Things I miss & Things I don't

Yesterday marked 3 years since our family first arrived in Tanzania.  I intended to write a blog about 3 big things I've learned these last 3 years. What did I do instead? Looked through almost 3 years of pictures from facebook with Hope (who was up very late!) We relived our move here, our first few months of everything being new, new friends, remembered old neighbors and commented on how things have changed and people have grown. It was actually a really fun hour or so, but alas, no blog post. And I sit here now, having had a busy day of Swahili, laundry and packing for a 2 night getaway and have no real energy to put into a "things I've learned" type of post. Instead, how about things I miss & don't miss about living in the US? That'll have to do for now. 

Things I miss about living in the US, in no particular order:

Family and friends top the list by a long shot, of course. 

•       neighborhoods with sidewalks, streetlights and parks
•       having daylight past 6:30pm
•      consistent internet, electricity and water
•       accessibility to things - if I need new guitar picks, I know 5 options of where I can get them in the US...not the same here. 
•       fall and everything that goes with it
•       berries
•       highways & the ease of travel
•       free or inexpensive things to do with the kids -parks, fishing, hiking, walks, lakes, availability    of rec league sports, lessons of various types (ballet, etc)
•    liturgy in church 
•    good health insurance and access to top doctors and health care
•    thrift stores & garage sales 
•    the children's museum and the meijer gardens
•    a sense (though often false) of security - not always feeling stressed when driving or out at        night, or wondering about your home security, etc. 
•   camping 
•   PBS
•   Tiger's baseball 
•   certain restaurants & good pizza 
•   Ice cream/frozen yogurt 

Things I do not miss about living in the US, in no particular order: 

• advertising and commercials 
• kids sports being god in the lives of some (many?) families
• processed food being cheap and whole foods being expensive
• the temptation to consume, consume, consume
• fast food
• the hurried pace of life - everyone always being "crazy busy"
• pressure to have the latest, the best, the biggest, the most, etc 
• politics
• winter & snow (the kids would without a doubt disagree with this one!)

What about you? If you moved away from where you currently live, what do you think you would miss? Anything you'd be glad to leave behind? 

A bit quiet - let's catch up!

It's been months since we've posted anything here. We've been to the States and back again and experience so much in the last several months that it would be impossible to play catch up. So, instead, I'll start with where things are at now.

We're 4 weeks into the school year and 5 weeks into our 3rd year of being here in Tanzania. In some ways we've settled back into 'normal life' easily, although that looks a little different than it has in the past. 

Marc is teaching grades 9 - 12 this year as opposed to both middle and high school. This helps to lighten what was a heavy load, and also frees him for more intentional time with students outside of class.  Isaac is in grade 2 and has joined the primary swim team. He has practice three days a week after school. I've started to give him piano lessons as we were able to get a keyboard from friends who left at the end of last year.  Hope has started preschool again (2 days a week) and just celebrated her 5th birthday. Geneva is now potty trained and joins me for our weekly adventures of driving people places, worship team rehearsals, swahili class, leading assemblies, going to the market and prayer meetings. 

Our roles at church are different as we've come back. For various reasons, we are slowly phasing out of some of our leadership positions within the church. Marc is no longer doing all the tech/design stuff nor on the leadership team. Instead of leading worship every week, I am now in rotation every other. We are still helping with our life group. One of the things we recognized while being 'home' this summer was that our family time was beginning to suffer under the load of our church and school commitments. We may have a 'large capacity' for ministry, but we sometimes find ourselves saying YES to too much and it not being sustainable or healthy for our family in the long run. When we left for the States, we were there. Between that, some theological differences and the need for more Tanzanian leaders to step into leadership roles at the church, we are phasing out of some of our roles. Its not easy, as we love our Pastor and his family and we love our church! We've had some difficult conversations over the past few weeks, but we are at peace about the changes being made and continue to support God's Tribe and pray for the church, here and worldwide, to grow! 

The other challenge we have faced since returning is the recognition that despite our amazing supporters and our various church and small group presentations this summer, our funding is still low. The past two years have been difficult in regards to fundraising, and we've actual incurred a bit of debt just to stay here as some months we had only enough money to cover rent. We don't believe that's God's plan for us, to go into more (any, really!) debt, and we've come to feel that if we are not fully funded by the end of December, we may need to leave Tanzania at the end of this school year.  Our school will need to know in January if we are coming back or if they need to begin recruiting another Bible teacher, thus the timeline. We're trying to be open to the Lord's leading for our family. Would you please pray for the Lord to make his will clear to us as we contemplate and pray about our future? We would love to see huge breakthrough in the area of our finances and be able to testify to God's provision. We want to stay! We also want to follow Jesus if he's showing us a need for us to return to the States, whether for a year to fundraise and then return or for good.  We get that we don't see the big picture. This is just another way we are daily learning to rely on ourselves and our own abilities less and on Him more. We can't just go out and get a part time job delivering pizzas or something to help our own financial state - we're not in control! Please pray for clear direction and for patience as we wait. Our latest Prayer Letter will be going out later today which lays this out a bit as well.

So those are the big things going on with us. We feel at home here and are enjoying getting to know some of the new faces around the HOPAC and missionary community. 

USA visit!

We are crossing off days on the calendar until we are back in the USA for a visit! We've added a calendar (look to the right) here on the blog to update you all of our comings & goings over the next few months.

In addition to our church visits, we would love to have some 'small group nights' in different peoples homes. Our hope is to have a more intimate time with smaller groups of friends/supporters and enjoy the personal interaction in someones home as well. While we would love to spend time with all our friends and supporters individually, we realize it might not be realistic. We hope to have one in Chicago, one in Muskegon and several in the Grand Rapids area.

Would YOU be willing to host a small group of friends at your home?

You would pick at date/time and help provide some food. We would get the word out and jointly we could invite people who might naturally fall into your 'sphere' of our community. We would share about life & ministry for however long people are interested, including pictures, sharing stories, maybe a video and answering questions while enjoying snacks, etc. To be upfront, this would include a brief update on our current financial needs and asking people to consider partnering with us. We would NOT make that the bulk of the presentation and it would certainly not feel like a sales pitch, but raising support is essential to us continuing here. We would also have a table of items from Tanzania that people could purchase to help our fundraising. Finally, we would want time to just hang out and catch up with people and share life!
 

What do you think? Would you be willing to host a brunch/tea/dinner/dessert night in your home?  We would love to start setting up some dates and talking through it a bit more. Feel free to email us at thedriesengafamily@gmail.com if you'd like to chat more about it!

 

What do carpet, street lights & garage sales have in common?

Besides the obvious joy of seeing family and friends this summer in the USA, here are some things I'm looking forward to, in no particular order:

* carpet
* camping
* meijer
* paved roads
* street lights
* orderly traffic
* not living behind a wall
* cooler temps
* as many chocolate chips, black beans and parmesan cheese as I want!
* salads
* fast internet
* garage sales
* parks
* places to take the kids: meijer gardens, zoo, children's museum, skyzone, etc
* farmers market
* going for walks
* ice cream shops
* drinking water out of the tap
* consistent electricity and water
* being light out past 6:30pm
* Wolfgangs (and a whole list of other restaurants...)

Marc agrees with my list, but wanted to add:
* Brewery vivant

Isaac's additions:
* McDonalds
* going to football (soccer) camp
* spending time with family
* having playdates at other people's houses
* going to Legoland (date with auntie Ker)

Hope's additions:
* going ice skating (a date with Auntie Ker)
* going to get ice cream

Geneva's additions:
* children's museum (date with Auntie Ker)
* playing

November Photo Challenge - International Day!

Today was a special day at HOPAC - International Day!

It was a half day of school with no classes - most students dream, right?

 

Students were asked to dress in their country's colors or traditional dress instead of their uniform. Marc wore a U of M shirt and Isaac represented the D with a Tigers shirt. This is one of those days that I regret not buying the family those Old Navy shirts that go on sale after July 4th. :)

The first part of the morning was spent in assembly, where they sang the Tanzanian National Anthem, a worship song and then had a few performances from students.

 

 

 

 

After assembly, students were dismissed to go visit different booths that were set up in each classroom representing countries. Primary students had a 'passport' that they could get stamped at each country. Most booths had posters or pictures of their country, some interesting facts, some props that depict their country or traditions and flags.

 

After their 'trip around the world', students had a competition with facts they had learned about the countries, and then were dismissed to the food booths! Almost every country represented in the school population, which is over 30, had a food booth set up where you could try traditional foods. AMAZING. I can't even recall all the delicious foods I tried, but my favorite was probably the Indian or Ethiopian.  The USA represented well with apple & cherry pie, popcorn, hot dogs, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, Kool-Aid, Sweet Tea and some other baked goods. Um...we might not be the healthiest nation. Just sayin.

 

 

 

The day ended back in the 'covered court' (gym) with a Parade of Nations. Each nation was called and they were able to parade around the gym with their flag while their national anthem played. Think of the Olympics taken down a notch or two. It was beautiful.

International Day was the culmination of "Pamoja (Unity) Week" at HOPAC. It was a recognition and celebration of the immense beauty and diversity represented at HOPAC. It was  to see Isaac cheering on his classmates as they passed during the parade - he's always coming home telling us where his new friends are from. We love HOPAC and are so grateful for this school and community!!