other items of interest:

we moved into our house in the middle of June. What a relief! Finally, we are unpacking bags!

Unfortunately, we are still waiting for electricity. Very frustrating. I've been in every office at the power company, pushing, complaining, begging, crying. But, it looks like we are getting closer: they brought the overhead wires to the house today, and they say that next week they will bring the meter, electrifying our house. We are cautiously optimistic, but it was good to see the Tanesco truck at our house.

We have enjoyed visitors, first Wes, Amanda, and Taylor Gunn in June, then Charity's parents in July. The boys have been spoiled (the good kind of spoiled) by friends and "papa and nana". And we spoiled ourselves with a two day trip to zanzibar (tanzania's beautiful island!) with Charity's parents. Beaches of pure white sands were great, but even better was being on a beach with permission to publicly hold hands with my wife (not culturally appropriate around Mwanza).

One of the areas we have been working, Busami, is about half an hour from the Serengeti, so we took our visitors to see some of our work, then took a day trip to see the great wildebeest migration. Our guests enjoyed the animals; I enjoyed driving on roads without bicycles, goats, and police checkpoints (of course, wildebeest, antelopes, giraffe, zebra, and other animals are on the road, but the presence of lions keeps their instincts--and escape skills honed. They get out of the way!)

now, trying to get settled into life and ministry after a summer of events and travels. Thanks for stopping by.

Traveling days...

As we still don't have electricity in our house, our e-mailing and blogging continues to suffer. But enabled by a guesthouse in Nairobi with internet access and Kenyan coffee, heres a ten minute update...

just returning from a missionary conference in Watamu Kenya. Missionaries from 6 countries and some church leaders in America got together for a rich time of fellowship. We are filled with fresh ideas, renewed focus, and eagerness to visit and see our new friends in their places of service!

We also have been blessed with visitors, our missions minister and family, Wes, Amanda, and Taylor Gunn, as well as Charity's parents. Thankfully, neither friend nor family pulled us off the field. They see our struggles, but their faith in us, and more importantly, their faith in God, is a real encouragement to us.

Some people have been asking about our ministry in Busami, a small village in the Naasa chiefdom. Since we have been visiting, we have seen a new community begin to form there. We helped some hopeful people start a church community in a place where there was not yet one. 53 people chose to become Christians there, beginning a journey characterized by hope, faith, and grace... not the traditional elements of Sukuma culture that they are used to. The hard work is ahead, but we were blessed to see light break into a dark place.

One man touched our hearts. An old man. Probably 70 years old, the last man in the water hole to be baptized. He had chosen a new name to correspond to his new life, but was not yet responding to his new name. finally, he came, ready to start a new life at an old age. A sweet man walking through water for the first time.

time is up. love you all, and thank you for your continued encouragement!