Adam’s Education

As most of you know last fall I spent 3 months in Tanzania, Africa. While I was there I grew very close to a woman named Eugenia. Eugenia volunteered to teach me Kiswahili (local language) 3 days a week. I cannot thank her enough for faithfully showing up each day to teach. Eugenia lives in a village just outside of town, she has a good job in town at a small clinic. Eugenia like many women in Africa is the main breadwinner of the home. Many times men disappear and don’t take care of their family. To be 100% honest with you I don’t know what happened to Eugenia’s husband.

Eugenia is left to work 6 days a week to support her daughter and grandson. He daughter Deborah became pregnant at a young age and had a bright boy named Adam. Once again I do not know what happened to the Father. Because Deborah became pregnant at such a young age she was unable to finish her schooling.

Without proper education it is nearly impossible to find a good job. So this leaves Eugenia to provide not only for herself but also for her daughter and grandson. Take into account Eugenia is in her 70’s she works 6 days a weeks has a long commute on public transport to and from work, plus on her only day off she teaches Sunday school and looks after sick people in the village.

Many times during my lessons her grandson Adam would help teach me. Adam is 14 years old and very bright. He spoke amazing English and taught Kiswahili with confidence. Just when I was leaving Adam was prepare for exams; I have just come to find out that Adam scored very high and has been accepted into a very good secondary school.

Any humanitarian or economist will tell you the best investment into poverty is education. Education is the key to a bright and prosperous Africa. Without education you have little to no chances of becoming anyone.

Sadly Adam is like many young bright kids in Africa they have potential of becoming business men, engineers, teachers, or even the president but sadly because their family cannot afford school fee’s they never have the opportunity to succeed.

This week when this was brought to my attention I had to do something about it. Eugenia cannot pay all the bills plus Adams school fee’s. Adam is too bright to miss out on an education, he is a hope for a brighter future in Tanzania.

Adams school fee’s are around $30 month please help out in any way you can I am setting up an account for Adams education and I am praying that we can get his first year of school paid for. Please make a onetime donation. This is a long-term investment that will help one poor village kid become somebody. Please help!

If you would like to make a donation now via debit or credit card click here

If you would like to make a tax-deductable donation you can mail a check to:

Abundant Life Fellowship

630 W. Iron St

Butte, MT 59701

Please make checks payable to Abundant Life Fellowship and mark in the memo “Adams Education”

If you would like to monthly support him or have any questions please email me at: jznewby@gmail.com

Treasure Chests

I’ve been reading through the Sermon on the Mount everyday over and over again, I frequently do this with a portion of scripture just to “get it in me” and to understand it. Sometimes it can get boring, but it helps me remember the promises God has given us. Matthew 5, 6, and 7 are some of the most quoted scriptures in the Bible and with out a doubt convicting.

This week one scripture kept hitting me harder and harder. Yes I have heard it a thousand times but God totally reopened it to me.

Matthew 6:19-20 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steel, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where you treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

This scripture is one of those that hurts when we think of it while we are buying a $5 latte or when we are conjuring up way of how will buy a brand new car. It rubs us the wrong way and makes us rethink how we spend our money.

I do believe that Jesus speaks in certain times using analogies. However I do not think we can make an excuse that this is an analogy. It is pretty plain, simple, and upfront. There are no hidden gimmicks it is just strait “do” or “do not”. I simply believe Jesus is telling us not to waste money on things of earth that have no value in heaven and to spend our money on things that will build in the Kingdom of eternity. What does this look like, well there are many things. I think one of the first steps we can take it to start tithing to our local church. Or maybe you have been debating taking an island vacation, maybe you should use that money to go on a mission trip and love the poor. That money is storing up in heaven by expanding the kingdom of God.

This verse ends in saying where you treasure is where your heart is also. This is saying that where we place imaginarily dollar signs is where our heart is. So if you place imaginarily dollar signs on your house and your possession, your heart is on earth. However if you place imaginarily dollar sign on you Bible, journal, and prayer time with the Father then your heart is in heaven. Value the time you have with God don’t take advantage of it. I want my heart to be where Jesus is not where the enemy is. Lets value the things of God not of earth. 

Abundant Life Fellowship Missions

For those of you who have been asking what I am doing post Tanzania take a look.

 

 

Holiday Family Fun

Remember and Represent

We I am sure most of you know now I am back in the USA. I had a great time in Colorado catching up with friends and family there. Now I have journeyed up to Montana to spend the holidays with the family. I will have plenty of time to process, pray, read, and eat lots of good American food.

For the most part since I have been back it has been crazy busy but I guess that is the time of the year. I have been mostly visiting with people and taking a final exam. But I have had sometime to just sit and think and just simple listen to Jesus. I find this time precious and dear to me. During this time I have so strongly felt that wherever I have been and whatever I have done I must continue in that same attitude of His service. Sure we have time for rest and relaxation but we must always be on mission and glorifying Jesus.

The Message reads in 2 Corinthians 5:20: “We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them.

We represent Christ; He has set us apart and called us His representatives. It doesn’t matter where you are at, YOU are His representative. Weather you are a missionary in Africa, construction worker in the US, or a computer programmer in India YOU are called to represent Christ at all time so that you can bring men and women into the hope and love of Jesus Christ.

As you reflect upon the birth of Jesus this season remember he came into the world in a lowly place a stable just a run down barn. So remember whether you are high or low Jesus will use YOU and call YOU his representative.

Farewell to Africa Update

Thanksgiving African Style

      Well it’s that time of year where we all reflect upon the things that have happened to us over the past year and say what we are thankful for. Over the past month I have been thinking of writing a post on what I am thankful for and how much we have in America. However as I begin to write I do not want this to be a cliché post on how hard life is for the poor and how privileged we are in America. We have all read one to many posts about what people are thankful for and after awhile it all starts to sound the same. But at the same time how do I ignore what’s around me and think about how thankful I am.

     With that being said, besides the oblivious ones that I am thankful for and love dearly like: God, Jesus, Family, and Friends I have put together some possible predictable or not so predictable things I am thankful for this year that I have taken advantage of in the past.

Food: Most of you will indulge in turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie on Thursday but I will be enjoying an egg and bread for breakfast, beans and rice for lunch, and rice and liver or beef for dinner, I might get lucky and get a fresh Nile Perch from the lake for dinner. (I love the fish here in the lake it is a great source of protein) For most orphaned children and the poor all over the world they will just be eating rice and beans or even nothing. 6 million children die each year of starvation. So I am thankful for food this year and blessed we have such great food in America. I have a list of restaurants I want to visit when I get back to the US : ).

Water: This week I visited a far off village called Songa I will tell you more about this trip in my next post. This village the orphans and widows in our project do not have a proper well and they drink water from a watering hole where wild animals get in and drink and digest in it creating many disease like: Cholera, Typhoid, Polio, Diarrhea, and many more. They have no choice it is their only water source for miles and they must boil it and drink it. Here in the city I live in the public water often looks like milk as it comes out of the faucets because of all the chemicals in it. I am thankful I have purified bottled water here in Africa and I am so thankful I have FREE 100% safe drinking water from any faucet in America.

My Car: I have a 1995 Nissan Maxima, the best things about old cars is not having a car payment, but the downside is frequent breakdowns but repairs are heck of a lot cheaper than a monthly payment. I have always said I would love to live in a city with public transport that can take you anywhere. Well here in Mwanza the public transport can just about take you anywhere but it not as great as I thought it would be. First off the amount of time I would save having a car is astronomical. Sometimes to make it 10 miles it can take you over 1 hour. You will need to take two busses, and you can wait at an intersection for 30 minutes waiting for a bus with a seat, and if there is a free one you have to fight for it, push through the crowd, and be a jerk. Then once you get in it smells awful and you are squished in. After doing this for almost 3 months I so thankful I have running car that can take me anywhere I want and in a timely matter.

      Try and not get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season, pray for the afflicted and hurting they need our prayers and love and be thankful for the blessing you have to give.

      My time is coming to an end quickly I will be back in the US in less than 2 weeks. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone, I cant wait to get back and see family and friends but it is going to be so hard to leave the friends and family I have made here in Africa, so bittersweet. Next week be watching for a video post, I am very excited to tell you what is going on in the orphan and widow projects I am involved with, the strategy is genius and I also have some funny pictures of a ceremony that was given to me at the church in Kiseki.

Occupy Africa

I have always been somewhat of a news junkie, growing up after delivering newspapers everyday I would read the news and see what’s going on in the world. It’s something that I have always liked to keep up on and now even being in a foreign country I try to keep up as much as I can. Something’s I found out right away like Steve Jobs passing away, other things like the death of Gadaffi I did not find out for a few days.

Now let me say this I am by no means an expert on the US money and job crisis and I do not have the solution. However I have been keeping an eye on the news seeing the Eurozone and Wall Street crisis. One thing that got a lot of attention here in Africa was the “occupy Wall Street” protests. Not really sure why the media here loved it but it was all over the news.

Being in Africa I have seen a lot of different things and when I look at the US money and job crises I cannot help but wonder has the US lost its “great American work ethic”? American’s have always had pride in the fact that they are hard working, educated, and strong. However the question is have we lost that? Here in Africa I have seen a hard work ethic like no other.

The local transport in Mwanza is awesome. There are hundreds of dalla dalla’s (15 passenger vans) that transport people through out the overpopulated city. The van only seats 15 people but that wont stop them from fitting more, I’ve seen close to 30 people jammed in, it is the most uncomfortable yet exhilarating experience ever and I have yet to see another Mzungu (white man) riding the public transport. My favorite part is when everyone is jammed in and Justin Bieber comes on the radio and everyone starts humming and singing the lyrics, its hilarious. I have met and become friends with a man who drives one of these vans. This man starts working at 5am and finishes at 10pm and works 7 days a week.

He told me: “Once in a while I may take Sunday morning off to go to church but after its back on the road.”

Then I asked when do you rest? He replied:

“I have to provide food for my family, there is no time to rest”.

One other thing is the children strive for education. Almost every kid or teenager I have met tells me it is a privilege they get to go to school and they love it. They take every spare moment to study and make sure they are ready for their tests.

Most of Africa is extremely underdeveloped and there are millions and millions without jobs or an education. But I think the US can learn a lot from Africa. They are starting to develop and they have a strive to be great and some will do anything to achieve it. I don’t have the answers to the debt crisis, but I do believe we in the US have lost our hard work ethic and strive for education and we must get it back to help the mounting issues.

 

 

Hard Times

Generally in my updates I try to post positive and encouraging things that are going on in Africa and that I get to take part in. However the day-to-day reality is not so happy and positive for most Africans.  Here are just a few “hard times” I have come across and seen that broke my heart.

While I was in Mozambique I spent a fair amount of time helping construct a playground in a small village called Meazi. Every Monday and Friday a nurse travels to the church and offers a small health clinic for the people in the area. We would arrive very early in the morning to start working before the sun got to hot and hours before the nurse would even get their the sick would start lining up. There were many young mothers seeking medical check up for their healthy babies and older people looking for medical attention. However one day we arrived and their was a mother holding a extremely malnourished baby. I am sure you have all seen those TV commercials showing malnourished children and they ask you to give money, but those commercials could not give justice to what I saw with this baby. The little one had wrists the size of pencils. Seeing in person adds a whole new dimension and makes you sick to your stomach. I didn’t know what to do my heart was so heavy, my emotions wanted to scream and yell at God, but in the end the only thing I could do is turn the passion into prayer that God would heal and take away sickness.

Back in Tanzania a month or so ago I had the opportunity to dedicate a baby in our church service, it was a fun and beautiful experience. However the father was not present, I just assumed he was either absent from the home or too lazy to go to church. Well a few weeks later I found out he was sick in bed and so we went to pray with him, Charlie is his name. On our way to Charlie’s house I was informed he had two kids, one to his first wife who had passed away about two years ago from an unknown cause, now he is recently remarried and just had a second child. On our way there we passed by their old home in which the roof had been caved in by heavy rain. Now this was no ordinary home it was literally a 6 x 12 foot cement structure you couldn’t fit more than 7 people in there smashed like sardines and this was their home the four of them ate, slept, and lived in their. Since the roof caved in and the rainy season is upon us they moved in and became “squatters” in an abandoned half way constructed home with a roof. We went to pray with him and he had a large bacterial infection on his leg. It was completely swollen and looked brutally painful. Because they had no money literally no money they could not go to a doctor. As we entered the make shift home I could see signs that the witch doctor had been their. Many times people who are young in their faith do not understand the demonic oppression witch doctors have, and since they can’t afford a hospital all they know is to trust the witch doctor.  A few days later I talked to a friend of mine who is nurse, she knew the antibiotic he need to draw out the infection and she purchased it for him. I went with her to present it to him, we prayed with him, led him to the Lord, and prayed against the witch doctors oppression. Last I heard the antibiotic was working and he was feeling better.

I wish life was always dandy for African’s but the reality is it is hard and rough. I am sure you have seen utter poverty either on a mission trip, Hollywood movie, or documentary and your heart has broken. But when you see it day after day for this many weeks straight it weighs on your hearts and becomes burden you cannot forget and keeps you up at night. The cross that Jesus carried was a heavy burden and broke His heart and He asks of us to take up our cross and follow Him.  I cannot ignore this burden of the hurting I must take up my cross, suffer, rejoice, love, cry, sing, and follow Him.

Video Update 11-1-11

Here is a new update of my time in Tanzania and Mozambique. Enjoy and keep me in your prayers.