More than once in the last five plus years, I’ve talked to you about our Compassion child, Erick, who has begged us repeatedly to come visit him in Tanzania. In November of 2019, I told you how I mentioned this to a relatively new friend that I didn’t know well and said, “But how could we ever do that?” (go to Tanzania)

Nancy responded, “You could go with me!”

I was astounded to learn that Nancy had been a missionary in Tanzania for 32 years and visited that country every other year. Soon after that I discovered that Compassion does in-country tours to help sponsors visit the child they sponsor. It looked like what had seemed impossible might be possible! We started putting money aside because the trip would be expensive.

Then COVID hit! Compassion stopped doing in-country tours but assured me they’d let me know when they began doing in-country tours again to Tanzania. We continued to save money for the trip.

Then in 2021 our son was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and passed away in July of 2021. Travelling to Tanzania was far from our thoughts but we didn’t stop saving money for the trip.

A year and a half later, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Surgery and a long period of treatment followed. Our sponsored son, Erick, growing up so fast, continued to send us sweet letters assuring us of his prayers for me and telling us of his activities in Tanzania. Would this trip ever happen?

We used some of our saved funds to help our grandson with a semester of school but later replaced them. Finally, a month or two ago, I felt prompted to talk to Donn about the money we were saving for this trip to Tanzania. Should we continue to save or use these funds for something else? We agreed that I would contact Nancy, whom I hadn’t seen in a long time, to find out if she was still making trips to Tanzania and also contact Compassion to find out if they were doing in-country tours again.

When I reached Nancy, she said I had been on her mind and she’d been wondering if I was thinking about going to Tanzania. She was considering making one last trip there either this year or next. I told her I would find out what Compassion was doing.

More than a week later when I spoke with a Compassion representative, I learned that they were doing in-country tours, but the ones they had planned through October/November of this year did not include a tour to Tanzania. It looked as though this trip was not going to happen, at least not this year. To me, it seemed like the end of the line. Even as clear as it had seemed five years ago that I or we were to go, maybe it wasn’t God’s plan for us to make this trip.

I made another phone call to Nancy, telling her I didn’t know when a Compassion tour to Tanzania would happen, and she shouldn’t wait for us, but Nancy had a different idea. She said, “Daisy, I don’t think we need Compassion to make an in-country tour. I know people in Tanzania who can set up a safari to where your sponsored son lives, and I speak Swahili so you wouldn’t need a translator. It would be wonderful if your husband could go with us. You can stay with me at the seminary where I taught.”

My head was spinning! Was it possible that we could do this? “I’ll have to ask Compassion if we could go with you to visit our sponsored child rather than going on a Compassion tour,” I told my eager friend.

The agent I spoke to assured me that as long as we give Compassion at least 8 weeks to do background checks and set up the visit, it would be acceptable for us to go with Nancy. Nancy’s response? “I would hope three missionaries could pass the background checks!”

Since we’ve been saving money for a long time and it won’t cost as much in-country if we just go with Nancy, Donn says he will go as well.

So that’s where things stand. We are tentatively planning to go to Tanzania in October of this year if all systems are go at that time. We’re excited to tell Erick (just turned 17 in January) of the possibility of our visit. Please pray for us that if this is God’s plan, all the details can be worked out.

Just as a postscript to all of this… A few weeks ago, we got a letter from Compassion saying that a neighbor and classmate of Erick had lost her sponsor. They were asking if we would be interested in sponsoring her as well. After prayerful consideration, we decided to do that and are hoping that we will be able to visit Debora when we visit Erick. Thank you for your prayers!