Theophany 2012 Update

Dear friends,

Furaha na amani! Joy and peace!

And happy new year! I pray that you will find yours filled with joy.

I have a doctor’s appointment early next week and anticipate a clean bill of health. The past month has been difficult and good. Since mid December I’ve convalesced and recovered in Bukoba under the good care of my fellow missionaries Felice Stewart, Maria Roeber, and Michael Pagedas. Along with their guests, we had a delightful Christmas and Theophany together. For quite some time I was too weak to work, and the enforced vacation has been restful and refreshing. It was also an opportunity for us four missionaries to deepen our relationships and have great fun together. Now I’m itching to get back to my regular routine in Mwanza.

Vehicle while in North America

Dear friends,

Mungu yu nasi! God is with us!

Greetings from Bukoba, where I am spending this Christmas season together with fellow missionaries Maria Roeber, Felice Stewart and Michael Pagedas as well as their guests. It’s a packed house and we’re having a great time.

Update from the Outside World

12 December 2011

Dear friends,

Furaha na amani! Joy and peace!

After seven days in the hospital, I have been discharged. I am continuing to recuperate under the watchful care of fellow missionary Maria Roeber.

Update from the ICU

Friday, 9th December 2011

Dear Friends,

Kila mwenye pumzi namsifu Bwana!
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!

Greetings from the Intensive Care Unit of Bugando Medical Centre in
Mwanza. I have asked fellow missionary Maria Roeber to type and send
this for me.

Advent 2011 Update

28 November 2011

Dear friends,

Furaha na amani! Joy and peace!

And greetings from Nairobi, Kenya. I have just spent Thanksgiving with old friends after a prolonged stay in this country. I’ve been on the road since late October, the bulk of this time with the Orthodox Church of Turkana County in Northern Kenya. I had a good visit and saw much of interest. God is at work there.

St James 2011 Update

Dear friends,

Furaha na amani! Joy and peace!

Greetings from Mwanza. It’s good to be home. I’ve been on the road most of this month and will be so again next month. For the past few days I’ve been resting and catching up on desk-work from the quiet of my own desk in my own office. It’s a gentle pleasure.

St John the Theologian 2011 Update

26 September 2011

Dear friends,

Tupendane.
Let us love one another.
- 1 John 4:7

Greetings from Mwanza on this feast of the Holy Apostle John. It’s a sunny September, the trees on my hillside are in blossom, and the lake is very blue.

I recently had business in Kenya, and returned to Mwanza on the seventeenth of September- the very date that I first moved to this city, one year ago. Time does fly.

Dormition 2011 Update

Dear friends,

Sisi tuliona utukufu wake kwa macho yetu wenyewe.
We were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
- 2 Peter 1:16

Greetings from Mwanza, where I have returned after several weeks in the hills of rural Muleba District in Kagera Region. In the three weeks leading up to the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor, more than one hundred Orthodox Christian young people from the Muleba countryside gathered at Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church in the hamlet of Ibale for our annual Archdiocesan youth seminar.

St Jacob of Alaska 2011 Update

Dear friends,

Furaha na amani! Joy and peace!

And greetings from Tanzanian winter. It’s hovering around 18 degrees- 65 Fahrenheit- and although it’s the dry season we have had some small rainshowers. I’ve been reading about the extreme heat waves in North America. If you’re pitying me for having to endure Africa’s supposedly harsh and unforgiving climate, don’t!

Lord, it’s Hard to be Humble…

…when the google searches drawing people to your blog include: “saint james tanzania mission trip.”

I’m sure it says something terrible about my ego that the word in this phrase that bothers me most is “trip.”

Seriously, they were probably searching for this.