future work as we return to Tanzania.



With Paul's Mum and Dad

If you need any ideas for Christmas presents, we are selling 2015 calendars aimed at helping you to pray for us and our work over the year. They are quite big with lots of space to write and lovely pictures. If you would like one they are £10 each including postage. We are also selling DVDs of Kikuyu Gospel Singers (swahili choir, but with a translation inside) for £10 and audio CDs of St. John's Gospel Singers (English language choir) for £8. Please let us know if you would like any of these.

Finally we wish you all a very happy Christmas and pray that God blesses you rich in 2015.

With love
Christine, Paul, Daniel and Isaac.xxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back in the UK





 

Sightseeing

Holiday on the Isle of Wight























Preaching at a link church

With Friends at New Wine

We are now back in the UK on 6 months home assignment. We arrived here mid July and spent time visiting family, attending various appointments with CMS , going to the New Wine festival with friends from our church and generally enjoying summer in the UK.


Enjoying Cornwall

We are now settled in St. Austell where we are living in a lovely mobile home owned by friends. We have also begun travelling around the UK visiting our various supporting churches and are grateful for the warm welcomes we have received so far.

We look forward to seeing many more of you over the next few months.

 The boys started school last week at Bishop Bronescombe School, the local C of E Primary School where they are very happy so far.

Ready for school outside our new home

They have also been enjoying the delights of Cornwall with its beaches, gardens, and cycle paths literally on our doorstep!



Computers for the Container

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Worship in St. Austell

Whilst in the UK Paul is once gain putting together a container of equipment to send back to the University after the success of the last one sent three years ago. So far it's going quite well with over 12 computers and various bits and bobs collected after just a few weeks of asking around. We are mainly looking for computers (under 8 years old), university level text books and laboratory apparatus. It may be that you know of a school/college/university or business that is having a clear-out at the moment in which case Paul would love to get some contact details. Christine is also after keyboards and guitars and other electronic musical equipment for her projects which we'll hopefully have room for.


Evangelists Training in Kibondo

Although we are enjoying our time in the UK we are also all very much missing our friends and life in Tanzania. Much happened in Tanzania since our last blog, but in our busyness preparing for our journey we didn't have the time to write. Christine held another conference of mission and evangelism co-ordinators in May which was very positive and encouraging for all involved. Also in June she travelled to Kibondo in Western Tanzania to run a training seminar for lay evangelists from 5 dioceses. This was a wonderful event and again a great encouragement to those involved who are passionate evangelists and very active in their local churches but with little or no training.

Mission and Evangelism Co-ordinators

English Choir Graduation

We hope to continue with this work across the whole of Tanzania. Please read more about these activities on the Mission department blog on the link above. Christine was also busy with Kikuyu Gospel Singers and the launch of our DVD which is now available for sale. Please contact me if you would like a copy.

Paul managed to tie up most loose ends at the University before we left but would like your prayers particularly for a young man named Philbert Mushumbusi who is currently producing the university timetable after being trained by Paul over the last year. The university term has now ended with the provisional results just released. Please pray for those preparing to graduate this coming November. Please also pray for the newly appointed Vice Chancellor and the work ahead of him as he guides the university into another chapter of it's history.


Talent Show with the Headmaster

The boys had lots of positive goodbyes at school and bible club but were very sad to leave their friends for these 6 months. They both received good reports at the end of the school year and both got into the finals of the school talent school with their music, at which Isaac was very proud to win the primary section playing his guitar and singing.

With love and blessings,
Christine, Paul, Daniel and Isaac.xxx