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Report: January, 2007
Here are the pictures to accompany the January, 2007, work report. The pictures are of Jason preaching in Nduha, preparing to take communion at Nduha, Matayo and some of his family, Judah in the village of Nduha, our family in front of Lake Victoria. - the Millers
Mission Mwanza
Jason, Emily, Judah Miller
Mwanza, Tanzania
Greetings in the name of Christ from Mwanza,Tanzania! We hope this update finds you doing well and being encouraged daily in your walk—we appreciate the encouragement we get from you via emails, cards, letters and prayers, and thank God for you in your support and work alongside us in whatever role you have in the Kingdom.
In this report- both of us write throughout so we’ve tried to put our names next to any pronoun that may be confusing!
Family News:
It has been 2 months since we last sent out this e-mail update- a lot has happened during December and January! One of the most exciting and encouraging of recent events was the arrival of our first “official” house guests from the States.
Our family was blessed in January with a visit from Paul Talley, a good friend and coworker from Overland Park. It was great to see him and to show him around our new country of residence. What is always interesting with visitors is what they notice that you did not or do not anymore. So, in our conversations about life and work here, we learned just as much from his observations as he did just from being here. Paul and I (Jason) were also able to take a few days and venture into the Serengeti just the two of us. It was a blessing for me especially to be with an old friend in a new place just driving around and seeing amazing things, with nothing but time to talk. While Paul has camped more places and more times than most people I know, I think the memory of camping out in the open in the Serengeti with unidentifiable animals scrounging around our tent in the night will not soon leave his memory. Thanks especially to Jane, Jackson, and Luke for letting him out of your sight for a couple of weeks.
For us and Judah, we were blessed with good overall health and quick recoveries from the brief illnesses we did suffer from (a stomach bug for Judah and malaria for me, Emily), and of course Judah is growing taller and exploring more all the time. A few new things he does these days- if you say to him “I love you” then his response is to blow you a kiss; the first time I noticed him doing this was during a phone call/video call with one of my sisters and he seemed very proud of himself for doing it. He is also much better these days at his age to play by himself and do imaginary kind of games, although he is still very much a social boy and prefers to be around other people, children or adults, than to be alone.
Christmas and the New year have passed since our last work report- we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the Christmas cards, pictures, letters and e-mails we received! It was (and is) so uplifting to get mail and read kind and encouraging words from all of you. Also, in December we received a wonderful package from the Young Married’s class at Overland Park, even though it took a while to get here, it was well worth the wait. We couldn’t believe all that was inside and Judah’s favorite part of it were the family pictures of yourselves that you included. He carried them around for a few days which was pretty cute. Our family members sent so many thoughtful Christmas gifts and we loved being able to talk and see each other using internet calling on a program called “Skype”. It is an amazing blessing that Judah gets to actually see his grandparents and greatparents, aunts, uncles and cousins even if it is thousands of miles away.
Work update:
Work, these past few months, has been good. In December, I preached twice, once in town and once in a village called Sumve, pronounced (soomvay). In January I preached once out at Nduha, pronounced (ndooha), when Paul was here I asked him how I did afterward and he said it was nearly unintelligible to him at least.
Swahili for both of us is progressing well, so well in fact that we have scaled back our studies to three hours a week and started concentrating on idioms. Both of us know can understand all the words that are being said by people, our problems with understanding are one of two: vocabulary, meaning we understood the word but don’t know the meaning; or, idiomatic use, meaning we understood the word and know it’s actual meaning but are encountering it in idiomatic use. In English, for instance, if we say “Burn rubber,” everyone knows that we want to go fast, based upon the idea that most people drive or have daily contact with multiple cars. Here, most people are farmers and live far away from city life, so when we meet idiomatic use it usually has no basis in anything we’re familiar with. Oh well, I guess that just means we have more language work to do.
Sukuma for me is to the point that I can produce simple sentences in conversation, as well as greet extensively. I am studying in class 5 hours a week and trying hard not to mix it up with Swahili, which is actually easier than it sounds.
Emily is starting this month to meet with Marisa (Bailey, one of our teammates) to have times together to pray, dream, and plan for the future of the urban work- specifically in the areas of women’s and children’s ministries. They have been involved to this point on a small scale only just due to learning language and culture- crucial steps before jumping completely in. They are both excited about starting this new phase in working together with each other and the Christians here in Mwanza.
In December our team traveled to Arusha, Tanzania to meet and retreat with Sonny Guild and Jackie Halstead, both professors at ACU. Sonny is the director of the Halbert Institute for Missions, while Jackie is the director of the department of Marriage and Family Therapy. We were blessed with their presence as we continually try and conform ourselves to the body of Christ as a team, not just as individuals, and deal with the normal issues that come with such a task. So, for us this was a professional as well as a spiritual retreat. Sonny was able to help us in our task due to his extensive experience with teams around the world, as well as personal study, as his Doctoral Thesis focused on mission teams. Jackie was invaluable as well, tempering all conversations with the wisdom she has gained by studying relationships in depth as well as having applied that knowledge to mission teams several times before.
In the next couple of weeks Aaron Bailey and I will be going to a village called Buliyahilu which is out in Sengerema district. If you look at a map, you’ll notice that Mwanza is right on the water, with a long finger of the lake jutting down to the west of town. On the other side of the lake is this district, Sengerema. It would take about 4 to 5 hours to drive down and around, possibly more, which is why we just take the ferry. The ride is about 30 minutes, and then we have to drive about 5 hours to reach Buliyahilu. The distance from here to there is really not that far, but when you take into consideration rainy season as well as bad roads to begin with, 5 hours is a bargain. In any case, we are preparing right now for a seminar we will be giving out in that area. While the seminar itself is not deeply involved, translating it into Swahili is (at least for us). So, we prepare it first in English (for now), then translate it, then let a good Tanzanian friend look at it and make certain that it makes sense. Aaron and I are blessed in that we happen to have a good friend who is a language teacher, so when they read our Swahili it really is a workout for us. I’ll make certain and let you all know how it goes.
Reflections:
This update we decided that I (Emily) would offer some reflections from these past few months, since usually it is Jason that writes about his reflections. For those of you who especially enjoy Jason’s writing style (and I am one of them!) I’m sure he will be happy to oblige in the next report.
One recurring conversation I have upon meeting people and the ensuing conversation about our family and our son Judah is the issue of his name. Without a doubt, when we say his name, if we say it in Swahili, which is “Yuda” the following question from the other person is “kama Yuda Iscariot?” (like Judas Iscariot?) You see, whereas in English there are two different words- Judah and Judas, in Swahili the spelling is the same for both- Yuda. So we always say, Siyo Yuda Iscariot, kama Yuda, mwana wa Jacobo, which translates, “Not Judas Iscariot, Judah like the son of Jacob”. This response sometimes elicits a semi-blank look since apparently Judas of the bible is, to some people, more memorable than Judah the son of Jacob- I think especially to a new Christian who maybe has not studied as much of all the books of the Bible. Another standby response we have is, “kama wimbo, -Simba wa Yuda-”, which means “like the song- Lion of Judah” because there is a song sung at church entitled this which we love (especially Judah)! This confusion over our son’s name leads me to a conversation that especially struck me this past month involving a Christian named Matayo.
Matayo (Matthew in Swahili) is in his mid 50’s, one of the elders of a village church that was planted more than 10 years ago and his example of leadership- both in his family and within the church, is impressive. Even more than that, just in conversation with him and interaction with him, he is so joyful and kind to everyone that it is an honor to be in his presence. A few weeks ago we traveled the hour or so to his village, Nduha, to greet him and worship together with that church. On our way from his house to the church, he asked about Judah who was sitting between us and I told his name and followed it with “son of Jacob” so that he would know. He- without pause- said (in Swahili) “Oh yes, the 4th son of Jacob.” Like it was the most natural thing in the world. His saying that and knowing the lineage well enough and the Bible well enough to immediately know that was so impressive and encouraging to me. I have to be honest, had it not been for the fact that I am currently reading the bible straight through (inspired to do so by my friend and sister in Christ, Shalee Shields) I could not promise that I myself would have known off the top of my head that Judah was the 4th son. It was only due to the fact that since I started my read-through at the first of the year and so had only very recently re-read the story of the children of Jacob that I knew immediately that he was correct. Later, in recounting the conversation with our friend Paul, who was sitting next to Matayo during the worship time said, “Oh yeah, I was noticing during worship when he would have his bible open how worn it was and marked up from so much usage.”
Matayo is one good example of so many of the Christians here, whether new or mature Christians, that have such a love of the Bible and yearn to know more and more. I get the feeling often that for many of them, the stories of people in the Bible are part of their minds much as the stories of their own families are a part of them- it is not viewed as abstract or being so ancient.
Their examples of this kind of newness and excitement in reading the Bible has gotten me reading in a whole new way. I don’t want to find myself reading any part of the Bible like it is just “old” news to me just because I have been reading (or had it read to me) since I was a child. I pray that I allow myself to be taught by the examples of my brothers and sisters in Christ here, and that our partnership together in Christ can lead others to want to know more about the hope and joy that we find in Him.
Prayer requests:
- thanksgiving for health of our family
- thanksgiving for the rain that continues to fall in Mwanza
- blessing on the upcoming seminar Jason and Aaron will be teaching
- blessing on the dreaming and planning for this year in the urban work
- request that our minds and tongues will continually be given greater usage and understanding of KiSwahili and KiSukuma
- prayer for the continued maturation of church leaders and that they will lead the newer Christians with wisdom and humility
Our mailing address:
Jason, Emily, and Judah Miller
c/o Kanisa la Kristo
P.O. Box 1371
Mwanza, Tanzania
East Africa
Blessings from our family to yours,
The Millers
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