A long-delayed ending

The Safari is Over

My journey is over and I am safely back in the United States.  Thanks so much to all who prayed.  I would like to briefly mention a couple of amazing things the Lord did.

1.       We had a safe trip from Arusha to Babati in spite of experiencing a blowout at about 50 mph.  We were travelling packed to the gills and had a whole crew of unbelted men on the back benches of the truck.  Afterwards Aaron said that the Lord brought the thought to his mind that he was about due for another blowout just a few minutes before it happened.  In the middle of nowhere in TZ, emergency medical help would have been non-existent and we were about 80-100 miles from any good hospitals.  Bwana Asafiwe!

2.       After the second day of preaching, I was hit really hard with illness that was of an incapacitating nature J  Actually, Rodney and our Tanzanian friend Phillipo were also pretty laid out, which means it was really bad.  We thought it was Giardia, and began treating it as such, but later came to the conclusion that it was probably food poisoning.  Anyhow, the Lord strengthened me through it and I was able to preach on time the next day without any trouble.

3.       As far as the preaching itself goes, I experienced much liberty in my preaching on the second and third days especially.  The theme that I was to address was physical purity for Christian youth, so the first two messages were quite heavy and cautionary.  On the third day, I addressed the question of why people pursue sin when they know its dangers and its pain.  I essentially gave Solomon’s answer in Proverbs 27:7 – “The full soul loathes honey, but to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet.”  A person who is filled with Jesus Christ—who is sated with Him—will not have the same desire for sin as a person who is spiritually “empty.”  Our hearts are hungry for something to feast upon, and since only Christ can satisfy that hunger, until we find Him and feast on Him, we will feel our insatiable appetites drawing us to every other bitter well the world has to offer.  I exhorted the young people to look to Christ for satisfaction instead of sin, and ended-up going to Hebrews 11-12 to talk about faith and the importance of it in our pursuit of the Savior.  Please pray that the Lord would seal His Word in hearts.

4.       God got me out of Tanzania!  Yes, I loved the country, but I was a little concerned when on Wednesday I learned that the gas companies had gone on strike in the midst of negotiations with the Tanzanian government.  No petrol.  No diesel.  No trip to the airport.  Yeah, that’s not a good situation.  Baya sana (very bad).  Things were actually so bad that there was a FB group posting where and when you could find gas in Arusha.  Aaron and I found some Thursday morning, and about 2 hrs later the city was dry—with no expectation of more fuel coming any time soon.  Pray for the Tanzanians as this kind of thing literally cripples the country, and it happens more often than you'd think.

I thank and praise the Lord for all that He allowed me to do during this short trip.  I would love to go back some day.  Thanks Aaron, Nicole, Rodney, Lynn, Philippo, and everyone else!

In Christ,

Nick

Bwana asifiwe.

English: "Praise the Lord!" God certainly deserves much praise for the amazing time Aaron, Rodney, and I had preaching for the youth conference this week. The confence was held in Bonga, a town of 4,000 south of Babati, and grew each day, from 180 to about 300 when we left this afternoon. The Lord gave all of the preachers a great reception with the youth. I felt a lot of liberty yesterday and today, so thank you to all who were praying!

I am going to write more later, but now I need to go get rest. Sickness over the last day has been tiring. :)

For the Kingdom,
Nick

Habari za asubuhi?

In Swahili, habari za asubuhi is the standard greeting for the first half of the day--equivalent to "good morning" and literally meaning, "News of the morning?"  The funny thing about Tanzania (and definitely a place its culture differs from American culture) is that people here actually respond to your question.  How novel!  People who actually want to talk when they start talking to you!  If I said habari za asubuhi, the other person might say, Nzuri! (Good!) and then, if he's a child, he might say, Shikamoo (May I hold your feet?), to which I would of course have the decency to respond, Marahaba (It is not necessary.)  From there the conversation could go any number of ways, but my point is that the conversation would likely go on.  None of this silly "Hey, how's it going?" "Fine!  How's it going with you?"  "Oh great!  How's it--oh wait, I already asked that!"  Tanzania is an extremely relational society where time takes a back seat to conversations and your to-do list is about fourteenth on your to-do list.

In a culture like this, a driven American has to have the self-control to slow down.  Aaron shared with me in the last couple days that one of his friends always says, "Sorry for your busy-ness."  Aaron doesn't feel that busy, but if he's not careful, he and many other missionaries can come across as rushed and disinterested people--always focused on the next thing and never taking time to build the relationships that are so vital to ministry.

Now, missionaries here don't combat this problem by sitting around.  They work like crazy, but they have to know when it's time to work and when it's time to talk.  Jobs don't get done with the efficiency or precision of a bullet-shot.  You can't decide at noon to do a plumbing job, plan from 12:00-12:15, drive to the store and buy your stuff from 12:15-1:15, and do the plumbing from 1:15-3:00.  It's more like a relentless tidal wave.  You decide to do a plumbing job, but just as you're sitting down to plan it, the neighbor kids arrive with a puppy they want you to look at.  So you spend 12:00-12:20 looking at the dog, then herding all the kids (there's 15 of them) back out and saying goodbye.  Now you plan the plumbing job (12:20-12:35).  You head into town, but traffic is slow because the guys driving the dala-dalas (taxi busses) are stopping in the middle of the road.  Once you get to the hardware store, you have to find a parking space and pay (and briefly talk to) the parking guard.  All of this takes from 12:35-1:00.  Once you're in the store, your rafiki (friend) shouts across the room and comes over to talk, which takes 10 minutes (It's now 1:10).  But you still have to buy your stuff, which takes another 25 minutes of sitting in line.  On the way back, you get stopped by the police for a "routine check" and by the time you get home, it's 2:30.  You get the picture . . .  in a sense, you're working a lot harder than someone who can just "up and go" get a job done.

Today was varied.  After a delicious pancake breakfast in the morning, I worked on the convection hot water heater Aaron designed.  We cut PVC and painted it black, then glued elbow joints together so they were "U" shapes instead of "L" shapes.  I'll post a picture later . . .  I got to drive here for the first time today.  First time on the right side of a vehicle.  First time on the left side of the road.  First time shifting with my left hand.  It was all exciting--including the clockwise roundabout I got to navigate.  Those things are weird even going the normal direction.  Played B-ball with Ben Shipe again, went shopping with Aaron, and had a delicious dinner of chicken and pasta.  I got to meet one of the other missionaries in the country--Steve Burkholder, and tomorrow I get to see Rodney Myers and his family at church in Ndatu.  Please pray that the Lord would give me grace to preach effectively for the assembly there.

Thanks for your prayers.  Preparation for the youth conference is moving right along.  Aaron and I leave tomorrow for Babati. 

In Christ,
Nick
P.S. - Aaron says the illustrative plumbing saga is accurate.

A vapor that appears . . . and vanishes.

Today I had the awesome opportunity to visit Tarangire National Park here in TZ.  I really couldn't describe it to you in a blog post.  I will say this: it is a weird feeling to get out of your truck and think, "I'd better not go too far or I might get eaten or gored to death."  This feeling is intensified after you have watched a lioness chase a herd of crazed wildebeests, tearing into one and promptly feasting on its warm flesh.  "Wow," you say to yourself, "That would hurt."  On the innocuous East coast, about the most scary thing you'll see is...well...there's not much there.  Did you know that (1) a water buffalo has a really fiery temper and will charge at the drop of a hat (you die when that happens), (2) a bull elephant can flip an SUV, (3) a giraffe has been known to literally decapitate a lion with a kick of the leg?  Yeah, these African animals mean business.

Death seems a lot nearer here in TZ.  People die all the time.  A European tourist at Tarangire National Park several years ago was literally eaten by a leopard mere yards from where I stood today.  Fatal car wrecks are virtually an everyday occurrence here in Arusha--a town with a population of around 400,000.  Everyone in Tanzania accepts the fact that "it is appointed unto man once to die" (Hebrews 9:27).  This was a good check for me--a good reminder that my life is a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away (James 4:14).  For the believer, this is not a fearful thing, though.  A Christian need not fear lions, disease, or any other form of death for that matter, for his "life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).  Read these words by H. A. Cesar Malan:

It is not death to die,
To leave this weary road,
And midst the brotherhood on high
To be at home with God.

It is not death to close
The eye long dimmed by tears,
And wake, in glorious repose,
To spend eternal years.

It is not death to bear
The wrench that sets us free
From dungeon chain, to breath the air
Of boundless liberty.

It is not death to fling
Aside this sinful dust
And rise, on strong exulting wing
To live among the just.

Jesus, Thou Prince of Life,
Thy chosen cannot die:
Like Thee, they conquer in the strife
To reign with Thee on high.

Well, it is really late and I am really, really tired.  Preaching begins in about 36 hours on Sunday, then the conference begins Monday.  Aaron is also preaching for the conference, so pray for him as well.

Thank you all for praying and reading!

In Christ,
Nick
P.S. - Check out the "Safari Photos" tab at the top if you haven't already.

"Um...could you pose for a second?"

Missions trips are undeniably a great time for pictures.  I mean, honestly, I'll probably never have another chance to take pictures of Angkor Wat, Cambodia like I did in 2008 with the SEA Team--or of Haitian mountains like I did in the summer of 2007.  But when taking pictures on the mission field, I need to think about how my photo fixation comes across to the people around me.  When taking pictures of giggling little kids happily playing games, there's not too much danger of offense, but when I go to a private residence or even a market, furiously snapping photos can be--frankly--rude.  I mean, think about why the picture is "worth taking."  If I'm thinking, "Wow, that guy is dressed in rags! I should get a picture," then, chances are, "that guy" is going to take offense at my gawking if he sees me.  The same idea applies to taking pictures of things that are "just weird."  I need to bear in mind that, while this is all new and novel to me as a foreigner, every individual I photograph is a real person with a real life, who I am either honoring or degrading.  On my Photos page, there is a market shot.  I took it from the hip, not looking in the direction I was shooting.  That's my explanation for the crooked angle on the shot :)  When I went to the market with Aaron, he and I were the only mzungus (white guys) there.  It was right and fitting that he and I should be the spectacle--not that we should make a spectacle of the people into whose world and sphere of life we had penetrated.

Yesterday evening, Aaron and I discussed how to properly talk about nationals on the mission field.  Certainly it is possible for a missionary to be so critical of the people among whom he works that he loses his heart for them and, ultimately, his ministry with them as well.  On the other hand, how can you live a holy life in the midst of any culture and not, on a regular basis, challenge it on many points?  One of Aaron's responses was that a missionary's kids are the surest indication of his attitude toward the national people.  The old adage says, "What you do in moderation, your children will do in excess," and a missionary's attitude toward "the people" will almost always be magnified in his kids' attitudes.  An adult can easily paste a happy smile on his face for Sunday services while verbally dismembering church members all week long.  Kids...are not so good at that.  Here's a live example from today: One of the neighborhood kids stole a knife from the Shipes the last time he came over to play.  Aaron told him that part of his punishment was that he couldn't come into the yard to play today.  The kids knew about it because (1) the knife belonged to one of them, (2) the little boy stood at the end of the driveway watching the other kids play all day, and (3) it was being discussed by us adults.  Throughout the whole ordeal, however, Aaron and Nicole never said things like "That boy--honestly, these locals are a thieving bunch."  That is the kind of attitude that embitters kids.  Sin has to be pointed out.  A missionary who never addresses the sins peculiar to his field with his family is no different than an American pastor who doesn't address modesty, materialism, or swearing with his kids.  At the same time, identifying sin as sin is not the same as developing a negative attitude toward nationals that views them as "projects" instead of people.

Today I got up a little late again (I still don't go to sleep until 1:00 or 2:00 a.m.--hard time switch).  Aaron and I went to the market and had a good time looking for fruit and shoes.  The shoes are all Goodwill donations that come in huge bins or bags.  They're unmatched, so first you find a shoe you like, then you try to find its partner.  Actually, we didn't find anything, but we still had a great time.  We talked to several people (well...Aaron did while I listened), including a Catholic clergyman who was shocked out of his gourd that Aaron had six kids plus another on the way.  He commented several times how unusual that was for our (U.S.) culture.  Amusing.  Here in TZ, two kids is considered ideal, and daughters are best because they bring a bride-price to the family once they get older.

The rest of the day was spent playing games: basketball, soccer, and everlasting dodge-ball, which was quite a hit with the Tanzanian kids.  I actually got so intent on trying to dodge the ball at one point that I ran full-bore into a tree.  I'll have you know I didn't get tagged.

Thanks for the prayers.  I especially need them now as the days of preaching approach (Sun-Wed next week). 

S.D.G.
~ Nick

Tanzania

Well, I'm here at last.  I actually arrived on the ground at some time around 1:30 am Tues local time (6:30 pm Mon, EST).  Jet lag has been very interesting because my flight lasted 31 hours, so I'm not really sure what time my body thinks it is...

I spent the morning getting "the tour" of the Shipe's house and playing with the kids.  We invented a new game called "Never-ending dodge-ball," which Ben (7 yrs old)  more theologically dubbed "Everlasting dodge-ball."  We spent a good amount of time in Arusha, getting a tire fixed, shopping for meat, and exchanging money.  Currently, the exchange rate is: 1 US Dollar = 1,589.53 Tanzanian Shillings.  A TZ shilling has such a small value ($0.0006291) that they don't even mint a unit of currency for it.  On the other hand, the largest unit of currency is the 10,000 shilling bill, but with an approximate value of $6.29, it takes a lot of those to buy anything big.  That can be good, though, because it makes 10,000 shillings a good, round asking price.  And $6.29 isn't a bad price for much of anything!  I forgot how much I like dickering prices with vendors . . . . Thank you, Dr. Kevin Oberlin, for teaching me everything I know in that arena.

Interesting cultural insight of the day: Aaron related that a veteran missionary in the area once told him, "Plan to do one thing a day.  If you get one thing done, you're doing well."  That missionary recently came to their house for dinner a tad late and jokingly said, "Sorry--I tried to do three things today...I knew better."  I remember being struck by the event-orientation (vs. time-orientation) in Asia as well when I was there in 2008.  Frankly, event-orientation isn't as "efficient," but I imagine there are fewer stress ulcers in TZ than back in the States.  Additionally, there's a lot more time for relationship-building conversations and time with the Lord as well.

Right now, I'm focusing on getting adjusted to the time-zone change and spending some time with the Shipes.  Alyssa wants about 1,547 rides/day and all of us are having a great time playing basketball, soccer, and everlasting dodge-ball.  I am posting a few pictures for you all to peruse on the Photos page.  Enjoy!

Three more days . . .

Living in the moment is difficult when you're three days away from something that you've anticipated indirectly for six years and directly for six months.  That's pretty much where I find myself right now.  Africa looms large, filling my mind's eye, and tempting me to daydream instead of packing.  Today is another sermon-prep day.  Once I finish this post, I'll be studying 1 Corinthians 6 in preparation for one of the three messages I'll preach at the Gospel Furthering Fellowship youth conference, 8/8-10.

To my slight chagrin, Ethiopian Airlines has very obtuse carry-on policies.  I am allowed one (1) carry-on bag that may not weigh more 15 lbs or contain more than 2.5 oz of liquids, gels, or aerosols.  Well, once you pack my Bible, iPad, and laptop, you pretty-much have a 15 lb bag.  Have you ever lost your luggage?  I hope I don't lose mine, or I'll be wearing the same shirt for 12 days . . .

Thank you to all who are praying for my sermon preparation.  The Lord has been blessing in that area during the last 24 hrs. especially.  Pray for the youth who will be at the conference, that the Lord would do plow work in their hearts so that when the Word is preached it finds good soil.  S.D.G.

~ Nick