Up until this October, I had never been to New England in the fall.
My love for fall leaves found itself renewed as we drove through NY, NH, and VT.
Most of these captures are from the passenger seat of a moving vehicle, but that just helped me think more about the view itself and less about the photo as I took it.
A downtown visit isn’t complete without a bookstore stop and a snap of a historic church building.
There was also a mini hike during my autumnal Saturday, complete with an impressive waterfall.
I love the juxtapositions of autumn. Beauty blazes onto the forest canvas, present only because the trees are experiencing death and loss. Meanwhile, we enjoy harvesting the fruit of man’s labors and God’s Providence – bright pumpkin patches and rolling apple orchards.
Every season has its beauty and pain. For everything there is a season.
In American culture, it’s rude to point at people. We’ve all been taught this since we started learning language. But as a Christian, we counter culture in that our entire lives are meant to point at Another. If Jesus walked into a room full of people, it would be evil to do anything other than draw attention to Him! I repeatedly sin by living my life as the opposite of this action. I spend so many days and moments pointing at myself – through pride, in conversation, or even just in the privacy of my thought life (especially during emotions such as shame). I also sin when my heart sets itself on pointing at humans. Making people into the light of my life and the idol of my aspirations.
I’m pondering pointing, because one of the public times in life when your index finger is most obvious is at your own wedding. Weddings reveal the directions of the arrows of our lives.
I recently had the privilege and joy of attending the wedding of my lifelong friend, Ariel, to her now-husband Dayton. There were many reasons it was a joyous day to witness and partake in, but the greatest inducer of joy was how they intentionally pointed to Jesus. Their preparations involved a lot of arrows, as they conversed with family and friends. Their relationship continually pointed to Christ, as He led, sovereignly providing, and they grew together.
Then on October 4, they got to give a pre-enactment of the wedding of Christ to His Bride, pointing at the Messiah-Groom with their hearts and lives. That day was the initiation of marriage where the whole point is to glorify God, highlighting His grace and goodness, daily modeling the relationship of Christ and the Church.
I’m thankful for how God has graciously worked in Ariel and Dayton’s lives. I’m thankful that they chose to use their day as a beautiful, bold arrow to the Worthy One. And I’m praying that the Lord strengthens their hands, keeping them raised towards Him always. placeholder://
is not for the faint of heart! Lots of traffic, toll roads, express lanes, massive interchanges, more traffic, one way streets in the cities, high gas prices, and winding mountain and coastal roads. But, once you get where you’re going, all the struggle starts to fade and you’re blown away by the destination.
Moshe doesn’t love stopping for photos, but I also don’t love stopping for him to sniff every other plant while he also leaves his neighborhood “social media posts” as I call them.
The title is self-explanatory, the dog is insanely cute. He will be a continual blog feature, and not just because he’s my only ever-present model. . .
I’m using the word “welcome” without actually expecting any audience to hear it. You see, this makeover isn’t intended to be a stunning before and after of a website that will now become a side-piece money-making machine for me, the budding prolific writer and hobbyist photographer.
It’s for a much simpler, humbler, personal ambition. As an adult, I’ve graduated from the ever-present, mind-raking query of “what do you want to do when you grow up?” to the seemingly-innocuous but equally tongue-tying question of “so what do you do for a hobby?”
Talk about a pressure inducing moment. My favorite comedian Miranda talks about this question in her book Is It Just Me? with an understanding wit. How is a grown, single woman, mother of one dog, to answer this increasingly important question?
It seems that hobbies are vital to adult identity and successful conversation, so with that in mind I’ve set out on a quest to discover my hobbies that fill the hours when I’m not working, for it seems that tv and internet browsing don’t make the cut for satisfactory answers.
Thus and behold, my venture into greater photography depths with the purchase of an Olympus EM-5 (there are other letters and numbers attached to the title but they always evade me and come out a jumble).
But this hobby presents a second issue, what to do with all these practice forays into the photo-sphere?! I can’t just bombard my Instagram with all my amateur snaps of the world around me. And so, here we (I) are, creating a do-over of my original blog for the sole purpose of having a place to dump my photos other than the picture repository of my phone. A place where no one will be bothered by a daily newsfeed of off-focus ill-exposed hobbyist results. Welcome to my personal, but not actually private, photo album! Life documentary, minimally refined, mildly processed.
I do hope to enjoy my endeavors, maybe someone else will too (probably my mom).
Take note: without Rachelle graciously agreeing to run crafts and new games with me for the kids I would not be able to do everything with them. I am so thankful for her willingness to submit herself to the craziness that craft time is with the Tumaini kids!
With that said, Saturday morning we started our activities with the littlest children here, the 5 preschoolers (4 boys and 1 girl) who arrived here at Tumaini in April. My goal was to work on scissor skills with them. The great thing was they were eager to try to cut; the terrible thing was the scissors were not great for cutting up the plastic straws we were using. So, Rachelle and I ended up snipping up the straws, then letting the kids string them onto yarn to make necklaces for themselves. They all seemed to enjoy this, aside from a few of them telling us they were sleepy.
With Kelvin as we make straw necklacesAnthony is wearing one of the straw necklaces he made.
After lunch we headed back up the hill to Tumaini to cut up paper to give to the kids for book covers, and to make yarn flowers with the 50 older kids. This activity started out pretty calmly, but as more children flooded the room it got more and more hectic! It was fun to see the kids creating different combinations and sizes of flowers. Even the boys enjoyed doing the craft.
Feli sporting her new flower hair accessory that she made
Today, after the morning church service, lunch (coconut curry chicken and thai peanut chicken), and naps, we went up to Tumaini to teach the kids how to throw frisbees. I brought 10 frisbees with me and it seems that none of the kids had played with them before. Several of them got quite good at passing them with some practice!
Wednesday, Rachelle and I spent most of the work day in the resource office. She was organizing; I was making a book catalog of all the education books they have. My break from office work was helping entertain the toddler little girl of the family who is here for a few weeks on a survey mission trip. They were having a meeting with Beth to learn about running an orphanage so I worked at entertaining their daughter to give them some quiet. I’ve enjoyed talking to this sweet couple and am praying that God would direct their steps.
Later that day, we helped the kids with homework when they got home from school, which is usually around 5:30 pm. Homework help/checking is a daily activity on school days and can last anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple hours.
Thursday was a rest day of sorts, Rachelle had her first day off in the last 6 weeks. We did some baking and I did some yoga, as well as some reading. That evening we had a pizza night at Beth’s house!
Friday we spent most of the day in town. All of wazungu (white) ladies from here at Tumaini went into town for a Bible study. Missionary ladies from here and in Mwanza meet once a month for it. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know and fellowship with these sisters in Christ. It was refreshing to hear everyone share things they had been learning or were praying for. I could feel that this monthly meeting is a spiritual oasis for these ladies and their fellowship was an encouragement to me. I’m looking forward to praying for my new friends with greater knowledge.
Today, Rachelle and I spent about three hours observing the nurse at the village clinic. She was cleaning the building when we arrived so we sat on a bench and waited as she mopped and wiped down everything. When she was finished, she gave us an “orientation” of the facility, six rooms in total, plus a closet to store the gas that powers the fridge to keep vaccinations cold. Mama Nursi takes care of patients on the RCH side of the clinic: reproduction, child, health. There is also a doctor who works in the other half of the clinic treating outpatient needs.
After the tour, she got started working with patients. We saw many precious children, and got to help weigh them. To weigh them, the mothers take off the baby’s clothes, place him/her in a cloth bag, then hang the bag handles from the hook of the scale out on the front porch. As you can imagine, some children enjoyed this adventure more than others. One little 6 week old baby weighed only 3 kilos. The typical weight should be 5 or 6. We were told that the baby’s mother has been giving her infant porridge, water, and cow’s milk instead of just nursing her as she has been instructed there at the clinic. The compassion showed on Mama Nursi’s face as she told us that she would work to keep educating this young woman. This is how the children are weighed, up to age 5. We also sat in as Mama Nursi talked to each patient and recorded their information on charts and in record books. After these conferences Mama Nursi would often translate what was said.
At one point, an older woman came in and told Mama Nursi her concerns. Her husband had been ill, and a hospital had diagnosed it as TB. He received treatment, but is still ill, and now Sarah has been feeling weak and sick for several weeks. Mama Nursi drew blood to run a test for HIV, then sent Sarah back outside to wait. The blood had to separate so that the serum can be withdrawn to put on the test strip. Several hours later when this had happened, Mama Nursi called Sarah back in while she ran the test, and told her that she would need to come back tomorrow for a second HIV test. They talked for several minutes before Sarah left again. After she left, Mama Nursi sadly informed us that the two little lines on that test strip revealed the diagnosis: “She is HIV-positive.”
Another heartbreakingly unforgettable moment happened because of a young mother’s conversation with Mama Nursi. When Rachel had left, Mama Nursi shared with us that Rachel is HIV-positive, but has not been taking her daily medication. Rachel, with a baby on her hip, had told Mama Nursi that she wants to die.
Mama Nursi told us that she does HIV tests in the clinic every day, and that there are positive results to the test every day.
In the words of Mama Nursi, “This is a hard job.” But she is working faithfully to fight against the curse of sin, and show the compassion of Christ to her neighbors. I’m thankful we could be there with her today.
On a lighter note, I fainted during my time at the clinic! I was so proud of myself for not even getting queasy when I watched the blood withdrawal, but I met my match later as Mama Nursi was doing the procedure to insert birth control in the arm of a patient. Unfortunately, I lasted for very little of this process before plopping on the floor and, though I fought it, blacking out for a few seconds. Mama Nursi was lighthearted and gracious about my body’s cop-out, and eventually I ended up laying on the couch in her home recovering in front of a fan. I thank God for doctors and nurses, but I am not ever going to be one of them!
Mama Nursi educates the women in the village about vaccinations for their babies.
This week there are four other visitors here at Tumaini. They came to run a Vacation Bible School for the kids. The program, that runs from 1:30-5 pm, started on Tuesday afternoon and has a theme of the Armor of God from Ephesians 6. Each day the kids hear a Bible story that illustrates a different piece of the armor, play a game outside, make a craft, sing songs, and listen to Beth tell part of the Pilgrim’s Progress story. Today is the last day of the Bible school.
Please pray that the kids will listen to the Word of God and respond to the Spirit’s conviction. The five youngest children are ages 4-5 years old and have only been here at Tumaini since the end of April. They had not heard about the Gospel or Jesus before arriving, so this is a great opportunity for them to learn more about who God is. Another prayer request is that each of us would show the children the love and patience of Jesus, as well as have the energy to keep up with all 55 of them!
Today I might get to teach the kids modified kickball – kickball, but adding a frisbee and a tennis ball!
Last night I had seven lake flies in my hair before I went to take a shower. There’s a random fact for you! The lake flies only bother you at night if you are in a lighted area or carrying a light, so they’re really not so bad. During the day the only bugs that might bother you are ordinary flies, and they look exactly like flies in the US. There are some hornets and bumble bees, but I have yet to see anyone get stung (I hope it stays that way).
Another part of daily life here is keeping an eye on your water situation. The missionaries houses are supplied by well water. This works great most of the time. But for some reason Beth’s water tank was completely empty last night, even though the indicator said it was full, so something malfunctioned there. And for drinking water the missionaries have to buy filtered water from town. The other constant awareness for Beth and the staff is the water supply for the kids and workers. City water has not been reliable for several months now. A cistern was built to collect rainwater, but Tanzania is now in their dry season. So recently Tumaini has purchased truck-fulls of water driven here from town and pumped into the water tanks the kids draw from. Last night I got to experience pumping water up from the cistern and carrying it across the yard to the guesthouse in order to supply a new guest with water for bathing, toileting, and washing dishes. Yes, water is a big deal.
I am reminded of the conversation Jesus held with the woman at the well. Holding her water jar, she was used to walking to that well every day under the hot sun, and then she would hauling up a bucket full of water (that probably weighed at least 25 pounds), fill her water jar, then walk it all the way back home. And if one jar wasn’t enough for the household, then she’d do it all again. And if the water was dirty, it would have to sit for hours so that the dirt would separate out to the bottom. No wonder she wanted water from Jesus that would cure her thirst forever! I don’t think those who live with running water fully understand the desperation this woman felt, the amount of freedom this living, satisfying water would give to her life. He offered to her clean water that would never leave her thirsty: “Everyone who drinks of this [well] water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14 ESV).
We need water for our everyday living every bit as much as the Samaritan woman did, we just have an easier time getting it. However, acquiring Living Water is exactly the same for people today as it was for her: “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
Do you have within you a spring of water welling up to eternal life? If so, then rejoice with me! If not, then listen to the words of Jesus and accept His invitation.
Curios of the Curious 