new email address

[Maria]

Dear friends, family, and members of my support team,

Hello from Bukoba! This is just a quick email to let you know that my
email address, mtro...@msn.com, was hacked when I first got to Africa
and is no longer accessible to me.

Please add my new address to your address books:
MariaTh...@gmail.com and use that to contact me. If you've sent
me an email in the past two weeks, please know that I've been unable
to read it and please resend it to my new address. Finally, if you'd
like me to have your contact info please reply to this email so that
I'll have your email address in my gmail contacts.

In other news, I am doing well here in Tanzania and have begun
studying Kiswahili! Every day I walk down to the sandy beach of Lake
Victoria and sit in a grass-roofed hut to study with my nurturer, a
local woman who has "adopted" me and now refers to me as her daughter!
She's a wonderful lady and is teaching me both language and also some
things about the local culture.

On Wednesday I leave for two weeks to go to Lodwar, Kenya at the
invitation of Fr. Martin Ritsi and OCMC headquarters. Met. Jeronymos
here in Tanzania has graciously blessed me to observe an OCMC teaching
team in Kenya, and I look forward to learning how to welcome new short
term OCMC team members to Africa. While I am in Lodwar I have also
been asked by OCMC leadership to begin assessing the healthcare needs
of the Turkana, the people who live in that region of Kenya. I will
have a lot to tell you about by the time I get back! Please pray that
I will ask the right questions of the people I'll interview and be
guided by God to learn and understand the ways in which OCMC can
minister to the healthcare needs of people in the area in ways which
are effective and sustainable, and which will not create dependency.

Thanks so much for your prayers and financial support which sustain me
here in Africa! I am really starting to love my new home and my
neighbors here and am so grateful to have the opportunity to be a
witness for Christ here in Africa! God bless you!

In Christ,
Maria