The Ocean in Dar Podcast

next week, we have an intern, Ashley from MI to work with us. God is providing help.
We’re getting a puppy, getting rid of a dog. Our mutt is going, the daughter of our border collie and a friend’s german shepherd is coming next week too.

Had our first service in our new location. trying to do video updates now as well as email newsletter. am i doing too much? probably, cause its not really helping my support that much, maybe its keeping it up.

Last week was the national convention where they elected a new church leader. Hasn’t happened in 16 years. only once before in history. That was pretty big.

Mice are now in my house, i’m setting traps and the last 4 nights, have caught one each night.
We start to meet in a movie theater as a church this week. Got a guy coming from the states to sound training this week. Going to be busy.

Joshua turns 5 tomorrow, Aug 13. 5 years already. amazing.

Song of Potential

Why do they make cars that will go 220 if the speed limit is 70? When I was growing up in Europe, there were speed limits, but they were more like strong suggestions than law, except of course if you got caught.

During our recent visit with my parents in France, I noticed a serious change in the behavior patterns of drivers throughout France. Where used to, everyone imitated their favorite F1 driver, the roadways resembled more ‘Driving Miss Daisy.’ The reason is simple. There are now stationary radars everywhere. And to loose your license is to forfeit $2000 to get it back. You have to go through all the drivers education again.

Here in Tanzania, it’s worse. I saw a Ferrari F340 the other day. Brand new, bright cherry red, a man-sized toy. I only know of one road in the whole country where I’d dare air that puppy out. But there is something in man that likes to say “I could if I wanted to.” I could dunk if I worked at it, I could lose weight if I wanted to, I could get a PhD. I am full of potential.

The scriptures tell us that we were created in the image of God. The latent potential in each of us is amazing, a reality far beyond the imagination of pop-physiologists. I look at my kids and know that humanity and the planet will be better because they visited. But “I could if I wanted to” haunts us. The truth is that most of our lives are more about wasted possibilities than maximized potential. We’re a MacBook Pro used only for email, or a F18 tactical combat jet used for weekend leisure outings.

This has been something I’ve spent a considerable amount of time thinking about lately. It boils down to inertia. What is it? Basically, inertia is overcoming the “Call of the couch.” It’s getting moving. Put that SUV into 4 wheel drive and go out to the state park. Risk a scratch on the paint, and loosing a hubcap. Because there is nothing as fulfilling as maximized potential.

This week, there is a team here from Oakhills Church in Eagan, MN working with a fellow missionary. The young people are doing an ESL class and a soccer camp deep in the bush. I helped drive them into this village, because the road is only passable with a serious 4×4. Rambling down the trails, with no where to go but on or into disaster, my truck went through a workout. I hit a hole so hard, the impact bent my steering rods. But I got to tell ya. It felt good. Real good. A tough truck doing tough work, paying off the debt to all those teenagers who worked to get the funds we used to buy that truck. Not so I could roam the freeways, but for precisely that reason.

There is potential in your life, potential in my life. Let air it out a little bit. Visit the autobahn. Find somewhere to make a difference. Burn the couch, and rediscover life.

Charles Porter
PS my truck will go 155 kph. I know. I’ve been there. And climb a very steep hill.

News and Prayer

I stuck my story at the end, because I know everyone wants to know about the baby. Alana is doing well, eats, sleeps, and poops. Doesn’t even really smile yet. So how she manages to look so much like an angel is beyond me. Her eyes are blue, her hair is dark, and her nose is her mother’s. http://picasaweb.google.com/charlesandtahnya for the most recent pictures. Big brother Joshua is super proud. Please continue to pray for the health and protection of our children. There has been an extra long rainy season, so there is more malaria.

We returned to Tanzania on the 24th of June to a nice welcome. Electricity was out for 3 days, then the water. After a hiatus for a couple weeks while we were gone, we started our churchplant back up with a small group meeting in our home. It is amazing how many closed doors there have been since we began to look for a location outside our home. That is one of our two biggest needs at this point. Please pray for a new location outside of our home. The road to my house is terrible and far from the bus stop, so it’s a real deterrent for people coming to church. Our current summer series us underway. Its called Biographies: The Easy Way to get Wisdom. Check out our youtube website, www.youtube.com/theoceanindar or our podcast (search under The Ocean in Dar in itunes).

For an update on our financial situation and see our request, please clic here.

Thanks to all those who sent things for the baby. She’s got a closet full of clothes now. I’ll have Tahnya update the website with any items she might still feel we need.
I’ve also made a serious effort to update all portions of our website, www.charlesandtahnya.net . There is a new video, a audio file, links to pictures, and more prayer requests.

Thanks for being part of God’s great plan for changing the future!

Blessings
Charles

Do you hate having a cold? I do. why, i don’t know. its not really that bad.
Some good-ish news today. we might have a location where we could put up a temporary structure for a church, right off a good road. My house is just turning into a bad location becuase the road is dreadful. I mean, I live here, and I dread driving on it.

Alana is growing like a weed, had her first shots today, poor little thing.

well, for the 100th time, i’m recommitting to blogging. yeah, well, sort of. anyway, we’re back in Tanzania and here’s a little update on the trip. I’m able to get this online today becuase its been several days since we’ve had electricity long enough to post.
he trip. Since you’re sitting in Nairobi doing not much, heres the long version. Ah, let’s just say that Africans aren’t the only ones with issues when it comes to organization. Here’s how it went.
Rickshaw couldn’t book Alana when we booked our tickets, because, well, she didn’t exist on paper yet. no birthdate, no name, etc. So a could days before leaving, I started contacting Rickshaw about her ticket. Nothing, nothing. finally, they told me to call BA myself. so i did. The agent booked Alana, but couldn’t give me a price, told me to come early.
Day of, 1 hour before leaving, tahnya starts having extreme pain in her back and chest. Quick doctor stop, looks like it might just be stress. Off we go to the Airport.
At the counter, the lady tries and tries to associate Alana’s ticket to mine, but the system won’t let her. We’ve got to a point now where computer’s tell us what to do, esp. with low level people , who have no way of doing a “common sense” override on the system. A long time later, our only solution is to pay 10% of a walk-up day-of ticket. 322 Euros, at that days rate, right at $500. and she doesn’t get a seat.
That lady can’t check us in. We have to do the e-check in. Which of course, doesn’t recognize us in the system, so the guy has to manually enter us. But he splits the family up. then its off to yet another place, through security, where we need to check our bags in. The lady there spends literally 30 minutes trying to figure out all the mess ups everyone had done with the family’s reservations. And we have to leave the baby carriage at the gate, where we are told we can pick it up at the door in London.
Turns out in London, no you can’t get it at the door of the plane, we checked it through as luggage. Which meant going through customs (filing all the forms for 4 people, etc) getting our bags, and making the connection to another terminal. We came in on the new controversial terminal 5, we’re leaving out on terminal 4. Which meant going and finding the Heathrow express, which has separate elevators from the regular trains into town. Which we found out by the hard way, dragging the whole family up and down. Then the Heathrow express doesn’t go to terminal 4, you have to get to terminal 1 first, then take the other Heathrow express to terminal 4. Somehow, I think our British friends lost the implied meaning in “express.” An hour later, we are finally in place at terminal 4. We splurged on a couple StarBucks drinks and muffins for about $30, and we were off to the gate.
Now, traveling with little ones does bring about a benefit. You get to load first, and your are supposed to get a bulkhead seat for the baby basinet. well, of course, they messed that up in the reservations. So we had to wait until the whole plane was loaded to see if the people there would move. They did eventually, (bribed I think by free champagne, which they offered to us also. Alas, the paper is signed. ) But in all the excitement, the staff forgot to get the basinet on board, so we had to hold Alana the whole time anyways. ah, And Joshua slept for about 2 hours, then staid up the rest of the night. Fun.
Arrival in Dar, Alana is not a resident, so they won’t let her through on my passport. By this time, we’re dead last in line for tourist visas. An hour later, we traipse out of the airport, safe and sound and very tired. Roger and Kandle are there to greet us, for the second time it turns out, because my tickets said the 23rd, but the small print showed leaving on the 23rd arriving 24th.)

Welcome to Africa!

Not much today. Talked to the midwife’s husband, he says she’s not too happy with the baby’s heart rate, but the doctor is not concerned, wants to wait till 37 weeks. Grilled out, then ran out to friday night church. was 20 minutes late, then looked for a parking spot for 20 minutes. yikes. Tahnya is ready for this baby to come.

For those who have been waiting, i’ve finally gotten on my horse to start updating you about our lives here in France.

First, today, we go in for our third baby monitoring. They hook Tahnya up to check her blood pressure and the baby’s heart rate. So far, BP is hovering around 135/90 which is borderline too high. The midwife who checked her out on Tuesday said that most likely they would induce her next week sometime. Not sure i’m ready to be daddy of an infant. kind of scary.

Being with my parents has been a blast. I use a little photomangement programs called Picasa and i has been crashing my computer everytime i open it, so updating is not the easiest. Anyway, keep checking back, i’ll try to do daily updates now.

Ever wondered if New Years Resolutions were a waste of time? Listen in to your conversation.

 

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