Fifth Update from Tanzania

Sorry for the lag in communication, but the internet here at the LJS is really temperamental and spotty.

Yesterday I visited the well at Mazizi. I rode with Grant, Raymond, Joseph, and Solomon. At Mazizi we first had sweet tea, took Jefferson (the Mazizi evangelist) to the well site. The well is producing but has poor water quality.

Remind me to show you the pictures of the wheelbarrow...

We then took Jefferson back to Mazizi where we were invited to eat lunch. Rice and fatty meat of some kind. The hospitality is incredible. When leaving I was presented with a gift of appreciation. You probably guessed it... a chicken. I named it" Sandy" . We then went to a village called Lubungo to look at possible well sites.

While I was well inspecting, Mike went with Luca for the day. They spent all morning in Morogoro buying building supplies, then took them to the village (an hour's drive) and laid out the footprint for a new church. Mike got a good taste of what an average day for Luca "the master builder" looks like.

Last night Jacob invited all of the Americans to a dinner party at his house. The other Americans in our party are Floyd and Betty from Tulsa and Linda and Diane- both from the Seattle , Washington area. They befriended Jacob when he was at seminary there. There were probably 25 people there and we got to meet Jacob's mother. A good time was had by all. We took "Sandy" and left her there...

Today we went to the Masaai cattle auction. It was like a state fair. Hundreds of Masaai with their cattle. No games but everything Masaai: clothing, knives, clubs, shoes, goats, donkeys. There was also a food court with the freshest food possible. In fact the slaughter area was right next to the barbecue pit. Yum!!

After lunch, a group of us went to the orphanage and had a great time playing with the kids. Tonight we're off to a hotel for dinner.

Tomorrow is Jacob's consecration which is expected to last 5-hours. The Prime Minister is going to be here to address the crowd. It will be very interesting!

From Mark

Tanzania Mission Fourth Update 2007

Well it's 10:50PM and I have a decent internet connection so I thought I'd strike while the iron's hot. Today was a relaxed day. We were supposed to meet with Jacob, but he was delayed in Dar es Salaam, so we just hung out here. At noon we ate lunch and Jacob arrived. Mike and I had a second very good meeting with him. Lots to discuss and think about.
For Thanksgiving dinner, the staff at the LJS fixed duck.

Duck! It was a roasted duck on a platter with carrots, tomatoes, and cucumber garnish around the sides. The duck was served with the obligatory rice (and potato salad for any who wanted it). It was really good. Here I thought I'd be having a weird Thanksgiving meal. It was a really sweet gesture by the staff.

Tonight, Mike, two kids from Wartburg College and I went to Grant's house to watch a movie (Amazing Grace). We all enjoyed the fellowship and the movie.

That's about it. Tomorrow I will visit more villages (and water wells) with Grant, and Mike will go with Herb and Luca to buy and deliver some construction supplies.

Saturday will be more of the same for me (I don't know yet about Mike). Sunday is the consecration (they're estimating 5-hours...). Monday is pack-up and head home.

I don't know if I mentioned that Raymond is home from seminary for the consecration. I spent a good deal of time with him Tuesday, Wednesday, and today. He sends his love to you...

Mark and Mike

Third Installment of from our wonderful Tanzania mission team

The braids work out nicely as I don't have to worry about gelling my hair. Mike says it doesn't look too goofy.

Tuesday we looked at 4 water wells. All are working well.

The people at 3 of the villages were so thankful, they each independently gave us a chicken. We traveled a great distance with 3 chickens in the car. At one point we had an escapee and chased a chicken all over a farm field.

Finally Solomon (Luka's brother) dove on it. The result:
chicken poop all over Solomon's shirt. The first one we named Ben (in keeping with the new Kyle Tresch tradition of naming animals after sons). The second we named Mallory, and the third Lisa. All tasted wonderful, I'm sure...

The internet is not working too well at all. Hence the brevity of my message.

Update From Tanzania

We visited several villages and saw the wells, etc. but did not really have time for tea with them except at New Land.

Consequently, they presented us with a live chicken. The first was given to directly to Mark and so we named it Ben in honor of the tradition that Kyle started in Ethopia. Of course the next two completed the Dalton clan. Two of them went home with Solomon but, alas, the third was given to the kitchen for Jacob's supper—I think it was Lisa.

Wednesday we started our day by going to the diocese office so that Mark could determine their computer status. While he was there, I accompanied Grant to St Mary's hospital so that he could pay for a man's hernia surgery. Quite a witness considering the man was not a Christian and he had to work through the evangelist to get this done. The evangelist was at the hospital with him. We next visited Gazeulole. There we had a good visit with Leonard and viewed the well. When we asked how many people used the well we were given a figure of about 500. Tonight is the english-speaking service at the school and Grant is leading it. I imagine if we don't like the TV selections we shall attend.

As to soccer balls, they were all given to Grant for his distribution. They will go to the villages and be used also for Kid's Camp.

Grant read the menu for tomorrow's dinner and it is to be duck, so our Thanksgiving dinner should be quite good.

Hopefully all of you back home will have a great Thanksgiving and as memorable of a day as I'm sure we will have.
Blessings to all
Love Mike

Tanzania Mission Update 2007

"Well, we had a great visit to the orphanage yesterday in the afternoon. Grant walked us over there and we spent about an hour playing with the kids. They wanted to braid Mark's hair, probably because Grant and I wouldn't let them do ours. We had a good visit with Grant at his place Monday evening.

Tuesday we visited four water wells and several villages.

I got to see the pole church that we worked on in 2005 and it was the one that had the tin stolen off of the roof.

They now have the tin back on some wind break walls and have started an evangelist's house there. All four of the wells we visited were working and appear to have good water. Mark is wanting to set up to get samples so they can be tested.

Jacob came by for supper (pizza) and Mark visited with him regarding the vision for the programs here. Jacob was very agreeable and is very supportive of the this program. We will visit the diocese offices tomorrow for a little followup and then on to some more villages.
Luca has invited me to go with him on Friday to Morogoro to shop for building materials and then to lay out a church.

The visit so far has gone very well and we know it the results of all you guys praying for the success of this visit.

Hope that everyone's thanksgiving goes great and that you have some turkey for Mark and myself."

VIM Updates from South America

Day 3
wow! what a great day. we saw around 150 patients today...mas o minus! it was a hopping place and they have already handed out over 100 numbers for tomorrow. the whole team is having a great time, working hard and living in a community. the host church here is amazing...they have started 10 churches and trying to open 25 in the next 5 years. we were able to visit one that our construction team worked on recently. it is in a very poor area and was very impressive. i talked to the rio bravo team and they also accomplished so much today at the school, rafters, roof, windows, paint stucco on inside and out. we are all tired tonight and trying to fall asleep as soon as possible. we are making great friends with each other and with some of the people we have seen. we thank you for the opportunity to be here. we are blessed by this trip.

Day 4
hello everyone! what an unbelievable day we had. we saw about 150 people. many of those went to all; doctor, eye doctor and dentist. gary smith, our dentist, and don england, his assistant worked so hard. i can not tell you how hard he worked! well everyone worked hard. we also have one pharmacist, jim brown, and he worked so hard while bending over filling the orders (he is very tall, too). we went to the juan wesley seminary and it is a beautiful building with beautiful big wooden doors. we have treated diabetics, found people with high blood sugar, pregnant moms (many very young), chicken pox, ingrown toenails, lots of colds, coughs and runny noses, lots of fungus and lots of stuff i don't even know about! we have smiled and laughed so much. we have prayed and done our devotions! we celebrated terry lawson's and don england´s birthday with a cake and a spiderman piñata. it was a fun way to end our time at our little church we have been working in. everyone of us have had a blast and i think everyone will be doing this again if given the chance. thank you so very much for the fantastic opportunity. tomorrow we will sleep just a little later, pack up and go to pastor guzmon´s church (several people have commented that he reminds us of rev. mason). that will be a treat to see and worship there. i think many of us will sleep on the way home...see you all soon.

Our two VIM teams serving in Rio Bravo and Monterrey!

hello everyone!

we miss yall and are trying to represent you the best we can...it was a great day today. we served an epispocal church, new with cement floors new building and bathrooms with flushing toilets. super. i was at the intake table and my 2 years of college spanish came in handy. we did not have enough interpreters so, i was it at the intake table...i did okay, forgot and remembered lots of words. we saw 138 patients and many went to two or three different doctors. we have two rooms with 4 doctor stations set up in each. Blanca, our main translator, could be in the room and translate for gary smith(dentist) and susie willard(doctor). She is a great help for us! we found a young girl that was in the circus in the USA for 6 years and we grabbed her up to be a translator. molly and Suzy were awesome helping translate also. we checked eyes, teeth, and for blood sugar. i think almost everyone with a little weight on them is diabetic. lots of cavities in lots of kids. several dogs running around the clinic as well...i think everything went so smooth, i am so impressed with the whole thing. it is very different from the youth trips in lots of ways and very much alike in lots of ways. oh, i have a funny story about amy cheatem yesterday...we were eating nopales and she asked blanca if the green beans in mexico were called cactus (it looked and tasted just like green beans), blanca says no, that is cactus! well, it was funnier when it happened. she never touched them for the rest of the meal! oh, i am also reporting on the guys in rio bravo...my husband joe brower is there with them and they had two teams working on a school. they finished it except for the roof and will put it on tomorrow. the other team worked on a casita. they love the accomodations they have! they also were reminded to work on their relationships with each other and of course, joe said, oh, yeah...oh, don't worry we are! he said it is really a great trip because their ages span from twenties on up.

well, we are back home and thankful for the day. i hope your day was a great one. i am sorry for my spelling and the keyboard is a little different. again thank you for this opportunity.
ruth brower