Little Bo Peep

I did lose some sheep, but they came home wagging their tails behind them. :) I have a new nickname Little Bo Peep. Over a week ago I was supposed to have the sheep come back to the barn a little early and when the sheep weren't back at the right time I went to look for them. Meanwhile the director who was waiting to pick up some sheep to take to Mafinga called and asked where I was. I said I'm looking for my sheep. He said something about Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep. Then on Sabbath I received a call from one of the Maasai saying that one of the sheep couldn't walk and needed to be brought back to the barn. Well there were no cars down campus so we had to wait until one returned from church. Well we finally got up there and the Maasai said that they had gone back to look for it and it had walked away. But it was found two days later. In the mean time on Monday I had someone come to me and tell me that if we had any sheep missing that most likely one of the Maasai was going to sell it. Well to make a long story short it wasn't true we had accidently picked up a village sheep in our herd and some people were wanting to go look at it to see if it was theirs. But it got all worked out we still have a villagers missing sheep but we will wait to see if the person gives the right description of the sheep before we give it back to them.

Oh and we will be doing more regular counts of our sheep. So I will be counting sheep over the next few days, but I will not fall asleep while doing so. :)

The Lay-Evangelists were here for a week and they have returned or started their return journey's home today. Tomorrow our Evangelism students start to come for the new session. So there will be many more people on campus.

Thanks for all of your prayers they help  a lot.

Never a dull moment

Well it has been over 3 months since I last posted. Time sure flies. I've been busy working and doing  my best to stay out of trouble :).   Anyways some things that have happened at Kibidula are the Lay Evangelist school had their graduation a month ago, the Lay missionaries arrived yesterday for a week, and the Agriculture school is having their graduation this wednesday, and they are really excited. The avocado project is producing lots of avocados and they are so yummy. People here have come up with some awesome recipes using avocados and they are so delicous. Fresh from the tree and it is so good to eat with bread. Anyways I love avocados. The primary school is out for a month. A missionary is leaving :(    It is now winter here in Africa, and it is cold. Like 40F or so at night, it may not sound cold but when the houses are not that insulated it gets really cold, and then a warm fire is sooooo nice. And the rainy season is over till next November or December. We have about 6,000 square bales of hay to feed our sheep through the dry season, and about 1,500 sheep to feed them to. Please pray for our sheep for their protection, and that we make it through the dry season without too many losses.  Please pray for our Maasai. Please pray that God will send more workers here to Kibidula we need more people to help with the work load.

Yeah I'm never bored there is always something to work on or do, and that is good. I really need to work on my garden. I'm growing more weeds than vegetables. Thanks for reading my post and if anyone wants to donate to Kibidula for a worthy project please do. You can go to http://www.outpostcenters.org/donate/    Put down the name of the person or the project you want to support and then the amount you would like to donate and you are able to do a onetime or monthly gift. Thanks for your prayers and your support.

Sabbath

Today I had a wonderful day. I woke up around 5:45 am. I arrived at the sheep barn about 7:10. We had 3 new lambs. One was 4.5 kgs about 9 lbs or so. Then I walked back home and got there about 8:30. I ate a leisurely breakefast. I was late to Sabbath School I arrived for about the last 5 minutes. Church was good and I am sure the sermon was good also, I just couldn't understand it. Afterwards I went to the Wabers house for lunch we had some good food. Rice, beans, cooking bananas, greens, fresh coconut, and salad. Then around 3 I went to a baptism that the Kibidula church was having. At least ten people were baptized in a pond near the church. And it was cold and rainy. The baptism was supposed to start at 2, but the pastor didn't get there till 5 maybe. Here in Tanzania the churches don't don't have an ordained pastor. There is one ordained pastor for the district, and there are man churches in the one district for the pastor to take care of. So things don't always start on time here. Anyways, here are some pictures that I took today while I was walking to church and of the baptism. It was cool and wet most of the day. And it was drizzling while we were watching the baptism. The people here have a lot of patience and seem to endure hardships better. It was kind of chilly today and no one seemed to mind the weather. I would say the temperature was about the mid 60s or so. So not really warm.  The choir was standing on the bank singing while the people were getting baptized. It was really special.

                                              This is Makame he is one of our Maasai herders.

                                Here are Kibidula sheep grazing on upper campus near the shop.

 

 

 

 

                                                     I love this picture she looks so happy.

Here is a picture of my feet after walking through the mud and through the brush. Not too bad. :)

 

 

Pictures

Here are some pictures of Kibidula. Not many.

 

 

 

                                                         My house that I live in

                                                The Maasai treating a cow.

                                              The view from the barn.

                                                     Sunrise over the swamp.

                                                    Some cool rock and water at Kibidula.

                                                    Our baby lambs. They are so cute!

                                               Some cute kittens born about two weeks ago.

More adventures

This post was written on Friday March 8

I have a lot of interesting conversations with our Maasai herders at Kibidula. I was talking with two of them about the sheep, and one received a phone call and I could hear a child in the background. I asked how many children he had and he has 6 kids. Then I asked the other Maasai and he has 8 kids. Then they volunteered the information that one has 3 wives and the other has 2. I wasn’t expecting that part of the conversation. J Oh and another day they were asking me what animals we have back in America. They were asking about African animals. They mentioned a few and I did try to tell them that those animals are in zoos not running around free. Then they asked about lions, and I tried to tell them that they are in zoos. I found out that all Maasai men kill a lion. I think it has something to do with becoming a warrior or coming of age. So we have interesting conversations here.

Today I walked to work. (my bike has a puncture, it's common here) Then I checked on the sheep. I looked at things under the microscope. Then as I was walking back home I saw a cat jump out of a tree. Then I heard something moving in the grass and all of a sudden I see a snake climbing a tree. It was a long one the biggest I've seen since coming here. I would guess about 3 to 4 feet long. I am confident that it was a boomslang. It was kind of pretty for a snake. It had an olive green color to it and its belly was a lighter green .By the way these are very shy and run away from humans. They only bite when they are being held, and from what I understand their fangs are in the back of the mouth so it is hard for them to inject their poison.

Then Hanne Lise and I cleaned the house. Thankfully we didn't find anymore snakes :). Then I walked back down campus and it was raining, and thundering and lighting. I am not a big fan of lighting, a result from growing up in Florida. So I was praying that God would keep me safe. Then I walked a little ways and to my left i saw a rainbow in the valley. What I thought was really awesome was that I could see both ends in the valley. Then I was lilke wow God answered my prayer with a rainbow. It wasn't flooding here, but it reminded me of God's promise to Noah and to his descendants after him, and to all the living creatures on the earth. God promised that the flood waters would not destroy all flesh, and that whenever it rained God would have a rainbow set in the sky to remind us of His promise. God is so good.

Then I went to vespers with the Agriculture and Evangelism students and with some other missionaries. I didn't understand much of what was being said, but it was a blessing. The students here sing so loud and sound so pretty. I get goose bumps listening to them.

I do my best to describe what I’m doing here and what things are like, but this place is something that you have to experience to get a clearer picture. So if anyone wants to come visit you are more than welcome.

Some events of the past week

I have a lot of interesting conversations with our Maasai herders at Kibidula. I was talking with two of them about the sheep, and one received a phone call and I could hear a child in the background. I asked how many children he had and he has 6 kids. Then I asked the other Maasai and he has 8 kids. Then they volunteered the information that one has 3 wives and the other has 2. I wasn’t expecting that part of the conversation. J Oh and another day they were asking me what animals we have back in America. They were asking about African animals. They mentioned a few and I did try to tell them that those animals are in zoos not running around free. Then they asked about lions, and I tried to tell them that they are in zoos. I found out that all Maasai men kill a lion. I think it has something to do with becoming a warrior or coming of age. So we have interesting conversations here. Me with my limited Swahili and they with their different culture.

Today I walked to work. (my bike has a puncture, it's common here) Then I checked on the sheep. I looked at things under the microscope. Then as I was walking back home I saw a cat jump out of a tree. Then I heard something moving in the grass and all of a sudden I see a snake climbing a tree. It was a long one the biggest I've seen since coming here. I would guess about 3 to 4 feet long. I am confident that it was a boomslang. It was kind of pretty for a snake. It had an olive green color to it and its belly was a lighter green .By the way these are very shy and run away from humans. They only bite when they are being held, and from what I understand their fangs are in the back of the mouth so it is hard for them to inject their poison.

Then Hanne Lise and I cleaned the house. Thankfully we didn't find anymore snakes :). Then I walked back down campus and it was raining, and thundering and lighting. I am not a big fan of lighting, a result from growing up in Florida. So I was praying that God would keep me safe. Then I walked a little ways and to my left i saw a rainbow in the valley. What I thought was really awesome was that I could see both ends in the valley. Then I was lilke wow God answered my prayer with a rainbow. It wasn't flooding here, but it reminded me of God's promise to Noah and to his descendants after him, and to all the living creatures on the earth. God promised that the flood waters would not destroy all flesh, and that whenever it rained God would have a rainbow set in the sky to remind us of His promise. God is so good.

Then I went to vespers with the Agriculture and Evangelism students and with some other missionaries. I didn't understand much of what was being said, but it was a blessing. The students here sing so loud and sound so pretty. I get goose bumps listening to them.

Tomorrow, Sabbath, at church there will be some baptisms. I will do my best to get some pictures.

I do my best to describe what I’m doing here and what things are like, but this place is something that you have to experience to get a clearer picture. So if anyone wants to come visit you are more than welcome.

Some events of the past week

I have a lot of interesting conversations with our Maasai herders at Kibidula. I was talking with two of them about the sheep, and one received a phone call and I could hear a child in the background. I asked how many children he had and he has 6 kids. Then I asked the other Maasai and he has 8 kids. Then they volunteered the information that one has 3 wives and the other has 2. I wasn’t expecting that part of the conversation. J Oh and another day they were asking me what animals we have back in America. They were asking about African animals. They mentioned a few and I did try to tell them that those animals are in zoos not running around free. Then they asked about lions, and I tried to tell them that they are in zoos. I found out that all Maasai men kill a lion. I think it has something to do with becoming a warrior or coming of age. So we have interesting conversations here. Me with my limited Swahili and they with their different culture.

Today I walked to work. (my bike has a puncture, it's common here) Then I checked on the sheep. I looked at things under the microscope. Then as I was walking back home I saw a cat jump out of a tree. Then I heard something moving in the grass and all of a sudden I see a snake climbing a tree. It was a long one the biggest I've seen since coming here. I would guess about 3 to 4 feet long. I am confident that it was a boomslang. It was kind of pretty for a snake. It had an olive green color to it and its belly was a lighter green .By the way these are very shy and run away from humans. They only bite when they are being held, and from what I understand their fangs are in the back of the mouth so it is hard for them to inject their poison.

Then Hanne Lise and I cleaned the house. Thankfully we didn't find anymore snakes :). Then I walked back down campus and it was raining, and thundering and lighting. I am not a big fan of lighting, a result from growing up in Florida. So I was praying that God would keep me safe. Then I walked a little ways and to my left i saw a rainbow in the valley. What I thought was really awesome was that I could see both ends in the valley. Then I was lilke wow God answered my prayer with a rainbow. It wasn't flooding here, but it reminded me of God's promise to Noah and to his descendants after him, and to all the living creatures on the earth. God promised that the flood waters would not destroy all flesh, and that whenever it rained God would have a rainbow set in the sky to remind us of His promise. God is so good.

Then I went to vespers with the Agriculture and Evangelism students and with some other missionaries. I didn't understand much of what was being said, but it was a blessing. The students here sing so loud and sound so pretty. I get goose bumps listening to them.

Tomorrow, Sabbath, at church there will be some baptisms. I will do my best to get some pictures.

I do my best to describe what I’m doing here and what things are like, but this place is something that you have to experience to get a clearer picture. So if anyone wants to come visit you are more than welcome.