Tim and Carol Derbyshire - Tanzania |
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Prayer Letter January 2008
A Special Baby
In our devotions with the English course at college we are studying the Christmas readings in Matthew, Luke, and Isaiah. We were reminded this morning of what an amazing thing it was that God entrusted his tiny new-born son to us humans in general and Mary and Joseph in particular. What trust! What love! What confidence he placed in mankind! How remarkable it is that Christ came as a tiny helpless baby in to our World. How astonishing that he came to die and save us from our sins. This is the baby we await; this is the birth we celebrate at Christmas.
Snowing? No raining!!
As I write its cool and dark and only 4.30 in the afternoon. The thunder is rumbling and it’s pouring with rain outside, cascading off the roof like a curtain. Blessed, glorious rain! It’s so wonderful to see as we have only had one short shower since April. We praise God for the rain and ask him to make it continue so that folk here can have a good planting season and the results will yield a fine crop.
The Well at Ng’ong’onha
Many of you have been supporting this project in prayer. Drilling began in early November. They drilled to 140 metres and found very little water. It was a horrible day when we realised we had probably used up around $10,000 of the $23,000 drilling a dry well. No way could we drill a second time. But CPPS, the Catholic Drilling company came to the rescue and said they would drill at the second site and we would sort out the cost later. This drill yielded 3,000 litres an hour, Praise the Lord!! But we were over budget and not sure what to do next. However, thanks to donors in Ireland and America they are preparing foundations for a windmill this week and will assemble it next week, so maybe the people will have water before Christmas. How wonderful is that! Thank you for your prayer and support. We pray this will make a lasting difference to the people of the village, that they will have fresh water soon. More importantly that they will realise that this is not a gift from donors but from the hands of a Saviour who said ‘I am the water of life’ and loves each one of them.
Immigration Issues
These are becoming tricky as MAF engineers are not given sufficient time to prepare for and sit exams before their temporary visas run out. Sitting local exams is the law here, and this can’t be done until you are resident, but preparation for these exams can take up to a year, and temporary permits are only being issued for 6 months. Pray MAF will be wise and resist the easy option of paying a bribe to immigration.
Compass Exam
Sadly Tim didn’t quite make the grade, and was a few marks short in one of the three papers, so has to sit it again in January. Please pray he gets there this time!
Farewells
These are so much a part of life in Dodoma, as people come for as little as a year, and then move on. The Barendse family however have served at MAF for over 10 years, Kees as Chief engineer for the last 6 yrs. and Ilonka as Training Co-ordinator. There are lots of farewells for them before they leave to join the Uganda programme. We will miss them and they will leave a big gap.
Heri
Our new Chief Engineer is Heri Shekighenda. He has trained and worked with MAF for the last 6 years and is a great guy. It will be good to have a Tanzanian engineer in charge. His wife Cecelia works in the finance department and they have a one-year old son. Pray for Heri as he takes on this huge responsibility.
Dickson
While the Bishop has been away, Dickson, MTC Principal has been keeping the Diocese running as Vicar General. There are a lot of stresses and Pendo his wife says he is getting old quickly. It has been good to have such a faithful stand-in for the Bishop at a difficult time in the Diocese. We praise God too for Moses Matonya and his wise leadership at college while Dickson has been away.
Inflation
Prices in Tanzania are going up quickly at the moment, and budgets made 6 months ago don’t in any way match costs today. College is struggling, as maize which was 14,000/- a sack is now 30,000/-. A kilo of wheat flour today is 1,200/- (it was 700/- a few months ago). Beans have shot up by the same amount. Also oil, tomatoes, and other veg. are more expensive than before. We have a new group coming in to start pre-Diploma in February and we must ask them for 30% more than we predicted in our letter only 6 months ago. Pray they will find the fees they need to study with us.
Travels
We are off to Brackenhurst conference in Kenya after Christmas, and then I go to Australia to see how Mum and Dad are doing and hopefully help with a house move. I’ll return in time to do the next lot of degree entrance tests in early February and welcome the new Pre-Diploma class! Helen and Sue will be joining us for 3 and 5 months respectively and Jo will come from NZ in April. Please pray for Robyn and I as we integrate the team. Kate is on leave for six months in NZ.
Wishing you a gentle start to the New Year,
With our love, thanks and prayers,
Tim and Carol