This is Tanzania

As some of you know, and some of you don't.  My husband and I are considering the possibility of going to Tanzania, Africa as missionaries. 

 God has been working in our hearts for a little over 6 months and at this point we are praying that God would show us open doors and closed doors and give us the grace to accept them for what they are.  We would have to sell our house, which is not nearly the easiest thing thing to do these days.  But we are fully confident that we are proceeding following God's call and He will work things out according to HIs perfect plan regardless of where that has us living a year from now. 

    It's kind of a cool story about how God brought me and Tim both to this place in our lives, some parts of our story are intertwined, in some cases we  were both on our path completely alone getting to this point, and yet here we both are ready to go to Africa and terrified and exhilarated at what comes next.  

Tim is in Mississippi right now on a  completely different missions trip and when he comes back we will be getting serious about planning a two week trip to Tanzania to get the lay of the land, sort of see what our role would be and kind of feel out if it is going to be a good fit. 

  With all this in the works I thought I would find some things out about Tanzania.  Can you believe how beautiful the pictures are??!?!?

I also found out the population is about 38 million.  They are 30% Christian, 35% muslim and 35% "indigenous beliefs".  Zanzibar which is next door is 99% muslim.   The age structure is 43.7% 0-14 yrs., 53.6% is 15-64 yrs., 6.2% 65+.  The life expectancy rate is 45.64 years so it makes sense that they are a fairly young society.   The HIV/AIDS rate is 1.6 million or 8.8% of the population.  

  They are also considered to be one of the most stable countries in Africa with very  little internal conflict or problems with it's neighbors which was encouraging to hear about the country I am considering raising my children in! 

   I hope you will come along with us on this journey.  We will need all the prayers that we can possibly gather not only if we go but even on this side as we make our decisions.  

  More to come......