Dear family,

Our days have been filled with so many activities and we are learning so much about Mwanza and the surrounding country, all the way up into the Islands where the Hamilton’s have their ministry. One of the six Bishops of the Africa Inland Church, Tanzania, was our housemate for two days and nights. Bishop Mussa is responsible for most of the Northwestern region around the Lake – 400!!! congregations of believers. His heart is especially for the children of the parishes. As you can imagine, it was a wonderful opportunity to discuss the lives of the street children and the TCRC ministry. Bishop Mussa knew Jane Highfield from the time he was a child. He grew up with Micah Ngussa, and is well acquainted with Bela Kalumbete. So it seemed to us like we were old friends, even though newly introduced.

Our days at TCRC have been filled with the joy of seeing the fellows we know well and meeting new boys. Among the older boys, George is very close to finishing all of the schooling necessary before college. We will spend an evening discussing with him what may be the best course for him to continue his education.

Small and large health issues present themselves every day. Many boys have malaria. One child has third degree burns on a finger from hot porridge that spilled on him at a meal. We are trying to help get him medical attention at the hospital while we do the best first aide we can. Another boy is H!!-A!!! positive and he is on a regimen of medications, but is frail.

Betty had a great ART DAY, the boys drawing and making beautiful patterned paper constructions. It was wild and I remember why I teach college and marvel at Betty’s work with younger children. Of course the boys are at many different points in their transitions from street lives and the conflicts with families that often sent them to the streets in the first place.

When we go around town (we have walked very much of the downtown on foot) we have opportunities to interact with the boys of the streets, always taking them some bread, or bits of our dinner, saved for them. Lori has learned much about their lives and trials and how they try to survive. Unfortunately many do not survive, and it is not always thugs and illness that do them in. Police routinely find boys sleeping at night and beat them severely to fill them with fear. Two nights ago one boy died from such a beating.

Mwanza is, all the same, a beautiful city filled with warm and hospitable people. It is hard to even count how many times we have had wonderful interactions with cab drivers, people we see on the street or in the markets, with the merchants of the shops where we have done business. White persons are always a curiosity, but my beard is an open invitation to meet people. The Masai have taken great delight in teasing me, and I them. Children want to know if I am Father Christmas or Abraham? Poor Betty and Lorien are drawn into this as well. But we are feeling very much at home and Lorien’s language skills are a treasure as we tromp about.

We ask for prayers for Anna, who went to Zambia from our visit together, to work in a hornet’s nest of problems related to an unexpected transition in the project she manages there. It is also a time of bizarre chaos for the country of Zambia, because the President has been reported dead, then alive, then dead, then alive …. No one can seem to get a clear story and there is great social anxiety over this situation, as you might well imagine.

We spoke with Anna this morning and that was a relief. But she stressed how unsettled is everything right now. And for us, the day greeted us with an immense rainstorm. Because of the insufficient rains in the first “small” rainy season that is just passed, this unexpected rain is a great blessing to the people. It was a fantastic experience for us to witness. We are in good health although Lorien has a “hot” tooth. So, through the missionary network she has been put in touch with a dentist that she will be abThank you all for your prayers. We think of you all often and are praying for you as well. (Laura, we felt an unexplainable urging to pray for your congregation on Wednesday evening). Today we are making plans for more visits. The days fly by.

We will write again as we can (between power and internet outages).

Love to all,

Jason