Missions
Join us at Chisholm Heights Baptist Church in Mustang as we spread the word of Christ through our community, nation, and around the world.
Hi Everyone,
Well it is Friday and we are starting out at 7:30am to go to a 9am meeting. The traffic is generally worse than New York, but we actually made to our appointment at 9am. So, we were early by African time which is slower than Mexican time for those who have travelled there.
Our first meeting was with a company that makes Bio-diesel from used cooking oil. He is the first to do this in Africa we think and his business is growing. We had a meeting with a lady from a Dutch company that provides business planning assistance. She and a professor from the University of Dar es Salaam met us at the bio-diesel company.
We went to the airport and I picked up my bag that had arrived. YEA, a new pair of pants….. a toothbrush and deodorant. It is amazing what we can do without and what can make us happy. Oh yes by the way, the hostel we are at in DAR has an air conditioned room when it works and hot water for showers.
Our next stop was a textile factory. This man has 65- 1950’s style loom’s for making fabric. It was loud in that building. We are advising him on his business.
We went to the University of DAR and had lunch with the Dean of Post Graduate Studies and the Director of the Business School. Both had studied in the USA. We will meet with them again next week after we return from Iringa.
We stopped at the Mall (Not bad) to look around. I have seen worse in the USA. After the mall we headed back to the hotel for an early day.
This evening we walked about a mile to a pizza place. Great New York style pizza.
God Bless you all,
Russ Myers
Vice President Development
Hi Everyone,
Today we are driving to Dar es Salaam. Our driver this week is named Waubani Kimbunga. His first name means “tornado”. Of course we talked about Oklahoma the best place for tornado’s.
We left the hostel at 6am and started driving. Iringa is at an elevation of one mile like Denver, so not too hot and humid. DAR is on the coast where it is hot and humid. So there will be a dramatic change in climate.
The scenery is beautiful and there will be many pictures to show later. First animals I saw were baboons along the highway. We stopped at the Mikumi national park for lunch. Before we get to the park we saw many giraffe and zebra. We saw a herd of elephant and some water buffalo while we were eating lunch. Wow!!! what a lunch, I think I had a sandwich (who cares with that view).
We arrived in DAR at 3:30 and went to a market before going to the hostel. I will have to tell you later about losing my hat at the market (what fun).
We went to dinner and met with the 4 men that will be working and managing the bicycle factory. The factory will be in DAR. The gentleman that we have selected for the CEO will be looking for a location in the next few months while I raise the capitol.
The dinner place was on the beach of the Indian Ocean. All for now bed at 11:30pm
God Bless you all,
Russ Myers
Vice President Development
Hi Everyone,
You haven’t received any updates because it is difficult to get communications working properly between TZ and USA. The cell phone coverage in TZ is better than OK, but difficult to get out of country.
Still no bags. First shower with hot water this morning and got to sleep until 6:30am. I sent one shirt to be cleaned today while I was gone.
Today we drove an hour to the district hospital for a tour. The two doctors we have with us are touring the hospital and dispensary in each town.
We finished the tour and headed to a secondary school about an hour further away. Here we were greeted by a group of Masai girls. 12-16 years old. The is very unusual for the girls to be in the school rather than married and in the Masai village.
We completed our tour of the school and headed back to Iringa. Mark one of the doctors has had a family emergency in the USA and we are taking him and Chris back to a charter plane to go back home early. Please pray for his family.
That evening we went to a lady’s home to have dinner with her and her family. This lady makes peanut butter, potato chips and garlic sauce in a factory at her home. Her mother, daughter and grandchildren help in the company. The dinner had a meat type sauce with peanut butter in it (not my favorite meal so far). The other stuff was okay. It was a nice evening.
Thank you for your prayers
God Bless you all,
Russ Myers
Vice President Development
Hi Everyone,
Arrived in Dar es Salaam (DAR) this morning and did not have my checked bag. Dr. Mark Ereth & Dr. Chris Mares from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and I met Randy Haglund from a church in Wisconsin. We boarded a charter plane to fly to Iringa, Tanzania about 2.5 hours. We met Ray Menard at the airport in Iringa and headed to the Tumani University the largest university in TZ. We had lunch and proceed to the Village of Ilambololi. I think the whole village was there. They met us on the main road into town singing and dancing to welcome us. They paraded in front of our vehicles to the first meeting spot – the home of the Lutheran church pastor where they continued to singing for an hour while we waited for the village meeting time. When the time came we were lead in a singing parade as we walked to the town center. There were several hundred people at this meeting, I have a lot of video to be able to share. Ray shared the with the whole town about the project the leaders have written. This took at least an hour because every leader has to be introduced. We then went into the meeting with the leaders back at the church. Of course, all of the children crowded around us and held our hands as the ladies and men sang us back to the church for the meeting. The meeting lasted until 9:00pm. Not a big deal except that there is no electricity in the village. We went to a dinner at the pastors home which is where stayed that night.
More later.
God bless you all for your prayers,
Russ MyersVice President Development
Hello,
I left OKC on Friday and arrived in Nairobib, Kenya on Sunda) evening where my last connection had been cancelled. I traveled with a doctor from the Mayo Clinic and we were meeting another doctor in Nairobi so we stayed at a hostel. The picture if me is at a restuarant that Tom Linn suggested.
The next morning we three flew the next morning to Dar es Salaam where we met another man from a church in WIsconsin and boarded a 5 seater charter plane and flew to Iringa a city of 100,000. We arrived at 1pm on Monday.
By the way my check bag did not arrive in Dar with me. I get my bag on friday. Pray for fellow travelers.
More will follow. Blackberry typing is not fun,
Had to delete pictures to send.
It is thursday and will be sending more updates the next couple of days.