The Eads to Tanzania

Flags Everywhere

This is presidental election season in Tanzania. Everyone is talking about the elections! There are loud speakers going by everyday announcing speeches and promoting candidates. There are political party flags everywhere, and posters plastered on most peoples' houses. This is a picture of the roundabout on Nyerere Road downtown. Election day is 25 October. Pray for peace and for quality leaders for our country.

The Latest News at Tumaini

Beth has a nice update here at the Tumaini blog about the last week.

Three Stacks

I have three stacks of books in my office.

Anything that I have had on my shelves that would be helpful for understanding healthy church life, church-planting, evangelism, and discipleship, I have put in one stack ["Want to Read"]. Anything that I have read from my big stack, I shift to a second stack ["Have Read"].

Then, the real work begins. In order to move a book from the second stack to the third stack, I must have had a discussion in Swahili with one of my ministry friends about the ideas of the book. Some books have taken one hour, some books several hours over multiple days. I record these conversations on my phone. Then I give the sound file to Maiwe (my office assistant) or to Mathias (a friend who is home on break from college and who is working for me), and they type up the transcript of the Swahili discussion. Then I take this transcript, give it a quick edit, and then I have been giving them to my Tanzanian ministry colleagues for comment.

Why am I doing this?

1. Because I feel like I need an education in these practical matters. My seminary training was primarily focused on the theological and the theoretical. Practical issues of church life were discussed, but not to the extent and depth that I need to know and understand them for my work. 9Marks Ministries and Mathias Media have provided some outstanding resources that I am hungrily reading!
2. Because there is so much practical wisdom to be gleaned from pastors and church-planters, and there are practically no resources like these in Swahili to give to my ministry friends.
3. Because I am not able to simply translate these resources into Swahili because so many of the examples and illustrations given are so culturally bound. Illustrations about technology, science, media, etc., just do not translate.
4. Because I want to create resources for this context and this culture, but I want to do it in partnership with my friends, so that we all own it.
5. Because all of this discussion about biblical ideas engages us all in applying them to the church.

Pray that God would prosper this work to the strengthening of his church.

 

Rain, Rain, Rain!

The Road Out to Our House

We have had some full days of rain lately. Almost the whole month of April, it has been raining or sprinkling almost every day. The farmers are saying that these rains have come too late. Many people are not going to get much of a harvest this year, with their crops having dried out in their fields during our unusually dry March. We are hearing news of houses falling down around Mwanza, because of April's rains.

Pray that people would have their "daily bread" and that God in his grace would let these rains last into June so that those who have crops in their fields still would be able to get something.

Satellite Internet and the Work to Get It

Silas and Technician Setting Things Up

Here is a little window into life here.

I made the decision that we needed to do something about the internet situation at our place. The data signal at our house had gotten so bad over the last few months, that there was no answering any emails. I would have to go up the road and find someplace to park just to pull emails in.

So, I found a company called Indigo Telecom in Nairobi, Kenya, that provides satellite internet for the best price I could find. I had several other errands, so I made a drive up with Pastors Samson and Hamisi on the 26th of March, and we collected the equipment and the technician who would install it. We began the return trip on 29th, leaving after attending the morning worship with our friends at Emmanuel Baptist Church. We made the Tanzania-Kenya border crossing at 6:00PM, only to be told that we could not cross because there was no customs officer on the TZ side to process our passage. So we found a hotel and stayed the night on the Kenyan side.

The next morning, I went to the customs office, and I was told that they only talk to clearing agents, not to the tax payer directly. So I spend the morning trying to find someone reputable to be my clearing agent. The agent stages a claim in a computer system that is forwarded to the TRA (Tanzania Revenue Authority) office at the border. That claim is forwarded to the TRA office in Dar Es Salaam for review, then they reply back to the border office to tell the tax payer how much to pay. This took three hours, which was very, very quick compared to normal. Then I made a very, very quick drive to Tarime (about 20km from the border) to make a deposit to pay the tax amount. I got to the bank just as they were closing the doors, made the deposit and then flew back to the border as fast as I could.

When I got back, the clearing agent took his debit card (which was just loaded by my bank deposit) to the accounting office at the TRA building. Just as he was swiping his card to make the payment, the power went out! This meant that the money was debited from his account, but no receipt was printed. We tried the rest of the afternoon and evening, but to no avail. The payment would not go through, and they would not let us cross the border with the goods until the payment registered. So, we stayed at the same hotel for the second night.

The next morning, after three more hours, the system had reset itself, the payment went through, and we were given the papers to cross the border.

While it was certainly disappointing for the process to take two more days, I am still thankful for how it all worked out. I got in a lot of reading while waiting, and I had some great discussions with Samson and Hamisi. Yes, they hung around! I told them that I would help them find alternative transportation, but they said, "We started this trip together, and we will finish together!" Delays like this are common here.

I felt like my character was tested, but I am glad that God gave me the grace to handle the circumstances in a way that I hope brought glory to him.

And, by the way, the internet works now. I am writing this post from home!

Mwanza's New Year's Resolution? Desist From Witchcraft

"Regional Commissioner (RC), Mr Magesa Mulongo, has challenged the residents in the region to start the New Year with the resolution of eliminating witchcraft beliefs leading in the killings of people living with albinism.

Mr Mulongo said this on Thursday as he delivered his New Year message, saying that it was a shame that some people still believe that they will gain anything from killing innocent human beings."

Read the rest here.

More Corruption Chaos

There has been a third major corruption scandal in the Tanzanian national government that has blown up in the last two months.

The word in Swahili for corruption is 'ufisadi', but now if you say 'Richmond,' 'Dowens' or 'Escrow' it means the same thing nowadays. These three names are what each of these scandals are called because they have involved companies with that name (Richmond and Dowens) or that kind of account (Escrow). It is so funny to me to hear people say on the street about someone else, "Amefanya Escrow" ("He has done an 'escrow'") to mean that he has stolen from him by deceit.

Big names in politics are resigning or being investigated. Hopefully it means that change will come. But unfortunately, the only change in the forseeable future may be the people involved in doing the embezzlement and how they do it.

Read more here.

Africa's Prosperity Report: Not Good for Tanzania

CNN recently did an article on this year's ranking of the prosperity of the African nations. Unfortunately, Tanzania did not fare so well this year. The article says:

"Tanzania, by contrast, fell eight places since 2012 going from 11th to 19th in the latest rankings. A drop in five-year average growth and an increase in inflation were coupled with a decline in confidence in financial institutions and falling satisfaction with living standards.

The country fared particularly badly in terms of personal freedom, where it fell from 24th to 28th."

You can read the whole article here.

Betsy

Here is a picture of the new addition to our clan. Meet Betsy, the first of our herd. The kids love the idea that we now have our very own cow. We have a friend that is grazing his cows on our property, and he is housing Betsy at his place for now.

Sunday

This last Sunday I traveled out to Nyakaliro, Lusolelo, and Sengerema. It was my first time taking the new motorcycle out as far as Lusolelo. It ran really well. I left about 6:30 AM and got to Nyakaliro at 9:15. I worshiped with the church there and preached a sermon about the two different kinds of wisdom from James 3:13-18. Then, I went out to Lusolelo to visit Mashiku and Laurent, members of the church there. The road was really bad, and I passed through a few spots that were covered with over two feet of water. Then, I rode back to Sengerema to see Pastor Hamisi and pray with him. Because of all the visits and the rain, I didn’t get home until 10:00pm. God was good and I was safe. Here is a picture of a truck that I found was stuck along the way from Nyakaliro to Lusolelo.