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.
