Football (a.k.a soccer)

One of the challenging aspects of living in Musoma is that it is difficult to find good ways to exercise. As the Tanzanians stay fit by walking or cycling places, they do not understand why anyone would go running just for the sake of exercise. Add to that my white skin and I get quite a bit attention if I go running or even walking for that matter. Since there are no gyms in Musoma I am limited to whatever I can do in my living room.

Fortunately, once a week there is a way for me to escape using workout DVD's in my living room. Every Sunday a group of my friends and colleagues get together to play football (or soccer as I would normally call it). When we first began playing the biggest question was where we would play. Although there are various football fields around Musoma they were either in use or a bit too public for our taste. As football is definitely the sport in Tanzania, everyone in the immediate area would join in and our teams would grow large quickly. The other consequence of playing on one of those fields would be the large audience we were guaranteed to attract. Since neither of those situations was conducive to the low-key game we wanted to play, using those fields was not an option.

Right around that time one of my colleagues was clearing a space in his yard that was close to the size we wanted and private as well. Although we started by playing in the dirt, he has put a lot of work into it and made it into a beautiful grassy field with goals at each end.

So every Sunday a group of us come out and play together. Although it is mostly men there are a few of us girls brave enough to join in, including one 12 year old girl. Everyone is welcome and we play for fun, although the competition does heat up sometimes. A few Tanzanians join us as well.

Although I usually end up with bruises after a game I love playing! It's not that I'm really good but it's fun to run and play with people who I normally see in a different situation. We leave our titles and work at the office and are just a group of people having fun together and working off the stress of the last week before another one begins. Besides, where else can you kick your boss in the shins and get away with it?

The Power of God

In one of the villages where we went for our community check I met a man who should not be there. He is a pastor in a small Ikoma village out by the Serengeti. His church is small (see the above picture) and yet God’s power is evident there. He participated in one of the checks we held for Luke 6 & 7 where he, along with a group of other Ikoma speakers, patiently answered all our questions about those chapters.

Afterwards we went to his house where we ate lunch. During the meal he shared the story of how he preached against the local gods, called ‘machaba’. When he first arrived in this village, he began preaching about the true God and that it was not right to worship the machaba. Of course the people who worshipped the machaba were not happy with this and demanded that he leave. These people included the very powerful leaders of the village. However instead of giving in to their pressure he followed the leading of the Holy Spirit and went the area where they performed their rituals for the machaba. There he spent some time praying to God. Now, remember that although the machaba are man-made idols, there is a very real, very evil power behind them and so this threat was not something he faced lightly.

The day came that was his deadline for leaving but he was still there. The leaders of the village showed up at his house, taking him away and telling him they would see who was more powerful, their gods or his God. As they reached the road near his house the leader of that group fell over and died! Clearly the pastor's God was more powerful so they let him go.

On another day the leaders regrouped to discuss how to make this pastor leave. It was early in the morning, around 5am and the pastor was at home. They had gathered under a tree, where they usually met for these matters, probably a sacred place for the machaba. Suddenly out of nowhere fierce men in white armed with long knives of some type came and chased them all away! They didn’t recognize those men and still don’t know who they were. One of the leaders who was there later explained this all to the pastor. After that incident they realized that the God of the pastor was powerful and did not want them to chase the pastor out. So they let him live there in peace. To this day that pastor lives in that village and has a small church he leads, preaching every Sunday about the true God.

It is an amazing thing to witness the power of God. I have seen God’s power demonstrated before but as the pastor shared these stories I saw the reality of the battle that is going on in a whole new way. This is the power that is available to each of us. That pastor is just an ordinary man who listened to God and was willing to obey. Each of us has the same opportunity but are we willing take it?

This pastor is eagerly waiting for the Ikoma translation to be done. He wants the people to have God’s word in their own language so they won’t be deceived by the evil spirits anymore. He wants God’s truth to speak to the hearts of people so it changes their lives. I hope that God will use my small part in the translation process to reveal His power in the lives of those Ikoma people.

No More Flat Tires

I have to confess that I have recently developed a paranoia about getting flat tires. It might have something to do with the fact that within a two week period I had several flat tires. Therefore as we headed out to the village last week I was praying specifically for God to protect the tires. My colleague was driving his land cruiser and we did have have a spare tire along of course but it can be difficult to find a good place to change a tire sometimes. As well if we got more than one flat we would be in trouble.

The trip had gone well with no flats and I was feeling good about the situation. Then on the last evening we went out to an area outside of town to pick up some corn for one of the translators. There was no real road to the place we were going so we bounced along trails and walking paths until we reached a small field completely full of thorn bushes. Basically we would be driving over lots of 2-3 inch thorns. Having personal experience with what those thorns can do to a tire I knew the danger. I didn't see how we could drive over all those thorns and not get a flat.

So I sat in the back seat and prayed for the tires the entire time we drove over the thorns. Maybe it seems trivial to pray for tires but it was getting late and a flat might have meant driving back in the dark. We made it safely to the house where the corn was being kept and loaded up almost 200kg of dried corn. Needless to say the land cruiser was weighed down, putting a lot more stress on the tires. So once again as we drove back over the thorns I was praying constantly. I wasn't the only one praying either. Another colleague who was in the back seat with me said she was praying the whole time as well.

God answered our prayers in an amazing way! We didn't get one flat tire the entire trip! It was definitely a miracle because there just isn't any other explanation for how we could drive over so many large thorns and not get at least one puncture.

I know God would have been with us even if we had gotten a flat tire and yet it was so encouraging to see the way He protected us. Maybe because I've been frustrated with my car getting so many flats I just needed the reminder that God is in control and He does care about things like flat tires.