Coming to America

Dear Partners and Friends in Mission,

Many warm greetings to you during this season of Pentecost!

We apologize that we have not provided a recent update to our activities, but we have been quite busy with our preparations for our first trip to the states in two years. Most of our correspondence has been with many of you individually, as we prepare for our trip. The children are excited to see America, the land they hear so much about, but the memories only seem to exist in our picture albums, at least for Emily and Grace! Sarah remembers many things, and is looking forward to seeing old friends, and making new ones.

We thought that we would share some achievements that we have celebrated in the past few months.

Dan was happy to receive his second unqualified (a qualification is bad) audit report as the Finance Secretary for LMC. Work continues to be fulfilling coordinating the financial resources between the American and European partners with the ELCT. The executive committee meeting just concluded yesterday, so the whole family is now focused on traveling tomorrow!

Many of you know that Cathy has been helping teach confirmation classes at the Arusha Community Church. Fourteen of the students were confirmed during a special service where they affirmed their faith in Christ. It is truly heartwarming to watch these young people affirm their faith, and it is also affirming for Cathy as she helps guide them in their individual faith journeys. Cathy will continue teaching confirmation next year.

Sarah recently represented her school in a 6-school cross-country meet. Her age group ran one kilometer. It was exciting to see Sarah and the other 21 girls giving 100% of their efforts for their respective schools. Prior to the race, Sarah took a new interest to "exercising" and we are pleased to report that she successfully finished the kilometer! Sarah was also able to attend a one night camp-out with her class. We are so pleased she was able to attend before we leave. She will actually miss the last two weeks of school so that we can travel.

Emily is now without two of her front teeth! She is getting to be such a big girl. She actually lost her second tooth (couldn't find it) but was very happy to discover that the tooth fairy recognizes when a girl looses her tooth, even if it isn't under the pillow and even in Tanzania!

Emily is also known for her "Emilyisms" or things that Emily will say or do that cause us to laugh and write about. Many will remember her calling Amsterdam "Hamsterdam." We have found that when Emily talks about our trip, we have to do some back-pedaling. Emily is now telling our friends that we are "moving to America." We have to explain to our colleagues and friends that we are not moving but are only going for a visit. (Although, we think both of our mothers might prefer that we take Emily's words seriously.)

It is hard to come up with one or two single achievements that can be credited to Grace, there are so many things we could say. When we ask Grace what she remembers about America, she responds "My white fuzzy blanket with the blue bear on it." This is the one item that was unfortunately left behind before our trip here, and we hope that it is somewhere in Mom and Dad's house. She has managed without it, but she really wants to see her white fuzzy blanket again.

What are we looking forward to? Visiting with friends and family, driving on paved roads, ice-cream, a relaxing cup of coffee in a bookstore, and sharing our experiences with many of you whom we will see in the coming two months.

We will likely not provide another update until after we return to Tanzania in August.

May God continue to bless and protect each one of you.

In Peace,
The Smiths

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Dan, Cathy, Sarah, Emily and Grace Smith
PO BOX 15128
Arusha
Tanzania
http://www.goodshepherdkettering.com/pages/mission.html
smithfam91@yahoo.com
or
missionaries@goodshepherdkettering.com
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