God is in this

“ I will give you this, my love, and I will not bargain or barter any longer. I will love you, as sure as He has loved me. I will discover what I can discover and though you remain a mystery, save God's own knowledge, what I disclose of you I will keep in the warmest chamber of my heart, the very chamber where God has stowed Himself in me. And I will do this to my death, and to death it may bring me.
I will love you like God, because of God, mighted by the power of God. I will stop expecting your love, demanding you love, trading for your love, gaming for your love. I will simply love. I am giving myself to you, and tomorrow I will do it again. I suppose the clock itself will wear thin its time before I am ended at this altar of dying and dying again.
God risked Himself on me. I will risk myself on you. And together, we will learn to love, and perhaps then, and only then, understand this gravity that drew Him, unto us.”
― Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz

Sunrise News:

It has been awhile since I have written and there are many things to update you all on! As I mentioned to you all before we were awaiting the arrival of our very own milk cow. She has officially arrived, her name is Lucky! She is 3 months pregnant, which means we have a while to wait for milk, but she is officially ours and officially a part of Sunrise. Also she eats A LOT. We are working overtime to find her enough grass to eat. We will be planting a few acres of just grass for her, when the season comes, but for now everyone is working together to find the grass quota for each day.

The children are all wonderful as usual. They are becoming more responsible and helpful at Site. It's amazing to see how much they have grown over that past year and a half! We are still occasionally working on the "no hitting" rule, but this mama is cracking down hard. It's hard to teach a kid not to hit when it's just what they do here. I believe that our goal with these children is not only to give them opportunities that they wouldn't otherwise have, but to show them how to be different people. How to be people that model Jesus. How to love and care for each other, without expecting anything in return, to teach them about compassion, to teach them how to give, and all the while we are learning how to do and be this person as well. I realize all the time how much I love these children and how much I love this place. I believe that God continues to have his hand in Sunrise, and that he has a perfect plan for these children and for all of us involved in Sunrise.

“I've wondered, though, if one of the reasons we fail to acknowledge the brilliance of life is because we don't want the responsibility inherent in the acknowledgment. We don't want to be characters in a story because characters have to move and breathe and face conflict with courage. And if life isn't remarkable, then we don't have to do any of that; we can be unwilling victims instead of grateful participants.”
― Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

Gerusa and I are thinking along the same lines, we want to be self sustaining. That is our ultimate goal for Sunrise. We are dreaming big and not taking no for an answer, and it seems that God is placing the right people at the right times in our path. (Of course he is, he is God.) We are working towards planting everything that we eat. We may have to continue to buy fruit, but all vegetables will be covered. We believe that any money that we can save we should, and we are even planting extra in hopes of selling! We have been meeting all sorts of people from ward officers, to potential new staff, to agricultural officers, to people working for companies that do irrigation, etc. We are working overtime to bring everything together. We want bibi Kay to feel comfortable to take her leave at the end of the year.

“I want to keep walking away from the person I was a moment ago, because a mind was made to figure things out, not to read the same page recurrently.”
― Donald Miller, Through Painted Deserts

The water is out in Uhekule. It is not dry season, but the intake pipe is broken. Like everything else, everything is done in Tanzanian time, which means pole pole (slowly). It has been out for over a week now, and for over a week they (they being the water committee) have taken many trips to look at the pipe, a couple attempts to fix the pipe, and my guess a whole lot of just standing around talking about the pipe. This is Africa. LUCKILY Gerusa and I made the genius decision to fill the other sim tank, just to be on the safe side. While it has saved us a lot, we have still had to make several trips to the river. Water does not go so far when you have 21 people living in one place. 21 people eating, drinking, showering, washing hands, flushing toilets, (if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down) and everything else water related. You never realize how many activities take water until you are forced to savor every last drop. We, just today, met with someone who does the in ground pump systems. They are sending someone tomorrow to survey our land and see if it will be possible to put one in at Site! If so then we have another source of water!

My days have been filled with organizing all things at Sunrise. Getting finances in order, getting paperwork in place so we can keep better track of our expenses, (lotion, toothpaste, bar soap, pens, pencils, notebooks, etc) and trying to make it as east of a transition as I can for Gerusa. Plus Lord knows Sunrise can use a little more order, and especially with our hopes and dream of being self sustaining we need the organization so we can make sure everything is coming together.

Personal News:

“If you watched a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for years to get it, you wouldn’t cry at the end when he drove off the lot, testing the windshield wipers. You wouldn’t tell your friends you saw a beautiful movie or go home and put a record on to think about the story you’d seen. The truth is, you wouldn't remember that movie a week later, except you’d feel robbed and want your money back. Nobody cries at the end of a movie about a guy who wants a Volvo.

But we spend years actually living those stories, and expect our lives to be meaningful. The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won't make a story meaningful, it won’t make a life meaningful either”
― Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

For those of you who do not have facebook, Sifeli's visa has been approved! Nothing short of a miracle. Some of you may not know but for people from other countries to come to America it is quite the process. For me to get my visa to Tanzania, i sent in a small form, picture, and money and they mailed it back to me. For us to get him a visa we had an in depth paperwork process online that took 2 hours, (asking everything about family history, why he is going, who is paying, etc, etc), then we had to pay for the visa before he had to go in for an interview, and they keep the money even if they do not approve you, then schedule the appointment. You go in for the appointment at the US embassy, its like airport security style, then you go and wait for your turn. You have an intense meeting where they ask you all the questions from your form online and then some. They would not let me go inside with him, so i waited outside and made friends with the security officers. They were telling me that the chances he gets one are very slim, they just didn't want me to get my hopes up. Honestly before talking to them I just knew it was all going to work out, God is in this, then they tell me that and I am a  bit more worried. However it all worked out and we are officially coming to the states! We arrive May 23, and leave September 9. The baby is due June 27, so hopefully everyone will get lots of time with us and then our little bundle :) Sifeli is very adamant that he will not be sitting around for 3 months doing nothing, luckily some kind people have offered to hire him to do some jobs. We are considering building a house when we return, and the US is the best place to earn the money to do it! :) I told him that since his family doesn't have to pay for me, they should help us build a house! Haha, we'll see!

I just ask that everyone be praying for our trip to the states. Not only will I be very pregnant, but this is also Sifeli's first time flying, and will also include a whole lot of firsts for him. It's going to be a long, hard, transition. Coming from the village to the busy, active life of the states, it not too easy of a task.

Thank you again for all your continued love and support sent my way or should I say our way.

“At the end of the day, when I am lying in bed and I know the chances of any of our theology being exactly right are a million to one, I need to know that God has things figured out, that if my math is wrong we are still going to be okay. And wonder is that feeling we get when we let go of our silly answers, our mapped out rules that we want God to follow. 

I don't think there is any better worship than wonder.”
― Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz