St. Austell Visit

Dear all,

Sorry for not up-dating the blog for some time. We have had a busy summer! (or winter here!)

At the beginning of July the long planned “tamasha” (sort of fundraising concert) with Revival choir took place. It turned out to be smaller than expected our special guest singer didn’t turn up, but several choirs joined us, including Masada from Kilimatinde, and we had a great weekend and managed to raise a good amount of money to help buy some new equipment.

For 3 weeks in July we hosted a youth group from Holy Trinity, St. Austell, who came primarily for a mission in Kilimatinde and surrounding villages, involving singing, drama, preaching the gospel and playing with local children. It was great for us to meet old friends again, and a great experience for the group, many of whom had not experienced such a different culture to their own before. The trip was amazing and many Tanzanians told us how touched they were by the work the group did and how wonderful it was to see such spirit filled young people, who were so eager to pray, worship and preach the good news. The trip was not without it’s problems, mainly involving transport, which is always difficult here in Tanzania, but God provided for us and protected us.

Since returning from the mission we have started to get back into our usual routine. Daniel has started in the reception class at school which he has enjoyed but has been poorly recently so has not been able to participate fully. Christine (and Isaac) has stated volunteering once a week at the local Pentecostal nursery school (see earlier entries) which is great fun. We are now looking forward to a visit from Christine’s mum later this week, and a few days on the beach.

Paul has been spending the university break doing a variety of jobs getting ready for the new semester which starts in September including, preparation of apparatus for practicals, writing prospectus entries and planning the university timetable for the coming year. He has also managed to travel around the Singida region supervising and observing/assessing university students that are out on teaching practice.
Come September things will be get very busy with the new Physics course starting (with currently no other staff but Paul appointed to teach it), the university more than doubling its size and Paul starts his distance masters course as well and so he is planning to make good use of the few weeks of break left for both preparation and relaxation.

Two of our good friends have recently made CDs of their own Christian music which we are helping them to sell. One is by Musa Njagamba – some of you may have bought a CD of “The Njagamba Band” which Christine recorded with Musa and others back in 2001. This is now his latest solo album. The other is by Amani Shaban who you can read about in earlier blogs. Both CDs are excellent and we are selling them for £7 each. If you would like one or both please contact us by email and we will send you details of how to pay us. If you are able to let us know soon we can send the CDs back with Christine’s mum when she returns to the UK at the end of August. Thanks.

Please Pray:
n For the university and for Paul as the new semester approaches
n For the people with whom the group from St. Austell met here in Tanzania, that seeds that were sown will bear fruit.
n For Christine as she discusses her future role here.
n For Daniel as he starts reception at school and for his health
n For our parish of Kikuyu and our new vicar, that the change will bring positive developments.


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