Day two of Zanzibar we took a boat out to Prisoner Island and Grave Island. Prisoner Island is and island that they built prisons on and intended to use strictly for prisons. However, they ended up using for a hospital instead. Grave Island has graves of shipwreck members and miscellaneous other graves. It also has thousands of fruit bats! They call them fruit bats because when they hang upside down it looks as though they are fruit. They are huge and have yellow bellies. It was really cool seeing them and I will have pics up on myspace. While on Prison Island we also saw the huge turtles they have there. The turtle are 300 kg and are HUGE!!! There day starts in a mud pit and it takes them about 6 hours to move 50-100 ft where they go spend a couple of hours getting fed by people like myself and then take the rest of the day getting back to their beds. Pics of them will be up as well. The funnest part of the day was when we went snorkeling off of Prison Island. The coral was amazing! We say blue, red and gray, red, green, orange and green and yellow starfish. We also saw several different kinds of fish. After snorkeling we headed back to Stonetown and got ready for another sunset on the beach and some hanging out with the Maasai guys. Day three of our adventure was spent on The Spice Tour! We basically had a tour guide lead us through all the spice farms that Zanzibar is known for. We were able to sample each thing. They took leaves and twigs and made a cone for us to put our stuff in. They also made us hats, a basket and a tie out of grass. At the end of the tour we ate the best fruit ever: white and pink grapefruit, custard apple, orange, tangerine, jackfruit (gross), etc. We also sampled different teas that they made with their spices. Lemongrass tea with vanilla was by far the best!! We then went back in town and then rode the waves all the way home!
Zanzibar...
Tuesday - Thursday of this week the family and interns took a relaxing/scouting trip to Zanzibar. Upon our arrival, we immediately met up with a friend of theirs who is a tour guide. He took us to the market which consisted of a raw fish aisle, a raw meat aisle, and then many pleasant fruits, vegetables, & famous Zanzibar spices! After this we headed to see the famous Anglican church and learn about the biggest slave market in East Africa. They took us to the huge Anglican church and gave us a tour inside. We saw a statue representing the men and women. It had five people yoked together at the neck and we learned that large groups were attached at the neck like this and then put into a prison. As about 12 of us crammed into the 2-4 ft tall slave chamber in the dungeon they taught us that 50-75 slaves would be kept in this tiny cell. They were held often 2-3 without food or water. Many would die of suffocation because the "windows" were only about 1" x 10". Often times the tide would rise so high that water flowed in through the windows, drowning most if not all of the 50-75 slaves. Those who survived were escorted to the whipping post. They took us to a tree which they would tie the Africans to and use as an open whipping post. They informed us that the more of a beating the slave could take, the more he was worth. So the pressure was on as crowds gathered and watched the blood of these men flow freely. It was a very good and informative experience. After this tour we went and ate lunch and then went for some ice cream at the incredible Italian restaurant "Amore Mia". The rest of our day was spent shopping and bargaining. To be continued.......(for real this time)
Mkoko Trip
What a rewarding week it has been. This week has been very long and tiring for such a short week. A group of 18, myself included, left early monday morning and headed for the village of Mkoko. Our goal was to build relationship with a small village that, to our knowledge, was 100% Muslims/Animists (voodoo). When we arrived at the small village just 2 hours outside of Dar we entered a different world. No electricity, no cell phone coverage, no beds, no toilets and no showers. As we entered the village we knew we would be the entertainment for the week for entire village. We knew not a moment would be spent without several Mkokoans spending it with us. Day one of our five day trip was spent unloading vehicles, setting up tents, setting up our "kitchen" (two canopies with two tables under it), and setting up our toilets/showers. Our bathrooms were a 12' x 16' area consisting of wooden poles wrapped with tarp, a 2' x 4' x 3' hole covered by a wooden box with a hole in the top and bottom, and a most importantly 4 very nice signs indicating which side of the showers and toilets was "men" and which was "women". At night we gathered around the guitars and djembe and worshiped God while Charles preached part 1 of the gospel that was divided into 4 nights. As day number 2 roller around so did our first English class with the kids who were, to our knowledge, fairly fluent in English. As we began to teach we realized that none of the kids spoke any English and soon found out that our lesson plans were of no help. As we continued on to the finish line, red faced as ever and in last place...getting lapped by all the drivers ahead of us....twice, we managed to teach the kids the words "small, smaller, smallest, big, bigger, and biggest" without them learning any English! The rest of the day was spent hanging out with the kids and playing soccer with them. The evening service went as smooth as the previous night as Charles preached part 2 of his messages. Day 3 was the deja vu version of day 2, except with smoother English and a few minor interruptions in the evening service. Day 4 Chad and I decided to hike some to prepare for our mountain climbing next week (which we chose Zanzibar instead later on) and we walked on for about an hour and a half on a tiny trail that led to the top of a hill. When we reached the top of the hill we were greeted by a grandma who took us to another hut that offered us water. As we graciously declined we met a man wearing a cross necklace. I asked him if he loved Jesus and he said, "yes" and mentioned that he was not only a Christian but was also saved (two very different things in Africa, ask if you are interested). I asked him in my broken Swahili if the others with him were saved and if anyone else in the village was saved. He responded in broken English informing me he was the only one! Please be in prayer for him as he lives for God as best he can with no Bible. On our final evening Charles preached about Jesus dying for our sins and rising victoriously and as all 16 members of the group stood up and boldly proclaimed, "I believe Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God and that He died to take away my sins!" the atmosphere began to change. I looked on our friends as their thirsty eyes and ears soaked up everything going on, from youngest to eldest. We supplied them with Swahili books full of bible stories, including the Gospel, and prayed for them as we dismissed. At 2 am we set our alarms so we could wire the girls tent shut and collapse it on them. Day 5 we broke down camp and headed home, giving one of the respected elders a ride into town. On the way our workers witnessed to him and he informed them that many lives were changed during the week.
My friends as you have read this I hope it has been inspiring to you. I would to ask for special prayer for a man that we met last week. His name was Rasheed. He was raised in Mkoko but moved to Dar several years ago. During his time there he was witnessed to by a TAG pastor and gave his life to Christ. When he returned to the village he proclaimed his faith boldly. Only to be denied the right to speak the name of Jesus, forced to marry a Muslim woman, and threatened with his life if he continued in his Christian faith. For over a year he has been praying that God would send him something to encourage him. As he risked his life even being seen with us we were able to spend much time praying for him and encouraging him in his faith. Our prayer is that God would use supernatural dreams and visions to awaken the village of Mkoko and that Rasheed would have the boldness to stand for Christ and proclaim the Gospel to these who are awakened! Pray also for the man that we met wearing the cross necklace. I appreciate you reading this post and pray that it bless and encouraged you, Paul
That I May Know Him
As I was getting ready for church this past Sunday I was reading John 14 and came across this verse in the NASB "'Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.' Jesus said to him, 'Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to Me?'" (vs 8 & 9). I was immediately convicted and began to think , as I read over this again and again, of how easy it has been to find myself in the position of Philip. How easy it is to have been raised in church and to have not truly come to know Him. How easy it is to go to youth camps, be overwhelmed with church and various church activities and even have taken several missions trips and been on the mission field for a month and still not come to know Him. The past week this verse has played over and over in my head and convicted me over and over. My prayer has been "God may I not spend these 9 months and not know You more. May I come to know you more with every place I go, everything I do and every conversation I have." So, just a simple thought, my challenge to you is this: do not be that man, that woman, who was raised in church, who has been saved for 30, 40, 50+ years yet doesn't know Him. Don't be one of the many who spend hours and hours a week doing stuff at church and when they lay their head down realize they haven't gotten to know Him a little more that week. May our prayer be "That I may know Him!"
The people who do know their God shall be strong and do exploits (KJV)
The people who know their God will display strength and take action (NASB)
-Daniel 11.32