2nd Quarter Update: Travel, Trials, and Transitions

We’re closing up the first half of 2026! As I become an old man, I increasingly marvel at the unrelenting passage of time, and struggle to treasure the seasons rather than anxiously anticipate their passing. So here we are having been blessed with another 6 months of existence. Here’s how you can pray, then I’ll jump into a life update: As always, comments by Rebekah in italics.

Elijah is heading back to the States. Pray for his transition to living back in the States, for steadfastness of faith, perseverance in trials, and godly mentor and friends to walk alongside him. Pray also that he can make decisions about a trade to pursue after a year of Bible college.
We are all travelling to America in August for a Storey wedding. Please pray for safe travels (REST!) and that we would be able to connect with churches while there.
Pray for Mwamba Imara(Solid Rock) Baptist church, the plant from our old church after we were forced out. Pray that the elders would lead well as they start anew.
Pray for the TZ baptist churches as they continue to face persecution and are seeking justice within the courts.

At the end of March, our dear neighbor Maombi passed away. She was just 17, and had suffered for 10 years with a stroke secondary to sickle cell anemia. She was a sweet girl who, though she struggled to articulate words, was a beacon of joy to all who knew her. Her laugh and delight were contagious, and you could elicit that laugh simply by walking over to visit. She was a precious joy and is sorely missed!

At Maombi’s gravesite. Traditionally, the men at the funeral take turn shoveling the dirt to fill the grave while all sing hymns together.

Greece! We travelled to Greece for a medical conference, and took a week of vacation beforehand. We explored the Peloponnese peninsula a bit, and got to see our former team-mates, who are working in Athens. Another dear friend came out to visit and spent the week with us. It was a blast and very restful!
One of the highlights of that week was touring Corinth. The archeological site, the canal and the Acropolis are all recommended! One thing we did not anticipate was how cold it would be (I scored a $1 beanie and $5 slippers at a local cheap things store and wore the heck out of both those 3 weeks! It.was.frigid for these acclimated sissies!). Nonetheless, Luke and I took the opportunity to swim whenever we could. Also, you can’t beat the food options in Greece. We all gained back a few of the pounds that a TZ diet takes from us… (I can’t wear jeans here. Or really even pants, outside the house. So, skinny jeans feel like saran wrap now. I find them fitting snugger than they did last time I wore them, over a year ago, but I’m not sure they ARE snugger. I think I’m just used to loose, flowy things now, so now they feel like straight-up leg stranglers to me!)

The conference was also great- I got to catch up on some CME topics, and Rebekah was able to attend the women’s program, which was a great blessing. The program is run in part by our friends from residency, and it was really awesome to see them! (3 of the boys and myself got the stomach bug that was running rampant around the whole lot of the attendees. I’ve not vomited in EIGHT YEARS! I’m bummed to have lost that streak, especially because we live in AFRICA, the land of things that make you vomit and I haven’t vomited one single time here!)

On the way home we had a long layover in Istanbul, so we took advantage of a offer with Turkish Airlines to go tour the city. It was cold and rainy, but really great! The hardest part was trying to sleep in the airport before the tour. This part I do not recommend, but would probably do again because I am both cheap and poor (It was long hours of tossing and turning and only mere moments of sleep on the cold, hard airport ground. Oof. The boys slept hard, but Josh and I were both pretty alert the whole time. Our old bones don’t handle lack of support anymore. Some unfortunate lady had left behind a knee length puffy coat on the benches, so half way through the miserable night, I decided she wasn’t coming back for it and made a thing mattress out of it. I then slept, for a whole 30 minutes-ish). .

Sun peeking at Acrocorinth

Debra with her nephews!

Games with the Kigoma fam!

Ancient Corinth

View from Acrocorinth

Hiking the Menalon Trail

Chilly swim in the Med!

Fortress at Acronauplia

Swimming after hiking the Palmidi ruins

a big game of chess

We hiked from the coast in the distance!

We raise strange sons.

Wildflowers above Marathon

Resurrection Sunday in Maraton, Greece

Friends for many years!

NOT an ideal place to sleep.

Haggia Sophia

a COLD Bosphorus cruise

The last few months have been packed with ministry.

The kids clubs are going well, led by our dear Floridah. She’s finishing up translating the New City Catechism, and writing lessons to go along with it. Rebekah and I help with the Monday evening group, and it gives Bek many opportunities to hold the little ones during the lesson. We recently decided to split the group in two, and I take the teen boys with me, after we all sing together. (The teen boys are miscreants. This split has given the younger kiddos more bravery to answer and ask questions and it’s easier for them to pay attention with out teenage boys making faces and acting the fool! Josh keeps hassling me saying he doesn’t know what I was fussing about, that the teen boys are attentive, respectful, and answer and ask questions. The fact that they are listening and answering is confirmation that this was a wise move, and we are thankful to the Lord for his leading in this area.)

As I’ve written previously, our home church here was kicked off the church property in May(see previous post for details). We’ve been blessed to find a small space to meet(donated by our pastor), and have now built a small banda(posts and a roof). The church is growing, and reaching out to the community. It has been encouraging to see people stick together and persevere through this persecution. The new place is dusty, but we’re making it work! We’ve got a roof, and just completed a bathroom on the property. Next up is putting up some half-walls to keep the dust out, and getting electrical run out to the building so we can put in some lights.

In June we had a short term team cancel last minute, so I was able to go to Katesh, TZ(in the north part of the country) for a pastors conference put on by our friends at Serving Shepherds and Ekklesia Afrika. A group of guys went by bus and I took a load in the car. Our trip started off great, then the timing belt broke about an hour out of town! That was a first for me! Rebekah and Neddy came to the rescue with another vehicle and we arrived just a couple of hours late. The conference was sweet, with excellent teaching and edifying fellowship, and I got the added bonus of seeing my brothers from Nairobi.

Last week Luke and I went south for the Mercy Bucket ministry, and got to come alongside a small Baptist church in a little village called Karago. Luke is always fun to bring along- his Swahili continually improved, and he never met a stranger. In a first for me, we were delayed getting on the ferry to cross the river because they were moving a herd of cows to market. You can’t cross the river here except in the ferry because of the crocodiles.

Those eyes!

Truck/photographer's stand

First week in our tarp banda

The banda is almost complete!

13 on the bus to Katesh!

Waiting for our roadside rescue!

Small group discussions at Proclaim

Proclaim 2026

Cows on a ferry

Humans on the ferry

Luke has these ladies in stitches!

worship service distractions

In the midst of traveling and ministry, life goes on! We are SO blessed to live here, where the people are kind, and weather is beautiful, our friends are dear, and the lake is clean and cool!

We had a visit from our bosses/friends from Dar, spent a weekend “camping” for Elijah’s graduation celebration, celebrated Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and our 21st anniversary, took in a soccer match, spent lots of time at the lake, and more. The pictures tell the story better than I can!

Some picture notes:

-We have many weird bugs here, and some scary looking ones. The spider below is probably 5 inches in diameter, and they love to gather in the banana groves.
-Last week Luke found a new kitten. He rescued him from a group of kids that had taken the kitten from his mom and were swinging it about by the tail. We couldn’t find the mother, so Bek and the boys have been hand feeding him and looking for a home. The boys have dubbed him “Gary”.
-Tanzanians believe in function over form, so they end up using/wearing some really funny things, like the laptop sleeve that Onesimus uses like a folio. I laugh every time I see that picture!
-One TZ tradition is to “mwagalia” or water someone on their birthday. Usually this is done with buckets or water bottles, but we have hoses in our yard, so things can get wild. For my birthday the kids tried to ambush me, but I got wind and we had a good water fight in the yard. (many long minutes of screaming delight!)
-Speaking of water, recently the city water department failed to pay their electrical bill, so the electrical company shut off their power for three days, and the whole town was out of water from a Thursday morning to a Saturday evening! We have a smallish tank (and didn’t know we were out of city water until about 36 hours in), so we had a water truck come to fill it. The funny thing was that as we drug the firehose up to the tank we heard a trickling sound and the water came on at that exact moment.
-The last picture is of our weekend at the lake with our friends, who unsuspectingly went on a paddleboard ride with 4 ladies on the board at once. They obviously did not grow up with the Storey family, where it is understood that personal watercraft are an invitation for obnoxious behavior. I was more than happy to educate them on our family traditions. (they screeched and begged for mercy. I didn’t even try to stop him. I grew up with a brother like this and I’ve been part of this family for far too long to think I have any sway in keeping Josh from treating a bunch of family friend ladies like he treated/treats his own sisers. I just grinned and then apologized for his obnoxiousness when they all drug themselves up to the swim platform, facting like drown rats. Love you, ladies! Thank you for letting him be obnoxious!)