Photos from Tanzania

Hello everyone!
It's more than a week since we got back from Tanzania so I thought it was about time I showed you a few photos! We had a great time - it was really busy, lots of fun and we met some wonderful people.

 

I travelled around in David's rucksack. It was very comfy!

 

This is Livingstone. I wondered at first if he was named after the famous explorer, David Livingstone but he told me that he was actually named after the Living Stone from the Bible. (Who do you think that might be?) Livingstone is the son of the pastor in Monduli. Livingstone loves to dance and his footwork is perfect!

While we were in Moshe we met a American couple that John Gaultney knew from Georgia. They are missionaries and have been there since July. They were very good to us ,inviting us to their house and taking us to different places. This is me with their daughters Mackenzie & Madison aged 11 & 13.

 

A tree outside the room David and I stayed in at Monduli. David thought it looked like a rhinoseros and I agreed with him. What do you think?

 

This was at the entrance to the Bible College at Arusha and this man with his Chinese motorcycle was happy to let David take a picture of him with his bike. I am sitting on a bag of bananas. There are lots of these little bikes in Tanzania - they are used as taxis and for transporting things.

 

 

I nearly missed the plane!!

Hello everyone!  I'm off to Tanzania tomorrow - I almost didn't make it though because everyone forgot that I was supposed to be going! Thankfully Ruth noticed I was still here and Pastor Iain just came and collected me, so I'm on my way...

I am going with Pastor Iain and David Smith, and we'll meet up with my good friend, Pastor John Gaultney of Athens Link when we get to Amsterdam. We're going to be travelling to lots of places and I'm excited about seeing some of my old friends again. David is going to be doing some painting too while we are at Arusha Bible College. I'm hoping he might let me help him because I love painting!

I must go now and finish packing my suitcase since I'm doing everything at the very last minute with this trip, but I'll keep in touch and let you know how we are getting on!

My travels so far...

Did you know that I have been to ten countries of the world so far? That's not bad considering I am only 6 years old is it?  Ruth got me a lovely map and put a photo of me on every country I have been to so far. It looks great, doesn't it!

So far I have been to:

Zimbabwe (lots of times)

Tanzania (a few times)

Brazil

China

Ghana

USA (the country I have been to most of all!)

Haiti

Israel

Pakistan

South Africa

and of course - Scotland! (I live here...)

 

Here are a couple of pictures of me with the flags of all these countries.



 

 

 

 

Do you think I am the most widely travelled little sheep in the world? I think I must be. I wonder where I will be going next?

Photos from Pakistan

Well, I've been home for a few days now and had a chance to have a lovely bath and get my wool properly dried out in the sunshine. Thankfully Heather knew not to put me in a tumble drier....

I've been sorting through my photos from Pakistan and here are a few I thought you'd like to see.

This is me having my wool done at the Noor-es-Sahar Welfare Centre - a sewing and beautification training centre. I don't think they were used to beautifying sheep but I had a very good time!

I was feeling a bit nervous here because, as you can see, I was being held by a VERY tall man. Just one of many people I met here.

Confirmation Class at St Andrews Presbyterian Church.

With an armed guard at a restaurant

With some children from a Gypsy camp.

These children live in an orphanage we visited

Wagha Pakistan/Indian Border guard. I was able to make even the toughest soldiers smile!

We're home!

Hello everyone! I'm back from Pakistan now.  We got home yesterday. I slept a lot more on the flight coming back - we had a very busy time and I'm still tired!! I expect Andy and Andrew are too because they were very busy. It was a fantastic trip though and I was so happy about being in another different country and meeting more new people. Hopefully I will be able to put some photos on here quite soon.

Well, because I was in Pakistan I couldn't go to Athens with Pastor Iain and Norma or with Katie and Josh to visit my friend Courage.  I hope they'll say hi to Courage and all my friends over there for me, and tell them all I'll be over to see them again as soon as I can!

Grasshopper for dinner!

We have been getting up very early this week and going to bed very late. Thankfully we get some time to take a nap during the day. I am very glad about that - sheep need their beauty sleep you know! Andy and Andrew are speaking at a meeting that happens early every morning, then we've been going to different places for them to speak every evening.

Last night we went to a church out in the countryside and then the guys sat down to eat some dinner. Well, Andy was just popping some food into his mouth when a grasshopper hopped onto his spoon and went in too! Andy hopped around a bit himself then, but I don't think he swallowed that grasshopper. What I would like to know is, did it do any hopping inside his mouth? That would feel a bit odd I should think.

I read in the Bible once that John the Baptist liked to eat locusts and honey. I wonder if grasshoppers would taste good with honey? I don't think I'll try any myself.

I read another story in the Bible that was about grasshoppers. Do you remember when Moses chose twelve men to go and check out the Promised Land of Canaan? They went and, when they came back, ten of them said, "We cannot take that land. The people who live there are giants and we look like grasshoppers to them!" But Joshua and Caleb said that the land was flowing with milk and honey and with God on their side they could sort out those giants!

Sometimes our problems do look very big and scary to us, but when they do we can remember it is not how big or small we are that counts, but it is that God is great and He is on our side! Andy and Andrew have been remembering that during this trip and they have some great stories to tell everyone when they get back because God really has done amazing things.

My camel ride!

Here is a photo of me having a camel ride in Dubai airport! (I know it's not a real camel - I think I would find it a bit scary to ride on a real one.)

We're on TV!

We have now left Raiwindi and we are back in Lahore. It's been so exciting because Andy and Andrew have been making TV programmes! They are doing Bible studies and talking about God on the programmes. Each programme is about one hour long and they are doing two today and one each evening next week.

I have had a good look round the TV studios while they have been making the programmes. I had to be very quiet and keep out of the way of the cameras because no one is expecting to see a yellow sheep on TV while the guys are speaking! The studios are very interesting and exciting though, everyone is very busy and very focused on what they are doing with the different programmes. I couldn't understand what all the different programmes were about though because I don't speak the language here!

We are spending this weekend at a church called Hope Ministries in Lahore and the guys will be speaking there again on Sunday morning. When you go to church in Dunfermline at 10.30 am it will already be 2.30 pm for us here! I will be thinking about you all and I hope you will pray for us when you all get together.

Cows, goats - and noisy cats!

We are staying in Raiwindi at the moment and last night our host told us he wanted to show us his church. Andy and Andrew thought they were going to look at a building, but the man actually meant he wanted them to meet the people. We went to lots of houses in the town and met all the families who go to the church. We prayed for them all and they all wanted us to bless their cows and goats! This was a bit unusual for Andy and Andrew but I thought it was great! So did the cows and goats. The guys did a great job too, even though they are not used to blessing animals. They had to drink a lot of sprite and coke as everyone gave them some. Someone even offered them some milk straight from the cow but they said "no, thank you" to that. I think they just didn't fancy it but I'm sure it would have been fine as they had just blessed the cow!

Well, being a sheep I have never had any coke. But I found out what happens when you drink too much of it! Poor Andy was wide awake all night, he didn't get any sleep because of that coke. I didn't sleep much either - there are 12 other people sleeping here and they all seem to snore! And then there were the noisy cats... They were crashing around some cooking pots looking for food. They must have been very hungry cats.

We went to visit an orphanage today. It was a long way - two hours each way and it was very, very hot! But we had a good time at the orphanage and met lots of children who are being looked after there. Tonight Andy and Andrew will be preaching at a Healing Service. They are trusting God that lots of people will be healed at it so it would be good if you could all pray for them and the people who will come!

It's soooo hot!

Here I am writing to you all from Pakistan! Our flights here went very well. I was so excited as I have never been to Pakistan before, but I was very good on the planes and didn't do any baa-ing or anything (people can get a bit upset if they hear a sheep baa-ing on a plane!)

Andy and Andrew have a very busy schedule, they are preaching in lots of churches and meeting so many people that I can hardly keep up! I have a good memory for names though so I'm sure if I concentrate I can remember them all.

Andy has not been feeling very well for the last few days so please pray for him! He has been doing his best to keep his mind on God, and God has been helping him to feel well enough to do the things he came here to do. It is very very hot here too - 47 degrees which is the hottest temperature I have ever been in! It's hot for people but even hotter for sheep in woolly coats. I know Andy and Andrew are feeling hotter than they like to be too so it would be good if you could pray that God helps them with that too.

We are in a place called Raiwindi right now. We are going to visit a school and an orphanage which will be very interesting and then the guys are preaching in a church tomorrow evening.

I'm going to Pakistan!!

Flag of Pakistan

I'm really, really excited because I am just about to leave on a trip to Pakistan! It was a big surprise as I didn't know I was going, but I'd heard people talking about Andy Turnbull going there in June and I was secretly hoping he would take me with him! Andy is my new friend and I will also get to know his friend Andrew Shuttleworth while we are in Pakistan. I have never been to Pakistan before so I'm really looking foward to going there - it's been a while since I went to a country I have never been to before.

We leave for Pakistan this Thursday (14th) and will arrive on Friday. While we are there Andy and Andrew will be speaking at different churches and meetings and we will meet lots of new people. I even saw on the itinerary that they are going to be on TV! I wonder if they will take me if I promise to be very quiet and not get in front of the camera?

I'm sure I will have lots of wonderful experiences on this trip - if I can I will update my blog from time to time so I can tell you all about it!

Whirlwind trip!

Well, we are now back from Zimbabwe... It was such a busy trip that I didn't get a chance to write on my blog again! But we had an amazing time, and I got to meet some of the orphans that the people in Link Church are helping to go to school. It is not free to go to school in Zimbabwe and the families of lots of boys and girls who live there can't afford to send them to school. The people in Link Church help by sending the money they need so they can go to school.

Evn though it was a hectic trip, there was time to take some great photos. Here are a few of them:

Here I am helping to sort out pencil cases full of pens, pencils, rubbers etc for the orphans - these were given by people in Link Church:






These are some of the children being sponsored (2 of them weren't home from school yet so they are not in the picture) We had a meal with them:





These children are from Hatcliffe, some of them are orphans being sponsored - we all had a meal together:


Here are some of our children from Muzarabani and a few other children we met there. Some of our children are wearing their school uniforms which the sponsors money helped to buy for them:






We all know it rains a lot in Scotland - did you know it rains sometimes in Zimbabwe too? I don't have a raincoat, so I had to wear a plastic bag to keep me dry:


We had a big adventure while we were there! These are our friends, Irene and Shalom (who is only 3 years old). We were going on a car journey with them - me, Iain, Norma, Jim and Rosemary. There was also a chicken in a plastic bag. It seemed quite upset about being in the bag because it kept flapping about. I tried to tell the chicken it was probably just in a plastic bag to keep the rain off it, like I had been, but it didn't seem to be listening to me:




The adventure happened like this. We ran out of petrol beside a busy road. Barry, a farmer, found us and gave us his mobile number in case we needed his help. Our friend Wilson went to look for some petrol. We waited and waited, but it was getting dark and Wilson had not come back. It wasn't a very safe place for us to be, so we phoned Barry the farmer and he came back for us. He said he would take us back to his house for the night - but he didn't want to take that chicken! He said we should let it go, so we did. It ran under a bush and I think it was hiding there. Mainly I think it was glad to be out of the plastic bag! Norma didn't forget about me though, and Barry the farmer seemed ok about taking me back to his house with everyone else. I'll bet he'd never seen a yellow sheep before though! He gave us food and a place to stay overnight, then he gave us a lift to Harare the next day. We even found out that Barry and his family are Christians! I think this is a good story to show you all that God hears you when you pray for us, and takes care of us.

Here is a photo of me with my new friend, Barry the Farmer:


This is me with some of the other people I met:

I'm in Zimbabwe again!

Hello everyone!

I have just arrived in Zimbabwe with Pastor Iain and Norma. Jim and Rosemary Storm are here too - they came last week and have been to see Victoria Falls. I went there once and really liked it, apart from the fact that I had to go in a plastic bag to keep me dry! There was soooo much spray from the waterfall that everyone had to wear raincoats, you see, but there wasn't one small enough for me. I didn't like the plastic bag much, but it was better than getting my wool wet. Sheep don't like to get wet.

While we are here we will be spending lots of time with our friends from Fellowship in Christ. We will be at two Easter Conventions and Iain told me that the first one at Muzarabani will have 500 - 600 people at it and they will all sit under a big tree! It sounds a bit like the kind of meeting Jesus used to have when He lived on earth, don't you think?

The thing I am most looking forward to on this trip is meeting the orphans who are being sponsored to go to school by people from Link Church Dunfermline and Athens Link Fellowship. We are going to have a meal with them and we might even find more boys and girls who can be sponsored. On Sunday afternoon I helped Norma get ready a whole suitcase full of pencil cases, pens, pencils and other things to put in the cases which are going to be given to the children. I am sure that will be exciting for them! We have letters from their sponsors for them too. I'll try to get some photos to show you all when we get back.

I think that's all for now, but I'll write more later!

We're back home!

Hello everyone!

Well, that visit to Athens went whizzing past! We had a wonderful time catching up with all our friends at Athens Link. Iain, Doug and Mike were very busy speaking at different meetings and at the Men's Retreat while I just spent time hanging out with my friend Courage. We had dinner at lots of people's houses and it was all very yummy food they made for us! (Well, I just had very yummy grass as usual, but they guys really enjoyed the meals they had too!) We had dinner with: John and Cindy,Keenan and Sarah, Susan, and my friends Norene, Silas and Abigail. Norene and Silas had some very exciting news to tell me - they are going to have a new baby sister in June! I can't wait to meet her the next time I go back there!

I wonder when that will be? And I wonder where I will go next?

I'm in Athens!

It might come as a bit of a surprise, but I am on another adventure! I am in Athens, Georgia with Pastor Iain, Doug and Mike. We got here on Saturday night so we are still feeling a bit jetlagged. It was such fun to see everyone again though and I was sooooo happy to see my best friend Courage! We are here for a bit more than a week and we have a very busy schedule. Next Saturday is the Men's retreat and Iain, Doug and Mike will be speaking at that. Now, I'm still not sure if I should go because I am a girl sheep! I think I will ask Courage about that. I know ladies can't go to a men's retreat but I'm not sure if they have rules about sheep.

Today I am going with Mike and Doug to visit Katie and Josh's Grandma and Grandaddy in Savannah. I am looking forward to seeing them again - I was there on my holidays with Josh and Katie last summer and I had a lovely time!

I will try to write more later to tell you what we're getting up to.