A quick look back on Outreach

My five months of DTS is almost at its close.  This coming Saturday is the day of graduation and saying goodbye.  We arrived back from our two month outreach phase yesterday afternoon after a very long, uncomfortable bus ride.  I will try to write a briefly about some of the events of outreach.

Firstly we arrived in Zanzibar where we were immersed in an Islamic culture.  We even had a mosque right next to where we were living so every day we heard them announce their prayers over the loud speaker.  In Zanzibar we did mostly door-to-door ministry.  Every morning we went out for three hours talking to people and praying with them.  Many people accepted Christ but it was a challenging time because we did not really see the fruits of our labor.  Like people would accept Christ and then that was the end of it, we never saw them again.  While in Zanzibar we had many fun times as well.  Since it is a tourist Island we did lots of shopping in the shops.  Two of the girls had their birthdays while there so we took a day a celebrated with them by going out for lunch, going to the beach, and playing games.  We also found a random lady to make them a special birthday cake. 

By the time we left Zanzibar, most of us were ready for the change but we had no idea what our life would be like in Dar Es Salam so we were also a little nervous.  Msaki would not tell us anything about what our living conditions would be like so the other girls thought we would be living in a small mud hut.  I kind of thought we would be going somewhere fairly nice.  Anyway we arrived in Dar and to the other girl’s surprise it was a huge house in a nice town.  When I say huge I don’t mean a mansion but it was the size of a typical American house.  Us six girls shared a room with the two other girls that lived there.  It was a bit cramped but not bad at all.  We stayed with a family of five.  There were twin boys, age fifteen, and a girl, age 17.  There was also another girl that was sort of like a house girl and a random guy that stayed in the house as well.  They all welcomed us into their family and I felt at home there.  Grace and Neema were the names of the two girls and I got to spend a lot of time with them cooking meals.  It was really nice to be around some Africans my own age.  While in Dar we did a week or two of door-to-door ministry and then we did a week of seminars for the church members.  After that, we hosted crusades for a week and then did a couple days of seminars for the new believers.  Ministry felt so much easier in Dar and I enjoyed it much more.  There are so many stories to tell but it would take too long and I do not feel like writing them. 

 Anyway, I have only been gone from Dar like 3 days and I already really miss the family.  And I have also have the constant reminder in the back of my head that I will in five days I will have to say goodbye again to people I love.  I guess it is just a part of life to get used to, but I really hate it.