Seems like just a couple of weeks since the last newsletter – time goes fast when you’re having fun!

The month was dominated by a big birthday bash and celebration of being in our new home – one of our children was blessed with a substantial gift towards his birthday and decided to have a party for everyone! Thanks Hamisi! We roasted a goat, and had plenty of other lovely goodies to eat, plus of course cake for all the birthdays we’d been too busy to celebrate in grand style until now.

Kanuti, Johnson, Riziki and Careen all came home from boarding school for the day; Vincent, Goodluck and Joyce all came from their homes. The only children not present were Neema and Baraka who attend daycare, and seven year old Linda who lives high on Mount Meru.

It was great to have everyone home together, and we showed how much we love another by having a water balloon fight and pelting one another. Good thing it’s summer and hot here!

We have sad news regarding our home support child, Linda – her grandfather passed away in October, then shortly afterwards her foster father also passed away. She is still living with her foster mother, and we have since seen her and she is doing remarkably well for having been through so much sadness in the past few weeks.

Other highlights:

• Birthdays in October: Elibariki (16)

• Rebecca and Wendy were invited to the graduation ceremony at the vocational school run by their friends on Mount Meru, the James 1:27 ladies. Rebecca, who was the guest minister, was in her ‘best’ shoes which she hadn’t worn for a while – the shoes felt a little weird at her house, but looked OK. Up on the mountain, as we walked through some dusty tracks, the shoes completely fell apart; leaving Rebecca treading dust and little else. The rubber had rotted in the tropical heat! Luckily, someone lent her a pair of shoes for the ceremony (a nice pair of white Scholl clogs). It was a memorable sermon!

• A GREAT piece of news is that finally we are seeing real progress in Anderson’s health – for the first time his CD4 count went up, which is a good indication that there is positive change in his body and a better prognosis for his long term future. We know this comes from prayer, and good nutrition, and regular drug-taking. We are indebted to our Arusha butcher ‘Meat King’ who have been giving us free meat for over a year now – it has meant everyone’s diet has improved, not just Andersons!

• We also had a ‘day off’ celebrating Nyere Day (Julius Nyere was the first president after independence, and is celebrated for his work in making Tanzania one of the most peaceful countries in Africa). Our volunteer Nicholas was with us for the day, and we had fun singing and dancing in the garden. Hamisi dressed up in some traditional blankets and entertained us with dances from his Nyaturu tribe!

• When we lived in Tengeru in rented houses, all our children attended a church in Arusha, which they loved. The new home is too far away to travel, especially for the younger children. But they have quickly found a new, more local-style church which they love. Fatuma and Mwajuma are already in the choir, and love to practice the songs and dance moves at home. The smaller children like the church.

• The teenage boys are still finding a church that they personally feel at home in. We have given them the freedom to choose their own churches, as they go through that difficult teenage process of really understanding who they are and determining the path they want to follow for their life – with a lot of advice and counseling from us! It is very cool to see the good choices they are making.