Hey All,
I am alive and well. Had a great safari. My computer has some problem staying connected here so I have decided not to blog and post pictures until I return home.
Tonya is blogging so for her view please go to http://twarren4.wordpress.com/
This really is a trip of a lifetime and perhaps my computer is telling me to pay attention and stop computing!
Grace and Peace,
Later . . .
Larry
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
Travel and Day 1
Travel went well. Made all our connections and it was a joy to see three folks from Peace House Africa waiting for us when we arrived at Kilimanjaro airport. On the flight from Amsterdam we met the Bishop of the Upper-Michigan Synod of the ELCA. He and his family were heading to Dar Salaam. It is a small world.
Speaking of the African sky it was breathtaking when we arrived. I think I could see the Southern Cross. The milky way was incredible!
I slept well and feel remarkable rested today. Met some of the staff and students and were made to feel most welcome. The biggest welcome was from Johnson who just exploded with joy when he saw Tonya. He told me that Tonya is like a mother to him who has given him good advice. I said that perhaps I would be like a grandfather to him. Father is Baba. We had decided that I will be introduced to people as Tonya’s Baba. Grandfather is Babo. I could also be introduced as August, Asha and Emelia's Babo! We got a tour of the facility from Theo and I took some pictures. The birds here are unique to me.
It is cloudy and cool today. We are going to spend the day acclimating and planning our week. We hope to get to the Ngorongo Crater guided by one of the teachers. I also hope to connect up with a Lutheran Church in Arusha. Since I won’t be leading worship at Peace House This Sunday I hope to worship at a Lutheran Church in Arusha.
I'll try and send some pictures
Speaking of the African sky it was breathtaking when we arrived. I think I could see the Southern Cross. The milky way was incredible!
I slept well and feel remarkable rested today. Met some of the staff and students and were made to feel most welcome. The biggest welcome was from Johnson who just exploded with joy when he saw Tonya. He told me that Tonya is like a mother to him who has given him good advice. I said that perhaps I would be like a grandfather to him. Father is Baba. We had decided that I will be introduced to people as Tonya’s Baba. Grandfather is Babo. I could also be introduced as August, Asha and Emelia's Babo! We got a tour of the facility from Theo and I took some pictures. The birds here are unique to me.
It is cloudy and cool today. We are going to spend the day acclimating and planning our week. We hope to get to the Ngorongo Crater guided by one of the teachers. I also hope to connect up with a Lutheran Church in Arusha. Since I won’t be leading worship at Peace House This Sunday I hope to worship at a Lutheran Church in Arusha.
I'll try and send some pictures
Friday, July 2, 2010
Something I have been thinking about
Awhile back my friend Albert sent me a link to a most interesting article written by Matthew Parris in the London Times. (I bet you could Google it and find it if you would like to read the whole article.) It begins this way:
As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God. Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa's biggest problem - the crushing passivity of the people's mindset.
Matthew Parris in the London Times
"Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it's Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work.
It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But traveling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I've been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I've been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.
Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.”
He goes on to describe the Christians he remembers as a child growing up in Africa:
“The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world - a directness in their dealings with others - that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall.”
As a teenager and some friends traveled around Africa. He reflects:
"Whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries, we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people we passed and spoke to: something in their eyes, the way they approached you direct, man-to-man, without looking down or away. They had not become more deferential towards strangers - in some ways less so - but more open. "
He gives his view of Africa today:
"Anxiety - fear of evil spirits, of ancestors, of nature and the wild, of a tribal hierarchy, of quite everyday things - strikes deep into the whole structure of rural African thought. Every man has his place and, call it fear or respect, a great weight grinds down the individual spirit, stunting curiosity. People won't take the initiative, won't take things into their own hands or on their own shoulders."
He then concludes:
“Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosphical/spiritual framework I've just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates.
Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the know how that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted.
And I'm afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.”
From my reading I think Matthew is correct.
I have also been thinking about our culture. If Africa is at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete, what malign fusion are we at the mercy of?
Perhaps it will become more obvious to me under African skies. I’ll let you know what I find.
As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God. Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa's biggest problem - the crushing passivity of the people's mindset.
Matthew Parris in the London Times
"Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it's Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work.
It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But traveling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I've been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I've been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.
Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.”
He goes on to describe the Christians he remembers as a child growing up in Africa:
“The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world - a directness in their dealings with others - that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall.”
As a teenager and some friends traveled around Africa. He reflects:
"Whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries, we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people we passed and spoke to: something in their eyes, the way they approached you direct, man-to-man, without looking down or away. They had not become more deferential towards strangers - in some ways less so - but more open. "
He gives his view of Africa today:
"Anxiety - fear of evil spirits, of ancestors, of nature and the wild, of a tribal hierarchy, of quite everyday things - strikes deep into the whole structure of rural African thought. Every man has his place and, call it fear or respect, a great weight grinds down the individual spirit, stunting curiosity. People won't take the initiative, won't take things into their own hands or on their own shoulders."
He then concludes:
“Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosphical/spiritual framework I've just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates.
Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the know how that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted.
And I'm afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.”
From my reading I think Matthew is correct.
I have also been thinking about our culture. If Africa is at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete, what malign fusion are we at the mercy of?
Perhaps it will become more obvious to me under African skies. I’ll let you know what I find.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Larry and Tonya's Journey to Africa
Larry and Tonya’s Journey to Africa 2010
I experienced a bit of what many people think about when someone travels to Africa. The picture was not taken in Africa as I have not left yet. It was taken in Cabela’s my favorite camping store, where I went to buy some 100% deet mosquito repellent for the trip. I don’t know if I will see an elephant, but I will likely be the target of mosquitoes which carry malaria. Tomorrow I will begin taking medication that will make my blood poison to the whatever it is that causes malaria.
We are just days away from beginning our journey from Chicago to Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro Airport to Peace House Africa. I will take about 26 hours. I finished the 300 crosses by attaching cords last week. Tonya had her golf outing which what great fun and raised $ 1,200. I am ready to try speaking a bit of Kiswahili. We are ready to go.
We learned last week that the kids will return to school a week later than planned. One of the things I have learned is that in Africa the calendar and clock are not as regular as they are in our culture.
Initially I was disappointed that I will have less time with the kids, but Tonya assured me that we will be put to good use working with the staff and that will be valuable also. We may try to arrange a side trip to the Ngorongo Crater a World Heritage Site, which is 3,100 square miles of pristine African wilderness. It is also near the Olduvai Gorge the fossil site commonly referred to as “The Cradle of Mankind.”
I am most looking forward to experiencing the kids and school that have such a deep place in her heart. Tonya has made it clear that they are Africa, and unfortunately many who travel to Africa see beautiful animals and scenery, but miss the real beauty in the people. It will be a trip of a lifetime for me. I am grateful Tonya has invited me.
I invite you to follow along through this or Tonya’s blog. Thank you for your prayers and support. Asante!
We are just days away from beginning our journey from Chicago to Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro Airport to Peace House Africa. I will take about 26 hours. I finished the 300 crosses by attaching cords last week. Tonya had her golf outing which what great fun and raised $ 1,200. I am ready to try speaking a bit of Kiswahili. We are ready to go.
We learned last week that the kids will return to school a week later than planned. One of the things I have learned is that in Africa the calendar and clock are not as regular as they are in our culture.
Initially I was disappointed that I will have less time with the kids, but Tonya assured me that we will be put to good use working with the staff and that will be valuable also. We may try to arrange a side trip to the Ngorongo Crater a World Heritage Site, which is 3,100 square miles of pristine African wilderness. It is also near the Olduvai Gorge the fossil site commonly referred to as “The Cradle of Mankind.”
I am most looking forward to experiencing the kids and school that have such a deep place in her heart. Tonya has made it clear that they are Africa, and unfortunately many who travel to Africa see beautiful animals and scenery, but miss the real beauty in the people. It will be a trip of a lifetime for me. I am grateful Tonya has invited me.
I invite you to follow along through this or Tonya’s blog. Thank you for your prayers and support. Asante!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
September 11th Vienna
Vienna
Our last stop before flying home.
Vienna is a beautiful city with many open plazas and coffee houses everywhere.
Our walking tour guide, Wolfgang was most interesting. He said that he is very lucky to be alive in the only 60 year long period of peace in Austria. He said we should not think that Nazis were just German. They were Austrian and Bavarian and members of many countries. He said Europeans are very tired of war. Rebuilding is still going on in most countries.
Vienna is a very safe city - the safest of any city in the world currently. This is credited to a welfare system that keeps people from the bottom levels where gangs form and also because guns are strictly regulated. You even have to have a permit to carry a knife more than three inches long.
I especially enjoyed the coffee - strong but very tasty.
The highlight of our stay here was hearing a concert by the Vienna Boy's Choir. They were wonderful. They did an opening set of lighter music. The encore was the Chattanooga Choo-choo. It was great.
The second part of the concert was a mass by Michael Hayden. It was magnificent. Listening to it I understood an earlier statement that during the medieval and baroque periods they tried to make the churches look like heaven. Since I am an auditory person the visual didn't do much for me. Hayden's mass did and I could only imagine what that experience would have been like to hear it in one of the cathedrals we visited.
We had our last meal as a group together last night. People are already departing. We are staying an additional day to rest up for the flight home. We will rise to begin our journey home at 4 am tomorrow and should be home about 9:45 pm Knoxville time.
Today Chris wants to visit a music museum and art gallery, and walk to the Danube river. Looks like only a 12 mile day! (We are resting up remember!)
It has been a great trip leaving me much to think about. We have about 1200 slides to sort through so you may want to think twice about asking to see them!
This will be our last entry for this trip.
We have had perfect weather, a wonderful tour guide and group, incredible food, and have often been in the right place at the right time.
One of the highlights for me was giving directions to a Russian traveler in German. Yikes!
Gut Gott!
Love
Larry & Chris
Our last stop before flying home.
Vienna is a beautiful city with many open plazas and coffee houses everywhere.
Our walking tour guide, Wolfgang was most interesting. He said that he is very lucky to be alive in the only 60 year long period of peace in Austria. He said we should not think that Nazis were just German. They were Austrian and Bavarian and members of many countries. He said Europeans are very tired of war. Rebuilding is still going on in most countries.
Vienna is a very safe city - the safest of any city in the world currently. This is credited to a welfare system that keeps people from the bottom levels where gangs form and also because guns are strictly regulated. You even have to have a permit to carry a knife more than three inches long.
I especially enjoyed the coffee - strong but very tasty.
The highlight of our stay here was hearing a concert by the Vienna Boy's Choir. They were wonderful. They did an opening set of lighter music. The encore was the Chattanooga Choo-choo. It was great.
The second part of the concert was a mass by Michael Hayden. It was magnificent. Listening to it I understood an earlier statement that during the medieval and baroque periods they tried to make the churches look like heaven. Since I am an auditory person the visual didn't do much for me. Hayden's mass did and I could only imagine what that experience would have been like to hear it in one of the cathedrals we visited.
We had our last meal as a group together last night. People are already departing. We are staying an additional day to rest up for the flight home. We will rise to begin our journey home at 4 am tomorrow and should be home about 9:45 pm Knoxville time.
Today Chris wants to visit a music museum and art gallery, and walk to the Danube river. Looks like only a 12 mile day! (We are resting up remember!)
It has been a great trip leaving me much to think about. We have about 1200 slides to sort through so you may want to think twice about asking to see them!
This will be our last entry for this trip.
We have had perfect weather, a wonderful tour guide and group, incredible food, and have often been in the right place at the right time.
One of the highlights for me was giving directions to a Russian traveler in German. Yikes!
Gut Gott!
Love
Larry & Chris
Friday, September 11, 2009
September 10 Mauchausen - Death Camp
We left beautiful Hallstadt and arrived in Mauchausen several hours later.
Our tour of Mauchausen, the last concentration Camp to be liberated began with a 40 minute film. The film pulled no punches and was hard to watch. All German schoolchildren must visit a concentration camp.
During the video an older man watching with us wept profusely. Was he a survivor? Did he have a loved one die in the camp? Was he a German ashamed at what had been done? We don't know. His tears moved us from detached observers into participants somehow.
The tour of the camp was very sobering. It was initially set up as a site to exterminate the "intelligentsia" from countries captured by the Nazis. The Nazis even contacted the families of those executed and cremated and for a price would return their loved one's ashes in an urn.
The camp expanded and became a work camp, initially the inmates working a quarry, and later a ball bearing factory hidden in caves near the camp. Paton's division finally liberated the camp.
In the pictures I sent are some pictures of the camp and some of the art work from various nations.
I have been reading an archeological mystery series during the trip by Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear. This is a paragraph I read as we drove to the death camp. Two archeologists are talking about an excavation of a kiva where a number of children were burned to death.
"Sylvia eyeballed the bone, sketched on her pad for a time longer, then said, 'How could anyone do that? Most of these kids wee under five'
Maureen took a deep breath and paused to pull back several strands of hair that were tickling her nose. 'I've seen it before, Sylvia. The massacres in El Salvador, Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda. Even the dead from Indian Battlefields in Ameica, like Sand Creek, Bear River, and Wounded Knee. It happens when people hate each other. In Russia, Nazi soldiers herded women and children into barns and churches and burned them alive.' She paused. 'It's part of who we are as human beings. One of the many images you see in your reflection when you look into a mirror.'" (The Summoning God page 329)
I had seen a mirror.
Later in the day we toured the opulent Schonbrunn Palace, Austria's rival to Versailles. After the touring the first room I had to leave. I went out and sat in the garden. I had seen another mirror.
Love to you all,
Larry and Chris
Our tour of Mauchausen, the last concentration Camp to be liberated began with a 40 minute film. The film pulled no punches and was hard to watch. All German schoolchildren must visit a concentration camp.
During the video an older man watching with us wept profusely. Was he a survivor? Did he have a loved one die in the camp? Was he a German ashamed at what had been done? We don't know. His tears moved us from detached observers into participants somehow.
The tour of the camp was very sobering. It was initially set up as a site to exterminate the "intelligentsia" from countries captured by the Nazis. The Nazis even contacted the families of those executed and cremated and for a price would return their loved one's ashes in an urn.
The camp expanded and became a work camp, initially the inmates working a quarry, and later a ball bearing factory hidden in caves near the camp. Paton's division finally liberated the camp.
In the pictures I sent are some pictures of the camp and some of the art work from various nations.
I have been reading an archeological mystery series during the trip by Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear. This is a paragraph I read as we drove to the death camp. Two archeologists are talking about an excavation of a kiva where a number of children were burned to death.
"Sylvia eyeballed the bone, sketched on her pad for a time longer, then said, 'How could anyone do that? Most of these kids wee under five'
Maureen took a deep breath and paused to pull back several strands of hair that were tickling her nose. 'I've seen it before, Sylvia. The massacres in El Salvador, Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda. Even the dead from Indian Battlefields in Ameica, like Sand Creek, Bear River, and Wounded Knee. It happens when people hate each other. In Russia, Nazi soldiers herded women and children into barns and churches and burned them alive.' She paused. 'It's part of who we are as human beings. One of the many images you see in your reflection when you look into a mirror.'" (The Summoning God page 329)
I had seen a mirror.
Later in the day we toured the opulent Schonbrunn Palace, Austria's rival to Versailles. After the touring the first room I had to leave. I went out and sat in the garden. I had seen another mirror.
Love to you all,
Larry and Chris
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