The Eads to Tanzania

The Wonders of Water Pressure

We have been pretty excited about some recent developments at our house. Because of an electrical problem we have had for the last five months, we have not been able to operate the pump that gives our house its water pressure. We have not been able to get water in the shower or in the kitchen sink. We have been heating our water on the stove and bringing it to the bathroom, or kitchen, in buckets. So, on Monday, after five months of electrician visits and a final plumber visit, the problem was finally resolved. 

Needless to say, we were very excited when we each had the opportunity to clean up without fetching the water from the back porch, heating it on the stove, and then bringing it to different parts of the house to use it. We can do our dishes with water from the sink. For the last three days, we have been basking in the wonders of water pressure.

Ulcers, Update, and Easter Pictures

I was in bed or on the couch most of last week. Lots of stomach pain. I thought that I had a parasite. A doctor friend of mine here in Mwanza was talking with me and said that it sounded like an ulcer. I am pretty sure he was right. I have gotten on medication, and now I am doing much better. I still got a lot of Swahili study done while I was at home, so it wasn't a total loss.

We sent out a new prayer letter. If you did not get it, you can access it here.

We also got a couple of Easter pics in the family album.

Jonathan Edwards

I will be just one more joining a choir of many voices to say that I have found reading the writings of Jonathan Edwards and reading about Jonathan Edwards has been soul-stirring, perspective-changing, and humbling.

I started reading Iain Murray's book, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography, last Wednesday. I finished it yesterday. "I couldn't put it down" is a worn-out that has lost most of its punch, but it was certainly true of this book. If you haven't read it, I recommend it. If you have read it, I recommend that you dust it off and read it again.

Evangelism in Sengerema Begins

Sunday, Pastor Paulo announced that he, Pastor Samson (of the Shadi church), Pastor Elias (of Nyakaliro), and Julius (the evangelist of Nyakaliro) would all be traveling to Sengerema today (Wednesday) to begin the evangelism for establishing a new church there. It is very exciting to watch, because the whole project -- from planning the location of the outreach effort to doing the initial evangelism, from selecting the church planter to funding the church planter's initial ministry -- is all being done by the churches. The ownership that the church leaders have taken in seeing this work accomplished is something to praise God for.

Please pray for these men's evangelism efforts in the coming days, that there would be lasting fruit that comes from the preaching and visiting that they will be doing.

Grieved by Various Trials

Today (Sunday), Pastor Paulo, Mwanzalima (a Sweya church deacon), and I went visiting together. We made three or four visits on the sick and church visitors, but we had one specific visit in mind.

Beatrice, a faithful member of the Sweya church, was beaten by her husband on Thursday or Friday (I was unclear on the details). Her husband is an unbeliever, and it seems that in his anger, he had injured Beatrice's left hand, wrist, ankle, and foot. It was evident that at least one of her fingers had been broken and not set well. Her hand and ankle were very swollen. She was taken to the hospital on Saturday and returned home the same day.

As we sat with her outside her home, Paulo encouraged her to be faithful to Christ in the midst of the trial and reminded her that the church will stand by her as her family to help in every way that they can. He also reminded her of the glory that God can receive through her testimony in the home, and that her conduct in the situation may be what God uses to bring her husband to Christ.

"In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by  various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes  though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 

(1 Peter 1:6-7)

Please pray that Beatrice would persevere through this trial to the glory of God, that her testimony in the home would show the power of the Gospel and that the Sweya church would have wisdom to know how to minister to her.

Harvesting Rice

This morning, I went with Pastor Paulo and his wife to his rice fields to harvest help them continue their harvest. It was a great time for fellowship and language learning. Working occasionally with the pastors in their fields is one way that I am trying to encourage them, help them (without causing dependence), and show them my desire to cultivate meaningful understanding relationships. And the physical labor is a welcome change of pace from all of the "mind-work" that I am doing with my Swahili learning.

Language Helper

Today, I met with a new language helper. His name is Felix, and he is an education student at a local university here. We had a great time together, and I am excited about the potential that this time has in helping me take my language learning to a higher level. Pray for Felix and our time together, that God would use it in preparing me for ministry here and that the time itself would be a ministry to my new friend.

Pasaka

Or, Easter in English. Today, we attended church in Sweya, and it was a really joy to be about to celebrate our Lord's resurrection day with them. The church in Shadi was invited to come as well. The service consisted of joyful singing, testimonies of the grace of God, and some very timely preaching from Pastor Paulo. The service was followed by a time of giving toward the planned church-plant in Sengerema and toward the progress of the ministry in Sweya. This offering, which they have preparing to give for the last two months totaled over $500. This is exceptional, given that the average worker here makes around $2.30 a day.

The celebration included a dinner after the service. The ladies of the church had labored to prepare a feast of goat, rice, beans, and a whole assortment of other delicious foods. The joy in the fellowship with brothers and sisters in the Lord was evident on the faces of all that were there.

For us, this was truly an Easter to remember.

Preaching in Swahili, Round 3

Today I preached with the students at Sweya.

• Abeli preached on our relationships with unbelievers from 2 Cor 6:18-7:2.
• Makusudi preached on the internal battle of Rom 7:16-32 and the life-changing grace of God from Titus 2:11-14.
• I preached on the parable of the unforgiving servant from Matt 18:21-35.

  The guys were very encouraging and told me that they have already seen improvement in my ability to express myself in the pulpit. I did feel much freer than I did last month. I am getting away from reading and just speaking as I am thinking, more like I would preach in English. Definitely have a long way to go, but I am seeing improvement by God's grace.

My next goal is to write out the sermon verbatim, as I have these last two times, and then condense it into an outline form that I would use in the pulpit after I have used the extended version to develop my comfort with the vocabulary and grammar.

And Craig, you got it right. Pancha is the Swahili word for puncture, as in what the roads do to tires.

Language Borrowing

For the first month or so that we were here, I would find myself laughing when I heard words in Swahili like, "dabo deka," "picha," "futi," and "pancha." If you say them out loud you may figure out why. They are Swahili words that came from English. With something of an ethnocentric attitude ("my way is the best way"), when I heard them said, I would chuckle. I would often say to myself (without thinking), "That isn't Swahili. That's English!" 

Then, with a little reflection, I started to think about what would happen to English if I judged it by this same standard:

The Spaniard could remind me "banana," "cafeteria," "hurricane," "jerky," "mosquito," "potato," "ranch," "stampede," "tomato," and "vanilla," are not English words. They are Spanish.

A German could remind me that "angst," "blitz," and "kindergarden," are not English words. They are German.

A Frenchman would have to stop me every time that I used, "abbreviation," beast," "campaign," "damage," "eager," "fabric," "generosity," "honor," "ignore," "jacket," "kiosk," "language," "mask," "note," "orange," "palace," "quit," "real," "sauce," "taste," "unique," "villain," or "wage."

In fact, the Frenchman could remind me that over 30% of English vocabulary originated from French.

We won't even ask the Greeks and the Latins to chime in to tell us how many words we got from them.

 So, stepping back from my language provincialism, I came to see that "Dabo deka" (double decker), "picha" (picture), and "futi" (tape measure, from the standard measurement of a foot) are not English words. They are Swahili words that came from English, just like most of my English vocabulary came from some other language.

In fact, I even had to borrow the title for this post ("language," from Old French; "borrow," from German).

So, can anyone tell me from what English word did the Swahili word "pancha" originate?