More Ramblings...

Michael, Mavuno child for close to two months now,

 when asked what he wants to be when he grows up:

 “A DADDY.”

YAY, yay, yay!!! Michael, who up until this point has NEVER had a daddy or known what a family is, understands now and wants to be like his daddy, John. What an awesome testimony to the power of GOD through the love of his family!

We are looking forward eagerly to accepting our 8th child into the Mbugua home next month. Bianca will join us on the 7th of October, coming from Forever Angel’s Baby Home in Mwanza (where both Michael and Aika came from as well). As Bianca is five, Milka and John have their hands full of preschool and kindergarten aged children! 

Last weekend most of the family (minus Kate, Megan and Mom) ran the 5K in the second annual Rock City marathon in Mwanza.  As this is the only event of most any kind in Mwanza, it is pretty exciting for us bush people.  Last year, after beating their previous 5K times by more than 5 minutes, we drove the route and found out that it was actually only 3.9 K.  This year, we are pretty sure that it was a pretty accurate 5K, but the African flavor of the race still lingered (which was most of the fun).  Starting time was 7 am, and they actually got the call for “Men in the front, women in the back…GO!” at 8:40.   

Lauren’s 2K was supposed to start at 8 but started right around 9:45, and after about 30 seconds of running, everyone had to stop and wait for the police escort to find out which route he was supposed to take.  I use the term “route” loosely, as there is nothing marked, and if you don’t see someone ahead of you, there is no way to know where to go.  No traffic is stopped, so there are instances where you are risking your life to run. J  In the end, though, everyone had a great time, received a t-shirt and hat (also unheard of here, and we were asked for ours by people hanging around before we could even leave the stadium), and are still stretching some sore muscles!

We had another fire last night. We smelled it during our reading before bed, then by 10:30 the small blaze made by the local fisherman had turned into quite an inferno, burning up a huge section of Mavuno land. Thankfully, we had already burned near our house (before the other big fire) so this one came just about 30 feet from our bedroom window while we watched. It was quite a sight!

The most exciting thing that has happened in a LONG time is that there is a church going up! And that is just the building! John has been meeting with the local believers every Sunday now on a plot of land, out in the sun, and there have been at least 30 for the past month (not including children, who number at least 30). We are so excited about these new believers. They are so eager to learn, only one of them coming from a different church in the area. John is getting to answer questions like, “Who made God?” They are new to almost everything about Christianity, and John is faithfully walking them through the basics of our faith. Bible-teaching and Christ-honoring churches seem to be few and far between, and Jesus Christ is building His church in Kitongo!

While most of you head into winter soon, we head into our rainy season. We continue to pray that not only will Mavuno be a place of harvesting crops, but we will truly be planting seeds of discipleship and faithfulness in the children we receive (as well as our own!). Please pray that we will persevere in a way that would honor Jesus and bless those around us—our families, our teammates, and our village.