Dear friends and family,
We are doing fine here in Kigoma, it is quite hot at the moment, right around 85 F most days, but no complaints. We just pray for rain to come soon. Many parts of Tanzania have had no rain at all and there are even reports of people dying from starvation in some places. In one area called Tabora people are said to be selling their cattle at only $4 a head compared to 200$ here in Kigoma, because they are unable to provide food and water for them. Please help pray.
We would like to share with you some things happened in the last few days.
Yesterday (Wednesday) we received a package from some good friends in Denmark. We received it the day after Mikaela’s birthday, so it was perfect timing. Lyle got it at the post office in the afternoon, so it was in the car still when we drove to the weekly missionary fellowship meeting that evening. We were so excited about receiving it that we opened it on the way over there. But we left the package in the car since there were other kids there who hadn’t been so lucky.
When we got in the car to go back home, the package was NOT there! The car had been locked, but the windows had been left with a little crack open because of the heat. We have no idea how anyone could get that package out. Everyone was asking around and searching under our car and the other cars, but the package was GONE!
Naturally, we were all very upset and sad and all three girls were crying, but we had to leave without the gifts. When we tucked the girls in their beds we thanked the Lord for the package and prayed that it would be recovered, and if it was not found that Jesus would comfort us some other way. We know that a number of the other missionaries also prayed that the gifts would be located. I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t go back to sleep because I began thinking about theat incident. I was sad, also on behalf of our friends, for what should I write and tell them? “Thank you so much for the presents, so sorry to tell you they were stolen from us.” And I was upset. Upset at those who had stolen from my girls. Mad at myself for not leaving the package at home or brought it from the car, or I should have closed the windows all the way and triple checked that all doors were locket. (We have central locks so we know the doors were locked, but in the middle of the night you don’t reason that way) To escape all those thoughts, I decided to pray. Quite frankly I didn’t feel like it but I prayed a while for whoever did this. I prayed for my children that they wouldn’t be too sad and upset at the loss; and for myself that God would give me His love for people here in spite of this situation. And I prayed for our friends who sent the package. After that I slept well till morning.
This morning a young couple from the fellowship night came over with three little gifts for the girls to encourage them. Around noon we received a phone call from the bible school where we had been last night, that someone had come across the package under a tree in a corn field behind the campus and our neighbour would bring it back to us later. But obviously no one knew if everything was still in there. Rachel was so over the moon to hear that, but I was worried that she might be disappointed, so I tried to explain to her that there was a possibility that some of the things had disappeared.
This evening we were given the package. Imagine our joy when the only thing missing was one sheet of stickers, everything else was there! Socks, nightgowns, marshmallows as well as two sheets of stickers. We are all praising the Lord for an amazing answer to prayer! Why the package had been left out there in the field we don’t know. Whether the perpetrator put it there to return later and pick it up unseen or whether they realized that they couldn’t get away with it and left it there to be found without being found out themselves we will probably never know. But that really makes no difference; the main thing is that God heard our prayers! What a great God he is, to think that he cares for us in such practical and tangible ways!
Remember that he cares for you and your loved ones just the same!
With love and blessings from Rachel, Miriam Acacia, Mikaela, Lyle and Jette
