Schultz Family in Tanzania

I am happy to announce that Caitlyn Elizabeth Schultz was born via c-section on Tuesday, March 23 in perfect condition. She weighed 7 lbs 13 oz and was 19 inches long.
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We were concerned that the surgery would be very difficult because of all the problems Cathy had in the past with the other 4 c-sections. In fact, the OBGyn who did the c-section asked another general surgeon to assist him just in case there were complications. From my perspective it looked like a text-book delivery. The doctor said that their were no problems whatsoever. Cathy says she feels really good considering all that was done. She is up and walking around and is planning on going home Thursday or Friday.
The staff here at the hospital are really wonderful. One of the nurses who did our birth certificate said she would personally take our application to the county office after her shift ended so that we could get the certificate issued early. She knows that we only have 8 weeks before we return to Tanzania Africa. If we had to wait the normal 2 weeks for the birth certificate it would put a big time crunch on us to get Caitlyn’s passport issued in time. It is such a blessing to see how God cares for his children. It is such a blessing to have you all praying for us. Thank you so much.

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Posted by BJ at 7:51 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Cathy is scheduled for her C-section on Tuesday, Mar 23. We are praying for a healthy baby and a safe delivery. Please pray for Cathy and her doctors as she delivers our new baby girl (who, by the way is still nameless) at 7:00 am Tuesday.

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Posted by BJ at 1:25 AM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Believe it or not I was able to pull off a surprise birthday party for Cathy Sunday night after church. We had pizza and cake, a lot of laughs and even a game of volleyball.

This entry is tagged: Birthday, Family
Posted by BJ at 6:44 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

On Saturday we celebrated Cathy's birthday. I found a Betty Crocker cake mix in the local grocery store, took it home and had the kids help me bake the cake. Later, I frosted it with some fudge frosting we made- yum.

I don't suppose I should say how old she is now but I did buy her 40 red roses and 40 pink roses. ;->

Happy Birthday!

This entry is tagged: Birthday, Cathy, Family
Posted by BJ at 12:50 AM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

On Wednesday Daniel, Michaela and I were in the back yard taking turns on the swing. Well, they were taking turns and I was just the designated pusher. During Michaela's turn on the swing Daniel took a haphazard step in the way. The corner of the wooden seat hit his head with a thud and threw him to the ground.

When it comes to anything medical here in Africa there is always a lot of hesitation. I am constantly wondering if the doctors know what they are doing, weather or not they are using clean needles, do they have the right medicine etc. So when I saw the gash and blood on Daniels head, I was a little worried about having to go get stitches.

Fortunately for us, our friends Greg and Paige Wagoner have a lot of official medical training. After being told by the doctor that it would probably take more than 8 hours to get stitches we took a minute to re-examine the wound. That's when we went to see nurse Paige. We asked her, "If this was your kid, what would you do?" She said she would skip the stitches. We agreed. Cathy and Paige went to work cleaning, shaving hair and steri-stripping the wound. You should see the before pictures and read Paige's report about it here: www.bimt.us/wagoner

As you can see from the picture, Daniel is quite proud of his big bandage.

Thanks for praying for our health and safety.

This entry is tagged: Daniel, Family, Health, Living in Africa
Posted by BJ at 11:30 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Clicking on this video will take you to the YouTube site. While YouTube claims to make an effort to filter out improper videos many are missed. To avoid potential problems you can simply go to our private channel that contains only videos we have uploaded.

Since Jay’s birthday fell on a Sunday, our most busy day, we decided to have a fun birthday dinner for him on Saturday. This is his short review.

Hello, this is Jay, today Mom and Dad made a special dinner for my birthday. We had my favorite food fish- not just ordinary fish though, Nile Perch! And a wonderful treat, Mountain Dew- which is very rare in this country. Dad cooked the fish to perfection. It was fun to be able to celebrate my birthday today. It was so good, that Tyler thanked me for existing. Mom wasn't quite as excited as Dad, Tyler, and I. She tries to stay away from fish but, it turned out all right, I had a good time and hope to live to do the same with my family.

Who would have thought that lemon pepper fish filets and home-made fries would make a 12-year-old so happy?

On Sunday, it was announced to the church that it was Jay’s birthday. I wish you could have heard the 20 or so Africans sing “Happy Birthday” in English to Jay. What a treat!

Afterwards, we went home and invited the Wagoners to join us for cake and ice cream. Believe it or not, we are able to buy Pillsbury cake mixes here as well as some decent ice cream. I picked up some vanilla, cookies-n-cream and mocha flavored ice cream from the store. We had a good time eating cake, ice cream and visiting with our friends.

Nile Perch filets- $7 per kilo (good price, good fish)
6 cans of Mountain Dew- $4 (imported from EAU) a little flat but not bad.
Pillsbury cake mix- $5
2 gallons of ice cream- $19 (Yes, that’s 19 US dollars!)

Hearing your 12-year-old hope he can do the same with his own family- Priceless!

This entry is tagged: Birthday, Family, Food, Jay, Living in Africa
Posted by BJ at 12:53 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

I have just finished some website house keeping items that have been on my list for awhile.
I have updated our "about" page and "testimony" page. Take a look.

I have placed two sign up lists in the next column at the top. Each sign up list will send you a copy of each entry that I post here. The options are to receive the entries via email or via an RSS reader. If you don't know what RSS is you can find out here, but it would probably just be easier to receive the emails.

Lastly, I am experimenting with the Google Ads program. Google's advertisers will pay us a few cents as people click the links which are posted. I thought it would be a great way to help pay for some ministry projects. So far the ads seem to be fairly decent. If you see something objectionable please send me email and let me know.

Thanks for reading!

This entry is tagged: Family, Updates, Website
Posted by BJ at 10:56 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

This morning before church, Michaela, Daniel and I had a mini-Sunday School. We got out our Bible Story Flashcards of Noah’s Ark and I began to tell the story. Michaela is 3 and Daniel is 2—so the story must be told as simply as possible. We still lost Daniel after 20 seconds. Michaela made it much longer, but soon I noticed my 2 “big boys” standing behind me listening in. Pretty soon, they were asking questions and Ty was sitting with us on the couch. I guess the old stories never really get old, nor do we ever get too “big” to hear them and wonder at the greatness of our God.

~Cathy

This entry is tagged: Cathy, Family
Posted by BJ at 8:46 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Yep, she got 'em and got 'em good! We thought she was getting bitten by mosquitos until the "bites" became too numerous to count. She was vaccinated at 14 months old, so we thought she was safe from contracting them. The doctor calls it a "break-through" case. These type of cases are usually very mild, but I would not call hers mild. She's tolerating them pretty well--and anyone that knows Michaela knows she is not a silent sufferer! Please pray for her --she needs to avoid scratching the bumps. It's really easy to get another nasty infection from open wounds here. She calls them "Thteeto bites". We are watching Daniel closely, but so far, he's fine--other than being two and always into everything.

~Cathy

This entry is tagged: Health, Michaela
Posted by BJ at 11:58 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

After 4 days, I returned to the doctor and showed no progress in ridding myself of this dreaded fungus. He decided that maybe I had heat rash now that the fungus was gone. He prescribed Calamine lotion. After leaving the office I decided to get a second opinion from another doctor in town. This doctor thinks that maybe I have an allergy. He prescribe an antihistamine and some salve. I like this doctor’s opinion better mostly because having heat rash and a fungus seems somewhat barbaric. I’ll give the meds a try and may even throw in some Calamine lotion just for drill.

This entry is tagged: Health
Posted by BJ at 10:34 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Well actually among only myself but "us" rhymed better. It began as an innocent rash in the crook of my arm and then spread to my chest from my neck to my waist. This fungus is extremely itchy and after scratching it burns. Think poison ivy. I have had my share of poison ivy growing up in Michigan and I have had it spread across my body more severely than this fungus. In fact it was so bad several times that I went in to the doctor’s office to receive shots and or medicines.
Now, after a diagnosis by a local doctor here and 4 days of Clotrimazole salve the fungus is still active and spreading, albeit a little more slowly. I will be visiting the doctor again on Monday. I’ll keep you posted.

This entry is tagged: Health
Posted by BJ at 10:16 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today I turned 36 years old. As I reflect on the day I’m experiencing an odd realization- I’m getting older. I look in the mirror and see gray hair littering my head. I even have a nose hair which has turned gray. Why do I have nose hairs and why are they turning gray? I climbed out of bed this morning and noticed that my muscles were sore. As I placed one foot on the floor and then the other- my feet hurt. I have lost 25 lbs in the past 9 months so I know that’s not why my feet hurt. I could go on and moan about my hearing, a few wrinkles and the people who are playing their music too loudly, but I will spare you.
In stark contrast to my decrepit state I feel very young, almost childlike. I have been in school for the first 6 months of this year trying to learn Swahili. I can speak in Swahili but I think a 5 year old has me beat. This thing of missions is very intimidating at times. There are so many new things, so many different ways of doing things. I have to relearn how to drive. There are no stop signs here, just turnabouts and don’t forget to drive on the left side of the road. I have to relearn how to measure. Some things are in SAE other things are measured with the metric system and yet some things are measured both ways. Do you know how many cups there are in 100ml? Do you remember what “ml” stands for? Remember when you were a kid and you got your first $10 or $20 bill? I do. I thought I would be rich the rest of my life. A few days ago I became a multi-millionaire. It’s true. I had in my hands 2.5 million shillings. Of course you should know that with the exchange rate that was the equivalent of $2000. I cannot for the life of me remember my phone number. Maybe that’s old age, not sure. At times I feel very young, very vulnerable and awkward. It drives me to rely heavily on my Heavenly Father. He said “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee” Heb 13:5. That’s good news for young or old!

This entry is tagged: Birthday, Funny, Living in Africa
Posted by BJ at 2:42 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

I have seen a few minuets of a TV show where they take a vehicle and add all sorts of extras to it and then say the vehicle is “pimped out”. Here in Tanzania they do exactly the same only it’s with bicycles. I have seen bikes with mud flaps, deluxe cargo racks, and even kickstands that lift the entire rear wheel off the ground like on a motorcycle. Today, I took Jay to have his bike “pimped” a little. His bike was purchased used from a family in Ohio. It had the normal used bike wear and tear. The most notable were the tears in the seat cover and the hand grips which had eroded away from the heat. The hand breaks were worn out and needed some adjustment and the rear tire had a leak. We replaced all these things with new and Jay even decided to buy a pair of pegs for the rear tire. Pegs are the things attached to the bolts of the axel which kids stand on to try and to tricks while increasing the odds of a hospital visit. In the end Jay pointed out that he had a scheme to all his madness, he managed to add blue and yellow parts to a blue bike giving it a University of Michigan look. Go Blue!

This entry is tagged: Jay, Living in Africa
Posted by BJ at 10:15 AM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today Tyler, our second born, turned 9 years old. We were able to order a dry cake in the shape of a race car as well as some ice cream to go with it. We had gifts sent to us a few weeks back so we were prepared in that sense but we forgot to get any wrapping paper. So instead of wrapping the gifts we put them in plastic bags and hid them. Each gift had a short riddle or rhyme which led Tyler to the next gift. He had a blast.

This entry is tagged: Birthday, Tyler
Posted by BJ at 10:16 AM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today Jay and Tyler returned home from a week of missionary kids camp. The camp is located at the residence of another missionary in Thika Kenya. Though they were gone for 8 days it felt like only 8 hours. Ha ha. No, really, we did miss them. This is what the boys had to say about camp.
Dad: So Jay, did you have fun at camp?
Jay: Oh yeah!
Dad: Tell me, what was the best part about camp?
Jay: Well I really can’t think of the best part because it was all really good.
Dad: Well then, what was the worst part?
Jay: Lights out!
Dad: Well that’s good. Tell me about the Pine Wood Derby race.
Jay: Well the pine wood derby race was extremely exciting especially when you have the best seat in the house. I only won 2 races and lost one. In the end it was really exciting because the most unlikely person to win the race was about to win. Unfortunately, at the end they lost but just barely. In fact we had to use the instant replay video to decide the winner. We had a camera set up at the end of the track because all of the cars were really close at the finish line.
Dad: Awesome! Well it sounds like you had a really good time. Do you think you want to go back again next year? Jay: OH YEAH!

Dad: Tyler, tell me about camp. Did you have fun?
Tyler: Yeah. Um, what I did is we sung some camp songs. We played games. We won.
Dad: Wait a minuet. You said you won??? What do you mean?
Tyler: Yes, we won by beating the other team in camp.
Dad: How did you beat the other team and who was on your winning team?
Tyler: I beat the other team by points. There was me, Susie, Joe, Tim, Mathew, Caleb, Amanda, Daniel, Becky and Brianne.
Dad: So, tell me Tyler, what was the best part of camp?
Tyler: Let me think. I would say in the morning service. They showed a little scene called bug bits. And they also sung songs and we saw our team points.
Dad: Well it sounds like you had a good time. Do you think you want to go again next year?
Tyler: YEAH!

There you have it folks, an interview from Jay and Tyler giving us a brief glimpse of their week at Independent Baptist Missionary Kamp in Thika Kenya. Special thanks to the Stampers for their hard work at making this week possible for the kids. Next year the camp theme is “Castle Kids”.

This entry is tagged: Camp, Jay, Tyler
Posted by BJ at 6:18 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

One year ago today I got a phone call from my mother-in-law telling me about a boating accident that involved Tyler. We were 3 hours away enjoying a weekend without the kids. The accident was severe enough that they needed to medivac him on a helicopter to a distant hospital. His injuries included a gash on the head and 6 cuts from the boat’s prop on his arm and leg, one of which broke his elbow and cut a nerve in his arm. You can read my original posts here.
In the end Tyler did very well at recovering-- thanks to the prayers of Christians from all over the world. The doctor’s main worry is that the nerve damage would not heal properly. A year later, the nerve has healed itself to about 95%. He has a few mobility problems in his little finger but that is about all.
Praise the Lord for his hand of protection and healing!

This entry is tagged: Health, Tyler
Posted by BJ at 9:04 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today Cathy turned 29 again for the ???? time. I have to admit, we didn’t do a good job of celebrating her birthday. It is impossible to get a gift to us for fear that it will be stolen in the mailing process. And, we still have no vehicle so going out to the nearest restaurant was not an option. Alas, Cathy opened no gifts, ate no birthday cake, and even cooked her own dinner. Jay and Tyler did give her homemade birthday cards and I told her that when we can, we will go shopping and buy her anything she wants. I found out a little too late that FedEx will deliver here. I can’t imagine how much it would cost but it is something I’m gonna look into.

This entry is tagged: Birthday, Cathy
Posted by BJ at 10:47 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Both Jay and Tyler have come down with a typical cold. They are coughing, hacking, snotting and sneezing all over the place. They are both fairly miserable. It is the weirdest thing to me to live in a land where it is summer all year long. The boys have had these colds for a few days now but still continue to go down to the pool and play for a few hours every day. That probably doesn’t help them much. I guess Africa doesn’t realize you’re only supposed to get a cold in the winter like we do in Michigan.

This entry is tagged: Health, Jay, Tyler
Posted by BJ at 6:39 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

The boys and a friend were in the pool playing fetch with a coin. They asked me to throw a coin in the water and then they would all dive in to see who could get it first. We were having a good time with the game. Occasionally, I could get the coin to skip on the surface of the water. That added some excitement to the game. You know in order to get the coin to skip you have to throw it pretty hard. On what would turn out to be the last throw the coin flew through the air and hit Jay right in the corner of the eye. It instantly turned blue and began to bleed a little. We went home and put some ice on it. The next morning he looked like this.
He is doing well and probably thinks shiner looks pretty cool. He has forgiven me and in fact, the very next day he asked to play the same game. This time however we used a small soft fruit that they found on a tree nearby.

This entry is tagged: Health, Jay
Posted by BJ at 6:37 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

We have moved to a new location and thus we have a new mailing address. You can send any mail from now until July 25th to this address:

SSLC
Attn: BJ Schultz
PO Box 52
Limuru Kenya

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Posted by BJ at 9:43 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today marks our 13th anniversary! God has been so good to me but even better to Cathy. He has blessed her with me! Just kidding of course. If know me you know that she really got the short end of the deal. HA!

This entry is tagged: Family
Posted by BJ at 9:23 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

So, would you like to know how I celebrated my birthday in Africa? Well, we went to a shopping center in Nairobi called "The Village Market". It is a very big place with all kinds of stores and places to do stuff. It is very near to the United Nations and many of the worlds ambassadors live here. That makes this part of Nairobi a very wealthy place. At this village market we ate lunch at an Italian restaurant. This restaurant is owned and run by real Italians. I had a Calzone and a Fanta pop. Magnificent! After lunch we went to the water park. While we were there, my brother saw the huge slides and said "Wow! We have to go on every single slide here". The slides there were at least 40 feet high. Tyler and I rode the slides while the babies played in the kiddie pool. After we were done at the water park we went shopping for awhile and then took the long agonizing trip back to our home. It is a bad ride because the smoke from the exhaust is stomach churning and the roads have huge bumps. Traffic is also a problem. After we arrived home and ate dinner, we ate a homemade cake, and opened presents. I played with my presents until bed time. So that is how I celebrated my 11th birthday. If you would like to see the pictures you can click here: photos

Jay Schultz

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Posted by BJ at 8:52 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

As we had prayed, we were able to get a much nicer place to stay. We are now staying at Brackenhurst Baptist International Center. It is a beautiful complex that many people use to hold week long conferences. They only have a few family sized rooms left because they are renovating them all into small hotel rooms. As a matter of fact our room is due for demolition in 2 months. We will then have to move to a different room.

If you wish to write you can send all snail mail to
Brackenhurst Baptist International Center
PO Box 32
Limuru Kenya
We will be staying here from Jan 15- June 30 2007.
Our cell phone number in Kenya is 254 66 0725-051218. We are 8 hours ahead of EST.
We have retained the same email address: bj@bimt.us

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Posted by BJ at 9:30 AM | Permalink | What say you?(0)