First objective when arriving back in Tanzania this year was to make sure our transportation was in good working order. Ben was able to acquire a new motorcycle from a Norwegian friend who was heading back to Norway - a Honda 650!

Many of you have helped with the electricity project at Waama. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! We were so blessed to come back to our house and find a circuit box! We are all hooked up to the national electric grid!! Life is good.

I know...I didn't believe it either, until I saw it. We realy DO have electricity...and here is where it comes into our house...complete with our meter and everything. God is good!

One of the special projects we are especially excited about this year is getting national evangelistic teams set up with their own sound/video projection equipment. Pictured above are 3 Acclaimer sets with their corresponding screens. Each set includes an LED video projector, amplifier, microphone, speaker, all necessary cables, DVD player, battery to run the system for 4+ hours and solar panel for charging the battery. Pray as we seek to get these systems into the hands of capable evangelists.

Now that we have been in full-swing teaching again, we thought you might like to see some pictures of us in action. Pictured here is Ben teaching a Bible History calss.

In any class, questions from the students and resulting discussions are always a highlight.

Pictured here is Jesse teaching his favorite class - Evangelism.

It always makes teaching enjoyable when the students are so eager to learn!

I am about to introduce you to the process the Tanzanians use to do a portion of the work that a combine does in the States. Please note that the corn, before getting to this point, was planted by hand, cultivated by hand, and even harvested by hand. The picture above shows the tractor and the machine (run off the tractor's PTO) to remove the grain from the cobb. Even the Tanzanians were wondering what the tractor/machine owner would have done if we had not had those rocks nice and handy. :/

Some students took the corn and simply put it into bags or buckets so it could be carried to the machine.


Others were occupied with hauling those bags and buckets of corn and feeding them into the machine.
Still others were kept busy hauling off the dry cobbs that were spit out of one side of the machine...

...while others hauled the precious grain into our store, added pesticide for storage, and put it into the mini grain silo. Good times. :) In all, we processed around 100 gunny sacks of grain that day...in approximately 4 hours.

As we all know, the highlight of being home is always spending time with family. Pictured above is Jesse with all his family including siblings' spouses (except Sarah's husband, Anders; but pictured is Anna's husband, Dary as well as Luke's wife, Summer). Also pictured are the resulting children (Sarah and Ander's boys, Adino and Gunnar and Luke and Summer's new little guy, Asher). Unfortunately, Anders was unable to be with us for this picture.

Jesse was blessed during his time in the States, to have the opportunity to make a trip to Brazil for his former employer, LEKTRO, Inc. This provided the opportunity to visit AFLC Missionaries, Paul and Becky Abel, and some of the churches they are involved with in the Curitiba area. A special highlight was presenting the work in Tanzania to Brazilian Christians who have prayed for us and supported us in other ways.

Jesse was blessed by his sister-in-law, Summer, who again coordinated a Benefit Concert for the work in Tanzania. Those who performed included not only Summer's girls choir (pictured) but also other groups and individuals from Atonement Free Lutheran Church in Arlington, WA.

One highlight of Jesse's summer was a trip to Australia with his brother, Joe, made possible by a delightful friend in the airline industry (Thanks, Nadia!!).

Pictured from left to right are all the brothers who got to spend some time together this summer - Luke, Jesse, Joe, Micah, Daniel, and Caleb.

Jesse came home again this year with another 'new look' which [thankfully] didn't last too long. :) Don't worry, mom still loves him.

Ben returned to Tanzania this year without even telling Jesse that he had begun a relationship with a certain YOUNG lady - Adela Hein. Congratulations to both of you!

Ben with big brother, Tim.

En route to Tanzania Ben had a layover in London which gave him enough time to see some sights.

The time in the States provided good opportunities to re-connect with friends and family. Pictured above from left to right are Ben, cousin Stephanie, and brother Andy.

...here is Ben with his little nephew, Tyler, who he lured onto his lap with some yogurt.

...spending some time with the neice and nephews (kids of brother Tim).

The above picture shows all except for one of the 61 students who completed this 2008/2009 school year (together with some of the staff and teachers who just didn't want to miss the chance to be in a picture). :)

On Graduation Day, Ben had plenty of responsibilities as "Academic Dean". Here hs is trying to get everyone in order to enter the final ceremony. He succeeded but then they messed it all up when they went to sit down. Oh well...
Here the students are entering and finding their seats for the graduation ceremony. The students in the white robes are the ones who have now finished all three years of study.

After the ceremony was over we tried to get one last group shot. I think most of the people are there.

As we prepared to close the school for the summer, there was much work that needed to be done. Here are some of the girls washing curtains, table cloths, etc.

...there was also much to be done to prepare the grounds for Graduation Day! These guys did a great job on the flower beds.

Firewood is a big chore around here as it is used to cook all of the school's food and boil all their drinking water. In our final week before graduation, we also made significant strides in this area.

Waama could not survive without corn. It is the staple of the students' diet and any excess is sold to provide additional income. We praise God for an abundant harvest for the school this year at a time when many of the surrounding regions are really struggling with lack of food.

Well, here is the picture many of you have been waiting for!! Here is the long-awaited transformer for Waama. Electricity is not far away now!! It was finally installed on June 29th, the day after graduation.


After taking the above picture with the new transformer, we continued on our way to Arusha - just the beginning of our trek back to the U.S. of A. This is the type of terrain we cover when we make that trip (Mbulu/Arusha).
As many of you may know, one of our good friends in Arusha is the local MAF pilot, Eivind. Well, we always enjoy hanging out as a trio of bachelors but it seems the trio was recently and very unexpectedly annihilated. Congratulations Eivind and Nadia!!

This set of pictures from out time in the Rift Valley. This is a "Hazabe-style" house. They live so primitively...and that is how they prefer it.

Many of you probably recognize this type of tree - the Baobao tree - typical of this part of Africa.

We actually got some rain on our Saturday afternoon there but it was very localized...and the rainbow was so beautiful, too!!

We were well taken care of. Pictured here are some of our students, our driver and some of the people who were helping feed us.

Our weekends of ministry often involve various activities. I thought I would try to give you a taste of some of what we do with this set of pictures. Here we were visiting the mother of a local believer. They don't know exactly how old she is...but she is old...probably close to 100!

We also often teach seminars or "spiritual meetings" during the afternoon when we cannot show the film. This was the group we had for a recent Saturday afternoon seminar.

We are also always happy to travel with our students from each region and give them an opportunity to re-unite with their friends and family in the middle of a long semester.

One huge, on-going task for the students here at the school is cutting firewood which is used to cook all their food. Well, they had a chainsaw but it has been broken and Ben and I have been trying to help them fix it by getting spare parts, etc. Well, I am happy to report that IT HAS FINALLY BEEN REPAIRED!! What a blessing!

Here is the saw on its trial run...

The tree was cut down successfully...and then cut up, too. :)

Here is Ben with some of the staff and students of Waama holding a python that was killed by a neighbor down by the school's well!

Regina is one of our more courageous students! She is also an evangelist who works down in the Rift Valley.

The school has several "income generating projects" including these pigs which are sold when full-grown. Until then, they are cared for by the students.
We also have cows which provide some milk for the staff and students and are also occasionally sold. This picture was taken recently only about an hour after this new calf was born!

Here is a picture we were recently given from the evangelist of one of the churches we visited on a weekend of ministry. For those that don't know, at each place we visit, we leave a number of Bibles intended for those who don't already have one and otherwise wouldn't be able to afford one for themselves. They sent us this picture to show us some of the recipients! Thanks to all who help make this possible!!On a very few but happy occasions, we have been blessed to have foreign guests join us at one of our film showings. On this occasion it was four girls. Here we are all together having dinner after the film showing (from back to front): Jesse, Ben, Emmelin and Martina (from Amsterdam), Jenny and Sarah (from Canada).I always like to post pictures like this of our "normal" life. There was even a herd of giraffes in the background of this one...but you can't see them because we were in the way!!...BUMMER!! And after all our travels, whether to the city or village, it is always nice to be back at our "home sweet home".

We really depend on our motorcycles as our primary means of transport and could not do nearly the amount of ministry that we do without them...but they also come in handy when we just want to get out, explore the environment, and have some fun with some friends! Pictured here are the two of us with three Norwegian friends of ours (Trond, Henrik, and Helge) who have been volunteering in various ministries. Henrik and Helge have now returned to Norway after a 7-month stay here in Tanzania and Trond's 1-year commitment will come to an end in early July. :(

While exploring, you can find all types of terrain and soil - muddy, rocky, thorny, or in this case, very steep and sandy. :)

For those that have been waiting to see the new bike God blessed me with, here she is! It has truly been a blessing. "A whole new world..."

Allow me to introduce you to our good friends, Glenn and Ivy. As some of you read in our updates, Jesse had the honor of being one of the groomsmen for their special day.Here is the wedding party with many of their various relatives...



And, just so you know that I really was a part of the wedding...here I am pictured participating in one of the readings.

Here are Ben and I after the wedding ceremony for Glenn and Ivy...

...and here are Ben and our good friend, Trond (from Norway).

Presenting...the happy couple!

Ok everybody, welcome to Kendwa Rocks on the northwest tip of the Island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean. I want to take this opportunity to try to help you all enjoy some of our Easter break...When we first went down to the beach on the first day, it looked something like this. Without a doubt you can tell what is missing...US!!

That is what we thought, too. So we quickly made ourselves at home. You know, in an environment like this, even class preparation is enjoyable!! Again, however, there is something wrong with this picture...there is no one playing volleyball!!

So, we quickly fixed that problem as well. Every night, this is the scene at Kendwa. :) To schedule your own visit with a VERY FRIENDLY and experienced tour guide, contact me. :)

Really, Zanzibar (at least this part of it) is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I just had to put this picture up simply because the colors look like a postcard, don't they!?

I will try to give you a little bit of a tour of Kendwa Rocks (where we stay). They have a variety of different accommodations. These are some of the self-contained beach bungalows. We, of course, stay up in the cheaper housing...but it is pretty.

Here is yours truly (Jesse) coming out of the water after a "cool down dip". It is such a stunning place. For example, as I was swimming around out there, I realized at one point that even though I was in about 12-feet of water, I could still make out the ripples in the sand down on the bottom. The water is that clear!

Here is the "economy housing" that we stayed in. It's still pretty nice, huh? It is not "self-contained" and there was no A/C but not too bad for $15/person per night...including breakfast!