24 days to go!

24 days until I arrive back in the UK! 

I am sorry I haven’t written in a while, my internet has been very bad. I am very excited about returning home for Christmas and Christmas has already started here in Tanzania with the Rehema Christmas Fair! We had an amazing fair which lots of people came to support and a great time was had by all. There was a special Christmas menu, a fully stocked shop and a variety of fun games. My favourite game was ‘Santa’s shaving shop’ where one person has shaving foam on their face and their partner has to squirt it off before the other pair does. It was great fun and both adults and children enjoyed the challenge and mess! We all gathered together for some carols and it was lovely to have all the children singing together. It was also very special to be a part of the Rehema women singing silent night both in English and Swahili. Their voices are stunning and their enthusiasm to learn the English inspired me to try just as hard with learning the Swahili. The day was a huge success for Rehema and I now can’t wait to start planning the Easter Fair! See Rehema’s facebook page for photos!

As well as preparing for the fair Nat and I finally got round to painting the house! The whole house was yellow and neither of us are that keen on the colour yellow so have painted the living room and hallway and the kitchen will be next! Painting was fun to start with but then it just became a job that had to be finished! We have lived with it this whole year and maybe should have painted it sooner but at least it will be done ready for next year!

Sarabi is great fun to have around and I will really miss her for the month I am home. She is always hyper and sometimes really annoying but she is always excited to see us and is great at fetch and just adorable.

We had a bit of excitement on Friday afternoon when I received a phone call during bible study from one of the Rehema women saying a tree had fallen down, there was water everywhere and I needed to go there. We all jumped into the Go Mad truck and continued our study on the journey there! Where we had been there had been no rain so I thought Gracie had been exaggerating but she really wasn't. A very large tree had partly fallen down in a storm. Praise the Lord that no real damage was done. It could easily have fallen another way and hit the shop and cafe. It had pulled up the paving slabs and the root was huge! Quite interesting to watch the guys chop it down! Clearing out the water from the shop was less fun!

WOW I nearly forgot to mention one of the most exciting things to happen...I TOUCHED A HIPPO!  On Sunday a hippo escaped from the lake and Go Mad know the government guy who has to shoot them for safety reasons so they received a phone call to go and see it. We witnessed the shooting, got to touch it and then were given meat to take home! Just another normal Sunday afternoon here in Tanzania!

Below is the link to the current Go Mad team blog. Please read William’s story and if you feel led to then please support them through prayer or financial giving.

http://www.getjealous.com/gomadoct2014/journal/3485448/william039s-story.html