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December 2010 marked the beginning of our first furlough, which meant packing up our home and life in Tanzania and making the long trek to Adelaide, South Australia. After a 10 hour bus ride to Nairobi, we spent a night before embarking on the long flight to Melbourne. Somewhere along the way Malia picked up a stomach bug which she passed to Kelly and then to me. Kelly thought that morning sickness was returning on the plane, but realised later that it was a 30 hour flu thing when I came down with the same thing. I spent our second day in Melbourne in bed, revisiting all the wonderful plane food we’d had. We stayed at the Wycliffe grounds in Melbourne for a week, and during that time bought a cheap, old car, which we then drove to Adelaide. So far our time in Adelaide has been great, as usual. We had Christmas with family, Luke started Kindy (pre-school), Malia has been (mostly) toilet-trained, we’ve reconnected with lots of friends and had the chance to visit different churches and share about our work in Tanzania. Here are some pictures of our first months on furlough.
Saying goodbye December
We had a great Christmas at Port Victoria with the Nicholls side of the family. All the cousins were together, as you can see from the pics. December
Luke celebrated his 4th birthday in January, and also started Kindy. These days he can often be found playing the Wii or someone’s iPhone. Australia Day at the beach, January 26 January
Here’s Malia practicing her music skills… and her cooking skills. Mainly Music classes February
Our car was temporarily out of action when the head gasket developed a leak. Usually it costs about $1000 or more to fix it, because of all the labour, but a friend who’s an aircraft mechanic helped me fix it. He told me what to pull apart, then he came around and fixed it and helped put it back together. Another friend loaned us his car for a couple weeks, so in the end it wasn’t a bad experience – in fact, I got to pull an engine apart and put it back together while being supervised by a pro. It’s those kinds of things you miss out on when you only have new, shiny stuff. February
A group from Oakden Baptist Church did a ministry trip to a town called Millicent to run the Sunday morning service for a local church. The kids had a great time, and the locals took us out fishing, which isn’t like fishing in Adelaide – we actually caught stuff!
Barbecuing the fish What do you do when your van breaks down on a 5 hour trip? Well, if the team leader is the same aircraft mechanic friend who helped fix your car, you don’t do too much because he has it fixed in 10 minutes. February
Kelly and the bub are coming along nicely. She’s at 28 weeks now, so nearly in the final stretch. No pun intended. My sister, Donna, made these matching skirts out of Tanzanian material. February
In many Tanzanian communities it is ‘taboo’ for a man to speak to his mother-in-law. If they are in the same room together, they must avoid each other. My mother-in-law reads this, so… probably best I not comment. ;)
WHAT WOULD YOU DO? While visiting your gardener’s house, you notice a pair of your pliers amongst his things. They’ve been missing for a while, and you definitely didn’t loan them to him. What would you do? Leave your comments on our website, or email us and we’ll post them there (if they’re good ).
Prayer Updates • We finished checking the book of Luke in Kwaya. That’s reason to celebrate! • A couple from the US has moved into our house in Musoma for 6 months to help with construction of our new translation offices. This means that they’ll be helping cover the on-going costs of our house there, and be around to watch over the property, which takes a big burden off of us. • We found a great Kindy (pre-school) for Luke, and he’s really enjoying it. • Our car. Usually this would be a request, not a praise point, but since it is now fixed and barely cost us anything to fix, we’d like to thank God for good friends and a working car. • Our support level is still at about 60%. Pray for new supporters who’ll join the team. Without the necessary financial support we can’t go back to Tanzania. If you want to sign up with us, go here. • We have a lot of opportunities to speak at churches and other groups. Pray that others would see the value of missions, and that God would use us to light a spark for the unreached peoples of the world.
LINKS/INFO • To read our blog & join our online discussion click here. To see more about our work, visit thetask.net. • To sign up for newsletter notifications send us an email. • To join our Prayer Team send us an email. • To $upportus financially go to this link, or send us an email & we’ll send you a card. • Our current mailing address is: • Michael & Kelly Nicholls379 Nelson Road • Para Hills, SA 5096 • Australia • michael-kelly_nicholls@wbt.org • or catch us on facebook.
