A Decemberto Remember at

Treasures of AfricaPage 5-6

January/February 2015 Hidden With Christ Ministries

Victory Magazine

Statisticians report that in 2014, the New Year’s resolution that ranked first on the list in the U.S. was weight loss. In contrast, back in 1947 – a Gallup Poll reported that the top two resolutions people made involved controlling one’s temper and improvement of character.

This interesting comparison shows us that sixty seven years ago, people’s focus was more on making internal changes as opposed to today’s increased focus on the external.

The Bible tells us that spiritual change affects all areas of a person’s life – both internal and external. So a commitment to read through the Bible in 2015 will have beneficial impact upon your spirit, soul and body! Here are a few of the multitudes of blessings that are promised to the person who meditates on God’s Word:

Guidance – a light for your path – Psalm 119:105•Prosperity and good success – Joshua 1:8•Help in avoiding sin – Psalm 119:11•Restoration for your soul (mind, will and emotions) – Psalm 19:7•Wisdom – Psalm 19:7•Spiritual growth – 1 Peter 2:2•

GO THROUGH THEA New Year’s Resolution

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BIBLE IN 2015!

Great peace – Psalm 119:165•Joy to your heart – Jeremiah 15:16b•Healing to your body – Proverbs 4:20-•22

Do you want help in going through the entire Bible in 365 days? We created an APP for that – it is called MY EVERYDAY BIBLE.

You can download our free APP to your APPLE, ANDROID or WINDOWS smartphone and listen every day to one audio segment – and after 365 days – you will have gone through every chapter and verse of the entire Bible and heard a short devotional teaching at the end of each reading. Have you ever thought that reading through the entire Bible would be too boring? With MY EVERYDAY BIBLE - the Bible will come alive! If you don’t own a smartphone – you can listen daily online by going to our website:www.myeverydaybible.com

Here is what one listener in Minnesota wrote to us about her experience with MY EVERYDAY BIBLE:

I have grown in my walk with God so much thanks to this amazing APP! I always wanted to find a way to read the Bible more often than I did but could never figure a way. Then a dear friend told me about this APP and I immediately downloaded it. It's been such a blessing to me and I love how you always apply the Word to our everyday lives. Thank you!

If you start with MY EVERYDAY BIBLE in January - by the end of 2015 – you can join this listener from California and have a similar testimony to share:

I am writing to thank you and your team for creating My Everyday Bible. I started my journey on January 1, 2014 and today I completed my first full reading of the Bible on time, listening to Day #365 just now! I do feel blessed and informed and I plan to continue on my journey....

Have a BLESSED journey through the Bible in 2015!

Worth Keeping

By Rita LangelandExecutive Director

Hidden With Christ Ministries

If you read our last Victory Magazine, you may remember my article entitled, “The Grinch That Stole the Christmas Goats.” If not, a brief recap is in order – so that you may fully appreciate the good news contained in this one.

I shared in that article how a small flock of 17 goats and sheep owned by Treasures of Africa Children’s Home had been stolen by the man we paid to care for the flock, just two days before we were going to take the animals to the livestock market for sale. We planned to hold back one or two goats to use for our Christmas dinner at the orphanage, since roasted goat is a big treat here in Tanzania. I compared the situation to the famous children’s book by Dr. Seuss, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” In that book, the protagonist steals all the Christmas gifts and food from the village of Who-ville in a vain attempt to prevent Christmas from coming. Though he is successful in his theft, much to his surprise, Christmas comes anyway.

Despite this blow of both theft and betrayal by one of our own employees, we were quite determined to not allow this wrongdoing to ruin Christmas. However, we did report the theft to the local government authorities and followed their counsel in making a police report. (Though we had been counseled by others, to not even bother wasting the time it would take to make such a report.)

The police informed us they could try to investigate and track the thief since we did know his identity. Though this would require us paying for the fuel, transportation and travel expenses of any police personnel that had to travel to whatever city to retrieve the suspect. I know that sounds bizarre to an American, but you must understand that the Tanzanian police authorities have very few police vehicles. And in order to have them follow up on a crime that is not considered a major crime, like murder or assault with bodily injury, the citizen who has been wronged has to help pay the expenses for the crime to be investigated.

We prayed about whether to pursue this situation or not. We knew we could just be throwing money away and have nothing to show for it in the end if the police were dishonest or they just were unsuccessful in finding the thief. But the Board of Directors felt strongly to go ahead with pursuing this, if for no other reason than to make the strong statement that we would not allow TOA to be robbed and allow thieves to face no consequences. Word gets around quickly in Tanzania so this was a “statement” we were intentionally making.

After some investigation and with the help of the cell phone company tracking the GPS of a cell phone – the thief was tracked to the city of Dodoma – a large city about 9 hours away by bus. Two police investigators (plus one of our TOA employees who could identify the thief) traveled there and amazingly, they were able to find the man. He was returned to the Moshi area and put in jail. Further questioning revealed that

Victory Over The

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A Story of Total

he had sold the stolen flock to a man from the Maasai tribe who lived in a rural area not far from where we had been keeping the animals. That man was tracked down and put in jail. Then the chief of the Maasai village where he lived got involved. When that happened, we called in our friend Pastor Zablon, (who is also from the Maasai tribe) and he went and spoke at length to the village chief about the situation.

When it was all said and done – the Maasai chief apologized for the wrongdoing done to the orphanage by the man from his village, paid full restitution for the market value of our flock PLUS reimbursed the orphanage for all the expenses we had paid to retrieve the thief from Dodoma. We dropped the criminal charges against both men and they were released from jail. (Though the week they spent there will undoubtedly be a reminder to avoid such criminal activity in the future!) In more than a decade of working in Tanzania, I have never seen a situation like this resolved in such an amazing way. God is able to do abundantly above what we can ever imagine! And He knows how to bring total restoration.

The end of this story is my favorite part. The Maasai village chief came to Treasures of Africa and brought a goat as a gift to the orphanage, so that the children could still have roasted goat for Christmas dinner.

Grinch

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Restoration

Maasai chief presenting the gift of a goat to the children at Treasures of Africa

By Rita Langeland

Tanzania's Independence Day (an annual holiday like our Fourth of July) occurs in December so classes were suspended on that day. It provided the perfect opportunity to have our annual "Christmas Outing," a fun day that we plan each year to give the kids a special memory they will always treasure from their time living at TOA. This year we took the children to Mt. Meru Game Lodge, a beautiful place just outside the city of Arusha. Originally founded in the 1950's as a

wild animal sanctuary for injured animals who could no longer survive in the wild, today it is a safari lodge and restaurant on magnificent garden-like grounds. It still is home to a multitude of wild animals which our children loved seeing.

We arranged with the lodge to prepare a buffet luncheon for us and they set up a beautiful table in the midst of the lush landscape and all of us enjoyed the beauty of the day with absolutely perfect weather. It was an unforgettable gift of a special Christmas memory given to the children by those who donated so generously to our CHRISTMAS FUND. Even the orphanage staff who accompanied the children were blessed by the

experience. One told me, "Thank you so much - I never in my life saw an ostrich with my physical eyes!" All the children at Treasures of Africa received a new outfit for Christmas. All the Primary school students – both boys and girls – had tailor-made coordinated outfits accented with beautiful African batik cloth. Our teenagers, all received money to go shopping and choose their own clothing. They love the opportunity

A DECEMBER

Christmas Outing - Special Luncheon at Mt. Meru Lodge

Justice showing off his new Christmas clothes

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Animals at Mt. Meru Game Sanctuary

At Treasures of Africa

to feel independent and to express their own style. By doing their own shopping, they learn a very important economic lesson in the value of what a shilling will buy and get some practice in the Tanzanian art of bargaining! Thanks to friends at a church in the Seattle area - our kids received new pajamas for Christmas. They loved them! The children were really hoping to receive new pajamas for Christmas so they could continue the Christmas Eve tradition of wearing their new PJs to the Mission House to have popcorn and watch the NATIVITY movie. They

could hardly wait to open their Christmas stockings filled with goodies that were hung from the stairway of the Mission House.

A wonderful Christmas Feast was thoroughly enjoyed by all after church on Christmas Day. A multitude of material gifts is not the tradition in Tanzania for Christmas - but these precious things were deeply appreciated by the children.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about all the Christmas activities at Treasures of Africa in what truly was a “December to Remember.” Your generosity has made it possible to give our children at TOA such a fullness of life experience which stands in stark contrast to the tragic circumstances which brought them to live at the orphanage.

May God bless andprosper you in 2015!

TO REMEMBER

Baby David in his very first Christmas outfit!

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Christmas Pajamas! (L to R) Justice, Maria, Diamond, Zoe, Justina and Moses

TOA Girls in Christmas dresses

Children’s Home

Page 7 Jessica with her very first Christmas stocking

By Christina OberstChaplain

Treasures of Africa Children’s Home

It all started on our first Christmas Eve of December 2013 in our ministry’s new Mission House. Rita had come up with the idea of having all of our children over to the Mission House on Christmas Eve in their new Christmas pajamas to watch The Nativity Story movie. Using our little projector, hooked up to a DVD player and projected on to a piece of movie screen cloth, my husband, Warren had created a makeshift “movie theatre” in the Mission House living room. We prepared hot cocoa, cookies and popcorn to enjoy as we all watched the story of Christ’s birth. We hung Christmas stockings for each child with their name on them up the stairs, stuffed with candy and other surprises. The children could hardly wait for their turn to come, as it meant they would be the one that got to run up the stairs, find their stocking and then run back down to see what’s inside. Joy and laughter filled the Mission House along with many children!

This year, before the month of December even began, we were surrounded by the children, who (with great excitement) announced to us that they were coming to the Mission House again in their pajamas to watch the story of Jesus. They continued by very precisely describing everything we had done the previous year and made sure to let us know they wanted it all repeated again, with nothing excluded! I was amazed at how well they remembered every little detail of that special Christmas Eve. It was so great to see them express their desires with so much joy. It reminded me of the special things my own family did together every year and how I looked forward to them.

Creating beautiful memories together as a family is a gift that brings our hearts joy, love, comfort, and the feeling of security that comes from belonging. I can see this in our children and it fills my heart. So when this year’s Christmas Eve came around, we happily piled all our PJ clad children into the two TOA vans and brought them back to the Mission House, for what is now “officially” our Christmas Eve tradition. What a beautiful time we spent together!

As they climbed back into the vans late that night for the drive back home to Treasures of Africa, the children began to spontaneously and joyfully sing Christmas carols. They sang about Jesus, about hope and about love. My husband Warren, who had been driving the van, later told me, “Hearing them sing like that is what Christmas is all about.”

As I reflected upon the night and all that had taken place, I was reminded of these words from a familiar song. Joy to the world the Lord is come! This is the joy - the joy of our Savior who came to the earth for us and filled our hearts this Christmas. We are truly thankful for His blessings and for the gift of making special traditions and memories together in Him as a family here at Treasures of Africa.

I want to say thank you to our dear donors, for making all of this possible through your continued prayers and generous financial support. Happy New Year from all of us at Treasures of Africa! May the joy of our Savior, Jesus Christ, fill your hearts in 2015!

at Treasures of AfricaCreating Christmas Traditions

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Zoe LOVES Christmas Eve at the Mission House!

DDED

December and January are probably our most challenging months of the year at Treasures of Africa. December is summertime here in

Tanzania and very hot. The only hint of Christmas is seeing the “Krismasi Trees” (bright red flowering Jacaranda-like trees) in full bloom all over the city. The new school year (which begins in January) and the new year of 2015 have come so quickly!

After enjoying a wonderful Christmas with all of the children home for the Holidays, we now turn our attention to getting them ready for the 2015 school year. This is not a small task with 27 children in every grade from first through University and two toddlers thrown into the mix.

All of the students are excited to start school as we’ve had a tutoring program in full swing for the last month. We made a decision to invest in the children’s future education by hiring 5 tutors to come to Treasures of Africa Children’s Home during the month long Christmas break to help prepare them for the upcoming year. Needless to say they feel more confident and ready to go.

The Tutors taught everything from upper level Algebra, Physics, Chemistry and Biology to

Commerce and Bookkeeping to our Secondary School students. Basic Math was definitely needed for the primary school students so we broke them up into two age groups and had separate tutors for each. It was great to see the “light bulbs go on” as the kids realized they could understand problems and concepts that were previously very challenging for them. We even had a few “special” tutors that came in to teach French, Sewing and Art.

The sewing classes were a big hit. Even the older boys wanted to learn after Mama Rita explained that they could use their sewing talents to earn extra money when they went away to University.

Our Administrative Coordinator, Faith, (a former teacher herself) has been busy getting all of the school supplies and

It’s That

Primary School Tutor with TOA students

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JanuarY

An African Sign of Christmas - the blooming ofthe KRISMASI TREE

clothing needed for everyone to begin the new school year. She can’t just go to the store (like we would in the U.S.) to get all of the supplies. There isn’t a one stop shop in Moshi. To buy clothes, she needs to take the kids to an outdoor market that is only open a few days per week and where finding what you need isn’t the only challenge. Quality merchandise is often lacking. We thank God so much for those of you who recently purchased new school shoes in the U.S. for all of our students early enough so they could get here in time for classes to begin.

It’s hard sending off the few students we have who are attending boarding school. We all miss their smiling faces and personalities during the year. Innocent and Emmanuel will be returning to Livingstone Boys Seminary in Muheza, a small town near the coastal city of Tanga, about six hours from here. Awadhi will continue boarding at Mwanga School for the Deaf about an hour away and Witness will be boarding for the first time at Fountain of Hope Secondary School. Please pray for them while they’re away, along with our two returning University students, Irene and Margaret, who are doing very well at Mt. Meru University in Arusha.

We decided to have Raymond continue Secondary School this year with us at home in Moshi, so he will join Helen, Catherine, Doreen, Mary and Glory at Northern Highlands. Benny and Sifa will also remain home attending Secondary and High School close by in Majengo. Our 13 Primary School children continue at Moshi Academy where they are doing well and are eager to return one year older and wiser.

We were very happy to honor our top five scholars who managed to keep an “A” average during the 2014 school year. Mary received the top honors for the Secondary School students and Diamond, Zoe, Maria and Jessica all kept an “A” average among the Primary School students. They received Certificates of Achievement and a monetary gift for their hard work which we presented to them at the annual Christmas party with all the TOA staff and their families present. We know they will do equally well in this new school year and we believe others were motivated by seeing the recognition and blessing they received.

I’d like to thank our sponsors and donors for making all of this possible. Without you, their hopes and dreams of a higher education and a professional future would be nothing more than an unrealized fantasy. You are truly making a difference in the lives of these children. With your help we look forward to bright futures that rely on God for guidance and with the expectation of our students being a blessing to their families and the nation.

Thank you and God bless you.Warren OberstDirectorTreasures of Africa Children’s Home

TOA's Top Scholars (L to R) Mary, Jessica,Diamond, Zoe and Maria

Time of Year

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Means education

By Rita LangelandExecutive Director

Hidden With Christ Ministries

As the previous article described, the month of December was filled with in-house tutoring classes at Treasures of Africa to prepare the children for

the brand new academic year which starts in January. But to help give the children a break from the academic rigors, we added some fun optional classes in order to expand their horizons and explore their gifts.

One of those was a sewing class - which even the boys opted for. Another non-profit organization had donated 7 sewing machines to TOA and we hired a sewing instructor to teach them how to sew their own clothes. Being a tailor in Tanzania is a respectable career and can definitely support a family if the tailor is talented. Since many Tanzanians order their clothes from a tailor (like we did for the Christmas outfits for the younger children) it is a

viable way to earn money. I promised any of the students who became very proficient in the fine art of tailoring that we would give them a sewing machine as a graduation gift upon their high school graduation. The intention is to allow them to take the machine with them to college and earn money for themselves while going to school. The interest in the class suddenly soared! A second class that was offered was in music. We had the blessing of having a very gifted worship leader from Oceanside, California - Jill Shankles - here with us. She offered guitar lessons to all who were interested. There weren't enough hours in the day for Jill to satisfy the desire and enthusiasm level of our kids for her music class. She worked tirelessly teaching all ages from the youngest (Moses, Justice, Maria and Zoe - all 7 year olds) to Benny who is 18 and already an experienced guitar player. Jill's class had to rank as the all-time favorite. The sounds of sweet voices singing and chords being strummed Jill Shankles giving guitar lessons to Benny

Expanding

Catherine learning to operate a manual sewing machine

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filled the house with joy. Another popular class involved painting lessons from a local Tanzanian artist. This man is an expert in a traditional Tanzanian style of painting called "Tinga Tinga." He owns his own shop in Moshi town and has made a living for many years selling his paintings to tourists. We have several

c h i l d r e n who have shown some real potential in drawing so we wanted to give them a chance to try this out and explore their gifts. The results were nothing less than incredible! We started by enrolling 7 of our kids in this class, who were known for their artistic ability. But after the other children saw the amazing paintings they produced, they all begged to be given the chance to try their hand. We ended up with 27 out of our 29 children going through the class and all painted beautiful canvases. (Only our toddlers were excluded from the class!) I believe

these photos testify to the a m a z i n g results!

We were so blessed to give the children the opportunity to discover talents that they didn't even know they had. They all had their horizons expanded during a month that was filled with a multitude of memory making activities!

Horizons

Diamond loved the painting class

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Awadhi proudly displaying his painting

Glory with her masterpiece

Maggie with her Tinga Tinga painting

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We wanted to update you on the well at Esilalei village in Tanzania. This well, which had been drilled by Hidden With Christ Ministries back in 2007, had stopped producing water. This meant that the local villagers were forced to go back to dirty watering holes to draw water for their daily needs. We were told by a man who pulled out all the well pipe in an attempt to fix it, that it had most likely gone “dry” during the extended drought and we would have to drill a new well. This well is a deep one and had cost just over $20,000 to drill originally.

Feeling certain that the well had not run dry, we hired the original well drilling

company, an American owned outfit run by former missionaries to Tanzania, to go out there and do an appraisal of the situation and determine if indeed the well was dry or there was another problem. This company dropped a video camera down the well and discovered that there was plenty of water! As it turned out, it was the mechanical hand pump itself that had failed, due to years of heavy use.

Because of the generous donations of friends of this ministry, we were able to install a brand new well pump and the water is flowing once again. I believe the joy on these villagers faces is evident, clean water brings such a blessing!

We are still aiming for the long term goal of installing a solar powered pump system which would pump water into large storage tanks which would then be piped into multiple spigots. This would allow the people to easily fill their water containers and remove the manual hand pump system which requires strength to operate and is difficult for an elderly villager to use. That is a $20,000 project and we are slowly gathering funds for that goal. We look forward to one day showing you those photos of the solar system in operation.

Thanks again to everyone who invested in bringing the joy of clean water back to Esilalei village!

The Joy of Clean Water!

Water is flowing at the wellin Esilalei Village

Clean water being carried from the well

Our dear friends from the non-profit organization AIDING CHILDREN’S VILLAGES (ACV) were back in Tanzania in December to bless both Treasures of Africa Children’s Home and the Kilimanjaro Orphanage Center. They took two teens from each orphanage on the rigorous climb up the famed Mt. Kilimanjaro. The two boys chosen from TOA were Raymond and Samweli. The weather conditions were difficult. Three days of rain turned to snow and made the climbing both slippery and miserable. But they pressed on. On Day 6 they arose at midnight and fought frigid temperatures to start the trek toward the summit. Fighting exhaustion and a desire to give up after many hours of climbing, Raymond made it to the famed Uhuru peak at 19,341 feet of elevation. Samweli was turned back by altitude sickness at around 18,000 feet. They both returned on Day 7 with stories of both the rigorous difficulty and the joy of

the adventure. Samweli was the youngest of the TOA children to ever attempt the climb and he will get the chance to attempt to summit again next year. We are so proud of both of them!

ACV’s “Teen Kilimanjaro Challenge” gives Tanzanian orphans a chance to experience something that few people in the world ever experience. They learn about the need for diligence and perseverance to reach a lofty goal. Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro requires endurance and determination and also provides unforgettable life lessons. We are so grateful to these partners for giving this opportunity to our boys.

But ACV doesn't stop at climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro when they come to Tanzania. They also jump in and do hands-on work projects to help at Treasures of Africa. During this visit, they built a much needed retaining wall which diverted the heavy rains away from destroying our vegetable garden. They painted the orphanage office and then they rehabbed our basketball hoop and backboard to the great delight of our kids. They finished off their stay with a much anticipated “Kid’s Day” in which they sponsored a wonderful picnic lunch and field games and prizes.

Consider joining the ACV Team yourself – and you can move mountains together with this awesome group of dedicated and compassionate people! Check out their website at www.aidingcv.org

For information about the next Teen Kilimanjaro Challenge – contact Ryan Shankles at: aidingcv@gmail.com

ACV team with TOA kids just before the climb

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Emmanuel playing basketball on the newly refurbished backboard and hoop

Sam and Ray leaving for Mt. Kilimanjaro

Moving MountainsWith Aiding Children’s Villages

Hidden With Christ MinistriesP.O. Box 3267 Tustin, CA 92781

A Generous Memorial Gift was received by Treasures of Africa Children’s Home

In Loving MemoryOf

Ada B. DeFoer

1919 – 2014Redding, California

Beloved Mom, Grandma and Friend

A wonderful example of faith, hope and love to all who knew her!

www.hiddenwithchrist.com - www.treasuresofafrica.org - www.myeverydaybible.com