Mondays with Allee

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11 How is tomorrow June first?! KEMPS will close for a month long break at the end of this week and the excitement is definitely in the air.  The students started their final exams on Friday and will finish them today.  Then the teachers will begin busily grading exams, preparing homework packets, and finalizing end of term reports for each student in their class.  Most of this work is actually done during the school day while the students review their exams and hurriedly write corrections of the questions they missed so they can go outside and play with their friends.  The rainstorms we were getting nearly every day have suddenly stopped and the days are full of warm sunshine.  Even though we follow a yearlong school calendar which begins in January, with the final ...

From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. John 1:16 This weekend we received a welcome break from the heavy rains that have been blessing us nearly every day since March.  Waking up to the sun pouring through the windows, warming the gardens and drying the hundreds of school uniforms draped across the clothes lines – it was a boost of energy and joy that we didn’t know we needed so badly.  While we are thankful for the cool weather and irrigation that the rains bring, it also makes life more difficult.  The power cuts much more frequently during storms.  Many people walk to and from school or work, so they are forced to either get soaked, or pay for transportation, which is greatly slowed or sometimes even impossible due to flooded roads.  Which reminds me… Earlier in the school year the head teacher told me about a meeting between some of the church leaders and the administrators of the Lutheran schools in Bukoba.  During...

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.        Matthew 11: 28-30           Is it really May already? It seems that Christmas and New Years just passed and here it is, almost summer again.  Last year at this time I was home with my family in College Station, indefinitely.  We were, just as everyone was, hunkered down together, ordering groceries, baking banana bread, doing puzzles, and watching movies.  As a family, it didn’t take us long to settle into an at-home routine and get quite comfortable not leaving the house, except for when it was absolutely necessary.  Even my sister Lauren, who was a senior in high school at the time, became accustomed to staying home, spending Friday nights taking bike rides with her o...

Happy Easter!  It feels good to be back in the swing of things (including blog writing) after a few weeks away.   We closed the school for a two-week midterm break a week before Easter, so Joseph and I took the opportunity to visit his family in Mwanza and spend a few days in Dar es Salaam stocking up on things that we can’t get here in Bukoba.  While seeing family and being in the “big city” was wonderful and much needed, by the end of our ten days away we were both really ready to come home to Bukoba, in a way that we don’t usually feel.  Usually as we pack up our things, we are discussing how we wish we could stay at the hotel forever, or how much we’re going to miss the delicious food or the readily available iced coffee, or really just ice in general.  But instead we were talking about how excited we were to see our animals (one of our chickens had ten baby chicks while we were away) and our students, and to eat our weekly meals that have become staple...

"No matter what happens remember this: I have always loved you." Papa, The Shack “Hello?” …  “Eh?” … I couldn’t tell how long I had been asleep, but I assumed it was morning.  Almost time to wake up.  I rolled over to see who Joseph was talking to.   “My God.”  My heart started to race.   “What?” I asked, patting his arm.  My mind went to the worst.  A staff member had died.  Or family member.  Something had happened to a student.  “What?”  I asked again.  “What happened?” … “Ok.  Asante.”   He hung up and turned to me, “Magufuli is dead.”  John Magufuli, Tanzania’s fifth president, was rumored to have been in a Kenyan hospital last week, suffering from COVID, but the rumors were never confirmed by the government.  Now, at eleven thirty at night, the Vice President Samia Suluhu solemnly announced that he had indeed died in a Kenyan hospital, from heart failure at the age of 61.  “Oh ...

You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth,  and wine to gladden the human heart, oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen the human heart. Psalm 104: 14-15         Last Monday our school was scheduled to be inspected by various clergy and other Diocese staff members.  The Friday before, all students were given special cleaning tasks around the compound and staff members were assigned to oversee different groups.  The groundskeepers worked extra over the weekend to make sure pathways were cleared and trees were trimmed.  When Monday morning came the students picked flowers and placed them in bottles to decorate the teacher’s table in every classroom, and all staff members were reminded of the expectations they were to follow during the inspection.  But teatime came and went, then lunch, and our visitors had yet to arrive.  We received news as we were eating that...

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.  For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:11-14 I hope that you are thawing out after what has been a week of ice, snow, and uncomfortable living conditions for many of you.  I pray that your homes were spared from expensive damage and that you were able to access necessary supplies to keep yourselves and your families warm, hydrated, and fed.  As I scrolled through FaceBook and Instagram over the past week my heart ached to read the posts about frozen pipes, intermittent or total loss of power, and people making the best of a difficult situation.  Living in a developing country these past few years, I know all too well the feeling of dread when the power cuts just as you were starting...