Smiling Faces

There are so many things that could be shared from the last couple of months. Construction projects that are getting wrapped up, churches we have visited, planning for future projects, and visiting mission groups. But as I have thought about one thing that brings all these together and makes our time here in Tanzania so rewarding, it's the smiling faces.

I think of last Sabbath afternoon as we finished our lunch and faintly heard a voice yelling from the road. Our kids went out to investigate and found a young girl they had met in Sabbath school. She had come to play. Somehow over the next hour she was joined by three others who filled our afternoon with laughter and joy. It took most of the afternoon before they were brave enough to come into the house, but eventually the temptation of color crayons and markers overcame their fear and a happy hour was spent coloring. As the day drew to a close we reminded them that it was going to get dark and a couple of them had several kilometers to go back to the center of a nearby village. Reluctantly their smiling faces slipped through the door with promises to return.

Sabbath school under the trees in a nearby village.

I think of another group of happy faces. A group of young adults from America came for a couple of weeks and helped put up a kitchen for our primary school. There were challenging moments trying to bridge the differences as they learned to work with local workers and building techniques. Challenges of different ways of life and no fast food restaurants around the corner. There was lots of hard work and taxing moments, but they were filled with smiles as new friends were found. Smiles as they arm wrestled my local workers, and gained respect for each other's abilities and strengths. They left with a great deal of work accomplished and smiles mingled with some sadness as they told their new found friends goodbye.

New Primary School Kitchen is almost ready for use.

Just yesterday, I was greeted with a giant smile at a jobsite by my construction foreman as he ran with an empty wheelbarrow back to the mixer. Here was a busy man, who had spent the last couple of days balancing work responsibilities and helping with the funeral of a friend who had died in an accident. Yet on this beautiful morning, here was a man happy to be working, and happy to greet me as his friend.

It's those smiles that make the challenges of keeping up with the maintance of three schools, a avacado packing facility, new building projects, and starting a new training program all worth while. Ever since we have come to Kibidula, I have recieved increasing requests to help train the Primary School students, AG School students, and Evangelism School students. I have wrestled and prayed about how to find time for over 250 students among my other tasks. Somehow the thought of smiling faces as they learned electrical skills or mechanics kept me considering ways to accomplish this goal. I have realized that I can't train them all, but in the last couple of weeks I have started a program of training the teachers basic electrical theory and practical skills. These teachers will in turn have the responsibility to teach the students. Already the Evangelism school has started to wire the grinding mill and the primary school will soon start to wire their own kitchen.

A group of older couples called to the front during a sermon about marriage.

I ask that you pray with me as this new project comes together. I see it not just as a practical skills class, but a great opportunity to help mold the characters of students and send out capable workers who have a desire to reach others with the Love of Jesus. Already plans are being laid for outreach projects in the surrounding areas, as people are eager to put their new found skills to use. We pray for many more smiling faces and we pray for lives to be full of happiness, not just any smile, but the joy that comes from the Love of Jesus.