Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

Archive for May, 2009

In an earlier post, I told you how our car is getting demon-pounced, or so it seems.  So, has something broken this week?  No.  Last week?  No.  Hey, 2 in a row is an accomplishment.  Turning to the repairs to be done, I just ordered a new suspension system from Dallas, TX because the cost to get something that’s just okay here, can buy and ship me premium goods from there.  I went with Old Man Emu shocks all around and replacement rear coil springs for our 1994 Toyota Hilux Surf* from Toyota of Dallas for cost AND shipping totaling $740.00.  Big one-time costs are very challenging for faith-supported missionaries.  But, you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

I just hope the parts get here before it’s time to leave for our branch conference.  There’s a two-hour stretch of unpaved, atrociously rocky road just before the Kenya border.  Come on Old Man Emu!

*Just to let you know, the Surf is the Japanese-market 4Runner.

So, we’ve been in Tanzania for over a year and still don’t have a church we regularly attend.  We have options, but they’re…. well… challenging.  All-Swahili all-the-time is very tiring and even getting just the simplest jist of a sermon is an astounding accomplishment.  Spritual nourishment.  Nil.  Headache.  Prominent.  Frustration.  High.  That means making a TZian church our home is pretty much an impossibility.

How do missionaries fill the void that is created when they step out of their culture, their country, their church?  One attempt is a twice-a-month English Christian Fellowship.  We’ve attended a few times and it’s nice to be around other Westerners and connect with them, but the Jesus connection has to be really, really fought for.  The schedule mostly contributes to that as they currently meet on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month at 4pm on Sunday afternoon.

Then comes an idea out of left field.  Church online.  Something live.  Something familiar.  Something relevant to us.  I remembered hearing about LifeChurch.tv a few years ago but had no need for it at the time as we were still stateside.  I wanted to check out one of their live worship experience video streams online.  Then, I remembered how we get internet.  Slow and expensive.  No flat fee.  Just, here’s what you pay per MB and hope you can deal with it.  We just got a new deal last week (the internet folks here are actually competing now) that gives us 3GB for about $75.oo over 30 days.  We decided to give it a try.  It came in around 100Mb… affordable!!!!!

Map that was shown of all the countries represented at our first online worship experience

The feeling I got from the ‘experience’, as it is deemed, was one I had long forgotten.  I connected.  I worshipped.  I learned.  All right here in our living room!  We had church with people from 37 other countries all at the same time!  If every week is like what we just experienced as our first, we will have no trouble at all getting our Jesus fix.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been working out of the studio mostly.  And I’ve LOVED it!  It’s a zone, atmosphere, environment that suits me REALLY, REALLY well because I have absolutely everything I need to do my entire job practically within arm’s reach.  I can record today.  I can duplicate tapes today.  I can edit today.  I can print today.  I can e-mail today.  And more all from just right here.

It’s different from working in the office because:

• It’s quiet here
• I don’t feel ‘temporary’ like I do in the office because I was always feeling pulled to the studio due to my work essentially being based there
• I don’t have to lug my laptop, keyboard, mouse, headphones and who knows what else along just to be able to work effectively in the office
• A 1/2-hour lunch is now a long lunch because the travel to eat is about 20 paces into the house
• Dana and Asher can come to see me whenever they want; even in their PJ’s

These are just a few I can think about right now.  There are definitely more!  This relocation to the studio has really encouraged me a lot because the progress I’ve made in May alone is astounding.

I like LOVE my studio.

This post is going to be kinda weird.  What I’m going to write about is our car and the vast number of things that we’ve had go wrong with it.  And ask if you think our car (thus us) is being spiritually attacked.  I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.

We got the car 11 months ago from missionary friends of ours.  For the year they had it, they didn’t have any issues with it.  None.  Since, here’s what’s happened:

• Rear left wheel nearly comes off while traveling to Kenya – 1 lug bolt completely breaks off – repaired
• Rear left shock completely detaches from the frame of the car – reattached
• Left front 4WD axle breaks – not yet repaired
• Radiator springs a leak – welding repair
• Right front 4WD axle breaks – not yet repaired
• Brake pads replaced
• A/C pipe cracks – had to repair and refill gas
• Radiator springs leak – welding repair
• A/C breaks again – repaired
• Transmission loses overdrive – not yet repaired
• Radiator springs leak – welding repair; new radiator ordered from UK
• Left rear window comes off track – repaired
• Battery dies – replaced
• A/C breaks – repaired
• Left rear fender is dented b/c of a visit with a brick wall – repaired
• Right rear fender flare broken by log in the road – repaired
• Minivan-style taxi hits the front left denting in bumper, fender, headlight and breaks out corner lamp – repaired
• 2nd battery dies – replaced
• Power steering springs a bad leak and damages pump – not yet repaired
• Right rear window comes off track – repaired
• Both independent front suspension tie rods break – repaired
• A/C breaks again – not yet repaired
• Steel gate slams the right rear fender flare, breaking it – not yet repaired
• Speedometer breaks – not yet repaired

Is it the optimist in me that leads me to deny the obvious?  Or is this not a constant attack?  Because there hasn’t been a single month in which at least one thing has broken.  Absolutely frustrating.

If you look to the right, you’ll see a new section I added to my blog called “Twitter”.  If you don’t know what Twitter is, here’s a pretty good explanation on Wikipedia.  This addition will now allow me to micro-blog or post frequent short updates about what’s going on in my day in Tanzania.  You can follow what I twit… twitter… tweet… shoot, I don’t even know what to call it.  You can follow what I write (how about that?) either here on the side of my blog or directly on twitter.

No matter what you call it, I have finished seven of them. The radio station is scheduled to cycle through the set playing one at 7am and one at 7pm everyday for a month starting today. Here’s a summary of what you can hear in the ads posted below:
1-6 sec : Language specific translation of Jonah 2:2
7-29 sec : Swahili describing our need for full-time scripture use & literacy workers to be based in each respective language area.
30-35 sec : List of nine languages in which we’re hiring folks; these names are all said in their respective languages: Ishinyiha, Ishimalila, Kivwanji, Shisango, Ishisafwa, Kikinga, Kinyakyusa, Hibena, Ichindali.
36-60 sec : Swahili describing applicant qualifications, where to get an application and the last date to submit an application.

Vwanji Advertisement (click to play)

Sangu Ad

Safwa Ad

Nyakyusa Ad

Ndali Ad

Malila Ad

Kinga Ad

And here are some pictures of the recording happening in my studio: