A Special Thank You!!

Emma and I were having a drink the other night and talking. This is when we came onto the topic of how we got here to Tanzania. As we sat there thinking and talking we realized that we would never have got here without the encouragement and support of our parents. I can remember that even when we were young my dad and mom were always telling us to do the most we could in the truth. They took the challenge of showing us just how large the organization was and truly showed us how true the scripture in Psalms 34:8 is where it says to “taste Jehovah and see that he is good”. The same is true for Emma’s mum, without her example Emma’s life could have been totally different. She is a zealous example of how one can give their all to Jehovah despite circumstances.
Truly without the support of our parents, Emma and I would probably have never reached this important goal in our life. After being here for just over one month how appreciative we are to our parents for there help. So we are taking this time to send you a big “THANK YOU” for being such shining examples for us all these years, and for taking the time to ensure that our love for Jehovah becomes as powerful as yours is.

Last Night's Meeting!

We just thought we would write to tell you about our meetings here. We only have one microphone for the speaker and those who give comments shout out their answers. The sound system we have is run off a radio frequency which obviously causes interference. In the middle of the talk you will hear, 'Gooooooooooooooooal', when they are broadcasting a football match!
The electricity is very unreliable so sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. When it's not working we sing the songs without music and it is amazing to hear. Everyone sings very loud. When there is no sound the speaker has to talk very loud also.
The problem last night was that while the sound was off it began to rain very heavily! You can see from the picture of the Kingdom Hall on the Blog that the roof is made of tin!! Our poor missionary sister, Anita, just got up to give the demo and down came the rain! Her voice got louder and louder until it was just impossible to hear. After a few moments it subsided but then the wind began to blow and randomly started to blow the doors open. Needless to say we all had a very interesting meeting.

1 Month.

Today we have been here for 1 month. The time has flown! We didn't imagine that we would settle into the way of life so quickly here, but it's already starting to feel like home. We are surrounded by wonderful brothers and sisters from around the world. It's incredible to hear their stories and experiences and how they ended up in Africa! There are so many varied personalities yet the thread that runs through everyone is the desire to serve Jehovah more fully. No matter how different we all are, that's what brings us together.
We are still trying to get our studies into a regular routine but if all goes well the rest of the month, we should be able to count 8 between us. One thing that struck us about the people here is the way they think. At home when you show people out in service the questions in the front of the Bible Teach book and ask them which one they would like to know the answer to, most would say, 'Why does God permit Suffering?". Here not one person has asked that. Instead everyone here asks, "What happens to the dead", and "How can i make my family life happy?". The religions here teach all kinds of crazy things about the dead and it leaves so many people afraid and confused. Also, family life is very important to people here so they are very eager to learn how they can be happy as a family.
We haven't moved yet but we are set to move this weekend. I'm glad we were able to stay this week though as i haven't been well. I'm getting better now thanks to the anti-biotics and I'm finally getting some energy back. It's been nice having other people around. You always miss home more when you are poorly!
We have a few exciting theocratic things to look forward to in the new year. There will be a zone visit in January, and the new Branch dedication, both in Dar Es Salaam! We also have an English Circuit Assembly scheduled for May there too, so we are very excited about that. There's certainly lots to keep us busy.

Last Week.

Hello family and friends. It has been a few days now since we last wrote. The week has been busy and probably the most realistic we've had so far. I haven't felt too well this week. Hopefully i will avoid having to be tested for all the wierd things that you can get here, and it will pass. Nate is doing well though. We are happy to find how well his health is here. We had worried about the dust but he feels great here and has had no problems what so ever. Our routine is working out well and we are settling into our responsibilities. Nate has a huge assignment with the territory. We have been given a large amount of territory from a Swahili congregation and it is his responsibility to map it all. We have made arrangements with the missionary couple to go out every Saturday afternoon to map it all.
Tomorrow we move house. The house here is very busy with visitors so we are going to live in a house that a Greek couple have rented. They are back in Greece selling everything and hope to be back by the end of the year so we are moving in until then. It's a nice house with 2 bedrooms. Marni and Tiff will stay there with us at the beginning of November and then Donna and Paul will be with us until we leave the house.
It's also Kingdom hall maintainance day tomorrow. We worked very hard last week to move plants from one side of the property to the other to form a fence for security. We also cleaned part of it up too and it looked really nice when we finished. Nate however worked with barbed wire! They had to stretch out huge rolls and nail it to the posts for added security.
Our study Justez is having a hard time at the moment. His sister is dying and there is nothing that the doctors can do. As you can imagine he is very upset. Our ministry otherwise is going very well.
We miss everyone very much and would love to hear from you so please feel free to email us when you can.

Last Few days.

Hello everyone. Just thought we'd write with an update on the last few days. We are settling into our new life more and more each day. Of course the ministry is the highlight of each day and our great experiences just keep adding up. We are managing to stay healthy with nothing more than a few stomach cramps so far, probably due to the change in diet. We are getting into the routine of boiling water, washing all our veg' and fruit in detol, and keeping the tap water out of our mouths in the shower and when brushing teeth! We truly appreciate why Jesus and his disciples needed their feet washing! The roads are so dusty and when we get home after service our feet are black.
A little info about our congregation. It's called 'Arusha Central'. We have 31 publishers, 9 elders, 7 pioneers, and 2 missionaries! That doesn't include the need greaters who come for a short time to help out but don't move their cards. We also have 11 children that aren't yet publishers so there is lots of potential within the congregation also. Our territory is big as we cover all the English speakers.
Nate has just been appointed the territory servant. The maps are quite interesting as none of the streets have names! Most are named by a landmark within the territory. As you can imagine taking NH's is a nightmare. We are starting to imitate our missionary sister in the hall and draw maps of the streets and write the NH's on there. Otherwise it gets too confusing.
The missionary couple in our hall are from Whales and England. Martin and Anita Muxlow. They are very down to earth and have made us feel very welcome. They have been serving in Tanzania for 10 years now.
Here the public transport system is as many other third world countries. The little vans are crammed full until people are literally hanging out of the windows! The most we have counted so far in one is 24! When you stand waiting by the side of the road for one to come by, they still pull up overflowing and try to squeeze you in. We have already had some very close encounters! The other day some of the sisters serving here were waiting for one, it arrived packed and the guy shouted, "You can sit on an African!"
This was the setting for a good experience i had the other day though. I was just about sat on the lady's knee, so i apologised to her and she started to talk to me and ask what i was here for. I explained and she asked how she could learn. I explained the bible study program and she took out her phone and took my number. We made contact the next day and arranged to meet in town and had a great study. She is a single parent with 2 girls and no other family here. She works a lot so meetings may be hard for her but we'll see what happens.
Nate and Sam (a brother visiting from England) had a good call last week. They met Jonas on the street. He was raised as a Muslim but about a year ago changed to be a Christian He was worried about losing Gods favor due to smoking marijuana. He got emotional and said how much he wanted to gain God's approval again. They started the study on the first call in the Bible Teach book and returned this week to study again.
We hope that you all enjoy reading of our adventures here. Please leave a comment or send us a private email to negrindstaff@hotmail.com It really is so nice to hear from our friends. We miss you all very much and keep you in our prayers.

3 Day's Progress!

We have to write to tell you about a special call that Avril and i had last Thursday morning. We were doing first call and met a young man called 'Justez'. He spoke excellent English and works as a guide for Kilimanjaro. He's been up the mountain around 160 times! He is also a guide for Mt Meru and Mt Kenya. He invited us in and we had an incredible discussion. He fired questions at us faster than we could answer them!
He has just moved to this house due to the fact that his girlfriend is 8 months pregnant. That is a very big disgrace here and some of the local churches will actually disfellowship you! That has happened in their case and they are not even allowed to enter the church. He asked if they would be allowed into our Kingdom Hall so we explained that it is a situation that Jehovah doesn't approve of but that since they are learning the truth they would be able to attend.
He wanted to know if we believed in Jesus, what happens to us when we die, how we worship, if we repent, if we believe the trinity, just to name a few things. We explained that the best way to answer his questions was for him to have a bible study. He quickly accepted and told us that a number of years ago he came very upset with local religions when he saw so much hypocrisy. He knew about the 'Jehovah's Kingdom' church and told his girlfriend that he was either going to join them or the baptists. Then his family put him off saying that we only prayed at night and that we worshipped the devil. They also told him that we never worked and that all the foreigners here just picked any house they wanted and the organisation paid for us to live here! We were quick to put him right there!!
He was very eager to come to the meeting but we could still detect a lot of fear. Anyway he agreed to come the next day. During the discussion i had told him that i would leave him the Bible Teach book. At the end i was putting my bible back in my bag and accidentally gathered the book up too. He stopped me in mid sentence to tell me off for telling him he could have it then taking it back!
Friday i called him to see if he was still coming to the meeting, to which he replied, "Yes I'm here waiting for you, but i don't know what to wear." When we went to meet him he was very smartly dressed! On our way to the meeting (a 30 min walk) we asked if he had told his girlfriend about us calling and he said yes. When he told her about coming to the meeting she got really scared and told him that if he came it was possible that he wouldn't come home because we sacrifice people! Apparently we also run around naked while praying to Satan also!
We arrived at the kingdom hall and everyone was really welcoming. He looked up the scriptures and listened intently. He was very nervous though. He kept looking over his shoulder like someone was going to grab him! Half way through the service meeting he had to leave but he told Nate how much he'd enjoyed the meeting and asked us to come to his house the next day to study!
Saturday we went and had a great study. We were there 21/4 hrs! He started by telling us how much he enjoyed the meeting and then he said how he doesn't know how he will ever feel ready to comment or get up and give a part on the meeting! He was so impressed with a young brother in our hall that gave the talk on Blood transfusions. He couldn't believe that someone so young could know so much about what the bible said. He had come home and tried to find his bible to show Annette (his girlfriend) all the scriptures we had looked at. He was going to his parents the next day to find his bible. The questions again started coming thick and fast and we tried to answer some but kept trying to direct his attention to the book, which we eventually got into. He is very sceptical and won't just agree easily with things, which we told him was good because he needs to know himself that it's the truth and not just because we tell him it is. He couldn't make the meeting today because his family were coming to see him but we set up the study for next week.
It's so hard not to get overly excited when you get such a good call! I just pray over and over that if his heart is right that Jehovah will draw him and help us to teach him well. We'll let you know what happens.

Photos!

At last! Here are a few photos for you.

Nate and Steve on a bible study at the craft market.

Our house mates.

From left to right......

Nate, Emma, Cathie, Sayona, Steve, Sunny, Arisa, Jessica, Conrad, and Ai.

Our new Kingdom Hall.

Our New Schedule.

The new week has started our new schedule. Mondays are our day off, Fridays our day to help on the kingdom hall landscaping and the other 5 days are for service!
We had a great time in service yesterday. Nate and i worked together. We met a group of men working at a school. One of them was Islam but asked us what he needed to do to change his religion. Nate explained the bible study program and gave him the meeting times. He said he would try to make it this Sunday. The need greaters here try to direct interested ones to the kingdom hall asap. If they come to the meeting it usually shows that they sincerely want to study. It helps to distinguish them, especially as there is so much interest.
We walked further up the road and a man stopped and asked us what we were doing. Nate again explained the bible study program and arranged to meet him there this morning. Even further up the road a young woman stopped us. She is called Naomi. She speaks very good English. She works as a house girl for some foreigners here and was running an errand. She couldn't stand for long but asked if i could study with her. She was even more interested in coming to the meeting though. I wrote down the times for her and gave her directions. A few doors down we met another house girl named Elizabeth. She too wanted to come to the meetings and study but she only gets one Sunday off a month but was going to try hard to come this week.
We were working in the street with with Sunny, Jessica and Sayona and throught the crack in the gate they saw a huge turtle in the driveway. No one was home so we all stopped to look and took pictures! I'll try to post it so you can all see.
We have written basic Swahili sentences in a book and we use it all the time with the locals. We met a group of children yesterday who got all giddy when we asked if we could take a picture of them with us. They laughed and jumped around like they had just won tickets to Disneyland! We have such a desire to learn the language! There are so many people hungering for the truth.
Steve and Cathie left yesterday for the annual meeting in New York. They will be gone until the 19th. Charles and Sonia, a couple from California came in late last night, so they are our new house mates. We will be moving to a new house in a couple of weeks. It's not too far away. On the same street as Avril and Steve. There are 2 bedrooms. We have Marni and Tiff coming for a little over 2 weeks in November, then on the 27th Donna and Paul arrive for 3 months! We are very excited to have them here with us.
We are working on posting some pictures for you all to see. It's not easy to do here because of the internet connection, but hopefully we'll have some for you soon.