Can you believe how fast the years pass? For me, they seem to pass faster and faster all the time. I guess it is all just part of the aging process…at least that is what my older friends tell me.
We had a great time over the holidays with Nate and Rhoda Jore and their kids in Jinja, Uganda. As I said we would in my last email, we left Jinja on the 2nd and arrived back in Arusha around noon on the 3rd. Unfortunately, after making it to Uganda in only 16 hours (which was record time for us), we were disappointed when the return trip was one of the longest we have experienced – 20 hours! We were grateful, however, that we were able to travel fairly comfortably and arrive safely back in Tanzania.
Upon our return, we immediately got busy with various tasks in preparation for the beginning of this school year’s second semester. These included renewing Ben’s motorcycle license and insurance, picking up various supplies not only for ourselves but for various students and the school, as well. Also, before going to Uganda, Ben had arranged for some work to be done on his motorcycle. It ended up needing to have the cylinder re-bored, the piston replaced, the front shocks serviced, and some other small things. In any case, it was great to be able to pick that up as soon as we got back from Uganda and we trust his bike will now continue to serve him well. We were also blessed during our time in Arusha to spend time with several of our Norwegian missionary friends and encourage each other in the various things we will each be facing in this New Year.
Again, as we had planned, we were able to finish up all our projects in Arusha by the 5th. Then, on the 6th, we left Arusha around 9:30am and headed directly to our regional immigration office in the town of Babati where we arrived at noon. As some of you may recall, when we went to renew our residency permits back in November, we were told that we were too early and needed to “return on the 5th or 6th of January” and our new permits would be granted. As we expected, however, when we arrived on the 6th they tried to give us more grief and tell us that we were still too early and that if we would come back in another week or so, they would be happy to issue our new permits. Thankfully, after some brief reasoning and petitioning for cooperation (and some fervent prayer), God changed their hearts and they issued us our new permits which are now valid until January 2011, should we decide to stay that long. When things were all wrapped up there at 4:30pm we were back on the road and arrived back at our home-sweet-home here at Waama at 7pm.
The next day (the 7th) was basically spent getting our feet back on the ground and getting caught up with regards to how things were progressing here. The plan that had been set when we left for Christmas break was that this first week of classes beginning on the 5th would be used by one of the pastors who still had some first semester material to cover with all the students. As it turned out, even by the 7th, he still had not showed up. As a result, the teachers agreed that we would jump right into our second-semester classes on the 8th and work him in at a later time. That caught us slightly off-guard but thankfully we had been able to make sufficient preparations during our time in Uganda to teach for those first couple days and now it looks as though that pastor will teach those first semester classes this week (12th-16th).
So, pray for us as we are already into this second semester. Of my four classes (English, 1 John, Isaiah 40-66, and Evangelism), Isaiah is definitely the most overwhelming. Pray also with regards to our village ministry schedule for the New Year which still needs to be planned and will require much wisdom. We also appreciate your prayers as we hope to help equip at least one team of Tanzanian evangelists in this New Year with solar-powered audio/video equipment so the Jesus Film ministry that we have been involved with over these past couple years can continue and be self-sustaining even when we are no longer here.
I have been having some problems recently uploading pictures to our blog (http://benandjesse.blogspot.com) but keep checking and hopefully we will soon have some new pictures on there from the recent holiday season. In case I continue having problems, I included one picture with this email of Ben and I at ‘Sipi Falls’ where we were when we brought in the New Year in Uganda. I hope the Christmas season was a blessing to each one of you and that the New Year ahead will find all of us drawing closer to our great God. Thank you again for your love for me expressed in so many ways.
God bless you all!
In Christ,
Jesse Long
Mbulu, Tanzania
