We’ve been in Tanzania for 3 weeks now. It has felt good to be back. The worst thing is missing our family and friends. Although, with the invention of FaceTime, Skype and social networking, keeping in touch is much easier than it was 15 years ago. Being able to see the kids
faces and have a conversation some how makes them seem closer than they are. When we lived here before, we had to rely on ‘snail mail’ and a sometimes working internet! It has much improved.

One of things that I had forgotten, is that this part of Tanzania gets cold! I know you don’t believe me – because everyone thinks all of Africa is hot all of the time like I once did! It is their winter. It’s weird. I am writing this in boiling sunshine yet last night we had a fire in our room (intentional of course!) and I am sleeping under heavy blankets with my socks on! When it’s hot, it’s hot and when it’s cold, it’s baridi sana! (very cold).

Since I last wrote, I have had the privilege of speaking at a women’s seminar on a mountain in a village called Loita. Every time we arrived, someone would come and carry my bag for me. Servanthood at its best.

Arriving was a challenge. As I said it was up a mountain, and it took about 45 minutes from the main road. You couldn’t call the track up the mountain a road – you would be done by the trades description act! We just went with the flow as the car threw us about. As we made our way up there, we came across a group of boys who had blocked the road with a stick. It had suddenly become a toll road! They were supposedly fixing it for us but, to be honest, I couldn’t tell! We paid 400 shillings – about 10p! Some other boys cottoned on and we ended up going through two or three – and on the way down! Our driver ‘argued’ and refused to pay again on the way down! At least they were having a go at earning a living… I think if we’d have been driving, we’d have paid them all….

The seminar began and, as I listened to them singing, I was overcome with the emotion of the moment. I had to pull myself together as tears came into my eyes. I was overwhelmed at the honour of being able to speak to this group of ladies. Ladies who have little in this world, yet they have a deep love for God. Who was I to be standing in front of them? I felt humbled and found it an incredible blessing to help them grow a little more in their faith.

Before each session, we would sit in the pastor’s office where we would eat food that they had prepared for us. Meat, rice, water melon, bananas, avocado, eggs and bread. Hospitality at its best.

Always, my biggest challenges in Tanzania are the food, the toilets and the unknown. This hasn’t changed although I am much braver than I was in 1998!

The toilet on Loita had to be ‘conquered’ because we were there for a while! I got it down to a fine art… I would take a deep breath on the approach, do the deed while holding my breath, put my skirt over my mouth, leave the door open (I’m not proud!) and then run and breathe out! I had it sussed – so much so that I must have gone about 6 times! I was very proud of myself!

I have no problem with it being a hole in the ground – it’s the smell that does me!

We are doing lots of ministry while we are here which we are really enjoying. But what we are also enjoying is having time to read, study and to write. It has been a very long time since we have had concentrated time to do these things. John is working on a re-write of ‘The Royal Law’ and I have been able to write a lot of a book that I started back last year. Time is a precious commodity and we are grateful that we are having time to be creative on projects that have been around for some time. We have set ourselves goals and we are on course.

As we landed in Kilimanjaro Airport, Tanzania, on Wednesday 8th May 2013, my mind went back 15 years as I remembered what it was like when we arrived at the same airport (more like a wooden outbuilding!) on a one way ticket with 2 small children.. I remember standing in a queue watching all the insects flying around, I remember the heat, the smells and the complete unknown of what was to come. We got in a car and the kids, who were 7 and 6 at the time, were silent on our journey. If you’ve got kids, you know that is unheard of. That’s how scary it was. We knew nothing, we didn’t know where to buy food, how to do banking, where the doctors or dentist was, where to get water from, where to buy a car…. Everything that we had ever known was taken from us and we were scared. Thankfully, we overcame our fear – if we hadn’t I wouldn’t be writing from there now. Gradually, we got used to life and grew to love East Africa – there is nowhere like it on the planet. Put it on your bucket list…..

We lived in Tanzania for almost 3 years and imagined we’d be there for a few more. That wasn’t to be and our dreams of having our own orphanage, school, sports arena, International church and a lodge for retreats and travellers went down the drain. Our dreams were cut short – or so we thought…..

Even though we moved back to the UK, we never stopped helping East Africa. We visited regularly – John over 30 times. We have also personally brought over 100 people from the UK on a variety of trips. We can safely say, it is in our blood….

We think that we may have been given another opportunity to fulfil our dream, not a new dream, not a dream that we just thought of but one that we thought had gone. People have often asked us if we miss living in Africa and it has to be said, there are certain aspects that we certainly do miss, the lifestyle, the people, the honour and love of the people, dare I say, the weather! There are also some things that we definitely don’t miss like power cuts, no water, the mosquitoes who truly love me, the dark nights (never a summer evening but, then they are rare in the UK these days!)

Overall though, Tanzania is a great country. We went for a walk today, we walked past where we used to live. It’s changed much but we love it..

We are spending the next few weeks here to think, pray, ponder and dream of a centre that will hold all of the above things… Is it really possible that we get the chance to do it again? It has to be said, that only God knows the how’s and where’s of this. We are trusting Him and the people in our lives who are our friends, colleagues and leaders – we will listen as we seek to move this dream forward.

Will we move lock, stock and barrel back out here? will we have a base in the UK and in Tanzania?Will we continue to receive teams of young people (and older if you like?) and inspire them to help Africa? Some of those questions we know the answers to, some we don’t. We are hoping that by the time we board the plane back to the UK, things will be clearer. If you’re a praying person, please would you?

A trapeze artist cannot get a hold of the next trapeze until he/she has let go of the previous one.

We have had to let go of something extremely precious in order to catch hold of this new trapeze. We are still in a sense of mourning. Yet at the same time, we are very excited and also feel privileged that we are being entrusted with a massive vision to help as many people as possible from the youngest child to the oldest grownup. We know we can do it….. we would love it if you would be a part of it…. even if that is simply following our journey and keeping in touch.
As soon as we know more, we will share it with you…. You can contact us on deb@agapelife.co.uk