A week without Oren and a Glimpse of Young Einstein

Eagle owls have returned to roost in the tree above our trampoline.

I realize the problem with passing through a place and season for the second time, you begin to lose your sense of wonder. More precisely, it is harder to sit down every week or so to write an account of our life events in Tanzania, now that it is not so novel to us. We have completed the busyness of the holidays, Rebecca has returned from her trip to Uganda (the second time in as many years), all family has left, the kids are back in school and they are well into their second term, as we are with MCC in Tanzania.

January and February here are the hottest months of the year, which is saying a lot for Arusha, which generally is cool and even cold during the winter (southern hemisphere June-Aug). In the heat of the day it can get up to 90, although its flat high plateau landscape means that it is cold at night and in the morning when we are heading to school a light jacket is comfortable. This is the short dry season in between the two rainy seasons, one ended in December, the other is expected in mid-February. It will strart to get quite cold after that.

Rebecca and I continue to observe the same routine we began over a year ago. I get up about 5am and make coffee, breakfast and prepare snacks for the kids for school. Rebecca comes down before 6 and prepares some lunch for us to take to work. We make sure the kids are up at 6 and they are now able to get all of their uniform pieces on (as long as the parts are all in their rooms). Oren is given a reprieve from wearing a tie between December and February because it is warm. They eat breakfast while I load up the car with everything for the day. We leave the house by about 6:40 and drop the kids off at our office by 7am where they meet the school shuttle and have another 45 minute ride to school. Rebecca and I head to the pool at Gymkhana. Even in the warm season the air is quite chilly and usually overcast at that hour and the first plunge in the water seems quite uninviting. Fortunately the water temp. is not cooler than the air. We spend about an hour swimming and changing for work and are at the office by 8:30 am.

The kids get dropped off at our office at 4:30 pm from school. (which ends at 3:30) We all get home around 5:15 pm. On M, W, F, we come to a fairly clean house as our housekeeper Nai works on those days. We often take a walk around the base at sunset then make dinner, while the kids do homework, then clean the kitchen and it is time for bed.

Rebecca has observed that we are out of the house about 11 of our waking hours during the day. I wish we had more daylight hours at the house, but travel takes time around here. Fortunately Rebecca has Tuesday and Thursday off so she can be at home some of the time.

I have been working quite a bit on a qualitative study of one of our projects this past month. We are trying to understand the factors that affect maasai women's preference to deliver at home rather than at a health facility. We have a research team that finished data collection (in depth interviews and focus groups with women, traditional birth attendants (TBAs), men, and nurse midwives at clinics) in December and I just received translations of all the transcripts last week. Now I begin the long process of coding and data analysis. My co-principle investigator is a Maasai professor who is currently in the UK finishing his doctorate. He is from the ward where the study was located and will be a great asset in understanding some of the cultural nuance.

I am not that far into reading interviews at this point, but did hit on one intriguing detail about practices around home delivery in the ward. If a woman is having difficulty in labor, the TBA will bring a baby cow into the boma (house) for the woman to look at. Seeing the baby cow apparently provides some motivation for the woman to deliver. (More when the analysis is done.)

Of course our purpose in doing this research is to find ways to improve our community health project to encourage women to go to facilities for their births where there are skilled attendants who can respond to basic obstetric emergencies. (although I don't think we can ask a facility bring a cow into the delivery room.) I am looking forward to really digging in this week.

One big event this week was the absence of Oren. St. Constantine's is a 'round square' school which means they have a number of values that are taught outside the normal curriculum, it includes things like service, courage and adventure (like Boy Scouts). As part of this experience, each class goes on an activities week which differs every year. Some of the offerings are quite exotic, like climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, or skiing in the Swiss Alps. Oren's class went to Kenya last week to an adventure camp called Savaga Wilderness. It included activities like white water kayaking, rock climbing, archery, ziplines, standing paddle boards, and other water related activities.

He honestly was not too excited about going and there were some complications in preparing him since he had to cross an international border which meant his residence permit and visa had to be in order in his passport. The trip the year before was a lot of camping, hiking, and service activities and he was worried that it would be more work and discomfort than fun. He did get on the bus last Monday morning though and headed off. We would hear from them via email from the school head master from time to time so knew they were still alive :-). He got back on Saturday afternoon. He looked worn out and a bit shabby, but he gave a good report about the things they did and it sounded like he had some good connections with friends (who could share his 13 yo sense of humor.)

David will be going on a trip in February. (We were disappointed that both kids were not gone at the same time, but c'est la vie.) He did have a school event this week though. His class put on a skit about 'inquisitiveness' (a round square value) at a school assembly. David was kind of the star and the skit was a 'who am I' riddle to figure out who he was. (He played Albert Einstein as a boy.) His whole class had parts and David did very well, seemed comfortable, and made good use of my round spectacles to look a bit Einstein-y. The attendees in the assembly solved the riddle fairly quickly after watching the skit. I was happy to be able to attend because I had brought him to school from a dental appointment and was able to stay around and watch.

Oren missed a bit of excitement around the base where we live. A new family from NZ has moved to our compound with 3 girls and a boy. They are younger than Oren, but hopefully become friends with David over time. (They did not start out too well, with David and one of the girl's getting into a fight with sticks during a welcome to Tanzania pot luck gathering.) But they have a year to get be better aquainted and are likely to see each other quite a bit on the base.

The other exciting event on the home front has been getting our underground water tank cleaned out. We get water from different sources depending on the season. When it rains, it is primarily run off from our roof. Other times it comes from a well on the base. It is collected in what seems to be at least a 10,000 gallon tank under our back porch. Over the past 3 months we started to notice that our water was getting browner. We suspected that the tank was getting dirt in it and this was confirmed. When we found our water filter could not filter out the color completely we asked the landlord to get it cleaned out. There are some photos of the water David was bathing in the week before they cleaned the tank. It took about 2 days, and they removed a lot of sludge, but I am happy to say the water is back to normal.

The other center of activities, church, has been going well. I was happy to lead music worship with Rebecca this week as there was no Sunday school this Sunday. We bought a djembe the day before so I was able to accompany on some of the songs we sang.  Teaching Sunday school has been going well generally this term, although the size of the Sunday school group continues to grow and we are really beyond our physical capacity with about 80 kids. We start together for children's church and then break into 3 groups. But we exceed the space we have in every classroom. No solution for the time being but prayer. The kids seem to really like to come.

It is time to get ready for the start of another week. I am travelling in the first week of Feb. and may not be back on this blog before that is done.

The heart of reconciliation

Community Center for urban refugees in Kampala

Rebecca writing this week: Ten years ago, in January 2009, Paul and I attended our first gathering of the Great Lakes Initiative (GLI), as we helped to host this very new movement in Burundi. This year, I attended the GLI Leadership Institute for the 7^th time and I am overflowing with gratitude that I have been able to be part of it for all these years.

The annual gathering brings together East African Christian leaders from many different walks of life, who are involved in peacebuilding. But what happens is quite unique. In most peace-building training sessions, the key question is: “how can I hone and develop my skills as someone involved in peace and conflict resolution? How can I do what I do better?”

 

The GLI begins with an alternative perspective:  Reconciliation is the mission of God. We are invited to join in God’s mission, as ambassadors of reconciliation. But ultimately, God will finish the work of reconciling all things. This perspective keeps the focus on the saving work of Jesus and gives us courage to continue in the hard work of helping to reveal God’s new creation. Otherwise, if it were all up to us, we would have every reason to give up.

GLI participants on Pilgrimage

With that as background, let me share a bit of my personal experience of being involved in the GLI Institute this year. As Paul wrote last week, we enjoyed a wonderful time of rest on the coast with my parents over New Years. When we got back to Arusha, I had two days of turn-around time to finish up my office work and prepare for the trip to Uganda. We had a couple of nice evenings with my parents back at home, playing games and watching a movie together. But then I had to say goodbye to my dad before I took off – the time together felt too short!!

Wilfred and Faith Mlay

I took a super-early morning flight to Kampala, Uganda and was so delighted to share that journey with a very precious couple from Tanzania, Wilfred and Faith Mlay. Wilfred has served as the GLI Ambassador for several years, heading up the board and giving direction to the movement; this was his retirement project, after leaving a top position in World Vision Africa. Wilfred describes himself as Joshua, and his wife, Faith, as Moses – as long as she was lifting her hands in prayer him, he found himself winning the battle. I’ve known them both for many years and I am thankful for good conversation every time our paths cross.

With Chartier and Acher, old friends

From the moment we arrived at the Institute venue, a Catholic seminary in the outskirts of Kampala, it never ceased to feel like a wonderful family reunion. Many Burundian, Rwandese, Kenyan and Congolese pastors and church leaders, whom I’ve known for years from our past work with MCC, have leadership roles in the GLI. In the past, I served on the GLI board with many of them and it’s hard to describe the waves of love and respect that come over me when I can interact with those dear people again. I even became reacquainted with a few faculty from Duke Divinity School (one of the GLI partners), whom I had first gotten to know when I served as worship facilitator at their Summer Institute on Reconciliation. I was so thrilled when I learned that finally a new executive director had been named to replace Wilfred, and allow him to really retire: Acher Niyonizigiye, an amazing young Burundian leader, who was our pastor when we lived in Bujumbura. After seeing him grow into his pastoral role those years ago, I know God will equip him for the challenging work ahead of him.

Saturday afternoon included some space for rest and prayer and a few hours of good bird-watching. But on Sunday morning, I needed to begin attending diligently to my task for the week, namely helping to facilitate worship for the 6 days of the Institute. Thankfully, I have a trusted co-worker in this, Josephine Munyeli; she and I have collaborated now 5 times in leading worship, and it has been a joy each time to see how our background and gifts can complement each other. 

Josephine Munyeli and I

The challenge of worship is that most of the time, we all choose to attend faith communities which speak the same language and have the same preferred worship style as ourselves. At the GLI, participants come from a wide variety of church traditions, ranging from Catholic to Pentecostal. We need to use both English and French as the common languages for people coming from this region (former Belgian or British colonies), but of course almost everyone has a different mother tongue as well. The musical styles preferred by Protestants from South Sudan are quite different from Congolese Catholics. It’s a beautiful challenge to try to help everyone come before God in worship, in a way that connects with their heart. At the beginning, we tell people – “be patient! At one moment, the worship may be speaking to your neighbor and you won’t feel comfortable. But at another moment, the worship will connect better with you.” This is what it is like to practice for heaven, when every nation and language and tribe will celebrate together before the throne of the Lamb.

As you can imagine, neither Josephine nor I have all the gifts and experience needed to lead everyone in worship. And so, the special challenge is to carefully plan a framework of worship services that connects with the theological reflection of each day, while still leaving space for people to come forward and offer their gifts in worship. It’s a combination of careful planning and spontaneity that I absolutely love! And this year, more than ever, we were just overflowing with people who were delighted to sing, to bring new songs to our attention, to play the keyboard, to read scripture or to pray. In addition, a number of plenary speakers cancelled their attendance at the last minute, one because the election unrest in Congo prevented any communication or travel. But the Holy Spirit prompted the right people to fill in and speak and we were richly blessed.

Dr. Colon-Emeric on
New Creation

The week began with deep reflection on our foundations: reconciliation is the mission of God. From the beginning, God made all things good, and as Christians, we already know the end of the story: God will reconcile all things – ALL things – to himself (Col 1:15-20). When we say yes to Christ, we become part of this new creation, and we are invited to become ambassadors of reconciliation. But if we want to really be reconcilers, we need to have the same motivation as our God. God took initiative and, with compassion, crossed the distance between himself and our unrepentant world. Our hearts also need to break, not just at the suffering of the innocent, but at the suffering of our enemies. Dr. Colon-Emeric, a Duke Professor from Latin America, challenged us with examples from his experience in another part of the world. Like Archbishop Oscar Romero, we read the vision of new creation in Isaiah 65, but then we work for tangible signs of new creation in the community around us. We understand that the church must share Christ’s message of reconciliation. Yet especially in contexts of great suffering and violence, it can be hard to see how God’s justice and God’s mercy go together and are part of one heart. What about justice for killers in South Sudan or rapists in Congo? Bringing justice and mercy together requires conversion from our human values to the new creation values. On Monday, we heard from a variety of witnesses about the situation in South Sudan, which has finally entered a tenuous, imperfect peace. We began to understand the need for purification of memory: not negating the past, but also not allowing the past to dictate the future God has in mind for us.

On Tuesday, we turned our eyes from the new heavens and the new earth to the question of what is going on around us. And when we look honestly at the situation in the world around us, we can’t help but cry out, “How long, O Lord?” Witnesses from four parts of DR Congo shared the anguish of their people, from senseless violence (“every weekend, people are being killed like goats”) and Ebola in Eastern Congo; to politically motivated unrest in Kasai, where 1.4 million people are displaced in what used to be the most peaceful region of Congo. Sometimes we are afraid to lament because we fear others will think we have no faith, or that we doubt God’s power; or we think God will punish us if we question his ways. Dr. Celestin Musekura from Rwanda shared deeply from his own experience of lamenting together with suffering and displaced people, and the healing that comes from honest and intimate conversation with God. We lament because we know this is not the way God wants things to be, and it is a tool to navigate pain and sorrow as we pray in hope that God will change things.

Mural by Burundian youth

The theme of the week was “Christian Leadership for reconciliation in contexts of forced displacement,” a timely focus in this time in world history when more people are displaced than ever before. On Wednesday morning, we took a pilgrimage to look for signs of hope. We visited a community center designed to support urban refugees in Kampala. Apparently, refugees are pouring into Uganda from almost all the surrounding countries, and some elect to remain in the city and try to earn a living. This center offers training courses and social support, including a three-month tailoring course, a workshop to make long-burning charcoal bricks and stoves, several handicrafts groups, and a day care to help single parents who need to work and don’t have other family support. 

charcoal bricks and stoves

A refugee drivers association teaches people English and the Ugandan rules of the road and helps them get valid Ugandan licenses, so they can work in the transport business. A thriving youth ministry helps young people recognize the gifts of their cultures and even make a living from them. We met Somali women who earn money doing henna and traditional dancing for weddings, as well as young men from Burundi who have formed a traditional drum troupe and are hired out almost every weekend for events.

crafts made by displaced people

Theologian and artist Jeremy Begbie helps us understand how lament and hope can co-exist: we hear two songs playing at the same time, one aggressive and unpleasant, and the other sweet and melodic. The first one never totally drowns out the second. We saw many signs of hope among the diverse gathering of refugees who have fled violence and left everything they know, even as they co-exist, encourage each other and mutually respect one another. In the evening, Faith Mlay explored the story of the burning bush. She noted that we are standing on holy ground when we investigate situations that seem to be burning destructively – and yet somehow, something remains that is not consumed. This is a miracle that calls us to draw near and notice how God is at work.

Marion and Acher, leaders to follow

Having considered all this theological background, the big question remains for us: how can we be the kind of leaders who really follow God’s heart as reconcilers? Dr. Musekura held up the example of Nehemiah, who was a leader of his people, even as a displaced person. He lamented deeply and repented on behalf of his people. Then he prayed for several months, and during that time, rather than growing bitter, he made a list of what he would ask for on behalf of his people, if ever he had the chance. In fear and trembling, he prayed for an opening with the king, and finally he had the chance to speak. He was afraid, but he still spoke up; sometimes for our people, hope looks like a leader who is willing to say yes. Hope looks like Queen Esther, who accepted that she might be in her position “for such a time as this.” We need leaders with a prophetic voice,  but too often church leaders are muted by a “bone in the mouth,” like watchdogs who are distracted from their duty by thieves (politicians) who toss out a choice piece of meat. The final big question involves our own hearts: how can we keep going when things look bleak? What is a spirituality that will carry us through the valley of the shadow with integrity? These are hard questions that each of us must wrestle with.

head table of celebration

In between all these sessions of theological reflection, we had meals together and time to catch up over tea breaks. I was so thankful for each good conversation I had during the week. I’ve written in the past about “Fractured Ubuntu,” the sense of a divided identity that one gets when one moves around too much. I felt this past week that many parts of my identity were put back together and restored.

On Wednesday evening, we enjoyed a magnificent celebration dinner for Wilfred and Faith Mlay – an occasion to celebrate all they have done for the community, and to allow Wilfred to officially retire as Ambassador Emeritus. We were exuberantly led through the evening by a brother from DR Congo, Jean-Serge Lumu. He brought out the best in the African spirit of singing and dancing and ululating. The food was wonderful party food, like pilau and skewers of barbequed pork. We had speeches of course, but they were warm and funny and wise, rather than boring. 

cake cutting and response

There was an enormous cake for the Mlay’s to cut, and when they were asked to respond with some words, they had only a few: “To God be the glory!” We ended the evening with a joyful, spontaneous dance party, singing, “I know who I am!” It was just a little foretaste of that banquet we will all enjoy one day at the wedding supper of the Lamb.

We wrapped up the week on Friday evening, and on Saturday morning I flew back to Arusha. I was able to have another two days with my mom before she left on Sunday evening. It was great to share about the week with her, and to hear about my family’s week. The kids had gone back to school on Tuesday, Paul was back in work, and my mom had spent several days training people on how to access digital resources for research. On Sunday afternoon, we loaded up my mom’s taxi, sent her off. We have just begun a second week of “normalcy,” and I’m grateful for the time today to reflect on all the rich blessings since the beginning of the year.

Putting my mom, Jean Sack, on the plane home

Christmas and New Year's Festivities and a Trip to the Coast

Letting two weeks go by without a blog entry over holidays was probably a mistake. So much has happened in the past two weeks that it is hard to keep track. Fortunately there is an ample photo record. It is a sad irony that when there is more going on, there is less time to write, and that has certainly been the case since the holiday season began.

In my last entry around mid-December we had just returned from a team retreat in Zanzibar. By the time we returned the Christmas season began moving into high gear beginning on the 21st with an evening of lessons and carols at our church. Our choir, of which Rebecca and I are a part, has been rehearsing for quite a while for this and we had 4 special songs to share during the evening. The event was on a Friday of the week we returned and it was a fitting end to a very busy week of reviewing quarterly reports from all of our partners and getting them into our database. Despite the flurry of productivity, the office seemed relatively quiet as Chrispin was on vacation and others were in and out. 

The Lessons and Carols service went very well, and I thought we sounded great! There were many parts to the service including Sunday school children singing Away in a Manger, many favorite Christmas hymns, a brass quartet, harp solo, and a soloist singing Rejoice O Daughter of Zion from Handel's Messiah. Grandma Jean and the kids came and endured arriving an hour and a half early and watched patiently. Oren seems to be developing a real sense of ritual about certain traditions. Although it was a few days early, it stood in for our Christmas Eve service since there was not going to be one on the 24th. 

We did go to church on the 22nd though as it was a Sunday and Rebecca was preaching. She did a fabulous bit of theologically correct performance art by portraying the Blessed Mother looking back on her life and remembering her betrothal to Joseph and visitation by the Angel Gabriel. I could not do it justice by description but it had a big effect on the congregation, especially because she did not begin by saying what she was doing. It started out sounding like she was talking about herself. One poignant turn of phrase was when she remembered fretting about getting older and still living at home-- 18 and not yet married! "I was no beauty!" (she confided to the congregation.) I asked her about that statement and she told me that the idea of Mary not being beautiful was like T.H. White's portrayal of Sir Lancelot as having a hideous face in The Once and Future King which we had listened to a month earlier. Also it paralleled Isaiah 53's description of Jesus who "had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him."  I think Oren even liked it. 

Christmas Eve was eventful nonetheless as we waited for midnight clatter of our taxi driver bringing Papa Dave from the airport, arriving on the KLM evening flight. We watched the Polar Express, the last and favorite of our Christmas movies as we waited. He arrived on cue laden heavily with gifts in two enormous suitcases from many family members back home. (We late into the wee hours of the morning to get them wrapped and under the tree.)

Christmas morning came early for the kids despite the late eveing waiting. They were up around 6, and I told them they had to wait to get the grandparents up until at least 7 before opening Christmas gifts. I finally let them open a set of legos to help them pass the time. 

We had our traditional Christmas cinnamon rolls (made by Jean several days before) for breakfast, then began the daunting project of opening our many gifts. (Having 2 sides of the family sending gifts from the US meant there were quite a few. )

The kids were thrilled to get a number of legos and STEM type craft projects along with many new family games and books. (A real group effort to come up with things that would compete with screens.) They both got deeply into building lego technics sets by mid morning. 

Rebecca led the adults in preparations for our Christmas dinner to which we had invited our friends the Taylors, and a new German family who is joining our small group as well. Rebecca had prepared a ham, as well as several side dishes. 

The kids and I had worked the day before on what was to be the coup de gras, a gingerbread train--steam engine, coal car, and box car. We have a tradition of a gingerbread construction each year, usually a castle or church, but this year we were more ambitious. Rebecca and I looked up good reciptes for construction gingerbread (without leavening). I added my own touch (extra treacle) to make it actually taste good. We also looked up recipes for eggless royal icing (since one of the guests was alergic) we did find a good substitute that used corn syrup in place of egg and it worked well. 

before decorating

The design and construction went well enough. Our convection oven made baking fast and allowed for multiple layers of trays to be cooked at once. I used the molten sugar for epoxy to put it together, and in the early stages it looked good. We covered it with icing on the boiler and roofs of the cars to look like snow. We used chocolate chips for coal. (the boiler for the engine was actually a chocolate muffin mix baked in a can to make it round. We added candy and decorations and for about an hour it looked great. But, the integrity of the gingerbread with all the weight on the wheels and the humidity of Arusha during this season began to slowly melt it. By the time it was served the next day it had pretty much collapsed. A bit disappointing but we did have some pictures before it fell apart. Since it was falling apart it made people more bold in destroying it to eat it. The taste was excellent!

Our guests arrived mid-afternoon bearing many other side dishes including a Christmas cake (fruit cake) and an icecream cake made out of Christmas cake which was delicious. (The Taylors are Australian and these were traditions down under.) The kids had a great time playing together. Adults visited and we had a very nice Christmas dinner.

The party seemed to continue the next day when we all got together as a small group at Pamoja, a compound where one of the family's live. This was a lot of fun and included a staggeringly large collection of kids the ages of both David and Oren. It was great to see Oren hanging out with 6 other young teenage boys. The event was a potluck and we brought many left overs. Dave and Jean had a good time as well finding common ground with a number of the parents and grandparents gathered there-- all with extensive cross-cultural experience.

After the festivities of Christmas and Boxing Day, we found we had one free day in Arusha before we were to leave on vacation on the coast. So we booked a tee time at Gymkhana and Dave Sack, the kids, Rebecca and I played 9 holes of golf. It was really quite amusing. We had 3 caddies between us and had to rent everything. But the cost was under $100 for all of us and rental of clubs. David Sack had the most experience and it showed whenever he drove the ball in a straight line off th tee. David Mosley was probably second best with regard to consistency. I could hit the ball quite far, but usually missed 2-3 times and when I did hit it was not unusual for my ball to land in the middle of a neighboring fairway (or even 2 away.) The caddies were very helpful with coaching. I am hoping we have more opportunities to do this in the coming year. 

The zenith of our Christmas break was to be our trip to Pangani beach on the East coast of Tanzania. We had gone last year with Dave and Jean and were looking forward to a return trip. In order to make the 9 hour drive a bit more bearable we rented a van in hopes it would be cooler than the MCC Landrover. Sadly the airconditioner on the rental van as well as the sliding door was not working so we were pretty hot going down. We did listen to Artemis Fowl on the trip which was good though-(highly reccommend for kids).

We got to Peponi Beach Resort in the late afternoon where we spent 5 days and nights relaxing on swinging beds by the beach, swimming in the ocean and pool, snorkeling, doing water colors, reading, and enjoying delicious seafood meals every night. New Year's eve was not too exciting for us but the hotel did have a lovely banquet with many tasty dishes. I am including a selection of photos below to catch the atmosphere, and will leave it at that for now.

We are back in Arusha again and Rebecca is preparing for her trip to Uganda for the Great Lakes Initiative where she is leading music. She will be gone for a week and I will be home with kids. Fortunately Grandma Jean will stay for the week as well, so it should be manageable. More news later.

PHOTO highlights from Peponi beach. (more can be seen at: Pangani photos)

Zanzibar in the Season of Bougainvilleas

If the Christmas season is to be remembered for anything in Tanzania, it would have to be the bougainvilleas. As we pass through the calendar year a second time here, I am beginning to get used to the topsy-turvy seasons of the southern hemisphere. The October spring crowned with blooming jacarandas along nearly every street, gives way to mid-summer December with flame trees and teeming vines of bougainvillea cascading down trees and the sides of buildings. The tropical colors are a far cry from the austere evergreens with red holly berry accents of winter in North America. It does not feel like Christmas, but it does feel like a tropical paradise.

Our bed made at the hotel every day.

And what better way to enjoy a tropical paradise than to visit Tanzania's  storied island of Zanzibar! This is only the second time our family has been there, and the last time was when we were working in Burundi (in 2012). It is quite a magical place with a Swahili mystique that feels a bit like a setting for Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves or Pirates of the Caribbean.

The occasion to go to Zanzibar last week was for an MCC team retreat. I guess working for a mission organization located in a beautiful settting puts these kinds of 'perks' within reach. The participants in our team retreat included our family, Sharon our country rep., Lucia our finance officer and her two daughters, Chrispin, our ag. coordinator and his daughter, as well as Ken and Laura, the two East Africa area directors. Twelve of us in all. Rebecca had been one of the main organizers of the retreat including logistics, and made arrangements for us to fly to Zanzibar and stay at the Samaki Lodge and Spa.

We left Monday evening and took a small Air Tanzania Bombadier to Stonetown in Zanzibar, about an hour flight from Arusha. We arrived around 10pm, well after dark but it still took a tremendous amount of arguing with David to convince him that he could not head out to the beach to look for crabs. He finally went to bed that night but was up before 6am the next morning. I did go out with him and it was quite glorious to walk out on the fine coral white sand of Zanzibar beaches! He found many shells the first morning and would have stayed out all day if I would not have coerced him in to have breakfast.

Meals were all provided by the hotel and each meal was a huge spread covering many tables in the restaurant. The staff was obsequiosly friendly, and I noticed that most of the tourists there were Italian and Russian. Almost no one but the staff spoke English.

After breakfast the first day, we had a team gathering and did some ice breakers including a game that was kind of like Pictionary, only one person has a drawing and without identifying it, has to try to get another person to draw it. The game took on interesting dimensions as we tried to find ways to describe a shape in a cross-cultural setting. We also did some reflecting on what Chistmas means to us and chose secret santas. (The rule was NO money could be spent. You had to find or make something by the last day of the retreat.)

We spent the rest of the day relaxing. While the beach is nice, Samaki lodge also has two enormous swimming pools, both of which are beautiful and very pleasant to swim in. David and I went in the ocean part of the time in low tide and walked out about a kilometer to find tide pools. We saw many cool fish including, clowns, blue damsels, a puffer fish, some eels, and starfish. The most common creature by far were sea urchins. We had to wear shoes at all times to avoid stepping on them and getting stung. When we got back, he, Oren, and Lucia's girls, Novella and Esperanza, spent most of the late afternoon playing in the pool. Dinner was fabulous as well featuring Italian and Swahili food. There was entertainment afterwards although I was pretty tired and went to bed.

The next morning David was up early again to catch crabs. We had a plan to do a field visit and sightseeing in Stonetown. There is a Mennonite couple who work for EMM, Peter and Christy, whose office is in Stonetown. We visited them, saw the work he is doing as faculty in an Interfaith Peacebuilding Institute. It is quite impressive, and Christian and Muslim students study peacebuilding together. Their office is in a 6 floor walk-up that looks like a Dr. Suess house. It overlooks Stonetown, but seems a bit precarious considering how narrow the upper stairways are.

We had lunch in Stonetown then headed to a protected forest area where we were able to see the indigienous and very rare Red Colobus monkey. We had a guided tour through the forest by a very funny guide who told us we might be lucky enough to see a python...or if we were even luckier we wouldn't as they are very dangerous. He also took us through a very cool mangrove forest with a boardwalk running through it. We saw many indigenous species in there and had an informative tour about how mangrove forests prevent flooding and reduce erosion.

We got home in the evening, quite exhausted. But David was up bright and early again on Thursday morning for more crabbing. For a team event we did a scavenger hunt. After lunch, our family did a more extensive snorkeling expedition during low tide after walking out more than a kilometer. We saw quite a few interesting fish although the beach where we were was not particularly close to any big pieces of coral or deep tide pools. We played in the pool in the afternoon and did watercolors. In the evening we had our final team gathering on the roof of the hotel, where everyone exchanged gifts. Lucia had made me a picture, and I had made Laura a watercolor of a wall covered with bougainvillea which were ubiquitous around the hotel. David, the prime collector of beautiful shells gave one to Novella. It was a very satisfying, creative end to our retreat.

We did not have to leave too early on Friday, but by noon that day we headed to Stonetown. Our trip home was more complicated than our trip to Zanzibar. To save money we decided to fly back out of Dar Es Salaam. This entailed taking a ferry from Stonetown to Dar where we would catch our flight.

The ferry was quite an adventure, but much more modern than I expected. it was one of those giant catamaran style hover craft. It was surprisingly fast and smooth and we saw some beautiful views of Stonetown from the water. We got to Dar 2 hours later. The taxi ride to the airport though took nearly as long as the traffic was horrific. Nonetheless we got to the aiport and on our plane without a hitch. We got back to Arusha about 7pm and back to our house around 9pm, tired but exhilerated from the trip.

No rest for the weary though as Rebecca had a worship committee meeting the next morning, then her mom "Grandma Jean" arrived on Saturday evening. Actually she did not get in until nearly midnight, but the kids insisted on staying up and waiting for her.

Sunday was an unusual day at church as we did not really have a regular service. It was the 10th anniversary of the hospital where the church is located and there was a big ceremony with much pomp and circumstance and a service in the middle of it for religious and political leaders. Our choir sung two songs in it. The whole event went on for over 7 hours but we left after about 4. After church in the afternoon we participated in some Christmas carols for people who were sick at various wards in Mt. Meru hospital. It felt like something good to do although hard to see people suffering so much in such non-private settings. They seemed to appreciate the carols and prayers.

That about ends it except to say the kids are not in school and David found 2 baby hedgehogs at Gymkhana that seemed abandonned. He brought them home and now we are all taking turns feeding them with an eyedropper 6 times per day.

O come, Emmanuel

Lighting the first candle of Advent

Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel

shall come to thee, o Israel.

Last Sunday, we had just finished celebrating the first Sunday of Advent, and were dismissing Sunday school, when one of my fellow church elders came to share some unthinkable news: The wife of one of our church members had suddenly passed away on Friday. He had been in church but was so overcome with grief that he couldn’t share the news directly in the service. His wife Julie had been one of our team of Sunday school teachers, teaching our youngest kids. Their own son is just 7 years old. She had seemed only mildly ill and had driven herself to a clinic where she collapsed and died. She is exactly my age, and it’s hard not think of what it would be like for my family here and elsewhere, if something like this happened in our family. The tragedy of this family and our involvement framed and colored all the past week for us, as we waited for Julie’s family members to arrive from Denmark and make decisions about what to do next.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here,
until the Son of God appear…

Mennonite Church of Arusha

In the midst of waiting to hear from Julie’s family, we also had projects that were coming to fruition after several months of waiting. Paul had received ethical clearance to proceed with a research grant in the Ngorongoro crater. Our MCC partner there works to encourage women to have healthy pregnancies and to go to the clinics for check-ups and delivery. However, very few women choose to deliver in clinics. The research is to find out more about the barriers or obstacles to facility-assisted birth, the beliefs about birth practices and also experiences that may discourage women from going to the clinic. He was busy preparing the process and questionnaires on Monday and then left to meet the research team in Karatu on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Role-playing a mediation meeting

Meanwhile, the local Mennonite church started a week of training on peace-building and conflict resolution. I had been working with the leadership team to support their planning over the past two months, and now they really wanted me to be present to witness what was happening. They had invited 100 pastors and church leaders from 8 congregations of their diocese. People came from all different cultural backgrounds, including people local to Arusha, some from a Maasai church plant, and others who were transplants from the faraway Mara region. I was able to spend several hours with them on Monday afternoon, hearing fellow MCCer William Kiptoo from Kenya lay the groundwork for talking about peacebuilding in the church. I remain very grateful for the opportunity to interact more directly with our partners in peacebuilding at this stage of my assignment.

O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer
our spirits by Thine advent here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death's dark shadows put to flight.

On Tuesday, I was able to have half of my Sabbath. But this past week was also the final week of the term for our kids, and they had a number of special events going on a school. I was especially eager to go and support David and his house, “Athens,” at the upper primary sports day. Parents were invited to come and wear house colors, giving their houses extra points for each parent who showed up. David had sadly twisted his ankle again in a sack race, earlier that morning, so he had to have substitutes run his races for him. But it was still fun to hang out with him and his classmates. I saw several of his friends win races, and it was nice to be there to affirm them, especially the kids we see and play with all the time at Gymkhana.

Final relay of sports day

After school, I got both kids and Gymkhana is exactly where we headed, to hang out together for an hour. But then I needed to go and pick up William Kiptoo, the peace trainer, with his wife. We as MCC wanted to do something personal and host him for at least a dinner, but it turned out I was the only team-member available to do it. Even Paul was gone! It is definitely a bit of a challenge to enjoy good adult conversation, while keep the kids happy, and so I decided just to offer the Kiptoo’s Chinese food at Gymkhana so the kids  could be safe doing their own thing. I did really value the time to talk more with William and hear about his background and experiences in peace in this region and in Asia. Nevertheless, it was a night of mediating many different needs and doing a B- job of hosting at best.

Even as I was running around picking up and dropping off, I ran into another school mother who had heard of Julie’s death, was trying to comfort her child (who had been in Julie’s Sunday school class), and was also trying to process her own recent grief of losing her father to poor medical care in Tanzania. And that evening, I also had heard from Julie’s family: they wanted me to give the funeral and invited me to come meet them in the morning.

A story of trauma and healing

I was so grateful for our Sunday school coordinator, Anne, who is from Norway, could easily speak to Julie’s family in their heart language, and who was serving as the key contact person for our church. She and I spent three hours with the family Wednesday morning, hearing more about Julie from them, and trying to help them process their grief. We also were able to plan a service that would honor Danish traditions, to be held in our church. Julie’s husband is Tanzanian, from the Kilimanjaro area. And so we also needed to work well together to figure out the best way to meet the needs and expectations of his clan around grieving her death and doing the burial. It was a cross-cultural situation, with many potential pitfalls, but I really thank God we were able to manage to work out a way to honor both the Danish and Tanzanian families.

After meeting with the grieving, it was time to go back to the Mennonite church to observe more peace training. And then I needed to go back to our office to plan some of the remaining details of our team retreat in Zanzibar (starting today). The contrast of activities was almost too much to absorb. It was honestly a relief to head to choir practice and just spend several hours singing pieces about the hope and comfort of the Advent of our Lord.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
and open wide our heav'nly home;
make safe the way that leads on high,
and close the path to misery.

Thursday and Friday brought more visits to the Mennonite church peace training, planning worship music for our church Sunday service (which as it happens I was scheduled to lead, on top of everything else), and also writing a sermon to give comfort to Julie’s family. Although I have served as a pastor at various times over the past 15 years, I have only ever given two funerals, and those only for older people who had lived full lives, and who I had not known well. It was a special challenge to think of how to give comfort to a family who are not themselves believers, but also to really speak the truth of the good news that Julie had trusted in Jesus, and that she is safe with him, in spite of the tragedy for those left behind. It was incredibly poignant to be planning this sermon in the season of Advent, God coming among us, when some of those grieving may have been feeling abandoned by God.

The family had asked that I preach on Psalm 23, for which I was grateful. It was interesting that though they aren’t practicing Christians, some aspects of the faith are still deeply engrained and give comfort. Even as we had a private family viewing just before the funeral, more than one Danish visitor and friend of Julie’s asked if they could please just kneel and pray the Lord’s prayer in Danish. There is still an urge to call out to our Father at moments like this of sudden death.

The family shared so beautifully about Julie. Many, many school friends and teachers came to support her son and the family. Our church family also came to surround and support the funeral with music, including special Danish hymns, and their presence and prayers. It was a real relief to people to be able that she had died of natural causes, due to an undiagnosed condition. And as hard as the situation is, especially in knowing how best to support and care for the husband and son, it was a service which I think allowed people to really honor Julie. Here are a few thoughts on what it meant to me to think about God with us, Emmanuel, in light of Julie’s death. Perhaps it might also be a comfort to others who are walking through this Advent season in times of loss and sorrow.

There is nothing solid we can cling to in this life. Nothing except the hand of the Good Shepherd who leads us. We remember his character, his wisdom in leading us on paths that will give us what we need – even when it isn’t what we want. More than anything else, he promises that as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he is with us. With us.

And we who call Jesus Lord, know that Jesus himself is the Good Shepherd. He is not a distant sovereign king, ordering things from afar. He came among us, Emmanuel, God with us.  Jesus came and lived, knowing hunger and disappointment. Jesus experienced the pressures of family who didn’t understand him. He was accused by lawyers who wanted to trap him and get him in trouble with the law. Jesus walked through the valley of the death-shadow himself. He buried Joseph, the father who raised him. He experienced the sudden murder of his cousin, John. He endured the death of a close friend, Lazarus, and wept at his grave. He was betrayed, abandoned, tortured and crucified.

Our Emmanuel, Jesus, God with us, said to us himself in John’s gospel, “I am the good Shepherd.  My Sheep know my voice. I know my sheep and my sheep know me. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” …

The final promise of Psalm 23 is this: “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever and ever.” …

In fact, goodness and mercy, the unfailing love of God, do not simply follow us passively. God’s love pursues us intently. God’s unfailing love chases us down. God’s mercy and love will not give up until they bring us into the Lord’s house. In the moment that Julie was falling, the unfailing love of God was still pursuing her, catching her as she fell, carrying her to be forever with her Good Shepherd in the house prepared for her with the Father.

Epilogue.

After all was done with the funeral, and the cortege had driven away to the traditional Tanzanian burial in Kilimanjaro, I also attended the peace training graduation on Saturday. Another moment of cognitive dissonance. It can be a challenging call to weep with those who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice. It was a real relief to come to the church early on Sunday morning, and be alone in the sanctuary for a bit, privately having some time to worship and grieve before the other musicians joined me to lead music for Second Advent.

Getting ready for MCC team time

And now we’re packed and ready to head to Zanzibar with our team on our annual team retreat. I might wish for a week of normalcy, but it seems that it is now time to head to the beach, and make the most of savoring family and team time, and the life and the days that we are given. Green pastures and still waters are not an entitlement but a gift of the Good Shepherd, and this week has been a reminder to never forget that. I’ll close with the text of one song we sang yesterday:

You've come, To bring peace, To be love
To be nearer to us

You've come, To bring life
To be light , To shine brighter in us
You've come To be hope To this world For Your honor and name

You've come, To take sin, To bear shame
And to conquer the grave

Oh Emmanuel, God with us

Our Deliverer, You are Savior
In Your presence we find our strength

Over everything, Our redemption
God with us, You are God with us

Songwriters: Jason Ingram / Leslie Jordan

God With Us lyrics © Capitol Christian Music Group