Less than a week to go!

(Picture of Bagamoyo beach)

Blimey the days are flying by! This time next
week Mark and I will have landed in Dar es Salaam and will hopefully be with the Salamans on a beach in Bagamoyo.

For those of you that don't know Mark Courtis, a friend and one of my hardest working volunteers when I was in St. A doing youth work, is travelling out with me for the first month to help carry my bags and to get involved with Mara diocese's horticultural and agricultural projects.

Our initial schedule is quite relaxed giving us time to acclimatise and get used to speaking Swahili. Paul Christine and boys are meeting us at the airport and taking us to the beach for two days (lovely!) then we are travelling with them to Dodoma to spend some time there (where I am hoping to get lots of Swahili practice in) before a quick visit to Kilimatinde and a long bus ride up to Musoma! Once we are in Musoma I have no idea what the schedule will be so watch this space...

My current prayer points are:

For my packing and long list of things to do - That God would be in every step of preparing to go.
For saying goodbye to my family friends and dogs
For safety in and straight forward travel to TZ
For the Mara dioceses as they get ready for me to arrive and their on going ministries
For Paul, Christine, Daniel and Isaac as they also work for God in TZ
For the Vinkster family in Musoma that I would quickly get to know and love them and vice versa.

Getting ready to Go...

(Musoma from the air)

Welcome to my first blog!

Blogging is not something that comes naturally to me but I shall try hard to keep you up to date with my adventures in Tanzania.
I have 10 weeks of preparation left before I fly on April the 13th 2010.

Isaiah 58 v 9-12.

And if you spend yourselves on the behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noonday.

I shall be heading to Musoma Tanzania Mara diocese. The diocese stretches from Lake Victoria into the Serengeti and is in northern Tanzania. Musoma itself is not far from the border with Kenya. I shall be working alongside the diocesan youth officer. Youth work in Tanzania has some similarities with youth work here but also some vast differences; for example young people are generally aged between 18 and 40 years of age! I don't yet know much about what I will be doing but I have been assured that this is often the best way to go on mission - only time will tell ;o) but there is much to do in Tanzania I am sure, it is amongst the 10 poorest countries in the world and needs people willing to give of themselves and serve amongst those in need.

Keep watching this space for updates as the adventure begins...