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Tom and Karen Richardson
Missionaries with The Master's
Mission since 2000
View current news at
www.tmmrichardson.com.
August 2006 Update
Dear Friends, August 8, 2006
The last three months have been busy for
us, but a lot of fun as well.
In May Dean Flower came out to visit,
along with his daughter and son. His son, Tyler stayed till mid-July.
Their visit was encouraging to us. Taking Dean around and introducing him
to friends in town, I was surprised at my own Swahili. And it was nice to
show folks from home what we’ve been up to the past two years.
In June we went to the coast for our
annual conference and then spent a couple weeks at another mission station
in Gatab painting a new school that fellow TMM missionary John Woodworth
built for the community there. We had a good time getting to know John’s
folks over from the States for a short visit.
We’ve worked on a couple projects in July
and August. My senior missionary, Tim Hinds went on furlough in June, so
we’re finishing up the clinic he was building, and we are building a fuel
store here at our place to get drums of diesel and gasoline further from
the house. Work on the first building for the children’s home in
Loyangalani started last month, and we’ve been hauling stone, gravel and
sand to help keep things going.
We’ve especially enjoyed the work lately.
There are two guys working with our family every day now. A young boy
named Tembeyon and a man a little older than me with 14 kids named Lebach.
Neither of them knows English, so it’s been good practice for our Swahili
to have them with us. It’s also satisfying to give them an opportunity to
provide for their families. Lebach has been a joy to work with, and he’s
slowly becoming a friend. Tembeyon on the other hand is a bit of a pistol.
He’s made a reputation for himself of being too slow for school, and I
think he’s used it to remain footloose and free of responsibilities, but I
am convinced he’s pretty sharp. The local guys in church have encouraged
me to be patient with Tembeyon, giving him a chance to learn to work and
become a useful part of the community. He’s the same size as Russell
although a few years older, and his presence has transformed Russell, who
can’t bear to have an outsider out-work him and who can now communicate
quite well in Swahili.
Because Jim Teasdale has been traveling a
lot lately I’ve taught devotions four weeks out of the last two months.
Teaching day after day has helped my Swahili more than anything else I’ve
done in two years. A few weeks ago we introduced the game of ‘spoons’ to
the youth and they’ve played it every Friday night since.
Karen has shamed me with her faithfulness
to spend every extra minute studying Swahili. It would be easy for Karen
to stay in the house and take care of us, but she constantly gets out and
spends time with the ladies and talks with them quite easily.
It surprised me a few weeks ago to realize
Warner was sitting behind me in church translating a sermon from Swahili
to English for a visitor. Daniel and Joanna also have picked up enough
through work and play that Karen and I can’t use Swahili to keep secrets
anymore.
I guess it’s obvious I’m encouraged with
our progress with the language here. We do still have a long way to go,
but what we have gained has helped us to enjoy people more. Please
remember Tembeyon and Lebach and their need to know their creator. And
also the small group of believers here in Loyangalani, that they would be
a good testimony for the Lord. We leave for Nairobi August 26th, so please
pray for our safety while we are traveling. We are thankful for all of
you, remembering you in our prayers.
In Christ, Tom, Karen, Warner, Daniel,
Joanna, Ellie, Russell and Kristyn Richardson |
