A bird's eye view of Moshi

It appears that my once a week report has become a once a month report. I will try to rectify that and get back in the swing of things beginning this week.

March has come and gone in a hurry. I enjoyed the 3 Sundays in a row where I was flying solo. Usually, Greg Wagoner runs the morning service, including the singing, offering and preaching while I run the adult Sunday School hour. I still get tripped up in the song service. Many of the Swahili hymns we sing have the same melody as their English counterparts but the timing of the wording messes me up occasionally. While I am finishing the sentence the congregation is still in the middle. Add to that, the fact that I am not a great singer and you have a recipe for a disastrous song service. We made it through however and the people received the messages from Colossians readily.

It is raining today and that is a welcomed blessing. It has been very hot and dry here since August. Now it is hot and humid and the people are very happy because the rains will cause their crops to grow. Many people ask me every rainy season if I am going to plant corn or another crop. They just can’t believe that I am not going to plant something. In this society so much relies on agriculture. If there is an open area of ground they will plant on it. In fact, our dirt road to our church has been planted on. I mean the road is not there anymore. They have ploughed it over and have planted corn in its place. We are still waiting for the local government to officially mark where the road will pass. It is a trying time fighting the mud and navigating around people’s crops and houses.

Please pray as I seek God’s will concerning our next church plant. I have a really good idea of what I would like to do next but I am waiting for God to confirm that. One missionary essentially said that you could throw a dart at the map of Tanzania and where it landed would be a good place to start a church. I agree. Take a look at thisGoogle map of the city of Moshi.

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Consider that in this town of about 165,000 people there are many cults, many Muslim mosques, and many churches that teach a false doctrine of salvation. When people ask and I tell them what denomination I am, they respond by saying that they have never heard of the Baptist denomination.

Please pray for:
Our next church plant
Our soon departure for furlough. There are many details to work out before leaving
Our baptismal and Easter services next week.