How is this the end of April?!  We have been going through our things here in the states to prep for this move and it never ceases to amaze me how many emotions that can pull out.  For those who don’t know, we are blessed to currently live in a house that my dad built about twenty years ago for my grandparents.  When my grandma could no longer live here alone, she graciously gave it to us.  It and that barn behind it were all filled with family treasures and quite a bit of…other things.  It’s amazing how much people can collect over 100 years!  It has been a good exercise in choosing joy in chaos and choosing specific items out of mass quantity.  It’s an exercise I’m afraid that I fail at often, but pray that I am getting better about succeeding in more often than not.

Our farm animals are down to 13 hens, 2 dogs and 4 cats that our wonderful house sitters have graciously agreed to take over the care of for us.  Please keep this family in your prayers as they are moving out of their comfort zone!  We pray that this will be a wonderful season for them also.  Doing new things can be both exciting and hard!

Paperwork is part of life when moving inside your own country and even more so when moving out!  Thankfully God has blessed us with great friends who are helping this happen.  Our work and residence permits are in Tanzania now so prayers for swift action and positive responses are greatly appreciated!  Thanks to so many of you we have been blessed to purchase a vehicle there and it is already being a help to the work.   The rainy season went into over drive this year as did wide spread vehicle malfunction so our vehicle has been put to work and we are so glad!

God has worked in so many ways through this move and we are completely humbled by all of what we have seen.  One of those ways is through our youngest son who was diagnosed with duchennes muscular dystrophy Christmas before last.   There are many possible complications but God has checked us through all of them!  All of the medical personnel that we have dealt with have been wonderful and the check up have been perfect.  His doctor has been so encouraging and on board with this move and we are so grateful for her.  We have had some people question our move because of his diagnosis and I completely understand where they are coming from but God is bigger than this diagnosis.  Will it eventually pull our mission field base back to the USA?  Probably.  Does it mean that it has to be based here now?  No.   I will try to do a post about this part of our lives at another time.  We pray that this will be an encouragement others not only through the work in spiritual terms but also in the physical.

We hope that you will follow us along on our journey!  I plan to update this blog twice a month once we get there on August 8th!  Thank you in advance for all of your prayers and support!  If you are able to support our work monthly or through a one time donation, the address below is where to send that:

Bear Valley Bible Institute International
2707 S. Lamar Street
Denver, CO 80227.
Please make sure you earmark it – DUNCAN FAMILY – TZ