Update from Ben Jore and Jesse Long

I recently realized how long it has been since I sent my last update. I am so sorry for the weeks of silence and I thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers despite this lack of communication.

Before I get distracted with more of what has been going on, I want to let you know that, as promised, our blog is officially up and running. You can view it at: www.benandjesse.blogspot.com. We are excited about this means of making more information and photos available to you all. Check it out and let us know if you have any questions or comments. We will do our best to keep it updated but anticipate limited access to the internet (and any other means of communication) once we get to Waama in a couple weeks.

As far as general update, we now have only 2 weeks left here at language school. It is amazing how fast the time has gone! We are grateful for the progress that we have made and, in answer to your prayers, we will be moving into the second book in this course later this week.

This past weekend Ben and I decided to take a quick trip to see the sights in Dar es Salaam. It was good to get out and as we took the three hour bus ride, we realized that this was the first time we had so much as left the campus of the language school since we arrived here almost a month ago. It was certainly an adventure and God’s care was overwhelming.

It all started on Friday morning when a student here recommended a guest house in Dar that he had stayed at. I called right away and made reservations for that night and the next (Friday and Saturday). Ben and I got packed up on our extended lunch break and were walking out to the bus stop within 20 minutes of our last session Friday afternoon. The main problem at that point was that we had never been to the local town by ourselves and had no idea even where we could catch a bus to Dar. Well, God just happened to have one of our teachers walking by at that time who, after asking where we were going, said he was going that way, too, and could help us catch a van at least as far as the bus stop.

We went out with our newly found guardian angel to the place where these vans pass in front of the school and had not even been there for 5 minutes when the next miracle happened: a pick-up truck came pulling out of the school with a lady in it who was heading home for the weekend…in Dar es Salaam. The driver had us jump in the back of the truck and took us, along with our new travel companion, right to the bus stop.

After the 3-hour ride, we arrived in the bustling city of Dar (where it was now late and dark) not having so much as the address of our anticipated accommodations. That was no problem for God, however, who had already arranged for us to be met at the bus stop by the husband of the lady we were traveling with. We insisted that it would be no problem to get a Taxi but he insisted on taking us past his house for some quick refreshment and then taking us to our guest house. We were overwhelmed and very grateful as we were soon delivered right to the front gate of the Cefa Guest House. A beautiful room with air conditioning, a private bathroom, and a hot shower only increased our gratefulness. I could go on and on with all the ways God blessed us the rest of the weekend. Basically, we were able to see a lot of the coast, take a boat ride over to a small island where we relaxed, saw some dolphins swim by, and did some snorkeling. We were also able to visit the Tanzanian National Museum downtown and be back to the language school in time for dinner on Sunday afternoon.

Sorry to spend such a high percentage of this email on just last couple days but it was very exciting to get this 48 hour excursion after our schedule we have had the last month. We also appreciated so much the opportunity to get to know more about this country, relax a little, and experience some genuine “immersion” language training, which never hurts either, right?:)

We are now back to reality, plowing through the final lessons of this first half of the course. Thank you all so much for your prayers in these regards. We are definitely making progress and grateful for all God has taught us during this time. We have been able to continue developing relationships with kids from the high school here on campus. They are eager to help ‘enrich’ our Swahili skills. It has been good…I think. Due to the fact that it is a boarding school, we have actually met several students who are from the area where we will begin working in a few weeks. We look forward to keeping in touch with them and getting to know their families as well.

God has also been watching over our health. We are quite certain Ben had Malaria a couple weeks ago. There has been some climate change taking place which resulted in increased incidences in this area. In fact, within a week and a half, about 5 international students were tested positive with and treated for Malaria. Ben had all the same symptoms but his test came back negative. We later found out that the test can fail to be accurate if the patient is taking Malaria prevention medication, which we both are. As it was, God seemed to have in His perfect plan to heal Ben in His own way. Within 30 hours of his first headache and fever, he was virtually back to normal…and has been ever since. Praise God!

Please continue to pray for the weeks we have remaining here and for the following items in particular:

• Quick processing of our residence/work permits (needed for teaching at Waama)
• That we would find the perfect vehicle to purchase for our ministry
• That God would give us extra grace and wisdom as we study these 2 remaining weeks
• Continued protection from Malaria and other sicknesses
• Sensitivity to God’s leading in every way as we make final preparations and move to our official ministry location in Mbulu.

Thank you all so much! I have included a few pictures from our trip this past weekend for your enjoyment. More will soon be available on our blog. Thanks for your continued interest, thoughts, prayers, and support.

God bless you all!!

In Him,

Jesse