Yes, it has been a while since my last posting. Many of you know that I have been home getting some medical tests done to determine why I have been having horrible digestive issues for most of this year. What I have come to find out is that the medical business since the advent of the so called Affordable Health Care Act does not operate like it use to. It takes months to get an initial appointment with a new doctor and they just keep scheduling “chat” style follow up visits. So I had to schedule my initial visit before I left in July for when I returned in September and I have been playing the game of testing and chat visits for far too long. What is the cause of my issues-no one knows. We ruled out colon cancer, parasites and infections. I have a lull before the next group of chat visits and I am going back to Tanzania to look at some new potential projects and be around for the school year to end so I can participate in the Christmas gifts for the students and staff.

So while I am home, I have been working with the staff in Tanzania to get budgets for the Christmas gifts this year, monitor the finances of the school, evaluate trends in our student test grades and communicate with folks about some potential new projects that B2BU may be interested in. One of those projects is a growing church that my safari guide is involved with. His church is growing very fast and they have several needs including purchasing Bibles for all their new members and looking at building their own church building. The Bibles would cost $300 to purchase in Tanzania and provide for around 30 new members and to have a couple of extra Bibles for future members. If you would like to help them with the new Bibles, please contact me at steveintanzania@gmail.com.

One thing B2BU Ministries, Inc. has been focused on over the years is finding opportunities to help local businesses while doing our ministry. We have always hired local contractors to build our buildings and hire Tanzanian teachers for our school. With the help of a group in Florida, we supported the creation of a sewing ministry at the local church associated with our school. This group has grown over the years and this year we had a separate organization sponsor 70+ students and included in that sponsorship were new uniforms and school shoes. The sewing ministry made all of those uniforms for sponsored students. Next year that will be nearly 100 student uniforms as we have another group joining in sponsoring individual students.

In addition to the uniforms, we found a group in Moshi who made our school shoes. Yes you read that correctly, they made our school shoes. At first, I though he would shoe up with a bunch of shoes already made and fit our students with them. But I forgot about the Tanzanian belief of never doing anything beforehand. So he came to our school with an exercise book and on each page he wrote the name of the student and then drew an outline of their foot. Three or four months later he showed back up with the shoes all made.

Earlier this year I was introduced to a lady in the nearby village who makes book bags in different sizes out of a pleather type material. I got her to visit and was impressed with the quality of her work. So I set a contract for her to supply all the book bags we need for Christmas gifts. There were two big benefits from this contract. First without paying anymore, I no longer have to assemble the bookbags myself. She delivers them assembled and tested. Secondly she agreed to add some personalization to each bag, something small to help the students tell their bags apart.

Blessed2BlessU Ministries and I continue to look for ministry opportunities that also help people in our community start businesses or at least earn money to improve their lives. This has many positive impacts including more people can help cover the cost of their children to go to our school in the future giving them more ownership of their children’s education.