Dear Cherished Interested’s,                                                                                         July 21st, 2023

Heard this week from a brother living in the UK.  Thank You Geoff!!!  Nuts and bolts of what we are doing came out of his concern for our transportation stuff.  

So, nuts and bolts of being a stranger in a strange land.  No one is any stranger than me.  

And, this land is deeply wonderful and wonderfully full of wonderful precious people.  People who, like we, are familiar with how things get done.  Done here and done there are not the same done.

Some nuts and bolts..

Preparing for another dash north of the border to Kenya for a couple days just to come back south and be legal per Tanzanian law for another 90 or so days.  Balancing timing so as to cross borders with Visa’s current and then updating as returning is one of the many little things that most locals have no idea about.  Timing is everything so we return to Kenya before that Visa is invalid.  Then we return to Tanzania before that Visa is invalid.  Getting dated multi-entry stamps each way both sides. 

Bureaucracies worldwide grasp after money anywhere they can.  If it is out of sight from those they allegedly serve, all the better for that grasping to remain hidden.       

That said, we have been treated well either at the airport or the border.  Having the right signature on your Visa stamp helps.  If the correct head man signs and stamps your Visa then fewer attempts to manipulate the system for cash are made on you.     

Every penny, every shilling, needs to go so much further as where we live is a place not of wants but of so very many actual deep needs. 

So, took TZ shillings down off the mountain to our fixer this morning.  2 million TZ shillings to try to buy Kenyan Shillings.  Should be about 102,500 K shillings.  We’ll see.  That same 2 million to buy US dollars gets you less than 800 US dollars.  US dollars are preferred at the border by both crossing stations, both countries, so some will be changed for US dollars. 

The local bank has no Kenyan shillings this morning.  Nor will they have any anytime soon.  Cash machines can go days without cash in them.  Forget any expectations.  Banking works only how it can where it happens.  Shillings and fixer left to go to the big town, Arusha, for meetings for other client needs and hopefully to find Kenyan shillings there.  If not, off to Kilimanjaro and Moshi, another bigger town the wrong direction from where we travel to Kenya on Monday.

Yes we can get to Kenya that way too but there is unrest north of the border in that direction so locals who love us have called our fixer to insist we go the other way which takes us away from the urban unrest and into the bush north of us on the way to Nairobi.  We are staying in the bush.  Nairobi urbane ugliness is not for this farm-boy. 

We leave Monday with or without the right currency.  Paying exchange at the border however was really bad last time so..  fingers crossed.

Yes, cash machines only give out local TZ currency.  Banking inside involves the guards and paperwork.  Ques and paperwork.  Administrators and paperwork.  Then, finally, cashiers locked behind glass, and paperwork.     

The local guards, cashiers and admins are starting to know me.  If I come with a large bill to try to get change for smaller bills and the bank is not busy, I often get waved now right to a cashier so I can buy small bills to give to the little ones who worship with Hilda at church for offering. 

The guards at the local bank have never asked us for money.  They call me pastor in Swahili.  They smile and wave and ask about Hilda.  They beam at Hilda and if monkeys or birds or some other critters are playing behind the bank, they make certain she gets to see them. 

The new local bank manager sat and ate with us at a local church run rehabilitation facility a few weeks back.  Many of the people, we attend English service with at the Cathedral in Usa, use the same bank for their work so we have become known. 

The only time we had white faces, other than our own, in English service was when some missionaries from Cyprus followed me there.  My head still shakes at what happens.  Miracles abound.

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After dashing off the mountain to chase currencies for travel for Visa compliance, I dashed back. 

The local Bishop, a Tanzanian Missionary to Wisconsin, USA, for years serving in rural, suburban and urban American Lutheran churches has another family funeral before him.  His Father and Mother and now, this week, his brother has died.

I stayed away from this funeral too.  His people do not need my big hairy white face distracting them from comforting their Bishop.  The local man they called to be Bishop while he was still serving in America.  They informed him that he was Bishop a few years ago.  They told him to come home.  He did.

This Bishop’s last year has been very hard with the deaths and serious illness for him as well.  From a distance, he looks like a different man, drawn, gaunt and shrunken from life.  Hilda reports speaking with him and describes his attitude as reserved, calm, positive, yet tired.  Please Pray for Bishop Kitoi.  He loves both Tanzania and the United States, so very deeply. 

Dashing up from currency stuff I collected Hilda and our neighbor, who took us along a nearly impossible track to get 15 cases of soda and about ten cases of bottles water.  We then delivered them to the Bishops nephew’s house and greeted the family.  I have been to visitation in this house to pray with these people.  I prayed for and with this brother of Bishop just about a month ago. 

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From last time…

I cannot describe the spiritual attacks we have been facing as the time hopefully approaches (coming soon we hope.. a loving representative of ours is engaged with University staff working our process for us so cultural and linguistic issues are sidestepped without more financial outlay on our part ) when we, ourselves, will engage with the University again. 

We now have a calendar of University Enrollment process days and verbal assurance that I will be attending theological studies in September.  I continue to breathe.  I’m not holding it.

Relationships here on the ground in addition to my imperfections and mistakes are being used to try to drive us away from our striving.  Each day is a sincere struggle.  Hopefully that means we’re on the right track.  Please pray for those around us.  Please pray for the local faces which fearlessly now smile and greet us as we walk.  

Please keep crumpling us up and throwing us at God.  That is where we need to be.  God will sort us out.

One day at a time.  Just like how you each live.  Just one day at a time. 

Thank you, each of you.

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What to Pray for:

Our armed forces families, our leadership, our people, whole world round, all of Gods kids -

All the tough and blessing expressed above –

The love of folks –

Whatever is on your hearts and minds for us –

For our children and grand-children who miss us.. 

For Makumira Secondary School looking to share stories and partner in some way with a foreign school, Great leaders, teachers, students, programs, strong backs, minds, and hearts –

For our health to stay ahead of whatever is before us –

For those who have braved the donate button to discover Kajun Crofton, our daughter who helps getting each one of your donations to us and every blogpost to where you can read it -

For each and every one of you –

Each and every one of your prayers, your precious conversations with God –

Prayers, Your Prayer, Even your groaning prayers makes all the difference..

Vern W

May life be as Music to your Heart – May Music be as Heart to your Life – May Heart be as Life to your Music