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The restaurant cooked all our food, simple rice and beans for lunch and rice and chicken for supper.

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Judson and Kasia listening to the evening story time.

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Evening story times are a highlight for the children!

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Organized play time with the children

00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20191129183219207_COVER Josh and Lydia Nolt came from PA and surprised everyone, especially Josh’s sister Kim and family! They planned and brought supplies for a lovely couple’s time.

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Filling out the couple’s question game. Fun and hilarious.

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Simon and Kathryn Mast are coming to every retreat now….and we love the feeling of having ‘parents’ and are so thankful for the accountability and guidance they bring. Here they’re telling stories from their marriage.

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Our family….

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The Masts brought ham, cheese, and snacks for a picnic lunch for everyone. It was exceptionally delicious, especially after a hike, but our children had a bit of culture shock.

Winston: “What are these, carrot sticks?” (cheese curls)

Jeshua, after a wry glance at a package of turkey ham, “how on earth do they get HAM from a turkey?” ‘

This group of visitors had packing space for some treats for us and Kasia who hasn’t been to the states yet and hasn’t tasted a lot of american food, violently opposes anything with cheese on it, gagging and protesting. She loves her millet porridge every morning and glares at oatmeal as if she can’t figure out why her porridge is so lumpy. I guess we’ll keep working on it so she won’t have too much culture shock when we do go back to the states. =)

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Our pastor, John Nolt, (on the left) also came. We had hours of  communication and reconnecting.

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All the men met three different times thru out the week for brother’s meeting. Making decisions, asking questions…

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And all the ladies had a sister’s time too….complete with tea and chocolate, of course. =)

And now it’s a week later… we’re all scattered to Zanzibar, Ngara, Kiwira and Mbeya again. All of us back to lonely places and routines, but so thankful for times like this to reconnect and realize we have a place to belong.

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.” Psalms 133:1 ESV

5 thoughts on “Retreat…continued”

  2. Good evening Tim and Sheryl and family Greetings of love in our Saviour’s name. We are in the midst of Christmas school break and greatly enjoyed Christmas caroling and taking time to do special family activities . I wonder how is Christmas spent in Africa?😀I was lamenting to Ivan that I can’t really have an extended family gathering on my side of the family. So he says well, why don’t you try?! So we planned for New Year’s Day and invited Mommy Esh Yoder and Uncles and Aunts and some of my cousins that I have had some contact with over the years. We are looking forward to the day and my mom and dad decided to fly in too! My sister Linda and her little boy flew in for two weeks and Willie the little boy that my parents had in their home for 9 years, called me and said that he is coming too!So sounds like a fun and challenging day! My mom mentioned to me that one of my uncles that is coming prefers to not eat pork so I added chicken to my menu of pork and sourkrout ! Pork and sourkrout is a Peight tradition and I realized how much I adopt my husbands family’s traditions and forget it might be strange to my own siblings!😀 A little update on our family….. Jelissa is teaching school.. She was involved in a courtship for two months but they have parted ways again..Many were the talks and prayers and discussions as she was brought to the reality of, how do I KNOW God’s will?? Juanita is our secretary at our shop and also does babysitting. She is my faithful stand by always willing to lend a helping hand! Jelissa Derrick and Jodi are our scholars and Danika is a mamas girl! She enjoys entertaining the little girls that we babysit. She has accompanied us on an anniversary trip already too, because she has a hard time sleeping when mama and daddy aren’t home! I greatly enjoyed your stories of your anniversary trips! As for my role sometimes I feel a little like one mom put it….I’m the airport manager!! Preparing my children for take offs and anticipating landings! It’s a joy and privilege to see them busy in God’s work!😀I also enjoy interacting with my young mom friends and babysitting for them etc . We recently purchased another property with a bigger shop on and plan to move our business there. It’s been a big undertaking and we had some dusty gritty family nights of cleaning up out there. Plans are to move in the spring LW. We would love to see you all when you come for furlough! Our love and prayers Ivan and Nancy and family

    On Sun, Dec 8, 2019 at 8:31 AM Splinters from our African Log wrote:

    > zeisetfamilyupdates posted: ” The restaurant cooked all our food, simple > rice and beans for lunch and rice and chicken for supper. Judson and Kasia > listening to the evening story time. Evening story times are a highlight > for the children! Organized play time with the chil” >

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