The story thus far...

Hello there. Welcome to our blog! And have we got a blog for you! (Apologizes for the horribly executed Veggie Tales pun)

  For the next few months, the Team and I will be posting on this blog giving you updates on our progress as we prepare to venture to Moshi, Tanzania! And (if God willing with our internet access) we'll even be able to post entries while we're there! So you'll get to follow us right when we're serving in Africa!
  So the best place to start is the very beginning... and our story thus far. We got to find out who was on our team at the end of our 2nd Year training week. In order to discover who was who, we needed to make the noise of the animal pictured on a sheet of paper that was given to us. My photo? A Giraffe. My first thought? "What kind of noise does a GIRAFFE make?!?" Oh, and then "Whoa! I must be going to Africa!" As our student body was moving around the room making the most interesting attempt at reinacting animal wildlife, I knew the only thing I could do was stretch my neck- yeah, like a Giraffe. That's all I had to work with, really. But then, it happened. I ran into Becca, Josiah, Ryley, and Danielle, trying their best to also stretch their necks... at least, I think that's what they were doing. But I digress. After we had our team together, we were given a clue to where we could be going. Before our Mission's Teacher could finish, Josiah guessed "Tanzania." Well, that was easy. And so Team Tanzania was formed, and we later learned what we'll be doing...

We will "be travelling to the Moshi/Arusha region of Tanzania at the feet of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest mountain.  (We'll) be hosted by Pastor Justin Oforo and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. The team will be staying and serving at Angaza Women’s Centre, where local women are taught skills to be self employed. (We) will also do children’s ministry at a local school for orphans. Many of the children here are HIV/AIDS orphans. In addition, (we) will serve at a school for disabled children and will be involved in youth ministry."  (description from www.clbi.edu)

  In addition to this, we also found out that we'll be doing a day-hike of Mt. Kilimanjaro! Would of been nice to done the whole thing, but unfortunately we can't really spare the 10 extra days.  Since then, we have been busy at work! We've sent out letters to people we know, asking to pray for us and the people of Tanzania. We've received our shots (I think an average of 3 per team member), which has made us oh so... healthy. Yes, I guess that's the way to best describe it, as our student body is just coming back from a previous week of various sicknesses and flu bugs. But I digress. Other than that, I've successfully put together this blog and put together a pretty impressive facebook group letting others know what we're doing. Yes... very impressive work by yours truly. Okay, it's not really impressive, but I'm happy everything is (virally) coming together. But there is some things our team could use prayer for:

• Becca. She is having trouble finding tickets at afforable prices, and it looks like airliners going into Mt. Kilimanjaro International Airport are very limited. Please pray that we can find tickets that work with our budget.
• Visas. In order to go to Tanzania, we need to apply for visas. Please pray that the process would go over quickly and smoothly for each team member.
• Team Connection. As 2nd years, we have a number of responsibilities around the school. As such, we are very busy and are struggling to find time to connect and have quality time. We've reconginze, as a Team, that spending time together is crucial for when we must work and travel together in the month of January. Please pray that we may have time to bond well, not only as team members, but as friends!

And that's our story thus far! Thank you so much again for the prayers and support. They are so vital for us as an IMPACT Team! Continue to check back over the next few months, and other team members will post their thoughts and feelings going into January.

In Christ,
Dan