May 2021 News Update

 

MAY 2021 NEWSLETTER Dear Supporters, We have been back in Tanzania for 3 months now and; in some ways it feels that time has flown by, in others it feels that it should have been a lot longer by now. We flew the MAF plane, that was upgraded in Kenya, back to Tanzania in February. Although I enjoyed the nice new equipment and Louis was pretty excited about the first time in daddy's plane; unfortunately Amelia and Johann did not enjoy the journey that much, ESPECIALLY in 'daddy's plane.' Our departure from Nairobi was delayed, so the mid-afternoon heat made the flight back even more bumpy. I had to explain to the health officials at Kilimanjaro that Johann was pale, hot and nauseous because of the flight and not for another reason! I have been the only pilot in the programme since we arrived back and it looks like things will continue like this until we leave in August. The 'new' pilot who arrived in February last year had his work permit rejected as well as the appeal. Things seem to have changed recently and we have heard of more success stories with permits. Unfortunately, it is too late for this pilot and his family as they had to make a decision to move on after more than a year of waiting.  Despite some challenges with airstrip conditions and weather, I have been able to do flights into most of the areas where we serve. I've been able to distribute some Maasai Bibles and songbooks as well as other free literature. I also dropped Maasai Evangelists off in various villages from where they reached out to many communities during Easter. One of them even traveled around with a generator and projector and showed the Jesus Film wherever he went. The weather during May caused some challenging flying conditions, I am thankful that it now seems to be improving and that we were kept safe during this time. At the moment, I am only getting about 10 days a month in the office to try and prepare a bit of a handover as well as working on a rota and preparations for some relief pilots until the end of the year. We are praying that one of these relief pilots will consider staying in Tanzania full-time. Support and our plans ahead Thank you to everyone who has supported us over all these years and continue to do so despite all the economic uncertainty going around at the moment. Our contract with MAF allows us to continue to draw an allowance from our support account for three months after moving to the UK. We therefore ask that you would continue your financial support until the end of the year. This will also help us cover other unforeseen expenses during the move. Any funds remaining in our support account will go towards helping new MAFSA missionaries.   At home, Amelia is continuing her amazing work of homeschooling Johann with Louis starting to join in whenever he's not off running around outside and playing with his best friend Topha. Johann loves reading and telling stories to whoever will listen, and always has something being made out of cardboard. Louis knows most of his colours and can count to ten, and sometimes sits still long enough for Johann to read him a story. Amelia is also using her amazing sorting and organizing skills to start getting things ready to sell before we go. Please continue to pray for us as we seek God's will for the MAF Tanzania programme, and our next steps this year as a family.