Hurley, Bob and Jane Tanzania
Hurley main pagePrayer Letter October 2007
We’re off the starting block!
It feels like we are finally off the starting block! We all have our visas, our African driving licenses, our first shipment of stuff has arrived and we are about to take the kids to the airport in Dar es Salaam to go back to the UK for the second half of term. We then go out to a place called Iringa, high up in the mountains, where we will be going to language school for the next four months to learn Swahili. (A language that to me makes little or no sense at all!) I can already tell that Jane is going to be really good at it, so please pray for me that I won’t get left too far behind!
In Morogoro everyone has been really welcoming and it’s starting to feel like home. We have made lots of friends and are beginning to get used to the culture and change of life. We are so grateful for your prayers and support and we really feel that we are in this together.
What’s it like here?
You are probably wondering what it is like here. Well, nothing in the U.K. could possibly prepare you for it!
As you drive down the high street you are faced with bicycles and cars coming at you from every direction, and potholes which really need to be avoided. There are women in brightly coloured clothes carrying everything from baskets of bananas to really heavy water containers on their heads, with their babies strapped to their backs peeping round their sides. All the children look adorable with huge brown eyes and lovely smiles. We carry a box of sweets in the car to give to them.
People here are friendly and very welcoming. White people are called ‘Mzungu’ So you know when you’ve been spotted! Culturally you can’t just go up to someone to ask something – first you have to go through a whole host of greetings. And men often hold hands. So when I was greeted by the bishop, he held my hand and walked round the garden – but how do you know when to let go? How long do I hold the bishops hand for? I have had problems with bishops, but never this one!
Shaken but not stirred!
Less than a fortnight after we arrived we were invited to a restaurant with another missionary family who had a couple of friends on their way to Malawi staying with them. When we arrived at the restaurant there was not enough space for us all to sit at the same table so we sat in a different part of the restaurant to them. After ordering food Bob went over to their table to have a chat while I stayed with Josh and the other three went off to play football with the other children. Suddenly I heard what sounded like fire crackers and then there was a whoosh of people running past our table and out through the back door of the restaurant. Josh said to me ‘there’s a snake, come on we need to run’ but I realised that the firecrackers were gunshots – it was an armed robbery and they had been directed at the children playing football. There was no time to stop and think , I grabbed Josh’s hand and ran out of the restaurant and hid behind a wall outside. While we were hiding there I had to give the safety of the others over to God, and when I prayed I was overcome by a sense of peace, knowing He was in control.
After what seemed an interminable length of time I heard Bob calling me and discovered that amazingly the girls had found Bob in the chaos and had hidden with him in the ladies and Matt had run off into the men’s loo where he hid with a South African man who was busy stuffing his money into his socks! We are very grateful to God for keeping us safe and also very proud of Rebecca who saw the 4 year old son of our friends alone at the end of the garden with a gun man running towards him and at great personal risk ran to him, picked him up and took him into the loo with her. Matt and Clare have been suffering from flashbacks – especially Clare who came face to face with a man pointing a semi automatic machine gun at her. We would really value your prayers for all of us for the protecting of our minds concerning this event but we would also like to say that when we sat down the next day and talked and prayed about it we felt a real sense of peace that we are in the right place which we may not have had otherwise. We also would value your prayers for the family of the guard who was shot dead.
Did you know………
Lake Tanganyika is so deep that you could put 5 Eiffel Towers on top of one another and they would all be under the surface – it’s also longer than Portugal!
Please pray
- For safe travel for the children to and from school
- That we would continue to trust the Lord for His protection and remember He is in control.
- To be able to learn Kiswahili effectively.
- To know how to bring Christ into the new relationships we are making.
- Not to be afraid to share our faith with the people we meet.
Bob and Jane Hurley