Mondays with Allee

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all of your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. Proverbs 3: 5-6 Hey there! Long time no see!  It's been a busy and exciting few months since I finished my year of service at Wesley Primary School.  I was able to travel home for two weeks at the end of June to see my family and friends a while I was there I celebrated my 26th birthday and was offered another missionary teaching position in northern Tanzania! When God showed me that my time at Wesley was finished, I found myself praying (okay, worrying) about what was next for me.  Do I go home? I didn't feel called to return to teaching in Texas.  Do I find another job here? A missionary job? I started searching for opportunities both close to Morogoro and all over Tanzania and east Africa.  I contacted the ELCA (Lutheran Church of America) and told them a bit about my background and the kind of work I...

So be truly glad.  There is wonderful joy ahead. 1 Peter 1: 6 This will be my last blog post for awhile.  A mission team from Texas and Oklahoma, a team of my friends, the same team that I first came with to Tanzania, they are arriving here in Morogoro next Monday.  During their two weeks here they will be starting construction on a dining hall for our school and leading VBS for three different Maasai villages as well as for the children at school.  I am so excited to be reunited with my friends and be apart of the amazing work they will do while they are here.  Just a couple days after the team leaves I will be headed home as well to spend a couple weeks with my family and friends.  I'll return at the beginning of July to start a five month Swahili course in preparation to continue missionary work in Tanzania.  I plan to resume blogging once I start my next adventure. I don't know that any school or job has taught me more than this year has....

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. 1 Timothy 4: 12 All of our church leaders left Morogoro early Saturday morning to attend a two week long annual conference and training (yes two weeks) in Mwanza, a city in northern Tanzania.  You would expect that with all the leaders gone for such a long time things would get left undone, worship would be a little more stressful or disorganized, weekly devotions would be cancelled- but not here in Morogoro.  One of the amazing things about our church is the way that the congregation, not just the pastors, make the church function from day to day. Our congregation is divided into four groups- children, youth (anyone who isn't married yet), mamas, and babas (dads).  We also have five community groups- one for each neighborhood represented. All of these groups meet weekly for devotions and each week there is a different l...

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.  He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken. Psalm 62: 1-2 How is it already the middle of May? I think back to where I was a year ago finishing out the school year in Plano, Texas, making arrangements to move my things into storage, attempting to get out of my lease, weeding through clothes and purchasing all of the supplies I would need to move to Africa for a year.  And now that year is almost over.  It doesn't even seem real.  Now, a year later, I find myself in a similar situation.  Finishing the school year, preparing to move, making sure my permits are valid, weeding through my things, starting the packing process.  And while my move this year is not nearly as massive as last year's, I am feeling the same excitement and anticipation. I am not a patient person.  I think many people view me as patient because I love working with children, but m...

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. 2 Peter 3:18 We are receiving heavy rain here every day now.  The clouds move in quickly and a light drizzle turns to heavy, pelting drops that build in intensity and volume as they fall upon our tin roofs.  Our dirt roads turn to mud so that mamas and their babies slip and slide as they walk home from school.  When we see the rain coming we grab our buckets and set them out to be filled and used for washing the floors and doing laundry.  And when the storm is over and the sun comes back out, everything is more vibrant, more alive than it was before.  We found out this week that a large church in Oklahoma has agreed to support Junior in his seminary education at Texas Christian University.  This was news we have been hoping and praying for over the past year and a half and when I heard, it almost seemed too good to be t...

But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. Isaiah 53: 5 It's the first day back at school after a two week break and I can honestly say, just as I felt at the end of our last two week break, I am ready to go back to school.  I have learned here how differently a "break" feels when your work does not constantly keep you running.  When it doesn't leave you collapsing in bed exhausted at the end of the day and groaning at the alarm clock the next morning.  Of course my job keeps me busy and there are days where I am dead tired- but there's something different about it.  I think that means I'm doing what I should be doing. The first week of the break I went to Zanzibar with a group of my friends.  Zanzibar is a small island that used to be it's own country, but is now part of Tanzania.  We took a bus from Morogoro to Dar es Salaam and then we took ...

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4: 12-13 Friday afternoon just as school was letting out, a large "boom" was heard throughout the neighborhood followed by a chorus of groans.  The transformer for our street's electricity had blown again and with it being Friday afternoon, the chances of it being fixed before the weekend were pretty much nonexistent.  For the rest of Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and most of Monday we had no electricity.  Now I'm a pretty positive person, and after living in Africa for nearly a year now I've learned to live simply, but after the first sleepless night with no power, I was pretty much done.  No fans to provide respite from the intense heat and humidity, no fridge to keep water cold or meats frozen,...

The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Isaiah 58:11 I apologize for my absence in posting last week.  I have no excuse other than life got in the way.  If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you probably saw pictures of the new fur babies (yes, plural) that we welcomed into our family over the past week.  It all started with rats.  Since moving here last July we've had a pretty consistent rat problem in our house.  We probably have one hanging around somewhere in the house at all times and every other month or so we start seeing signs of it inhabiting a kitchen cabinet or one of our closets and we begin the laying of traps and cleaning out of all crevices in the attempt to catch it.  After several nights of uneasy sleep we do always eventually catch them and they are always much bigger than I...

For everything that we have comes from God alone.  Everything lives by his power and everything is for his glory.   Romans 11:36 Y'all, it is hot.  The rainy season was supposed to arrive this month, but as of today, the 18th, we have not received the regular heavy rains that we desperately need here in Morogoro.  I'd be lying if I said that I adjusted well to the African heat and lack of air conditioning.  Even during our "cool" season I was constantly sweating.  But now with daily highs of 95 with 90% percent humidity it seems like everyone is struggling to keep cool.  The sun is relentless and makes going anywhere during the heat of the day miserable.  We are so thankful for our fans and pretty much hunker down in front of them in the afternoons, but on the regular occurrence that our electric company turns off our power, the only solution is to find a shady place outside and pray for a breeze.  We will all surely praise God whe...

You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus. Our God and Father abounds in glory that just pours out into eternity. Philippians 4:19-20 MSG Between what seemed like never ending sickness and conflicting schedules, the monthly Maasai village trips we had been making last year haven't been happening since we returned from the U.S.  Finally, this past Friday, Frank, Junior, and I were all available on the same day and we made a trip to the village of Mkangazi.  This village is served by Pastor Kulanga who lives here in town and travels out to the bush every weekend to lead services, and during the week to check on the community.  His wife Eunice is our District Superintendent and was the first female pastor in Tanzania. When we made our last visit to Mkangazi in November, the people told us that they need help funding the rebuilding of their toilets.  They had begun work diggi...