This month started with the Tanzanian Leadership Conference at Andrew Connally School of Preaching (ACSOP).   It is an annual event hosted by the school and attended by locals, missionaries, preachers from around east Africa and America.   We were able to attend several of the classes all centering around the theme of II Corinthians “We are Not Like the Many”.   It was wonderful to see old friends and make new ones while learning more about God’s word.

We were able to help transport representatives from Healing Hand international around the area for them to see the farm at ACSOP and several raised bed gardens that have been started by a local preacher named Kashumba.   Our stops included a local school and Neema Village, which is a local orphanage.   This is the view from the orphanage along with some of their garden.

We have also been blessed to have Olivia Barnes (from Madison, Alabama) staying with us this month.   She has been working hard doing Bible studies and encouragement studies all over the Kisongo area with the help of Vivian and Mkunde.  She was able to follow up on two specific Bible studies, that had been started before her arrival, that resulted in baptisms.  She was also very helpful in a recent planning meeting with the children’s class teachers for Kisongo.  In this meeting she encouraged the teachers to have the students act out the stories and gave them some great information to help them do this.   Olivia has also been learning to make Tanzanian food including sambusas (meat filled pastries).   She has been a great blessing to the work here and to our family and we will miss her greatly when she heads home next week.

Phillip is continuing to work with the secretary for the ACSOP farm to streamline the book keeping process.   They have been able to continue to improve and are very encouraged by the numbers they are seeing for the broilers, layers, farm (vegetables, corn, etc) and milk production.   The papaya that were planted earlier this year are close to bearing fruit and, Lord willing, other trees will produce next year.   Drainage ditches have been hand-dug this month by the farm workers, ASCOP students, Justin and Phillip.  These are dug across the farm in preparation for the rainy season (March-April) and everyone is grateful that they are now finished.   Tomatoes and peppers have been planted in the greenhouse to, Lord willing, prevent pests from destroying them.

Phillip has also been helping develop a teen curriculum that can be used at the congregations here.   He has started teaching from it on Sunday mornings and will continue to adjust it as he and the other teachers see where adjustments need to be made to help the students learn better about God’s word.   This curriculum is meant to span four-five years and covers: an overview of the New and Old Testaments; the authority of the scriptures; Christ’s church; salvation; and the gospels/life of Christ.   He is very grateful for the Tanzanians and Americans who are helping this come together.   On Saturdays Phillip is also teaching a teen class at the Kisongo church of Christ covering “People of the Bible”.   He continues to do encouragement studies with people around our area also.

I have continued to do encouragement studies with some of the ladies here in Kisongo with the help of Naomi and am truly blessed to get to study with these women.  Micah and Nathan enjoy playing with their children and it has been a wonderful way for us to get to know our neighbors better.   As the Maynards have now left for furlough, I am taking on Anna’s Bible class that she teaches at a local primary school every Friday.  In October I went with her to get to know the rhythm of the class and to be introduced to the Head Master.  It is a school of over 1,000 students and this class is always full!  I am also guiding the ladies class on Sunday mornings at Kisongo church of Christ and helping the children’s class teachers plan their weekly lessons for both the older and younger children.  We meet to help plan out what will be taught in the classes and how the classes will be taught.  Right now they are going through Numbers and will be covering Moses and the 12 spies this coming Sunday.  We are excited to help in any way that we can and are blessed to get to work and learn from the Christians here.

Micah and Nathan are picking up Swahili quickly and are a great help to our work.  They are doing great learning to read and do math and we are very proud of them both.  My dad taught Micah the basics of making a blueprint and he was very excited to get to try out those skills designing a play area for him and Nathan.  They also get plenty of play time which usually includes dressing up as a dinosaur, cowboy, maasai warrior or a combination of all of the above.

We have been blessed with three rabbits (who will get cages as soon as we have time to get them built) and we are looking forward to raising some of our own meat again.   No, we are not going to eat these guys.  They are our beloved breeders named Carrot (female), Radish (female) and Tomato (male). Our garden has been doing well aside from an aphid problem that we are working on.  We were given several bags of “mystery seeds” to plant.   These turned out to be a type of green grown here known as mchicha and radishes.   Apparently radishes grow well here and thankfully we enjoy them!

We thank each of you for your interest in our work here.  We thank you for your words of encouragement, your prayers and your support.   You are all in our prayers daily.

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:

Mailed to:

Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver
2707 S. Lamar Street
Denver, Colorado 80227 (Memo line: “Duncan TZ mission”)

What a fun month! We are blessed to be hosting Olivia Barnes for the next month.  She was a great help during the Children’s Seminar that Anna and I helped put together.  Kisongo church of Christ hosted a six day Children’s Seminar (VBS) with the theme “We believe in God because of…”.  During the week I (Bekah), Anna and Olivia Barnes covered bees (nuki- ‘new-key’), birds (ndege- “n-day-gay), the earth (dunia- “due-nE-a”), the sea (bahari- “bu-har-E”), spiders (buibui- “buoy-buoy”), eyes (macho), ears (masikio- “ma-seek-E-O”), tung (ulimi- “oo-lee-me”), and hands (mikono- “me-kO-no”).  There was a craft and activity almost every night and the kids seemed to learn many things and have a great time doing it.  We had so much help from the ladies of the congregation and we could not have done it without them!  We started the week with around 100 children in attendance and ended with close to 200!  It was a tiring but great week.  Micah even lead a song in Swahili before the week was over!

Phillip has been working with the farm at ACSOP most days this month.  Ishmael, the farm secretary whom Phillip is training, and Phillip have been ironing out the wrinkles in the budgeting sheets and getting the first monthly report ready.  In the evenings three days a week he has been doing the Bible study with our friend and day guard, Peter.  They are still working their way through Ephesians.  Phillip is also in the process of developing a lesson planning sheet that can be used to help guide teachers of teen classes here and hopefully anywhere.  There are many things to consider to get this layout basic enough to be useful anywhere, but also structured enough of be of help to the teachers.  Prayers for him and those helping him as they work to make this a useful and duplicatable plan.

Micah has asked if he can write about his and Nathans experiences here.  So this paragraph is from Micah:

HI.  My first friend here is named Elisha.  Mom does a Bible study with his mom on Wednesdays.  We live very close to each other.  It only takes a few minutes to walk to his house.  Peter, our day guard, also lives close to our house.  Ayibo and Samweli are our night guards.  I like to play soccer with them.  We have a shed/shop at our house and we get to use half of it as our fort.  I love the food here.  The Tanzanian food is really good.  I turned seven in September and we had fish for lunch and then we went to Cultural Heritage Museum.  I got a book about African birds for my birthday.  We got to take Miss Olivia (Barnes) and her dad to the Snake Park and I took pictures for everyone to see.  Mom is putting those below this.  Thank you for reading my part.

ASCOP is hosting Tanzanian Leadership Conference this weekend.  Prayers for all of those traveling and for all of the instructors/learners are appreciated.  We also appreciate all prayers on our behalf as we are working here.  We pray that what we are doing is helpful to the people here and will help them grow closer to God.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

In Him,
Phillip, Bekah Micah and Nathan Duncan
Support can be sent two different ways:

Through Paypal at: pbduncan20@gmail.com

Or:

Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver
2707 S. Lamar Street
Denver, Colorado 80227 (Memo line: “Duncan TZ mission”)

The last few weeks have been filled with us getting moving in to our new home and us starting to find ways that we can help the work here.  Our home is in a great spot and we have been blessed with many friends helping us find it and get settled!   We cannot begin to list everyone who has willingly helped us navigate getting a house, furniture, food, etc. but we are extremely grateful for each of them!

I have been helping Justin Maynard and others with the farm work at the School of Preaching.  Over the last month the corn and beans that survived the extreme rainy season have been harvested.  I have been tasked with helping the farm develop a book keeping system for the finances and production that go along with the farm.   A secretary has been hired and we have been working out the best way to keep up with the many different aspects of the farm.   In the evenings I have been able to start a Bible study over Ephesians with our day guard who is a new Christian.  I have also preached at Kisongo and will be teaching the men’s class there this Sunday.

Bekah has been getting the house set up and school going for the boys again.  Both of those things have taken up much of her time.  She has been able to make a time to set up encouragement studies with two local Christian ladies once week thanks to Anna Maynard and Naomi.  Now that things around the house have settled down she hopes to be more available for other teaching opportunities.   Until you have lived in another culture you just never realize how much you take for granted.  Things like knowing what different brands mean the product is used to do, how to buy vegetables by name or knowing how much something costs because you know the numbers they are telling you at the vegetable stand (duka).  So far she has had a lot of help learning vegetable names, numbers and greetings.

Micah and Nathan have done well with all of the changes.  They are enjoying playing in our yard and helping put in our garden.   They also love Tanzanian food as much as we do so that is a huge blessing.  Not that we haven’t had moments of melt downs but over all they are doing well and we are very proud of them.  We were sorry to see Ms. Kendyll Covington leave earlier this week but wish her the best as she starts a new adventure.  (Excuse the crazy faces from our kids…we can’t have normal pictures.)   Our school has found its mascot in a blue headed iguana who has taken up residence on our wall.  He is well tracked by the boys and it was just reported that there is a female hanging around also.

*Warning: Picture of toe below…apologies to all of my foot-phobic friends and family)

In the midst of moving we also were blessed to find out that the local pediatrician is quick to respond.  Micah had started to complain of a leg cramp but since it is the dry season we all assumed it was from dehydration and took steps to correct that.  After several hours of no improvement Bekah noticed an old splinter (from the states) in his big toe.  After she removed it we realized that the leg cramp was actually an infection that was affecting his entire leg.  Thankfully the local pediatrician answered on the first call and immediately had us come over and started him on antibiotics.  After a few days Micah was back to running and playing.  It was a good reminder that even little issues can grow quickly if not taken care of properly.  God was gentle with us and thankfully this incident was easily resolved.  Micah now has a great story he is willing to share with anyone who will listen.

We are all trying to learn Kiswahili so that we can communicate with everyone.  So far we can greet everyone a little and have learned a few basic words.  Small steps.   We have also both been able to get used to driving on the left side of the road and have found that driving is not nearly as intimidating as we thought it might be when we arrived here.

We thank you all for your support and love.  Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we work to learn and teach.

In Him,

Phillip, Bekah Micah and Nathan Duncan

Support can be sent two different ways:

Through Paypal at: pbduncan20@gmail.com

Or:

Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver
2707 S. Lamar Street
Denver, Colorado 80227  (Memo line: “Duncan TZ mission”)

The summer went by so quickly in the USA that we never sat down long enough to get an update out!  A quick overview involves: moving out of our house and into Bekah’s parent’s home, traveling to visit churches and family, packing and repacking trying to fit everything into our allowed luggage and saying “see you later” to many loved ones.   After all of that, we made it to Arusha on August 8th with only a minor fiasco involving scales being off by 8-10 lbs.  The Maynards and some of the local Christians met us at the airport to take us to the Maynard’s home and we have been on the go ever since.

Phillip has been learning how to help on the farm at the Andrew Connally School of Preaching.  He (and the boys) have also helped with shucking and shelling the corn. This corn is used by the school to feed the students as they make a corn paste called “ugali”.  Justin Maynard and Phillip are also helping get drip irrigation lines laid on the raised beds of greens and other vegetables.

Bekah helped Anna Maynard teach a Women’s Seminar at the church in Endamarariek last Saturday and the Sunday morning class at Kisongo.  The goal is to encourage women to learn more on their own about what the Bible says, to teach it to their children, show their children how to live it and not to let fear stop them from doing what the Bible says.   This is one of Bekah’s passions so the lessons encouraged her and she hopes they encouraged the ladies who attended.  The women were very interactive and it was a great day.

We have also been getting house supplies purchased with the help of the Maynards, Normans and Beth Gould-Joseph as we have found a house thanks to Ahimidiwe.  Lord willing we will sign the lease and have the key in the next few days.  It is a 5 minute drive to the school and has a yard that just needs a little work to be ready for the boys to have some playing space.  We pray that we will be able to use this house to glorify God in whatever ways he has planned.  (pictures will have to wait until we get the key, sorry!)

The boys are settling in well and have already made some new friends for which we are very thankful.  They have been doing really well with all of the changes.  So far they are happy to be back in the land of amazing bananas and avocados.  Kendyll Covington is visiting TZ until September and has been a huge help with entertaining and teaching the boys.

We are also all trying to learn Swahili with the help of the Tanzanians and the Maynards.  We will see how quickly we can pick it up…ha!  Below is the link to a former missionaries blog for all of you who have asked about Swahili songs

http://tanzanianmissions.blogspot.com/2015/04/swahili-bible-class-songs.html  (sorry if the link isn’t working!  You can copy paste it into your search bar)

We thank you all for your prayers and support and will be updating this blog bi-monthly.

Since several people have asked, financial support can still be sent to:

Paypal: pbduncan20@gmail.com

OR

If you need it to be tax deductible, you can send it to our overseeing congregation at:
Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver
2707 S. Lamar Street
Denver, Colorado 80227
PLEASE make sure to put “Duncan Missions-TZ” in the memo line

Thank you all!

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

So how else can you help?

Any one-time monetary gifts are greatly appreciated!  I will post the address to our overseeing congregation (Bear Valley church of Christ) at the end of this post.  Any monies can be mailed to them and will be tax deductible.  Donations of $100 or more will receive one of those awesome shirts!  Just contact us to let us know you have sent the money and we will get your shirt ordered!

OR

http://www.paypal.me/pbduncan20

If you have any questions please contact us!

Thank you!  Thank you!