Dear friends, supporters, and Sending Team,
The Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz was right. There is no place like home! For the majority of the Tanzania Mission 2016 Team, homecoming was Monday after between 30 to 36 hours of travel door to door from Arusha, Tanzania, to Bellevue.
For 11 team members, we arrived Monday afternoon or evening via either Emirates or British Airways. Anya Hanson flew to Dubai with a portion of the team, but then went ahead of her mom Beth to Sweden, with Beth making a very quick stop in Bellevue Monday and Tuesday before heading back across the Atlantic to join Anya in Stockholm. For those of you who don’t know, Beth and Anya are moving to Sweden where Dr. Ellness-Hanson will be teaching at a university.
Another nine team members are still in Tanzania, at Pangani Beach Camp on the Indian Ocean Coast. After enjoying their time there, they will be heading back to the Seattle area, arriving Sunday. (This extension is optional, and fully paid for by the team members who chose to add it to the end of their mission trip.)
Soon enough all team members will be home (with Beth and Anya in their new Swedish home). Jet lag, lack of sleep, and the last tummy bugs and other fun stuff some of us picked up in Africa will be things of the past. But what we’ll carry with us all our lives are the remarkable people we met and the experiences we had as we had the privilege to represent you and Cross of Christ. There are not words of gratitude deep enough to express our appreciation of your support of the Team and, even more, of the transformative relationship and projects we together support financially and through our prayers.
On a Sunday soon, Team members will share more about their experiences, and hopefully let you know how very grateful they are for being sent by you to witness what God is up to in the Massai region of northern Tanzania. In schools, churches, health clinics and in our everyday encounters we witnessed the remarkable impact Cross of Christ has had and is having in the lives of our sisters and brothers in East Africa. Thank you again for loving your neighbors near and far. We look forward to sharing with you more in the days and weeks to come.
With great gratitude, on behalf of the Tanzania Mission 2016 Team,
Pastor Dave
