Textbooks and Other Things

I haven’t posted a blog in a couple of weeks.  Amani arrived back in the US last Sunday night and spent the better part of the week at our house.  Of course I cooked for him in between catching up to hear what’s happening in Mbeya right now and how SHUCo is progressing towards the start of a new semester with lots of new students and several degree programs.  His report was wonderful and everything is moving forward including the container which we hope is now-finally-on its last leg to Dar es Salaam.

Randy had the job this week to take Amani shopping for groceries, toiletries and lots of things needed for the start of the fall semester at Gettysburg Seminary.  There was laundry to do and his US cell phone  needed to be reactivated.  Amani brought a pretty serious cough with him from Tanzania, so there was a consultation with the pharmacist as well as getting his key for the dorm, making sure he was registered for classes and just getting him adjusted to living in a strange country again.

Those were all the immediate responsibilities of the week which is why we were not thinking much about the future.  But other folks sure were doing that for us.  This week one of my neighbors stopped by to tell us that the women in her church are keeping their eyes open for treadle sewing machines.  And yesterday, a math professor at a local college alerted us that a big stack of math textbooks were sitting outside his office door ready for the taking.  We got them this morning, carrying a stack at a time to the car.

Word is clearly spreading that something important is going on with this project even when Randy and I are too busy with other things to be able to pay attention.  Obviously God’s people are keeping their eyes open.  How cool is that?

Some of the new textbooks for calculus aficionados