Most Precious Gift

I have heard people say that a child is the most precious gift given by God. In the end of May Derrick, 4 years old, came to live with Eric and me. Man, it has surely been an adventure! Together we have learned how to be a family. Derrick has experienced Play-Doh, battery powered Thomas the Train, books, movies, blocks, prayer, the law of inertia, and MANY other things! Eric and I have learned discipline methods, reward systems, prioritizing our lives, values, and again…many other things! One challenge has been finding and cooking food that Derrick can eat. After medical tests and trial and error we figured out that foods containing wheat flour make him pretty sick to his stomach. We have cut out most of those foods and he is growing…fast! Among the many challenges we recognize and embrace the gift God has given us. We pray that God opens our minds to “let loose and have fun” while we are on this journey.

The Community Team

Grass Roots Ministries is a project that is here for orphan relief and as a result community development. There is Angel House Orphanage, a children’s home open since December 2004. There is Angel Secondary School that opened in January 2011. There is a United Methodist Church that has been more and less involved in the community during its tenure. All of these are part of the ministry that Grass Roots supports in the Tarime District, Tanzania. It is has been a balancing act since the school opened earlier this year to make sure that we can grow this exciting new part of the project without neglecting everything else that has been in place since the ministry started in 2003. This last team, coming mostly from Northside United Methodist in Jackson, TN, however, did a great job doing just that.

Northside has the distinction of being the largest team we have ever hosted in our house, coming with 12 team members and 2 driver/translators from Kenya that we very much a part of the team and the work. With three bathrooms and bunk beds everywhere we were definitely packed. However, the team used the numbers and diverse skills to their advantage, and more importantly God’s, as the work was as diverse as the problems we face here in Tarime. They tackled clean water projects at Angel House and Angel Secondary relieving our hard workers from having to boil water which takes time and expensive fire wood. They built a hostel for female students from the school so that they have a safe place to study. They loved on the children at Angel House, something they cannot get enough of. They taught classes at Angel Secondary in English and Math. They also did some teacher training so that the knowledge can live on in others after they leave. Computers and first aid were skills that were added to our staff at both Angel House and Angel Secondary. There were two community medical clinics as well as the staff and their families. Over 200 people were seen in all and almost 1000 children were exposed to stories and crafts as a Vacation Bible School accompanied each day of medical care.

The most important thing though was that no matter where they were, the school, Angel House, in the community, at the hardware store, or on the construction site the way they treated people will stay in the hearts of those here for a long time. Everyone, educated teacher or day laborer carrying water, was put on an equal playing field the moment they met the team from Northside. It was visible in the way grandmother’s were greeted warmly in Swahili (even if it was the only Swahili Brain really got down), children were given medicine as if they were the volunteer’s own, and opinions were listened to during the whole construction process. If there is anything universally that poverty takes it is dignity and in that area alone there was a lot of living water handed out by these disciples of Christ.

 

Thank you Northside United Methodist and the other churches represented. You were great ambassadors for Christ.

Tipp City UMC - The Invisible Impact

It has been interesting as Liz and I have been here at Angel House and Angel Secondary to watch different volunteer teams come and go. People come volunteer for all sorts of different reasons and often end up accomplishing or gaining from the experience things they never expected. I will also tell you that it always takes time to see the true impact that teams make while they are here. I wish that teams could see as much as we do the impact that they have here in Tarime. It comes out in the stories that staff and kids tell weeks and months later. It is the letters that start to go back and forth across the ocean. And it is the change in attitude and behavior that we get to see in children and staff that we never thought were impacted. So I cannot tell you right now how much of an impression Tipp City United Methodist Church has left on the children, students, and staff of Grass Roots Ministries here in Tanzania. I don’t know what dreams will take place in the minds of the girls that will live in the hostel they built. I don’t know what music will be born in the future from the chimes that were taught. I don’t know which one of the church members will lead others to God using the Wordless Bible. And I don’t know what other impressions and changes have occurred in the hearts, minds, and lives of the people here. These intangibles are the most important contributions and service that volunteer teams bring and yet are the hardest things to measure. I do however know that the time they have taken off of work, the money and energy put into traveling over 8000 miles away from home, and the love that goes into every act of service and kindness is not wasted on the people here who have been blessed by the visitors from Ohio. Thank you to Larry, Judy, Beth, Bonita, Dave, and Keith for your response to God’s call.