TZ 2016 – Getting…
Parkinson’s Law states that “work expands to fill the time allowed for it’s completion.” As we get ready to once again travel to “our other home” in Kasulu, Tanzania, I find that to be, as always, true. There is always a certain amount of preperation involved when getting ready to travel far from home, but when that travel also involves a mission aspect, it is not just a case of reservations, travel paper work and the travel-related innoculations/medications that are needed, but also preparation for our time “on the ground”. There never seems to be enough time to get all of the preperation done along with all of the other tasks that need to happen before leaving work for over two weeks and making sure the house is in decent condition for our house-cat-sitter/nephew (Thank you, Chris!)
Our ministry preperation this year was on two fronts.
Bill prepares tablets for the Diocese of Western Tanzania.
On the technical side, Bill is bringing 20 cellular equipped tablets in cases that will allow for better communications between the diocese and the district directors in the more distant areas of the diocese. Some form of communication like this has been a need expressed by the Bishop for a number of years. The original desire was for laptops with cellular modems. In the intervening years, the tablet technology has improved so much, and Bill has been able to find vendors that can provide the tablets for reasonable costs that this was the way to go. An additional benefit is that tablets use much less power and that battery life is much better than for a laptop. There is also to lack of moving parts that make these the best technology for an area with no electrical infrastructure and major dust issues six months of the year. We were blessed to get funding for this project from a grant from the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, with additional funds from our church, St. Paul’s, Brookfield.
On the domestic side, “our” rooms in the DWT Guest Hostel that we have been
Zuri decided that he would help me make the curtains for the Guest Hostel in Kasulu.
helping to fund as a personal project are finally ready! We will be the first guests. We will be decorating and furnishing these rooms, and as a step towards that, I have been making curtains for the windows from fabric that I brought back from previous trips, and am also bringing some bedding and a few plates and bowls to leave for future guests to enjoy.
Call us “serial missionaries”. Rather than doing a single short-term mission, we return to the same community every year, where we have built long-term relationships. Each year we are able to continue our mission from the year before, returning on our next trip with the technology and resources that is needed to further the work of the diocese and that is not easily available in Tanzania. And each year we are able to renew our friendships and see what God has been up to in Kasulu. God is Good!
