Happy New Year/Where has the time gone?
/Happy New Year! This is a belated post, for sure! Somehow we missed our November update, so this one will be BIG! We’ll still start with the prayer requests upfront.
PRUF:
-Language and culture will continue to be a prayer request! Please pray that we would be diligent in study, quick to learn, and retain well. Please pray that we would navigate relationships here well and glorify God as we do so.
-Local churches- we are burdened for the health of local churches. Please pray that we would be able to be good members of our local church, Azimio Baptist Church, and that we would be able to serve in a way that helps Azimio to become a catalyst church in this area.
-Home visits- Please pray for Josh as he increased his home-based medical care with followups from the hospital and other new visits. Please pray that he would be effective in meeting physical and spiritual needs.
-The Storey Boys- the life of a Third Culture Kid is hard! Please pray for our boys as they get so many wonderful opportunities, but also miss out on a lot of typical experiences. Please pray that they would love learning and flourish academically as each is able.
November! It was a good month- we returned from our conference in Nairobi and got back in the swing of routine. I(Josh) continue to lead multiple Bible studies every week, and in November got to do that partnering with my friend Afrika. It’s a joy to do ministry with him- he’s young in the faith, but very gifted and loves to share the gospel and lead in Bible studies.
Rebekah and the boys continue to plug away at schoolwork, and finished up their watercolor section of art with some beautiful Christmas paintings.
We celebrated 2 birthdays, Halloween, Reformation Day, and Thanksgiving! Judah turned 13 and Ezekiel turned 4 in early November. Zeke asked for a watermelon cake that tasted like chocolate (correction: Zeke asked for a watermelon cake, but also a strawberry cake. So I made a strawberry flavored cake that looked like a watermelon), and Judah had a big shindig with our friends and caramel apple bar PLUS a cake.
Thanksgiving was a lovely time as we got together with our local missionary community and celebrated God’s goodness in our lives this year (We are both so thankful to be in a much different place emotionally than we were last year!) We are so thankful for His persistent presence and work in our lives!
December was a great month, because Mom and Dad came from the USA! We left Kigoma before they arrived and flew to the capital city, Dar es Salaam. The day we got in we had the chance to spend time with some old friends of ours.
From Dar we all took a ferry to Zanzibar and spent a relaxing week on the beach, collecting seashells, swimming, snorkeling, and even got to do a spice tour(Zanzibar is home to many spice farms!). We stayed in a less developed area of Zanzibar, so Mom and Dad got a good exposure to the culture (but for that same reason felt a little less like vacation for us. Zeke fevered every day but the last day we were there and felt awful, so we did a bit less than we’d planned, but that was probably for the better. He healed up just in time to get another bug from our plane ride home and that one slowly worked it’s way through all of us. It was a month full of more illness than we’ve had all year, which was discouraging, but we were so thankful for Rob and Lyn’s graciousness through it all, and for their vital help as we all struggled to get ahead of the viruses)!
We all flew back to Kigoma together and had a whirlwind week and a half for holiday celebrations. On December 21 we celebrated Rebekah’s 40th with a murder-mystery dinner and had a great time play-acting and solving the mystery. My mom ended up as the top detective, and our visiting friend Teagan was the killer.
Christmas here in Kigoma feels very different! The weather has something to do with it, as it was a balmy 75-85 degrees all week. Also, in Tanzania Christmas is not celebrated ahead of time, like you seen in America(for better or worse!). If you tell someone Merry Christmas on December 20th they’ll look at you like you have your days confused! Finally, local culture celebrates Christmas by going to church for 6+ hours on Christmas Day and sharing a meal with the church. There are few/no Christmas carols, no gift-giving, no candle-light services, etc. (No beautiful Christmas decorations, no lights, no Christmas songs on the radio - so, lights in our home and decor and a pine scented candle helped us feel a little more like it was December)
We were so glad to have Mom and Dad here to celebrate with us! We had a pretty nasty cold tear through during the holidays (I couldn’t help but notice you left out the fact that you got raked over the coals by a sudden onset stomach bug/food toxicity that NONE of the rest of us got! Who’s got the “immune system of a demi-god” now?!…It’s still not me, but it’s also not you!), but we still had a nice day with a traditional breakfast(with artichoke casserole) and hams for dinner! We’re pretty excited that we’ve learned to make hams, but it isn’t a quick process! I have to go to the pork market (in an isolated part of town due to the local Muslim population), and explain to a local pork seller that I want a whole pork butt from a female hog (verify this be checking for nipples on the hanging carcass). This includes showing the seller exactly where to cut with his panga(machete). The pigs here aren’t big or meaty, so each whole bone-in butt is only about 6-10lbs. We usually get two. The seller makes the cuts on a old stump in his shop that looks to be several years old. I bring the meat home in a bucket, and place it in the sink, where we wash it with cold water and dish soap. Then I trim the cuts, removing any leftover skin,(don’t forget the wiry hairs!) wood chips, dirt, etc. The cuts go into the fridge while we mix the brine for the hams, which includes curing salt we get from the US (thanks!). The hams cure in the brine in the fridge for 3ish days, then we soak them in fresh water for 24 hours, then they can be cooked (instant pot, roasted, etc). Perhaps your wondering why we go to all the trouble. I ask the same thing frequently! (because….meat - only beans for protein can get a little rough on the system!)
We got a chance that week to go do some bible studies and I took Dad along to give him a taste of the work we’re doing here.
The week before Christmas we took Mom and Dad (along with a good chunk of our team here) to Gombe National Park, one of two parks in TZ where you can see wild chimpanzees. This is the place where Jane Goodall did her research, and it’s only a short boat ride from Kigoma (Short? A short boat ride? 2 1/2 hours of to and fro is not short). It was an amazing experience. We got to see countless interaction between chimps of all ages (including the interaction between me and Grayse and the alpha male chimp and his cronies. I forgot about being told, just 30 minutes before, to not make eye contact. I was sure to stare that guy down the entire time he was baring his dagger teeth at me, while he hollered his deep guttural “I’m the boss!” holler.) and the country there is beautiful!
On the day after Christmas Elijah and Judah went off to camp. They flew with our dear friend and team-mate Kari to South Africa for a camp with a bunch of other TCKs(third-culture kids). They spent a week there with 60 other kids, and had a great time. They swam, played games, sang songs, listened to teaching and got to know a bunch of their peers from all over the continent. It was a great experience that we hope will become a tradition!
On the 27th the seven of us that remained all loaded up and left the house around 0600 for the long drive to Mwanza, Tanzania. It took about 13 hours, all but 3 of those hours were on pavement. It was a long trip, but you get to see a real bit of TZ on the way up! We decided to kill two birds with one stone and took the cat with us to get her spayed (no veterinarians in Kigoma!) (Why the abbreviated story about our drive up? We took the cat in a lidded grass basket that we’d fought to win for Lyn at a Dirty Santa party. She screeched like a banshee, though I’d tried sedating her a bit with some benzoes. I gave her more, it didn't work. She kept getting out of the basket and running around the car, including in the front seat where she about ripped my arms to shreds out of panic and anger. If you are a hardcore pet person, it may be best for you to skip this next part……here’s your chance to stop reading…….We decided that 13 hours was too long in the car for animal and human both. So, we secured her in her basket, removed some items from a footlocker we had strapped to the roof of the truck, and carefully tucked her basket in the footlocker. Rest assured, there was plenty of airflow, and it was a delightfully cool and overcast day, so we knew she would be fine. We stopped at a gas station a few ours after putting her up top and took her out to check on her. There were about 10 Tanzanians standing around and they rolled with laughter when I pulled her out. All we could do was shrug and laugh with them before putting her back in after she’d had a drink and a breather. We drove straight to the vet that evening when we arrived in Mwanza, and he was less than happy to see we’d put her up top - but he wasn’t the one driving 13 hours with 7 people and an angry, hostile cat who’s claws hadn’t been trimmed in weeks. She’s fine. She's back to her old self with nary a grudge.) We stayed in Mwanza for a night and then had a safari truck pick us up and take us into the Serengeti, where we stayed 2 nights. We had a great time, saw 50+ different animals/birds, and had a lot of time for great conversations. One of the things we enjoy about doing animal safaris is the great time you get sitting in the car talking. After a couple days we drove back to Mwanza, got the cat, and then did the drive back to Kigoma on New Year’s Eve, where we all crashed into bed before 10. (we were able to cut an hour off the return drive, which was good because it was a much hotter day and we had to make a couple emergency stops for various reasons. The cat was comfortably and safely under the influence of a bit heavier dose of benzos, which are commonly used by vets to prep animals for surgery. So, our drive was much more pleasant without her yowling, and the vet sent us with a cat carrier to make for easier transport, which we were very thankful for!)
Elijah and Judah returned that week, and then Mom and Dad got out on the 4th, arriving back in Grand Junction 2 days later. We are so thankful to get to see them. It’s impossible to understand life here unless you’ve experienced it, so we’re so glad they got a chance to do that. God is so good to us!!
We would be remiss to not mention also what a blessing it was to receive all the gifts that many of you sent us from our Amazon list. Thank you, thank you, thank you!! We’ve been eating bacon bits, dehydrating fruit, fighting Nerf battles, and more all because of y’all’s generous support. (it was interesting and enlightening to hear Lyn’s suggestions for future list items after she’d been here and seen how the things they brought from you all helped us. Again, thank you so much. While some of those items are just simply for fun and familiarity, many of them truly do make life just a little simpler here - like the little oil sprayer bottles. The lack of cooking spray here has been a big headache. Wiping shortening or oil doesn’t work for whatever reason, but sprayed on oil does and every spray bottle I tried didn’t work. We’ve use both the olive oil and veggie oil spray bottle regularly since filling them and I feel so excited every time I remember I have them when I’m cooking and need spray oil. So, thank you!)
That’s it for the Nov/Dec update! This year we’re going to try to be more active on the Facebook group, posting more frequently and doing some live, short Q&A sessions. You can find that group under the name African Storeybook.
If you want to get these updates in your email, let me know at M28StoreyFam@gmail.com.
If you would like to support our work and the work of 3000+ IMB missionaries around the world you can do that here: www.imb.org/give
Thanks for reading! We are grateful for your prayers, words of encouragement and other forms of support. May the Father of Lights bless you all richly in the New Year!