Easter Pictures

We enjoyed a wonderful Easter weekend this year. Sunday morning we had an indoor Easter egg hunt and Easter basket for Micaiah.

She got to wear a special Easter dress to church-- an outfit Tim had gotten at B'r'Us for around $1 more than 2 years ago now! As you can see, it is a sleeveless dress, a little jacket and a hat. The hat is kind of goofy looking. I almost just had her go without it, but by that point Micaiah was really attached.
The church service was nice, even if the sound system was up a bit too high. We're enjoying the church we've been at and are looking forward to getting more involved. In the evening we went to our neighbors' house for our weekly "hymn sing." It was nice to be able to sing some traditional Easter music in English!
Hope you all had a great Easter, too!

JLR

And now for something funny

So, I discovered something pretty funny when I was language learning this weekend. Background info: I've started to meet with our gardener Richard to try learning a local language (Kuria) for a few hours each week. So, last Saturday it was raining and my other plans had to get scratched, so I elicited words for body parts (which is always somewhat dangerous). More background info: Bantu languages have noun classes. Basically, there are different groupings for words with certain meanings, as well as singular or plural. So, we eventually got to the word for "butt", but which is actually (evidently) more like "buttcheeks". The word is "amatoro" which is plural, but the singular is "iritoro". Richard said you only really ever used "iritoro" if somebody had lost a cheek somehow, and he gave an example of maybe somebody riding a bike through the village with only one cheek and you wanted to say something to your buddies like, "Hey, there goes 'one cheek'."

I love languages.

-T.M.

Reflections on the resurrection: why do I live like a practical deist?

Just so you all know, there might be a flurry of posts from me over the next few days/weeks because I have a lot of ideas for this blog at the moment. However, something I’ve discovered about myself recently is that I’m very impulsive. I get an idea in my mind about something I want to do, and I have to do it right then and there. Why wait? So, after the flurry of posts there might be silence on my end for awhile, but just realize that’s situation normal.

On to the subject at hand. Recently (even before Easter), I’ve been thinking a lot about Christ’s resurrection and the impact that it should have on my life. This has come about mainly through my 3-year old. Micaiah loves watching Narnia, as well as a version of the Jesus film for children. Her favorite parts by far are guess what (as if I hadn’t led you here already): the scene when Aslan rises from the dead and appears to Lucy and Susan with the bright light behind him and when Jesus rises from the dead and appears to the disciples. The joy she has when she sees these scenes is incredible. She jumps up and down and says, “Jesus (or Aslan) is alive again! Jesus (or Aslan) is alive again!” (By the way, she does realize that the Narnia story is fiction, and the story of Jesus is real. And for the most part, she gets the connection between the two.) My main question: why don’t I have that same childlike joy and excitement? or why am I afraid of having that childlike joy and excitement?

Do we as Christians live in light of the resurrection on a daily basis? Or do we crowd it out with other things, and pretend it’s irrelevant to our daily lives? Do we live out the joy that we should have, or do we let the fear of man (or something else) drive that away? Do we really believe the Gospel is true on a daily basis? I mean really believe it, that these events—the very Son of God coming into this world 2,000 years ago, His crucifixion, His resurrection—really happened. This is remarkable! It’s the most amazing thing that’s ever happened! In a recent issue of Modern Reformation, one author equates a type of deism with being unable to accept the uniqueness of Christ. What am I doing, practically speaking, but not accepting the uniqueness of Christ in the Gospel in my life and others by thinking of the resurrection as something that’s true but is far off and distant from where I’m at?

And isn’t our God amazing that I can only see the difference when He shows me using my little daughter! And then I finally see my heart’s not all that it should be. I want to live with that same pure innocent joy and excitement because of the Gospel.

-T.M.

Micaiah's Birthday Bash

Micaiah turned 3 yesterday (March 21). We celebrated with a swim party for all the other missionary families in Musoma. March 18 was Tessa's 3rd birthday, so we were able to do one big party together. I made a fish cake and Kim made a Frog cake. Both were a hit. Some of the ingredients may have been hard to come by here, but thanks to care packages we were all set!

As a random piece of Swahili trivia, the word for candy is "pipi" (pronounced pee-pee). So you do have to be careful when you talk about decorating a cake using M&Ms and other candy! Don't want anyone to get the wrong idea!

JLR

Introductions

I suppose this being the first post and all, some introductions are in order. My name is Tim Roth, and I live in Musoma, Tanzania with my wife, Jeana, and our 3-year old daughter Micaiah. We are an American family living as missionaries here on the shores of Lake Victoria. We arrived in Tanzania in January 2007.

I work as a linguist with Bantu languages and peoples in the area to try and give them user-friendly orthographies (alphabets), so that one day soon they can have access to the Bible in their own language. I'm privileged to be here with my better half, Jeana, who holds down the fort with a wily 3-year old while I'm gone all day.

So, what's this blog about? We really want the blog to revolve around one main question: How does God call us to live as missionaries in the 21st century? We would really like it to be about our everyday lives here in Tanzania; our struggles, questions, relationships, highlights, lowlights, successes, failures, reflections, changes in perspective, etc. We want it to be serious, but lighthearted and easy to read at the same time. What's the point of sharing your life in such a way that people are bored to tears by it?

I will probably do most of the posting, but Jeana will contribute as well. (Micaiah might try, but be warned: there might be a lot of talk about Dora the Explorer.) We also hope to provide ample opportunity for feedback from you all as well.

-T.M.