House Photos

Finally...Here are some photos of our house. We hope to be living there by Wednesday of this week. Things definitely take longer than we plan for them to. God had this house in mind for us before we even arrived here! We are excited to get into it!

The front entranceThe living/dining roomThe kids play roomThe kitchenRob's bathroom...j/k...a spare bathroom downstairsGuest room to the rightMaster bedroomMaster bathroom
The girl's bedroomDonovan's bedroomThe officeThe kid's bathroom

Our New Home…

Here is a photo of our new home. We have signed a year contract and transferred half of the year’s rent money to the owner. He is working with us to let us pay the next half by the end of next month. This has proven to be a long process filled with lots of mixed emotions, blessings, prayer, stomach knots, flexibility, and even sickness. Rob got a cold earlier this week that has been going around. He got over it fairly quickly. I got hit hard with it yesterday and even more so today. I will get a testing kit tomorrow and make sure it is not malaria, but we are fairly sure it is not. Symptoms of malaria don't include runny nose and phlegmy coughing. This is not a good time to be sick, but when is it a good time? :) God has provided in miraculous ways, and we give Him all the glory. We get to go through this process, but He is the one who has orchestrated our steps and decisions. We praise Him for this amazing house that will bless our family and our ministry here.
We are having the house cleaned tomorrow while we are shopping for furniture. We hope to be all moved in by Wednesday of next week. WooHoo!!
Today is Good Friday and here it is a national holiday. Most places are closed, and a lot of people are not working. This made our shopping trip today a bit hard and not so successful. Our taxi driver told us that it rains every year on Good Friday. And sure enough...today it rained, and poured. It is very symbolic that the earth is shedding its tears for the sacrifice Jesus made on the Cross to save us from the consequences of our sins. We are grateful to be reminded of that so often here.
I will update again soon with pictures of the inside of the house, which is as nice as the outside. Some things we found out about the house after we decided to go for it are...well water safe for human consumption, a back-up generator for the frequent power outages, and a solar water heater for hot showers! Blessings!
Thank you to all of YOU who Partnered with us to make this a possibility! You are such a blessing to us, and we pray that we are making the best decisions with your support.

Amy

URGENT NEED!

Good morning family, friends, and partners in ministry. We HAVE FOUND A HOUSE! Sorry, I don't have a picture yet. We hope to get over there tomorrow to take some pictures. We are so excited at what the Lord has opened for us! We have negotiated with the owner and he is willing to accept $1,000 per month, which is quite a wonderful bargain for what we are getting. The only problem is that he needs ONE YEAR of rent up front…that’s $12,000. We don’t have that much on hand. We had budgeted for some set-up expenses, but not that much. We have some funds set aside to furnish a home, but we need the rent payment. We can’t let this opportunity pass us by, so we need your help and support in order to get into this building. It’s not just a house, it will also provide the space we need for a small office and guest room for when future missionaries arrive on the field. We are praying that the Lord would put it on your heart to give to this urgent need in order to get our feet under us. This is the next big step in Reaching Tanzania, thank you for your part. To give, go to www.ntm.org/rob_ellis/give. Or, send a check to New Tribes Mission. Make the check payable to New Tribes Mission, but designate the funds to Rob and Amy Ellis Ministry on the bottom left of the check. NTM 1000 E. First St. Sanford, FL 32771

House Hunting - Day 5

So, for 2 days we have waited anxiously to hear from the realtor. Thursday came and went, and he didn't call. Rob called him at 3pm and he told us he would call back at 5pm. 5pm came and went, and like most of our time here so far we waited some more. Then today he called. He wasn't able to get in touch with us because he had gotten malaria yesterday and was in the hospital. Timing is everything. Eddie, our realtor, is getting better and should be out of the hospital soon. We are learning yet again that our timing and God's timing are not always the same. Lord, please help us to trust You more!

We discovered that one of the 2 houses the realtor was going to show us was one of the same ones we had seen earlier in the week. The neat part of all this was that just this morning, while waiting, Rob and I had begin discussing that house. We had not even considered it before because it needs A LOT of work to be done inside before it is even livable. But it has wonderful potential to be an amazing house for us. It has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, extra rooms, a nice size kitchen, dining room, living room, and a huge area in the back. The house is at the top of our budget, but it is do-able, with potential for putting in an office or guest rooms in the back at a later time. We are going to talk with the owner tomorrow about her plans to fix up the place and how long she thinks it will take to do the work. We would love to be in the house within a month, but are not sure we can stay at our current residence that long. ($$) Here are some pictures of the house, front and back. Thanks for all your prayers and encouragements. We love hearing from you. We were told this used to be a school. They have torn down the structures, but the foundations remain. In the back left corner there are 2 outdoor bathroom stalls.

House Hunting - Day 2

House hunting here is so different than at home. Things go by word of mouth, which takes longer, and you have to just hope that you know the people who know the people who are renting their house. We have seen a few houses and one is a definite option. We hope to see more on Friday and make a decision as to where we will call home. Here you have to put up 6 months of rent initially, so you need to be sure it is where you want to live and that it will work for your family. We are so thankful that the Lord has brought us here. He goes before us and behind us to prepare the way. We are continuing to trust in His provisions for us. Here is a picture of the house we are considering.

Our time here at the language school is coming to a close. We will have to say goodbye for now to friends we have made. We are excited about what we have been able to learn these past three weeks, and look forward to many opportunities to practice our Kiswahili. It is definitely easier to understand the language when it is written than when it is spoken. I hope and pray that my mind can transition to doing more listening and understanding when I am not trying to construct sentences for homework. The kids have loved our time here. They have a great time everyday in their class. The girls both say that their favorite thing at the kindergarten is the playground, which shows with all the bumps and bruises they get each day while playing. The picture above is of them today after class in the T-shirts they made.

I am really looking forward to getting back to the city we live in. Our first objective is to find a home to rent. When we were there before we were not able to find one, which is one reason we decided to come here rather than wait around there, hoping something would open up while we were gone. Our contacts there are working with "realtors" to find us a home. It would be nice to find a place that can meet our needs, maybe some of our wants, and be close to the area of town we need to live in. I am hopeful that there is a house out there for us. We just have a short window of time when we first return before our contacts head out of town for 8 days. We would like to find a house within a few days of being back. ANYTHING is possible...Right?! Our temporary housing there is great, and we are looking forward to being back with the same family we stayed with before. I think they are excited to have us come back, or at least to have Donovan back(or Donny as he is called), who is quite popular there. :) I am still positive that we will settle somewhere soon and begin to "build our nest". Below are some of our recent photos, including more bug pictures.

This is not a bug...It's Emily pretending to be a shark. Here is a millipede that is longer than a "bun length" hot dog!Here I am going through my Sughuli Leo (daily activities) with my classmates.Donovan has started roll playing with his toys. Although we don't know what he is saying yet...he does!The coolest moth I have ever seen!The girls were eating some ice cream with one of their new friends.