The Rainy Season is Upon Us

It has been raining for nearly 3 weeks nonstop. The roads are impassable even to walk. We have been trapped inside our house since Friday.
Easter morning it rained so hard that a flash flood swept through our property flooding the inside of our home. Friday night two weeks ago we thought we were going to be washed away again. The water was at least 10″ deep rushing through our yard. We wonder what is this down pour of rain doing to other families in the country. How many villages are being buried in the mud?
We have food in our house. If worst comes to worst we could hire someone with a 4 wheel drive truck to come in here and get us or bring us food, because we are what natives call Wazungu which is white person. This means we are thought of higher than Tanzanians. And blessed to be “white”.
What hurts us is what is happening to the Tanzanians. They don’t have food stocked up. They have to leave there house to go through the mud to get food. They don’t even have proper shoes to walk in the mud.
The culture in this country is so different than in America. This is a peaceful and friendly country but at any time bandits can come through stealing anything they want and even raping and killing innocent people. Most Tanzanians don’t have fences around their property for security. We are blessed to have what we have. A lovely home that is secure with iron bars on the doors and windows. The outside door is iron with 2 dead bolts with pad locks and the inside doors are wood 2″ thick with 2 huge dead bolts. The property has a Boganvilia thorn bush fence 8’ high around the perimeter. Our guards have bows and arrows and machetes to protect us from bandits that immigrate in from Kenya and other bordering countries. We got an email from a missionary friend who lives not far from here. She walked outside to turn the generator on and let the puppies out of their cage, when she saw a man behind the bushes and before she could get back inside to secure the door he and two other men attacked her threw her on the ground, threatened to kill her, stole her car, computer, cell phone, money and she is not sure what else. Please pray for her as she is trying to get through this. She is trying to beef up her security so that this won’t happen again. You have to understand that in this country poverty and extortion is extreme where the average wage is less than $2.00 per day.
Also, here you have mosquitoes that bring death to thousands of people here in East Africa through Malaria, yellow fever and many other diseases and yes we could get sick and suffer and even die but we have the abilities to get to a doctor and get tested and get our medicine. We also have a God that has promised us that He will deliver us whether we are in America or in Africa. Some, Tanzanians cannot go to the doctor and get tested unless somebody reaches out to them and gives them a helping hand. Just the other day our taxi guy named Juma who is Muslim was able to come and pick us up even with the bad roads. We took him to breakfast and found out he had Malaria so we gave him the money to get tested. When we got home we gave him Tylenol for his headache and fever. We have been sowing seed since we have arrived in this country so I ask you to pray for Juma’s salvation. That’s why missionaries come to third world countries like Tanzania because the needs are so great. It is not an easy life but the rewards outweigh the cost for the kingdom of God. 
Living here, we see everyday how, we of us who have been  born in countries like America and Europe are truly blessed.  And even more blessed to be Born Again and blessed by our God Jesus Christ!!!!!  Please keep us in your prayers.  We cannot live in this country without them!  You are precious to us.
 
Love, Your Hands and Feet in Tanzania
Jeff and Diane