November: Tis the Season!
/Hello!! This is our November update(in mid-December). Read below about celebrating Thanksgiving and birthdays in Africa, what we’re doing in ministry, and how working in the ER here is a little different…
Prayer requests:
- As I think I mentioned in the last update, holidays are weird/hard. Please pray for our family as we try to find our holiday traditions here, and try to not miss home TOO much!
-Pray for Rebekah as she navigates the first holiday season without her mom Mary, and as she expands some of her ministry with women and children.
-Pray for the boys- that they would thrive here and not be discouraged by the challenges.
This year has gone by FAST!! We didn’t do any traveling this month, just plugging along with life in Kigoma. Some notable events, (with Rebekah’s comments in italics):
Zeke turned 5 on Nov 2, and Judah turned 14 on Nov 5. There is a bar down by the lake that blows up a big inflatable slide on the weekends as some sort of rebranding effort(we advised them that they might want to clean up the broken bottles and trash as a part of that effort). (Every time we’ve driven by and Zeke sees it he has informed us that he really wants to “go to that place”). We got to go down and have a little party with some of the local missionary kids. It was a lot of fun! It was ALSO very Kigoma. (First, we waited for 45 minutes for some rando to come from some other location in town to plug it in. Yes, he is the expert on how to blow it up. No one else on the property, including the VERY friendly owner knows how to plug it in). The slide wasn’t secured in any way (like ANY way, folks. We’re talking… with the gusts of wind we get here, it could have straight up taken flight with all our precious skinny cargo on it), so you have to support it as it inflates to make sure it’s upright (and you also have to constantly yell remind the kids to NOT lean against the back or the sides of the slide when standing on that top, because they WHOOOOLE thing would just kinda leeeean.) There was also a moment when the city power went out, and the 20 foot slide started to collapse, quickly, leading to a frantic attempt to get all the kids off before the slide fell backwards(onto aforementioned broken glass). Risk management just doesn’t translate into Swahili… (speaking of risk management not translating - we take full advantage of that at times. One of our very bright boys decided to pick up a discarded whole beer bottle and run to down to the lake to get some water. After many trips and some acquisition of soap from a place that none of the parents could figure out, we had children dangerously launching forward onto glass ridden sand.)
We put our smoker to good use, and smoked a ham, (several eggplants for smoked baba ganoush) and some chickens for Thanksgiving, and then went to enjoy a meal with the larger missionary community. It was a sweet time with friends, and while different from celebrating in the US, is a part of living here we’ve come to appreciate!
This past week we did have a Kigoma first when we slaughtered and butchered a pig in our backyard (I hid in our room with noise canceling headphones on during the slaughtering). A friend of ours knew I was itching to try to cure and smoke my own bacon(a true delicacy here- nearly impossible to find in-country), and he was due to slaughter one of his sows, so he brought it over here. We hung up the carcass on the shed porch and went to work(this story is WAY too short! But, for the sake of weak stomached readers, I won’t expound). I got to carve out my own pork bellies, ribs, and loins. The bacon is curing in the fridge as we speak and we’re hoping to cut some up for Christmas. If this project succeeds we have reached PEAK missionary food victory.
The Lord continues to bless us with caring friends and fruitful ministry opportunities.
Rebekah enjoys spending some time each week with her kids club (thought ironically, being the mother of five boys, I feel QUITE out of my element at kids club). They are working through the action Bible, which has been translated into Swahili, and love their games and popcorn!
This month we had a training on children’s education for a lot of the churches in the area- we had a good turnout to hear a teacher from Arusha speak. The meal we shared afterward was funded by faithful giving by our supporters!
I(Josh) continue to preach every few months, and it’s been a blessed and challenging experience. As I told a brother serving in another country recently- trying to preach in another language is one of the most humbling things I’ve ever done! (He truly blows my mind. He gets so much better each time he preaches) To make up for my gross inadequacy, some of the preachers from our church meet together weekly for encouragement and to talk about the passages for the weeks to come.
I’ve started volunteering occasionally in our regional referral hospital ER, which has been a great way to brush up on some of my rural EM skills. Things are a bit different here, as patient’s have to pre-pay for every test, treatment or medication. If they don’t have the money for the test, they don’t get it. This makes for a very challenging medical environment when you’ve trained and worked somewhere that you have access to all the basic labs and treatments. About 30% of the “real” ER cases that come in are from boda boda(motorcycle taxi) accidents. The drivers are typically young men, who rarely wear any protective equipment. It’s a BAD combination.
That’s our November update! At the beginning of the New Year I’ll send out our annual update/report. Thanks to all of our wapendwa(loved ones) who support us with calls, texts, prayers, letters, etc.
As a reminder, all of our work is funded through the IMB’s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. This fund supports our salaries, health insurance, schooling for kids, etc. Help support us and thousands of other cross-cultural missionaries by clicking —> HERE.
Another praise is that we’ve been tremendously blessed to have people step in and support our member care/CME trip to the medical conference this spring. We’re on track to meet our goal. If you want to give to our family’s ministry here, you can go HERE. Once on that page you can select “Missionary or Team” under the “Where do you want your gift to go?” option, then type Josh and Rebekah Storey and type SSAP for the “Affinity” option or simply, Tanzania.
That’s it for the month. May the Lord bless you and keep you in this holiday season!