Schultz Family in Tanzania

In the past weeks I have made some good strides in my Swahili skills and I have tried to put it to good use. Yesterday, I took some time to read the Swahili Bible. It was a beautiful day so I decided to read outside and enjoy the weather. I parked my chair near one of the walkways where there were about seven souvenir vendors hanging around waiting for the next visitor/victim to pass by. One of them men noticed that I was reading the Bible and from our previous conversations he knew I was a missionary. He asked me if I was going to preach to them.

I was hoping someone would ask. In fact I had anticipated this and was actually trying to figure out how I could get such an invitation when he asked. I immediately accepted his request and read 10 verses from Mat 9. I then gave about 5 minutes of an impromptu message. I thought I had to be fast and get in what could be said before the next customer came by. These guys know that when a visitor walks by they have to act immediately to try to make a sale.

I began my mini-sermon talking about Jesus forgiving and healing the paralyzed man. My haste and nervousness caused me to forget to use every grammar lesson I had learned in the past 3 weeks. I was so concerned about speaking quickly that I sacrificed the laws of language for brevity. This is something I will have to make a conscience effort to avoid next time. The one thing most Africans have in plenty is time. I could have easily spent the next hour talking to those guys and they would not have grown weary with it. On the positive side, I knew that I was making mistakes indicating that I have actually learned something. Ha ha. Now I just need to put it to practice.

I have 3 more days of classes and then a long 8-hour bus ride home to see my family on Thursday. Please pray for me as I travel. One of the most dangerous places to be in Africa is driving on the road. I will always covet your prayers concerning my Swahili speaking. Obviously, language is the greatest tool in reaching the heart with the gospel.

This entry is tagged: Preaching, Swahili
Posted by BJ at 9:13 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

The past week I have been taking another Swahili language class. I have had to re-learn what are active, passive, and subjunctive sentences as well as how to conjugate verbs. Not exactly what I call fun. However, today I had a small victory as I am finally getting the hang of how to make these various sentences in Swahili.

I also asked that you would pray for God to give me opportunity to be a witness here. I have already had the opportunity to speak to 4 of the teachers and 3 students about salvation. I was also asked to give a devotion just before class started in the morning. In John 3 Nicodemus came to Jesus for an undisclosed reason. As soon as he finished greeting Jesus he is given an unsolicited answer to his greatest need. I am not sure what Nicodemus wanted to ask Jesus that night but he heard the answer that he needed; “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Jesus continued on with illustrations of what he meant. It was fitting that we sang the song “Look and live” since in verse 14 Jesus used Moses and the brass serpent as another illustration of salvation.

Please continue to pray for me during this time. I have been spending much of my free time (12 or more hours a day) studying Swahili. My main goal is to be able to leave here and be able to do a good job of translating my sermons and be able to fluently speak with the common man. I know fluency takes practice. For the other part to become a reality I need to remember the process of word construction and increase my vocabulary. I did a poor job of this in High School English so I have my work cut out for me.

James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

This entry is tagged: Pray for us, Swahili, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 12:30 AM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

This weekend I traveled by myself to Morogoro Tanzania and enrolled in the intermediate Swahili language course. My goal is to advance my language to the point where I can express myself and communicate very well. I can tell by looking at the materials that I have a lot of work to do. Please pray that the Lord will give me the ability to do well in my studies.

I am planning to be here for the entire month. Unfortunately, Cathy and my children had to stay behind in Moshi. Please pray for them. They will need extra prayer for their safety while I am gone. When the criminals know that the father of the house is gone they are more daring. We have plenty of security but there is no peace of mind as great as knowing God is in control.

One last thought before I hit the books for study. The school I am attending has drawn visitors from around the world. Currently, we have students from Switzerland, Germany, England, USA, Columbia, Ethiopia, and Mozambique. Many of these students and teachers have never put their faith in Jesus and yielded their life to Him. Pray for me as I take advantage of the circumstances to share the message of forgiveness with these people. I have already talked with a teacher named Godbless. I quizzed him about his salvation and he explained that his salvation came by placing his faith in Jesus to save him from his sins. Amen! That's exactly what the Bible teaches too.

Pray for:
My Swahili studies
Safety for Cathy and kids
Salvation of fellow classmates and teachers

This entry is tagged: Pray for us, Swahili, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 2:25 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today there was a 19 year old lady named Anna at our house. She comes occasionally to help Cathy with some time consuming tasks such as ironing. Since all of our laundry is hung out to dry, it must be ironed to kill off any of the mango fly larva that might be in our clothes. If they are not killed they can be really nasty and borough into your skin. Well today she came to the door and said this,

Continue reading "She wants to kiss you?" »

This entry is tagged: Living in Africa, Swahili
Posted by BJ at 1:17 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Jay is in 6th grade this year. He’s doing really well and we are happy with his progress. One of his least favorite subjects is spelling. He claims he hates it, but he does really well on his tests. Every week, we choose 2 words to add to the existing list. We’ve been giving him Swahili words so that he can get a start on learning the language better. He gets words like tafadhali (please), mlango (door), dhambi (sin), and asante (thank you). He’s trying to pick up the language by listening to us and asking us how to say things. He often talks with our day guard, Leodigadi. It’s surprising how much he’s been able to pick up that way. Pray that he’ll be able to become fluent quickly.

~Cathy

This entry is tagged: Family, Jay, School, Swahili
Posted by BJ at 10:48 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today marked a huge milestone in our ministry here in Tanzania. I was able to preach for the first time in Swahili. Now, keep in mind, I had to first write every word that I was going to say in English and then had a language tutor help me translate it. Then I re-wrote it in Swahili and practiced the message several times. Even with the practice I still had to read the message word for word. There were many words that were new to me.


Would you like to hear an audio clip of me preaching? Click here to download a .wav file (612 kb)."

Here is the Swahili transcript.
Yona mbili imerekodi maombi ya Yona.
Maombi marefu sana, sio ya ajabu.
Ingawa ninaamini Mungu anataka sisi tujue umuhimu wa maombi.
Kwa sababu bila maombi tunakosa nuguvu za Mungu.
Bilia maombi tunakosa maelekezo toka kwa Mungu
Bila maombi hatuwezi kuujua moyo wa Mungu
Bila maombi huduma ya kanisa hili itashindwa.
Bila maombi watu hawata okolewa.
Mkristo yeyote bila maombi ni mkristo aliye kata tamaa.
Nimeshangaa mara nyingi kwa nini Mungu alijumlisha kitabu cha Yona katika Biblia.
Kwa mtazamo wangu Yona ni mfano wa mkristo maskini.
Labda Mungu alijumlisha kitabu cha Yona katika Biblia kuonyesha jinsi alivyo mkuu bila kujali sisi ni wabaya kiasi gani. Labda ni kuonyesha ni jinsi gani neno la Mungu lilivyo na nguvu.
Labda ni kutuonyesha nini tusichotakiwa kufanya.
Ninajua kwamba Mungu ana ujumbe wenye nguvu kwa ajili yetu toka katika Yona mbili.
Yona alipotubu dhambi yake na kumwomba Mungu, Mungu alisikia na kujibu maombi yake.
Ninadhani kwamba moja ya ahadi kubwa kabisa katika Biblia ni ahadi kwamba Mungu atasikia maombi yetu.
Yeremia thelathini na tatu mstari wa tatu inasema “Niite, nami nitakuitikia, nami nitakuonyesha mambo makubwa, magumu usiyoyajua.”

This entry is tagged: Preaching, Swahili
Posted by BJ at 8:02 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

A few years ago Calvary Baptist Church in Crawfordsville Indiana sent a box of Swahili gospel tracks to me. I packed them in my container where they sat until today. I was able to hand out 2 of them right away to the plumbers who were working for me. These guys are young and curious and eventually asked me why I was moving here. I explained our ministry to them. The one guy asked me how long I would live in the area. I replied “maisha” meaning my life. I asked them how long they would live here. They gave their replies and then I asked the question, “and then what?” They said “kufa” meaning death. I asked again “and then what?” They didn’t really know how to answer so I asked them about Heaven and Hell. Because I have a very limited religious vocabulary I gave them the gospel tracks and explained that it was a message from the Bible. They both began to read it immediately. We will pray that the gospel seed which was planted will be watered and that those guys would be saved.

This entry is tagged: Swahili, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 2:41 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

The word “Fundi” is Swahili for a skilled tradesman. Today we had 14 “fundies” here. The first few days of officially renting our new house we planned to have several things done. We painted the interior and had the terrazzo floors refinished. It was also necessary for us to have a plumber come and install our super-duper water filtration system. While in the states I purchased a UV filter, charcoal filter and several sediment filters. We also had 2 water pressure pumps to push the 4000 liters of water into our house from our 3 storage tanks. I hired an electrician to fix a few problems add a few plugs and help me get set up for the times we have electrical blackouts. He installed a changeover switch which allows me to pull a lever and then power the house using a generator. He also installed a voltage stabilizer thing. I’m a little fuzzy on the details but in general it protects our house if there is a voltage spike or an overload in the house. I say “if” but I really mean “when.” We get voltage spikes and brownouts at least every hour especially in the evening when consumption is high. After it was all done, the electrician charged me around $30 for 2 days of labor. Not a bad price for a good fundi.

This entry is tagged: Electricity, Living in Africa, Swahili
Posted by BJ at 2:44 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

I have been working hard trying to improve my conversation skills in Swahili. Generally speaking, if a person speaks in simple Swahili about a common subject I can understand him.
Here are a few words I thought were funny.
Kuku = chicken (a live chicken)
Nyama ya kuku = chicken meat
Dudu = bug
Wadudu = bugs
Daktari = doctor
Hatari = danger (any John Wayne fans out there?)

Piga = this is an action word used for many things which defies definition by itself. Here are some examples
Piga kelele = make noise
Piga deki = mop the floor
Piga simu = call the phone
Piga mswaki = brush teeth
Piga rafiki = hit friend

Remember, I am still a student so I can not guarantee that these are absolutely correct but I believe they are.

B.J.
(vifupisho = initials)

This entry is tagged: Swahili
Posted by BJ at 6:15 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today we took a test on the East African family tree. You would not believe how complicated they make this. And to be honest I am not sure why they complicate it so much. I will give you a few examples just for fun.
We call our parent’s brother our “Uncle” but in East African Swahili it depends. If your uncle is your Mother’s brother than he is called “Mjomba”. If he is your father’s brother he is Baba Mdogo. If he is your Father’s sister’s husband (uncle-in-law) he is called Baba Shangazi.
My uncles call me Nephew. In East Africa I am called “Mpwa” by my Mjomba. I am called “Mtoto” by Baba Mdogo and I am called “Binamu” by my Baba Shangazi.

How about this,
Grandchild – Mjukuu
Great Grandchild – Kijukuu
Great Great Grandchild – Kilembwe
Great Great Great Grandchild – Kilembwekeza

Now I am not complaining at all, after all I only got this one question wrong: “What does a woman call her brother’s wife?” Answer: Wifi (sounds like “we fee”)
I just thought you might be interested to know a bit about the East African Family Tree. I am sure there is a good joke in there somewhere.

This entry is tagged: Swahili
Posted by BJ at 6:41 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

We are progressing well in our language studies. Of course, Cathy is doing much better than I am. I still struggle with English. I am to the point where I could ask “Where are my kids?” and “What are we eating for dinner?” and “Where is the bathroom?” If people speak to me very slowly I can make out about 50-75% of what they are saying. I’m getting there but it will take a lot of practice.

Swahili for beginners (important phrases every father should know).

Where are my kids!?
Wapi watoto wako wangu!?

Honey, what's for dinner?
Honey, chakula cha jioni nini?

Where is the bathroom!?!?
Cho iko wapi!?!?

This entry is tagged: Swahili
Posted by BJ at 7:25 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

This week we had our 1st language test. It covered the first 20 lessons and is used as a measurement of our overall Swahili understanding. It’s a sort of placement test. You will be happy to know that Cathy and I finished 1st and 2nd in our class. Of course there are only 2 students in our class ha ha. We both received an “A” on our test. One of us scored 1 point higher than his wife. I won’t mention who got the highest grade just to save her some embarrassment of coming in second behind her husband. Besides, if I did say who had the highest score, and if I were found out to be bragging about it, the other person might get very upset at me. So for now, all you need to know is that we both got an “A” on our test.

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Posted by BJ at 4:53 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Here is an interesting tidbit I thought I would pass along to you. I am told that Swahili only has 3 words they use for colors. I think they are Red, Green, and Black. If you want to say that something is orange you have to say that something is the color of oranges. Or you say something is the color of coffee for brown. I’m not sure if it is coffee with creamer or just black coffee. If your shirt is pink they say it is light red. Admittedly, our teachers say this is a big problem with Swahili.

Stay tuned for occasional Swahili updates, and please pray for us as we try to master this language so we can share the gospel with a needy people.

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Posted by BJ at 9:37 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

We have been learning many new Swahili words and phrases. We can now adequately greet people and understand their greetings to us (mostly). With some effort I could count from 1 to a million and tell you the date. However, it takes a ton of effort to tell you what time it is. Let me give you an example: The East Africans tell time a little differently than we do. When you ask someone the time you are literally asking them, “How many hours is it?” They understand that you want to know how many hours of the day have passed. So, when they look at a clock that reads 11:00 am they will tell you that it is “5 hours”. If the clock reads 3:00 pm they will tell you it is “9 hours”. The reason for this is that they begin their day at 6:00 am. Being directly on the equator, the sun rises at nearly the same time every day for the whole year. In fact it usually rises around 6:00 am. Thus, 6:00 am becomes the 1st hour of the day; 7:00 am becomes the 2nd hour of the day etc. Fortunately for us, it is exactly 6 hours different, so reading a clock takes only a little effort. Remembering how to say the numbers and in the right order is a little more difficult. Here is how we say “It is now 8:25”. Sasa saa, mbili na dakika ishareni na tano. I may have spelled a few words incorrectly, but you should get the idea anyway.

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Posted by BJ at 8:35 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Hujambo!
Today my head is swimming with nouns, linking words and proper unnuciation of words that are completely forgien to me. I have learned that it could take up to 10 minutes to say "hello". First you ask if there is any news, and in reply there is only good news. Then you can ask about the news of the day and again in reply the news is always good (nzuri). You can then ask about their family, work, home, children etc. etc. Again the replys are always "good". There is a saying in East Africa, "Hakuna Matata", meaning "there are no problems". It doesn't take too long of a stay to realize that is not true. But alas, when anyone asks me, everything will be "nzuri sana" (very good).
Until my next Swahili lesson, Kwa hari (bye)

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Posted by BJ at 2:02 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)