November was a month full of highs and lows in our part of the world.  We started off the month sadly having to send our guest, Olivia Barnes, back to the states since her time here was over.  She was a great asset to the work here and to our family.  Andrew Connally School of Preaching also had graduation at the end of November.  We miss the students and are praying for those who have just graduated but look forward to seeing the returning students in February.

Phillip is working daily with the farm at Andrew Connally.  Several months ago he  developed the book-keeping protocol for farm expenses and has since turned most of the pencil work over to the farm secretary, Ishmael.  Phillip will continue to help track the different expenses since that changes weekly/monthly.   He has also been working to problem solve various crop issues because, in all honesty, that is what 75% of farming involves.   One of our biggest challenges has been the tomato crop.   While there was a good crop of roma type tomatoes growing in five raised beds at the farm, they were starting to be affected by blossom end rot.  In the states we would use Epsom salts to fix the problem quickly but if that is available here, we have not been able to find the Swahili word for it!   We were able to get powdered calcium that is given to the layer hens and have mixed it with water to pour on each plant.  Phillip has spent two days over the last two weeks helping get the calcium put out and the workers at the farm successfully harvested several gallons of perfect tomatoes today!  Praise God, we were able to help correct a crop problem relatively easily!   We have also been working with the farm workers to get the green house functioning for peppers and tomatoes.  That work is starting to see some fruits for our labors which has been very encouraging.

 

Phillip also does Bible studies weekly, teaches the teen class at Kisongo on Sundays, preaches when needed and attends the preacher meetings that are held one Saturday a month to try to keep up with what is happening at the congregations around the Arusha area.   Almost every Saturday afternoon our family is at the Kisongo church building helping coordinate youth classes.  In Tanzania, “Youth” is anyone between the ages of 13-22 or maybe 18-36?  It seems to depend on who you ask, but we have been using the former age grouping.  Phillip is leading a young men’s class on developing church leadership while I teach the young women about women of the Bible.  Any local congregations are welcome to attend every week but we are trying to make the last Saturday of the month a special event and this last week several youth from the Arusha church of Christ joined us for a Bible Bowl.  The youth all did well and great fun was had by all!   In case you were wondering, Team Simba won but no, we didn’t name them.  It is the name of a popular soccer team here.  🙂

 

 

This past month has given me many opportunities to use my plant knowledge to help the farm and for that I am humbled and grateful.  Horticulture is my happy place so it has been a win/win for all of us.  We have been able to get purple onions harvested for the school, onions seeds harvested for next planting, carrots (a new crop for the farm) planted (and growing!), tomato plants strung up in the green house and two cats found to keeps rats out of the corn that was harvested earlier this year.   We have also had some cute help as we have been working (see picture below).

 

I have also been doing weekly encouragement studies with some of our neighbors and teaching the women’s class at the Kisongo church of Christ.  We have been going over topics of their choosing which has been both challenging and encouraging.   I am not good at getting pictures of things I am doing but I did get a few pictures of some of the classes at Kisongo this past Sunday.  They have a men’s class, women’s class, teen’s class, pre-teen class and children’s class.

Around our home we have been doing school with the boys, gardening and getting ready for the holidays!   The boys are doing well in their studies considering who their teacher is (that would be me ;).  We have learned that lettuce, greens of every kind and many other vegetables do wonderfully here.  While zucchini does very well here, yellow squash does not fall into that “successful” category.   Live and learn.  We are still waiting on our rabbits to multiply like…rabbits, but are hoping that happens soon.  We were  blessed to host Thanksgiving for several families this year but since turkey costs upwards of $100 USD minimum, it was chicken and guinea all around!  We have also gotten our tree decorated and the boys have been excitedly making Christmas presents and putting them in our stockings…I will let you all know how many bottle caps we each get since that is one of the boys favorite treasures here.

 

 

The boys also thought everyone should see what has become the normal traffic on our road.  Herds of livestock, HUGE dump trucks taking dirt to the new by-pass around Arusha and a water truck behind it that waters the road at least once a day to keep the dirt kicked up by the dump trucks from coating all of the businesses and homes along the way.

We thank you all for your love and support of our work here and we pray that you are all having a wonderful holiday season!

In Him,

Phillip, Bekah, Micah and Nathan

For those who have asked, support can be sent in two ways:
Through Paypal at: pbduncan20@gmail.com
Or:
Checks can be made out to and Mailed to:
Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver
2707 S. Lamar Street
Denver, Colorado 80227 (Memo line: “Duncan TZ mission”