So in the middle of January, where can you find 70 degree weather, Spanish moss hanging from the trees, and alligators lounging on muddy banks? The answer, Gainesville Florida. But you know what else you can find there? A group of students who love Jesus and are making a difference on their campus, and in this world, and in the middle of Tanzania! Two weekends ago I had the privilege of taking a weekend trip to Gainesville to visit with a student organization at the University of Florida called HOPE. If you remember, it was from this school, and this organization, that the short term team of five college students came out to serve with us in Magambua the summer of 2008.
Here’s an excerpt from the HOPE blog:

“HOPE is a student-run organization at the University of Florida that exists for the sole purpose of seeing lives saved and communities changed as a result of our efforts. We intend to fulfill this bold vision by raising funds to support the work of a rural medical clinic in Magambua, Tanzania, Africa, and then by going and working in that clinic ourselves. By focusing on one clinic in one community, we hope to see with our own eyes and touch with our own hands those Tanzanians whom our money and time are saving. The reason for the name HOPE is that we, as an organization and as individuals, have been radically changed by the hope given us by the person of Jesus Christ. Because of this hope, we are compelled to offer HOPE to others: not just physically and emotionally, but spiritually as well.
All the support that we raise is given directly to Africa Inland Mission (AIM) to support the medical clinic in purchasing supplies to treat the Tanzanians.”

During the weekend I was in Florida, HOPE had a fund raising concert that I shared at. What a blast it was! They had a great turnout with a 150 some students, local student bands, a T-shirt sale, and a used books drive…. all to raise money to support the medical ministry among the Sandawe people.

I also just had a blast hanging out with fun college students all weekend! It was also a joy to reconnect with two of the five students who had been to Magambua, to catch up a bit with their lives and how the Lord is leading them.

The T-shirts the group just made say ‘Tumaini means hope’, written underneath an acacia tree. It made me think of all the MCH clinics we run in Swahili under acacia trees out in these remote villages in the Tanzanian bush. These college students, fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, are part of the great work that God is doing in offering hope to the poor, a hope found in Jesus! They are a huge encouragement to me, and I count it a joy, privilege, and blast to be partnering with them!

-Jon

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I’ve always had fond memories as a child going out with my
family to pick out a Christmas tree and bring it home to set it up. So
since Hershey is pretty close to a lot of tree farms, and our home in
Tanzania is surrounded by acacia woodland and not evergreens, I thought
we should take this opportunity on furlough to do this. So we told the
kids we were going to get a real tree and put it in the family room, and
Drew said, “What! A real tree, I don’t want a real tree, I want the
plastic one in the basement that looks like a Christmas tree, a real
tree won’t look like a Christmas tree!” Ahhhh, we thought, here’s a kid
whose main experience with Christmasy type trees was the fake plastic
ones. He thought we were going to cut down the Japanese Maple out back
and stick it in the family room! After reassuring him that there are
REAL evergreens that came first, look as Christmasy as you can get, of
which the fake ones are modeled after, he went along with the idea.

So remember this season, amidst all the fake glitter and gold,
there is a REAL Jesus, a REAL God who loves us, a REAL peace that He has
secured for us.

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the
government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:6
“And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly
host praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.’ ” Luke 2:13-14
“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives,
do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be
fearful.” John 14:27
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In
the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the
world.” John 16:33

“But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought
near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both
groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by
abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments
contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one
new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one
body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.
And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to
those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one
Spirit to the Father.” Ephesians 2: 13-18

Let us together realize afresh this season the awesomeness of the birth
of Jesus. Consider this, that God Himself had us in mind, had the whole
of humanity in mind, had all of His creation in mind, when He planned
and chose from the very beginning to become like us, become one of us,
become our… Savior, Substitute, Advocate, Mediator, Reconciler,
Redeemer, Resurrection, Propitiation, Perfect High Priest, Prince of Peace.

Merry Christmas from our whole family,

Jon, Melissa, Joshua, Andrew, and Rachel

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Dear Family and Friends,

With the pace of American life, only a few weeks go by and I start to feel like we’ve had so many wonderful experiences that we could capture and share with all of you! I guess that’s one of the attractions of networks like Facebook, where you can update all your “friends” every week, or day, or hour, on any or every detail of life. (But I don’t really need to know when you brush your teeth, what you had for lunch, and if you are constipated- unless you are a patient of mine of course!) So in that vein, I have some thoughts and pictures and prayer requests to share with you.

These past few months we’ve really enjoyed speaking at a number of churches, mission conferences, Sunday school classes, prayer breakfasts, and medical meetings. We’ve written some articles for our church’s newsletter. We’ve seen how God is using us in the ‘bigger picture’ of what He’s doing here in the States and around the world. We learned more of a new thrust of TIMO teams being raised up to take the Savior’s love to people groups in Tanzania. (See our mission’s website or our blog to learn more about what TIMO is.) I’ve had the privilege of doing a little teaching and encouraging of medical students and residents, and I’ve enjoyed working evenings at the walk-in clinic here in Hershey. You never know who the Lord will bring across your path in the clinic; like the Kenyan family who I spoke Swahili with, or a young Russian guy interested in short term missions, or the African American teenager whose first name in Swahili means Faith.

Thanksgiving was a terrific marathon of a week with a Thanksgiving program at Hershey Christian School, three turkey meals, and time spent with grandparents and great grandparents, and three different sets of aunts, uncles and cousins! It was really a great week! The kids have enjoyed: playgrounds, Math Blaster, birthday parties, church choir, youth group, all the toys in Mimi and PopPop’s basement, jumping in the leaves, time with cousins, various excursions with their grandmothers ShoSho and Mimi, chocolate, fast food, most everything about school, and playing in the snow.

We’ve kept in touch directly and indirectly with our Tanzanian friends and colleagues in Magambua. As with most seasons, there are things to be thankful for, and challenges to pray for. I was able to find the community medicine handbook called “Where There is No Doctor” in Swahili, and get 30 copies out to Magambua for our Community Health Workers to begin to use. There have been some recent tensions among the local church leadership in Usandawe that needs prayer, repentance, forgiveness, and restitution. Our SIL neighbors, who are translating the Scriptures, have gotten caught up in some tensions as well with church leadership, pray for understanding and reconciliation. Since the rains were inadequate earlier this year, we anticipate some degree of hunger to affect Usandawe. Pray with us as we, together with other mission organizations, try to assess and respond to the need for famine relief over the next few months.

We’re also putting in a request for a teacher to come and help Melissa homeschool in Magambua for 2 years. With Josh’s extra reading needs, and the challenge of homeschooling in a remote setting, we’re praying for some extra help! – Jon

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Melissa's Mom(right) singing a Thanksgiving hymn with sister Natalie and brother George	Cousins! (our kids and Jon's brother Matt's kids)
A fun Thanksgiving project in PopPop's (Jon's Dad) workshop building bird houses	Rachel and Shosho at the school Thanksgiving program
Josh and a school buddy during the Thanksgiving program at their school	The kids with their great grandparents (Jon's grandparents) at Thanksgiving!

This coming weekend we will have completed six Sundays in a row of sharing at different churches. Melissa and the kids didn’t go along on all of those visits, so it really hasn’t been too taxing for our family in general. The week Melissa and Rachel were down with the flu was a rough one though, a week which started with Melissa missing our presentation at Hershey Free church. We didn’t want to pass out prayer cards and the flu at the same time! But on the whole Melissa and I are feeling very blessed and encouraged. Why? For a number of reasons. The Lord has shown us such an exciting vision of how we are part of a larger work of missions in the world. During this Fall we have been so encouraged by many pastors and believers in a variety of congregations, people who have prayed for us, given towards our ministry, and even visited us in Tanzania. We’ve loved quality time with friends, catching up with their news, people who we can bear our souls to. We’ve enjoyed hearing of the Lord’s work through other missionaries in other places. We have loved worshipping at different churches, lifting praises to Jesus in our mother tongue, finding our hearts filling up with adoration and thanksgiving to the One who loves us.

In the village of Manantu, earlier this year, the new church building was dedicated to the Lord.

Click on the link below to listen to the praise song. The lyrics in Swahili mean “Oh Father, Oh Father, Oh Father, receive Praise!”

village church worship video

When you’ve lived in Africa for the past four years, and only one of your three kids remembers the US, it’s fun to think of the things you’d like them to be able to experience during a year long furlough.  One of those things is simply to enjoy jumping in the Autumn leaves!

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