The Sounds of Africa

During the cool breeze of the late afternoon we hear the sounds of birds chirping and the squawking of the Hornbills and Ibis, but in the evening the monkeys come out. They start their squelching, and the dogs bark, yelp and squeal all night as they fight. These are the sounds you usually hear.
In Africa you must always be in a state of preparedness. Just when you think you are getting adjusted to your surroundings feeling safe and secure something happens that makes you know you are in a battle and you need to be on guard at all times!
We live in an area about a mile off the main road where there are no street lights and the roads are all small and unpaved snaking in and out around the homes. The rules are WE DON’T GO WALKING AFTER DARK…
As many of you know we are now in the rainy season here in Tanzania. What we know now is just what happens during a rain. The rain comes down so hard and it is so loud you cannot even hear the person next to you speaking. For the past few nights bandits have come off Mt. Kilimanjaro and have plagued the area where we live.
Thursday evening the neighbor behind us had their car stolen out of there yard, thank God no one was injured. The other neighbors had a group of men posing as police officers force their way inside his house and steal all of the home furnishings including the mattresses, and all of the food, and his money. Our friend who is a missionary scheduled to return to the US to pastor in the mid west was also violated. A young man convinced his security guard he was there to meet with our friend. The guard let the man inside the gate and before our friend knew what was occurring, the man was at his front door. Our friend knew he was casing the house because the man kept trying to look through the windows into the house. He could have had a gun, but praise Jesus the situation was dealt with without incident. The main security guard finally arrived with his rifle and told the man “we will follow you home we will know where you live and if anything happens we will come after you!”
People are constantly casing homes to see what they can steal.  We do not have the security our friend has, but we believe there are angles all around us.
Jeffrey and Diane Stoinoff