It's true that laughter is the best medicine. Having said that, one of our favorite "get a good laugh" songs on Savannah's ipod is a country song by Brad Paisley, maybe? Anyway it's called, "I wanna check you for ticks." OMG...LOL for sure! What's crazy is to think that someone actually wrote that...seriously?!? At any rate it cracks us up! It took on a whole new meaning this week when we discovered my girls had lice. UGH! What an ordeal. If only we had a Walmart to run to and quickly find a removal kit! If only!!! It took me all morning long to find something. Four shops and two parking fees later I finally found some lice killing lotion. I had to find a whole in the wall shop referred to me by a "friend of a fiend" kinda thing to find the "fine tooth combs" to use. It was the kinda shop where you look thru a literal "whole in the wall" and point to what you want hanging on the walls as display. The vendor then disappears behind the curtain door and returns minutes later with your items to purchase. So, even tho it took 3 hours to find what I was looking for, we finally returned home with the "goods." Bless them...my girls are troopers. I lathered them in the "6-8 hour leave on lotion." Not wanting to take any chances I wrapped plastic bags on their heads. I figured whatever the lotion couldn't kill a lack of oxygen would! In 80+ degree weather...that was miserable but they were such fun about it all. That is, until we had to do the come thru to get out all the eggs. UGH! What a job! Praise the Lord tho..I believe we have conquered! We combed and combed for the past several days, changing bed linens every day and praying for God to give us victory over this pestilence. I'm not sure I can listen to the "Tick" song for a while. It hits too close to home. :-)
The house is coming along...YAY! What a week it has been. Each day is a victory and we have to choose the positive. The workers leave one day and then don't show up until they feel like it. That's frustrating enough but they don't even call to say they are not coming. My kitchen cupboards are still not finished. It's been months. There is only one more step left in the process but they don't seem to be in a hurry to finish it. The positive thing is...what IS in really looks great. Our friend and local builder, Brandt, hooked up lights and they work. It was so exciting to see the house lit up. YAY! One step closer to moving in. Except for the floors...an ongoing challenge...we have really only the toilets and sinks to hook up. We put on doors and managed to paint the floors upstairs. Even after the leftovers from the previous flub ups of bad varnish on the stained concrete, they surprisingly look pretty good. We'll varnish over the paint to protect it from chipping. I truly have no idea how this will work out in the end but we'll see. It's the cheapest alternative. The problem is, we don't know anyone who has ever done it and the local paint vendors don't seem to think it will work. At this point and with our budget...it's our only option. So, we paint and trust. :-) The downstairs is a whole different story.
For the past two months we have been desperately scraping up the bad varnish in an attempt to recover the really cool concrete stain we used. Unfortunately, I think it's past recovering. We have a friend who sells parque (sp)? wood tiles. He's giving us a good deal. It's not in the budget right now but we are trusting in faith it will be there. It would be nice to have wooden floors as opposed to hard, cold concrete. So, for the main living/dining room areas we will do that. The other areas will be painted concrete. That's exciting! Lord willing, in a few weeks we move in! Yippee! Christmas in our new home! That's a gift in itself!
On the ministry side of things, God continues to amaze us with all that He is doing thru our church planters. They have such a burden to reach their own people and God is blessing that! We recently found out that 4 of the 5 families planning to come to the training in January had to back out. Apparently it's planting season at the first of the year and they simply can't miss out on that. That could be a bit discouraging but Todd and I truly believe God has something else in store. We're trusting it's b/c He has other people in mind that He is going to bring us. The training is due to start the first of the year. Please stand with us in trust that God is going to bring us just the right families to be trained. In the meantime we work with our field coordinator, Robert Mollel, putting together enrichment lessons for our current church planters. He also is part of the team that does research and survey trips into the unreached tribes and helps in the selection of future trainers. God has a great vision and destiny for the people of Tanzania. We are thrilled to be called to be a part of His mission to reach the lost here.
Well, it's a gorgeous Saturday morning. So easy to embrace the day when it's this sunny and inviting. Tanzanian mornings are so peaceful. I wake up early to the sound of a donkey in the distance. Sunshine and coffee await me as I boot up the computer to catch up on emails and blogging. Soon one or all of the kids will be waking up..overjoyed that it's not a school day! I'm always really popular on Saturdays around here when I'm just plain 'ol mom and not "teacher" mom. :-) I just love saturdays.
Oh...here comes two of the kids...I'm just so loved on.... no school!! :-) Time to begin our Saturday. Yippee!!!
Friday, November 14, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Onward Christian Soldiers!!!
Ha...Boy, you know it's been a long time since you blogged when you can't remember how to navigate back to find your blog site. Yikes! Nonetheless, it's good to be "back" and blogging again. This is still a new thing for me as I'm used to writing specific people and having their faces in mind. Writing to "cyber space" is a bit...well...impersonal for me. I just have to keep all "your" lovely faces in mind when I write this and that helps me not be so "businessy" and more personal. :-)
It's been a crazy two weeks or so since I last wrote. Actually, crazy is too benign. Truly..it's been demonic. We have been attacked on nearly every front. I can say that now...on the other end looking back. During it all however was a different story. The oppression was so great it was hard to see or discern clearly. Praise be to our God and Father, who has leads us in triumph for we have come out of it victoriously but not without battle wounds. The wounds serve as reminders..."Ebeneezers" of how God has helped us overcome those oppressive times.
One of the challenges we've been dealing with is in regards to the staff here. We have several people from the community employed here at the mission center. It's two fold really. We need workers but also want to give back to the community by employing their people. This has proven to be a good thing but not without its backlash at times. If we have to fire one for whatever reason it makes us vulnerable to that person's slander of us in the community. This has happened on more than one occasion. We rest in the knowledge that God is indeed our Defender and He will vindicate us in His time. However, in a culture where relationships are held at the highest level...whew...it takes time to develop trust among the people if we are being slandered. The pinnacle for me was when one of our disgruntled employees here poisoned our manager for reporting him. The employee was reprimanded for his negligence by our manager. So, to get him back, the employee offered him poisoned meat. I know that sounds so strange and beyond our western realm of thinking. Unfortunately it is a grim reality here. These two men are of the same tribe here so it never occurred to our manager that the employee would do such a thing. He gratefully received the meat and ate it. He did notice it being a strange color but again, never thot for one minute that this guy would do such a thing to him. Almost instantly our manager got sick. He took some local medicine to induce vomiting and we believe that's what helped him from it not being fatal. However, that was almost a month ago and our manager is still quite sick. There is nothing we can do now for him but pray and take medicine to help rebuild the lining in his stomach. Please be in prayer for him. This has not only affected his physical health but he lives in fear now of this employee .
This brings me to the next thing....that employee is still her. Because of labor laws and the fact that you can't "prove" a poisoning like that....he's still here. We can't officially firing him without him running to the labor dept and taking us to court. That has happened before by a disgruntled employee and nearly took us "to the cleaners." Interestingly, this present employee and that past one are connected. We recently found this out. So, we are treading this one lightly. His job will be terminated, we just need to go about it carefully and in a way that won't bring harm to any more employees here. Now they all live in fear of this man. Fear is Satan's number one tactic here. Many people are superstitious and live in great fear of curses and hexes. Let me say tho to all my western thinking friends...curses and hexes are real and damaging. The Truth tho is...Jesus Christ became the curse for us...and those whom the Son has set free are free indeed! We walk in the protection of the finished work of the cross of Christ! We are not bound by fear for God has not given us a spirit of fear but of POWER, and LOVE and SELF DISCIPLINE! Blessed be our Rock for there is NO god like our GOD!!! And this is the message we came to share with these people. This is why the enemy does not like us here and why he works over time to slander us and to thwart the advancement of the saving knowledge of Christ. But...Greater is HE that is in us than he that is in the world. The gates of hell WILL NOT prevail against God's church!!!
Please be in prayer for us for our protection but also for God to equip us with all spiritual wisdom and discernment to know and recognize the enemy's tactics and fight back.
At our most recent prayer meeting as a team I felt the Holy Spirit say to my heart.."I have sounded the battle cry. This is a time to not only protect your borders but it is a time to fight. Take up your Sword and go to battle. If the Kingdom of God is to advance in this area you have to fight for it..." God has already spoken to us as a team that "It is time to cross over and possess the land.." As we were praying on Monday the Lord helped me to see that great faith is required in possessing the land. If you remember in the story of the Israelites when they were to cross over and possess Canaan, the promise land, they had to first cross over the River Jordan at harvest time. As I understand it, this meant crossing a mile-wide stretch raging at flood level. The priests were to first put their feet into the river before the Lord would part the waters and lead them safely onto dry ground. That required immense faith. God has given us that same faith...water parting faith and we walk in it. I believe He has helped us as well to "cross over" to the other side. However, once the Israelites reached the other side their job wasn't finished. They had to go to battle against the enemies of God to obtain the land. That is where we are now as CMF here. We are in a land that God wants to redeem for Himself. We are surrounded by the enemy. God is telling us, "I will go before you to possess this land and claim these people for my own but, you must go in fighting...not with weapons as the world fights. No, the weapons I give you are divine and have the power to tear down EVERY demonic stronghold that sets itself up against the Truth...and that Truth will set them free!" Paul says "we are not of the kind that shrink back.." So, we walk in that calling...no...we RUN i that calling, wielding high the Sword of the Spirit...taking out the enemy and his legions and calling back those people whom God is pursuing to redeem as His own. Please, again, be in prayer for us. It's exciting to be enlisted into God's great redemptive battle for the lost souls of Tanzania!
On the homefront...the house is near completion, praise the Lord!!! Living the past 5 months in someone else's house is starting to show on all of us. We have been so blessed to use our teammate's house while they furlough...Thank you Scott and Annelle!! However, the lack of routine, not being able to find our stuff in the storage containers, and an eagerness to be in our own house is all adding up to a very excited Carter family! Lord willing, we hope to be in our house by the end of this month. No joke...talk about battles...it has been a battle at every stage. I pray we never have to build again. :-) We have had to fight against corruption and dishonesty on nearly every thing that is in that house. It's exhausting at times. I joked about how I wish we could have just run to a "Lowes" or "Home Depot" but man! There is a lot of truth in that! Living in a 3rd world country has been a challenge. Building here....yikes! God has been soooooooo gracious tho.
Prices on things continue to climb and our funds for the house have continued to dwindle. What's really wonderful tho is I just asked God for a Zarephath supply. Meaning, like the widow of Zarephath, every time she dipped into her jar of oil it was there...always enough till the drought ended. Everytime we need to dip into our funds to purchase something for building, I just pray and trust God it will be there. YOu know what's really cool?? So far, it's been there..even when truthfully...according to logic..it shouldn't be! Isn't it wonderful that our God isn't confined to the rules of logic! We still have some major things to finish..the floors being one of them. But, we are trusting in the Zarephath supply from God!
On the "workfront" we are gearing up for the next round of training to begin Jan 6th. Yeah! God is bringing us 6 committed families from unreached villages who are eager to plant CMF churches among their own people. It's so amazing. We are working to expand our training to include more hands on things that will not only equip them spiritually but help them with a sustainable lifestyle as well. One is a chicken project. We are going to have a working model of raising chickens on campus here that the students will care for while here. This will not only help us with food costs for the students but they will learn how to care for chickens..hands on..while here. Our hope then is to equip each one of the families with a "starter kit" of a couple chickens that they will take back with them after graduation. Another idea is "Farming God's Way." We hope to show our students a new, practical way of farming in drought inclined areas that will yield a more thriving, productive harvest. Again, they will learn by doing while at our training. Like the chickens, we hope to offer them a "starter kit" of seeds to accompany the knowledge they will receive.
So, big things are happening here and we thank God for it! We are tired with all the happenings but at the same time we're energized by God's vision for us all! We'd love to hear from you all. Since I left my "personal" weekly emails and gone to this format I don't hear from you all as much. We'd love to hear from you tho! We furlough in spring of '09...end of April! We would love to know how we can visit you all and be a blessing to you. Plug us in!!! God is doing amazing things here and we'd love the opportunity to visit with you all personally and share with you face to face!! So, drop us line at tzcarters@gmail.com and fill us in on your lives.
Blessings abundant!
Tami
It's been a crazy two weeks or so since I last wrote. Actually, crazy is too benign. Truly..it's been demonic. We have been attacked on nearly every front. I can say that now...on the other end looking back. During it all however was a different story. The oppression was so great it was hard to see or discern clearly. Praise be to our God and Father, who has leads us in triumph for we have come out of it victoriously but not without battle wounds. The wounds serve as reminders..."Ebeneezers" of how God has helped us overcome those oppressive times.
One of the challenges we've been dealing with is in regards to the staff here. We have several people from the community employed here at the mission center. It's two fold really. We need workers but also want to give back to the community by employing their people. This has proven to be a good thing but not without its backlash at times. If we have to fire one for whatever reason it makes us vulnerable to that person's slander of us in the community. This has happened on more than one occasion. We rest in the knowledge that God is indeed our Defender and He will vindicate us in His time. However, in a culture where relationships are held at the highest level...whew...it takes time to develop trust among the people if we are being slandered. The pinnacle for me was when one of our disgruntled employees here poisoned our manager for reporting him. The employee was reprimanded for his negligence by our manager. So, to get him back, the employee offered him poisoned meat. I know that sounds so strange and beyond our western realm of thinking. Unfortunately it is a grim reality here. These two men are of the same tribe here so it never occurred to our manager that the employee would do such a thing. He gratefully received the meat and ate it. He did notice it being a strange color but again, never thot for one minute that this guy would do such a thing to him. Almost instantly our manager got sick. He took some local medicine to induce vomiting and we believe that's what helped him from it not being fatal. However, that was almost a month ago and our manager is still quite sick. There is nothing we can do now for him but pray and take medicine to help rebuild the lining in his stomach. Please be in prayer for him. This has not only affected his physical health but he lives in fear now of this employee .
This brings me to the next thing....that employee is still her. Because of labor laws and the fact that you can't "prove" a poisoning like that....he's still here. We can't officially firing him without him running to the labor dept and taking us to court. That has happened before by a disgruntled employee and nearly took us "to the cleaners." Interestingly, this present employee and that past one are connected. We recently found this out. So, we are treading this one lightly. His job will be terminated, we just need to go about it carefully and in a way that won't bring harm to any more employees here. Now they all live in fear of this man. Fear is Satan's number one tactic here. Many people are superstitious and live in great fear of curses and hexes. Let me say tho to all my western thinking friends...curses and hexes are real and damaging. The Truth tho is...Jesus Christ became the curse for us...and those whom the Son has set free are free indeed! We walk in the protection of the finished work of the cross of Christ! We are not bound by fear for God has not given us a spirit of fear but of POWER, and LOVE and SELF DISCIPLINE! Blessed be our Rock for there is NO god like our GOD!!! And this is the message we came to share with these people. This is why the enemy does not like us here and why he works over time to slander us and to thwart the advancement of the saving knowledge of Christ. But...Greater is HE that is in us than he that is in the world. The gates of hell WILL NOT prevail against God's church!!!
Please be in prayer for us for our protection but also for God to equip us with all spiritual wisdom and discernment to know and recognize the enemy's tactics and fight back.
At our most recent prayer meeting as a team I felt the Holy Spirit say to my heart.."I have sounded the battle cry. This is a time to not only protect your borders but it is a time to fight. Take up your Sword and go to battle. If the Kingdom of God is to advance in this area you have to fight for it..." God has already spoken to us as a team that "It is time to cross over and possess the land.." As we were praying on Monday the Lord helped me to see that great faith is required in possessing the land. If you remember in the story of the Israelites when they were to cross over and possess Canaan, the promise land, they had to first cross over the River Jordan at harvest time. As I understand it, this meant crossing a mile-wide stretch raging at flood level. The priests were to first put their feet into the river before the Lord would part the waters and lead them safely onto dry ground. That required immense faith. God has given us that same faith...water parting faith and we walk in it. I believe He has helped us as well to "cross over" to the other side. However, once the Israelites reached the other side their job wasn't finished. They had to go to battle against the enemies of God to obtain the land. That is where we are now as CMF here. We are in a land that God wants to redeem for Himself. We are surrounded by the enemy. God is telling us, "I will go before you to possess this land and claim these people for my own but, you must go in fighting...not with weapons as the world fights. No, the weapons I give you are divine and have the power to tear down EVERY demonic stronghold that sets itself up against the Truth...and that Truth will set them free!" Paul says "we are not of the kind that shrink back.." So, we walk in that calling...no...we RUN i that calling, wielding high the Sword of the Spirit...taking out the enemy and his legions and calling back those people whom God is pursuing to redeem as His own. Please, again, be in prayer for us. It's exciting to be enlisted into God's great redemptive battle for the lost souls of Tanzania!
On the homefront...the house is near completion, praise the Lord!!! Living the past 5 months in someone else's house is starting to show on all of us. We have been so blessed to use our teammate's house while they furlough...Thank you Scott and Annelle!! However, the lack of routine, not being able to find our stuff in the storage containers, and an eagerness to be in our own house is all adding up to a very excited Carter family! Lord willing, we hope to be in our house by the end of this month. No joke...talk about battles...it has been a battle at every stage. I pray we never have to build again. :-) We have had to fight against corruption and dishonesty on nearly every thing that is in that house. It's exhausting at times. I joked about how I wish we could have just run to a "Lowes" or "Home Depot" but man! There is a lot of truth in that! Living in a 3rd world country has been a challenge. Building here....yikes! God has been soooooooo gracious tho.
Prices on things continue to climb and our funds for the house have continued to dwindle. What's really wonderful tho is I just asked God for a Zarephath supply. Meaning, like the widow of Zarephath, every time she dipped into her jar of oil it was there...always enough till the drought ended. Everytime we need to dip into our funds to purchase something for building, I just pray and trust God it will be there. YOu know what's really cool?? So far, it's been there..even when truthfully...according to logic..it shouldn't be! Isn't it wonderful that our God isn't confined to the rules of logic! We still have some major things to finish..the floors being one of them. But, we are trusting in the Zarephath supply from God!
On the "workfront" we are gearing up for the next round of training to begin Jan 6th. Yeah! God is bringing us 6 committed families from unreached villages who are eager to plant CMF churches among their own people. It's so amazing. We are working to expand our training to include more hands on things that will not only equip them spiritually but help them with a sustainable lifestyle as well. One is a chicken project. We are going to have a working model of raising chickens on campus here that the students will care for while here. This will not only help us with food costs for the students but they will learn how to care for chickens..hands on..while here. Our hope then is to equip each one of the families with a "starter kit" of a couple chickens that they will take back with them after graduation. Another idea is "Farming God's Way." We hope to show our students a new, practical way of farming in drought inclined areas that will yield a more thriving, productive harvest. Again, they will learn by doing while at our training. Like the chickens, we hope to offer them a "starter kit" of seeds to accompany the knowledge they will receive.
So, big things are happening here and we thank God for it! We are tired with all the happenings but at the same time we're energized by God's vision for us all! We'd love to hear from you all. Since I left my "personal" weekly emails and gone to this format I don't hear from you all as much. We'd love to hear from you tho! We furlough in spring of '09...end of April! We would love to know how we can visit you all and be a blessing to you. Plug us in!!! God is doing amazing things here and we'd love the opportunity to visit with you all personally and share with you face to face!! So, drop us line at tzcarters@gmail.com and fill us in on your lives.
Blessings abundant!
Tami
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