A Walk Along the Beach

Last week  I was walking with my Father and his dogs along the Falmouth seafront when we met a woman who asked if we could pick up one of the dogs for her to stroke. She then explained that she had had a car accident and was suffering from severe whip lash which left her unable to bend. So typical of my father he said, “We know someone who can heal you”. Within a minute or so the lady was healed, bending to touch the ground, telling the passersby that she had been healed. 

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Leap Out

 

Nearby I saw these words graffitied on a wall :-“Leap into the void”  and they echo what I am thinking about  just now. 

God called Abraham before he knew where he was going and promised him descendants as many as the sands on the seashore- humanly impossible!

 

It seems that unless we are called out of the “What’s Possible” we will never see the” Impossible” workings of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

 

My initial call to Tanzania seemed just as impossible to me. “Leave everything for a land that I will show you”  

 The Lord turned fears into faith, weaknesses into strength and led both Ester and me to step out together, so that the Lord himself could build HIS home for his children.

 

Whilst finding my feet in Tanzania, there was a very lovely song being sung, “Oceans Deep” It was a prophetic song for many in its time. It’s a call to us to step out upon the waters. The words of the chorus continue:-

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters

Wherever You would call me

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Saviour”

 

With each new step of faith, there is a testing – a void, but as we jump -the Lord turns fear into faith, stress into rest, weakness into strength. People are healed on the streets, Children find homes, and the kingdom of heaven comes on earth. 

 

Please continue to pray for us that we can hear the Lord’s voice and be obedient. 

 

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HOPE ARRIVES

Hi everyone,

I’ve arrived in England and apart from a few very cold days it is now one of the hottest Mays!
Leaving my lovely family in Tanzania is never easy and I am very thankful for the gift of What’s App, so that I can be in touch with Ester, Ludmila and the children most days.
Our biggest news since Easter is that we have a very beautiful- little 3 year old girl, called Tumaini, which means HOPE. She has spent the whole of here little life until now living in a hospital after her mother died during childbirth. She is adorable, with a lot of character and all the children love her to bits.
We all need the gift of hope. Whilst catching up on news, I’ve been hearing the phrase ‘”when I was just about to give up” and ” when I was just at the end of myself,” and” last minute the lord stepped in.” Our Father never leaves us, He gives us homes, he looks after the widow and the orphan, and He looks after you and me, in all our ups and downs, through all our struggles and traumas. Nothing can separate us from our Father’s love and He loves it when we trust him for every detail of our lives.

God bless you.

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MAMA NDOGO HARNESS AND AUNTY REHEMA’S CHURCH- Pig farming again!!

One of the lovely things about our Karibu Nyumbani family is that we are blessed to have members of different churches.

This week we had a visit from Harness and Rehema’s church, they came with gifts and also to talk and pray with the children. One of them, the wife of a man we sold some pigs to before we had a tragic death of all our pigs, came to tell us that she and her husband wanted to gift us with a female pig. SO, we will start or pig farming again, as this week we also heard from Fr Ettiene at Agape Community that they too wanted to bless us with another Male and Female pig!!!

God bless you all.

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GIFTS FROM EUROPE

We are so grateful for everyone who sends gifts via volunteers, of visitors or with me or Ludmila when we travel. Last year when I was leaving the “Terefenko family” they gave me the gift of their pencils.

They are only used for special occasions! -THANK YOU!

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HELPING WITH CHILDREN IN THE VILLAGE CHURCH

For the last few weeks I have been sitting in on the children’s Saturday afternoon “Sunday “School in the village church, just to help with ideas.

 

This week Florian and Max have been busy preparing pictures to inspire the children to do their own pictures to be used to pray the Rosary.

 

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OUR VILLAGE COME TO PRAY

Our chapel has not had its official opening, but we have been blessed to have Fr. Mkandara come and celebrate Mass and baptize 2 children.

Nearly half of our small village church (not yet a parish!) came to celebrate with us.

It was a wonderful celebration.

 

 

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Fr. Benno

We thank Fr. Benno our Parish Priest who during his busy schedule always has time to come and support us when we need and encourage us in with in our call and vision.

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GOD’S PERFECT TIMING

Only six years ago Ester and I came to pray on this land when it was all bush!

Now we are standing in the same part of the land in our lovely chapel! I can hardly believe how much the Lord has done! 

Just to feel the Glory of the Lord in this place lifts your heart to sing! Lord we pray for your vision to be revealed and unwrapped in your perfect timing. AMEN!

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REBUILDING OUR WALL AFTER FLOOD

 

This is a project that we have needed to move forward as quickly as we could due to safety.

However, expert advice was sought to ensure that heavy rains will not carry it away again! As you can see, it is looking like a castle!

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DON BOSCO SCHOOL

 

Bianca and Samueli started school this month too.

They are going to our Private Parish School – Don Bosco 20 mins away.

We want to thank Mr. Mishili a good friend, who has been receiving orphans into his own school for many years. Knowing how we did not want our young ones to have to go to boarding school at this early stage he agreed to support 2 children at a nearby school.

So, Bianca and Samueli are now at an English Medium school. He has also said that if we are to start a school in the future he would like to pay for them to go there!

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ONE OF OUR TREASURES!

Neema came to us at the age of nearly 3 and when she came she could not walk or speak. Her mother died when she was born from an epileptic fit during delivery, and Neema was affected by a lack of oxygen.

She spent the first part of her life in hospital limited to sitting in a cot. When she arrived with us we took her to a doctor who said that she may walk but probably not until she reached 5 years old, and speech would be slow too.

 

Neema has been so loved by all the children and all our Aunties and volunteers. We had a very special group of volunteers from England – Holy Angels-Surrey, a group of 8, who they came for 3 weeks. They spent every moment of their time with the children and Neema was lifted on her legs all the time for exercise. 

When she first came if she fell over from the sitting position she could not get up.

When she started to get up herself, the children would clap and cheer her. She then made herself fall so that she would make everyone cheer.

Then she started to stand to more clapping and cheering, so she was eventually walking within six months of us taking her to the doctor!  This month she has just had her 5th birthday and has started school. We are sending her to a small private school so she has more care. She herself has epilepsy, but rarely falls because of her medicine.

We want to thank all who have been praying for Neema and who love her dearly. She is truly a treasure, and a testimony of how prayer, love and joy can change a person. God bless you all.

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I Want to Help!! Laura's Blog

 

"I want to help!“

Like for most of the young people deciding to volunteer, this was the main reason for me to come to Tanzania four years ago. Of course I wanted to see another country and a different culture. And not yet knowing what kind of profession I would like to perform later on, I wanted to experience as much as possible. But the main reason was helping. 

At this time, I was not sure what “Helping” exactly meant in this context. Maybe showing them the German way of teaching or raising children? Or showing them the German way of working, because what we usually learn in Germany is that our way is the most efficient and most accurate way of doing things. Encouraged by several friends and family members, who have never been to Africa, but who knew for sure that by going to Tanzania, I would help (there it is again) lots of people there, I started my journey with a very vague idea of what I was going to do over the next ten month.

Now, four years later, and recently having returned to Karibu Nyumbani for the third time, I am happy to say that for me, the meaning of Helping has changed completely. And this changing started with understanding that every culture has its own advantages and disadvantages. 

As a German girl, I always appreciated punctuality and accuracy. I was used to work eight hours without diversion and as fast as possible. And to be honest, I was always a bit stressed. In Tanzania, things are different. Everything is slowlier and more relaxed. You might wait hours for your bus to go home, and when choir practice is supposed to start at 5pm, you don’t need to stress yourself out, because the other singers will be there at 6pm. In the beginning, waiting really drove me crazy, but later, I started to use these times for reflecting and thinking about what I had experienced all day long. It was always a good opportunity to calm down a bit. Another, at first bothering, part was, that whatever kind of work we did, it took so much time. Cooking took hours, as well as watering the garden or getting a parcel at the post office. I was continuously counting how much time you could save if work routines were planned properly and workers would not chat all the time. But little by little, I started to understand, that for Tanzanians, this is not wasted time at all. While waiting for the water to boil, you can have a little chat with your colleagues asking about their families or share news about your village. And when you find out, that someone is having a problem, you comfort him or her, which is very different to our country, where you always try to sort your things out on your own and where you can feel very isolated from time to time

There are lots of other differences between Europe and Tanzania, and there is one thing that they all have in common. In the beginning, everything is unfamiliar and seems strange. You often have the feeling that nothing makes sense. But when you are open-minded and venture to get into the culture, you might find lots of positive sides in it. Funnily enough, what I personally miss the most since I’m back to Germany is the point that annoyed me the most in the beginning. Taking enough time for conversations in your daily routine, even if it means that you might need one more hour for doing whatever you are doing. Because I think that this is an important reason for why people in Africa are so full of joy and satisfaction.

To come back to my changed understanding of Helping: You don’t need to help Tanzanians to become more European, as their way of living, although different, is as good as ours. What you can do is being yourself and supporting the community of Karibu Nyumbani with your own gifts. If you’re a good teacher, come and help the children to learn Maths or English. If you are good at comforting, come and hug the kids when they hurt themselves. If you are good at gardening, come and help Aaron and Lucas with the vegetables. You will be appreciated and the children will love getting to know your culture as well as they love theirs.

I think that Ester, Fiona and Ludmila have found a really good way of bringing their children up in the typical Tanzanian way, which is so important, as that’s the country where they are going to stay and spend their future life. As the main aim is to help them being able to be part of the Tanzanian people, there is no need to raise them like European children. But still they stand to benefit from the amount of storybooks, craft supplies, games and educational books, which visitors bring regularly, and which gives them the possibility to test their abilities and to find out what they are interested in.

I enjoyed my time at Karibu Nyumbani so much, because having spent such a long time with all the Mamas, Aunties and Children made them a second family for me. I hope, that they’ll keep their joyful, colourful and relaxed way of living until I’ll find the time to come back for a fourth time. And I’m praying, that they will always keep their unrivalled mixture and acceptance of different cultures, because it’s this diversity which makes our world so beautiful and interesting.

 

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Holidays in Mbeya

The volunteers did a wonderful video of their holiday with us and the children in Mbeya. Take a look at their video!

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IMANI'S FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL AND BIRTHDAY

IMANI who has been with us now 2 years had his first day at school last week.He was one of our little ones who spent the first few years in hospital and came to us with bowed legs. Please pray for him as he starts school.He goes every day with Emmy who is 4 and a half too.He came home to Happy Birthday songs and a beautiful Dinosaur from Mama Hilary☺

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HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our Friends and Readers.

 

We pray for blessings for you and all your families and thank you all for your prayers as we go into this New Year. 

r. 

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BIG THANKS

Before Christmas we were invited by Bonita a dear friend, to have a Christmas party with her and her family.

We had a wonderful day, playing, jumping, dodging rain, eating and drinking. Thank you so much Bonita and all who helped to make the day so special.

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CHRISTMAS IN MBEYA

Mama Mia( Ludmila), aunties and volunteers all left for Mbeya about the 13th of December. Mbeya is the home town of Ester and her family, and this is the 3 time Esters parents have taken all our children for a holiday. It is about a 15-hour coach journey, so 20 seats were booked for the long-squashed drive to Mbeya.

Ester and I joined the party the day before Christmas by aeroplane and stayed until the New Year. We did a head count around Christmas day and we counted over 40 people! Ester’s family and relatives were in and out all day, and the children were perfectly happy at home with their Bibi and Babu-(Grandma and Grandpa) 

Christmas day the children had a few gifts in the stockings (Thanks to Hilary and Clare who left things for the children when they came in July!)

The spinning tops were a great hit! 

Going to church was a big outing and was the first time for some of the children to get into a Bajaji!

Christmas Dinner was the children’s best meal! - Chicken and chips!!! And that’s a lot of work on a wood fire and slaughtering and plucking all on the same day!

Our volunteers took the children in the afternoon for a treasure hunt which lasted 3 hours, so the house was quiet, for the rest of us to have a sleep.

There wasn’t much quiet as you can imagine- and that is exactly why Bibi and Babu love our children- they will miss them today as they come back on the coach!

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VIGELEGELE

Before going to Mbeya, I went to a special Mass in our village, it was outside on the edge of a dusty street, in the home of one of our Parishioners.

At the Mass, there were 20 babies getting Baptized. I thought that was many! Until I went to a Mass the day after Christmas in Mbeya-There were near to 100 babies being baptized! It was an amazing experience of Joy. Here in Tanzania, when you are happy or excited you do – “Vigeligeli” There is no word for is in English- Perhaps it would be- make a loud sound of joy! The Ladies especially were making this loud sound of joy as their babies were being blessed and baptized- it was as if I could hear the angels rejoicing in Heaven!  Children are a special blessing from the Lord! What a joy to be among them!

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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from all at Karibu Nyumbani.

Here's our Christmas video message from the kids and volunteers.

 

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