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
debbullock 