2 Sermons at one time

We had a really great service today. I tried something new during the preaching. I preached in Swahili and then translated the message in English for Mom and Dad in-law and my kids who don't have any Swahili yet. I was exhausted but I had a lot of fun preaching 2 sermons at the same time.

Is it possible to fit 40 people into a 14-passenger van? Yes.

Bus Ministry
The past two Sundays have been great! We started our bus ministry this month and it has been a huge blessing so far. We had more than 40 people ride the 14-passenger van for our ‘Thanksgiving’ service! That’s about 10 more people than normal. Ha! I expect that we will normally carry 20-25 people. If we surpass this number I will have to add an extra van to the route.

Thanksgiving Service 
On August 7, we held a sort of Thanksgiving service. My purpose was to invite friends and neighbors to a special service where we would preach the gospel, give thanks for God’s blessings in their lives and of course eat food. We had more than 60 visitors! That was a huge encouragement to me and it really excited our people. I expected that we would draw many people to our service because we were having a meal. But what really got the people excited about this service was that we were giving away Bibles to everyone who needed one. One of our supporting churches gave us a large number of Bibles to give away. The problem with giving away Bibles in any crowded area is that it literally starts a stampede of people.

During the testimony time many people praised God for the new Bible they were given. Some even blessed me for giving it to them. I told them that I was just the delivery boy, that a church in the USA made it possible. They didn’t care they still wanted God to bless me too. I’m happy to receive God’s blessings anytime. I am praying that many of those visitors will be saved and become a part of our church.

Grace
The following Sunday (Aug 14) I preached a message about grace from John 8. Often times God gives me a sermon that really thrill my soul. This was one of those messages. Not only did God give me a good message but He really helped me communicate well as I preached in Swahili. Thank you to all who have prayed for my language learning. I still have tons to learn but I am getting better progressively.


Please Pray

• Pray for those who received Bibles at our special service. Pray that they will be saved and become a part of our church.
• Pray for our soul-winning efforts every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
• Pray for our “bus ministry” –safety is always a concern while on the roads.

Jesus is Savior or Server?

Thank you for your prayers for our church. I felt that we had a good spirit of fellowship in our service yesterday.

We spent last week in Kenya relaxing and recharging. It gave me some good time to do some thinking about our church, my preaching and the recent attitudes of jealousy. The Lord laid on my heart the verses in Philippians 2. It was a personal rebuke to me when I considered all that the Lord sacrificed for my sake; how could I not want to serve him regardless of the cost to do so.
While in Kenya Cathy saw a sign that sums up many attitudes in the church today. It read, “Jesus is Servior.” While it was an obvious misspelling of the word “Savior” it correctly defines what many people here think about Jesus. They look to Jesus as their personal server. They have the attitude that they deserve blessings from God because of everything they have done for him. That is exactly contrary to what many people in the Bible faced, Epaphroditus (Phil 2:25-30) being the prime example in my message on Sunday. The people received the message well with many “Amens” scattered throughout.

I have announced to our church that I am adding another day of soul-winning each week. I already have a partner for both times. Hopefully it will prove to be a good teaching time. I also have the Wednesday night discipleship class and the Saturday Bible study times that I hope will build a good core group in our church. Please pray for these efforts. Pray for their success, souls saved and the church strengthened. I also want to start a “bus ministry” very soon. I am not sure if it will be received well but I am willing to try.

This month has begun the harvest season for many people. One man is very anxious to harvest his crops because people are beginning to steal his corn. The crops have not done very well this year and as a result many people have very little in their farms. Neighbors are pillaging those farms that did have a good crop. It is sad to see. Please pray that the Lord will protect this man’s crops and give him a sufficient harvest to live off of for the year.

I have begun looking for a new email delivery program for our prayer letters. Many people have asked me to format my emails in a way that would allow for a better printing. I had a simple solution but something has caused it to suddenly quit working properly. Please be patient as I work through this situation. For now, you can click here for a printable copy of this letter.

Jealousy rears its ugly head

This week I had the opportunity to preach at Believers Fellowship Baptist Church in Moshi. It was very refreshing to preach in English. I enjoyed being able to run off on any rabbit trail I deemed worthy without getting lost for words along the way. My oldest son, Jay played his guitar while we sung Trust and Obey, Be Thou My Vision, and Grace Greater than our Sin. Then just before the sermon, Cathy sung Complete in Thee. It felt like it was the Schultz family hour. It was a nice change of pace from the usual services held at the village church.

I would ask you to pray for our village church. Lately, 2 people have shown us their ugly side and are causing some problems within the church. While I was preaching in Moshi on Sunday, Paulo was running the service at the village church in Kingereka. It was during this service that one woman brought many of her complaints before the church. Her biggest complaint was that I don’t visit the sick people in our church (she has been sick the past 2 weeks) and that I only give money to a few favorite people in the church. The truth is that on occasion all of our people have asked me for some kind of assistance claiming that they don’t have enough money for food or medicine etc. I believed them and would give them $5-$10 to help them. I may have done this 5-6 times for each individual over the past 4 years (an older widow in our church being an exception to the limit). At other times they would bring bigger problems to me. I would present the need to the church and let them decide how much to help the individual if at all. Now I understand that my little help here and there has created animosity among a few. Though in a different context, this reminds me of Romans 14:16, “Let not then your good be evil spoken of:”
It appears to me that jealousy is one of the biggest sins among our people group. It may be a result of the many years this country has spent as a socialistic government handing out spartan necessities to its people. It may be a result of other churches in the area that have become service stations to their attendees. Some churches offer loans for people to start businesses or to buy big items like bikes, motorcycles or tin roofs. Others have prescribed plans for helping with medical expenses. I can understand why the churches would do these things but it has created many more problems than it has solved. The biggest problem is that many of those people look to God to serve them as if it were an entitlement endowed upon them for their attendance to the church and the spare change they put in the offering plate. Doing things God’s way is always the best way regardless of its difficulty. Convincing people of this truth will always be difficult regardless of its blessings.
Please pray for wisdom on my part. Pray for these people who are jealous and bitter and please pray that the Lord would be glorified through it all. Already one man has written to tell me that he has sought forgiveness for his own jealousy.

Looking forward to Easter Sunday

Here in Tanzania it is easy to be unaware that a major holiday is approaching. There are no holiday sales in the stores, no decorations in any of the buildings you might visit and very few TV commercials to remind you of the fast approaching holiday. Easter is no exception. However, I have been looking forward to it for a while. Last week a young man named Filimoni preached “Sin is death.” I thought that for this relatively new believer he did a very good job and his message was a great pre-cursor for our Good Friday service. I am praying that God will personally and obviously call Filimoni to be a pastor.

I am praying that God would send us some visitors and that someone would be saved this Easter weekend. Most people in our area will attend a huge church located about 2-3 miles from our church. I would greatly rejoice in this fact if only that church were to teach the Bible correctly. They have blinded many with their gospel of good-works salvation.

Last week I mentioned a prayer request about needing some extra money to do some major projects at our church. Some people have asked me about these projects so I thought I would include my plan in this letter as well. Perhaps God will lay it on your heart to be involved in some way.

Finish the Fence: $500
Water line: $800
Small kitchen for pre-school: $400
Foundation, walls and roof of new addition: $5000
Finishing new addition: $1300

Our people have been actively involved in building a fence to enclose our property. They have planted bougainvillea bushes and some trees to make up the walls of the fence. They have also begun casting cement posts and placing them every 10 feet along the fence line. What we lack is the money to buy the supplies for 19 posts, barbed wire and another 300+ bougainvillea seedlings. All the labor is volunteered by our members. After the fence is finished we will have a much more secure situation. We will then be able to move on to the next phase and bring water to the property. Have you ever tried to fill a baptistery by hand? It takes a lot of 5 gal buckets and many hours to walk them from the nearest water source nearly 1/2 mile away.

Please pray:
For extra money for the projects listed above
For Filimoni
For great Easter services

An Enjoyable Sunday

This Sunday was really enjoyable for me. I have been preaching through the book of John and Sunday brought us to John 5. There is so much good stuff to preach about in that chapter that I had to limit myself to verses 1-16. That is the story about Jesus healing the sick man at the pool Bethesda. What a great passage of scripture! I only wish I could have preached in English. The front wall directly behind the pulpit is about 25 feet wide and 10 feet tall. That whole wall is painted with chalkboard paint. During my message I drew the temple, the pool Bethesda, the sheep gate and the path that led to Golgotha. It wasn’t pretty but I think the people enjoyed it.

Afterward I was able to talk to a man named Dismas about salvation. I asked him if he had received Christ as his savior yet and he affirmed that he was a Christian. Unfortunately, most people here are Christian in name only. So I asked him how he became a Christian. He told me that he believed on Jesus and that he does good works. I took some time to show him a few verse which say that salvation is not determined by one’s good works but by the work that Jesus did on the cross. I am praying that God gives him clear understanding on this matter and that we have another opportunity to discuss this.

For perspective:
We bought the property for our village church in 2008. At that time we met with the people at the land office. He was preparing to go to the capitol and submit plans for the development of our village. He showed us the proposed road plans for our area. It looked like our church would be 1 plot away from an intersection. When I say road I mean dirt trail that you can drive on provided there are no goats, cows or giant rocks in the way. Well, that was 3 years ago. Today, there are many new houses in our area but there are no roads. Now that it is planting season, our church members are complaining that there is no path for their bikes. They are not allowed to walk or ride through the cornfields so they have to make a very large detour. We plan to talk to the land office on Wednesday (Apr 6) about this issue. Please pray that God gives us favor and a good solution to this problem.

Please pray:
For Dismas. Salvation.
For me as I preach in Swahili
For our meeting with the land office
For the renewal of our residency visa. The immigration office has given us so many problems. I will spare you the details but please pray that they grant the visa in a timely matter without demanding any bribes. Bribery is a way of life here.

Wedding delayed

Thank you for your prayers on our behalf. I asked you to pray for the wedding of Mandara and Anna last week. Apparently, the Lord saw fit to have a mother show up on the scene. Mandara’s mother, a Muslim, has caused us to delay the wedding for 3 weeks so that other friends and family can come. Actually, this is a reasonable request and one I am happy to accommodate.
On Saturday I sat down with the couple, a friend and Mama Mandara to discuss the wedding vows. The vows are very well written explaining the faith that the couple has in Jesus and that they plan to raise their family according to the Bible. It gave me good opportunity to witness to Mama Mandara. I asked her why she chose Islam. She said she didn’t choose, she was born into the family of Muslims. I asked what Muslims had to do to go to heaven. With a look of embarrassment she said she didn’t know. I mentioned the five pillars that the Muslims base their faith upon and compared it to what the Bible says. I questioned her, which would you rather depend upon, your good works based on these five pillars or the work that Jesus did on the cross? She made a few excuses for her faith and I left it at that, trusting that I would have another opportunity to witness to her again. Please pray for her salvation.

Sunday’s sermon was all about the names and attributes of Jesus mentioned in Isaiah.

Is. 9:6 "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."
The message was received well and 3 people came forward to pray. While I know my Swahili needs a lot of polish, it is obvious that the Lord is giving me ability to communicate sufficiently. I am really amazed at how long it takes me to write one sermon however. Please pray for me in this area. I would like to spend more time with the people than at my desk writing and translating.
Please pray:
For salvation of Mama Mandara and others who may attend the wedding Dec 19
For direction and ability from the Lord for preaching in Swahili
For growth of our church spiritually and numerically

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving with 10-15 other missionary families who all gathered in Nairobi on Thursday. Unfortunately, Daniel and I were very sick for about 24 hours. Actually, Daniel recovered much more quickly and with much less drama than I did. I think we must have picked up some food poisoning on our trip to Nairobi because no one else got sick. Nevertheless it was a good time with friends.

Last Sunday I preached about the 10 lepers whom Jesus cleansed from their leprosy. Only one returned to give thanks. Nine went to the temple to follow the Old Testament law to be declared officially cleansed. The other one who gave thanks received more than just a cleansing. Jesus said, “Arise, go thy way: thy faith has made thee whole.” (Luke 17:11-19) He also received salvation by Faith in Jesus. It is very interesting how thankfulness and salvation are connected in this passage of scripture.

After the service we made plans for the wedding of a newly saved couple in our church. Please pray for the wedding to go well. This will be my 2nd wedding but since it is all in Swahili there is a lot more stress on me. This will also be a great opportunity to be a witness to their family. This couple is getting married after living together for 2 years because now that they are Christians, they know they should obey God and live according to His word.

We now have less than 4 weeks before my favorite time of the year, Christmas. Believe it or not we already have all of our shopping done and thanks to Cathy’s mom, the gifts are in the mail heading our way. Now we just need to pray that they make it on time without being stolen.

Please pray:
For the wedding on Sunday Nov 28
My continued growth in Swahili
Others to be saved
Homesickness during the holiday seasons
Our gifts to arrive safely and timely

Missions this month

I cannot believe that it has been more than a month since I last sent a report. The past several weeks have sped by in such a blur. Time flies when your having fun or when your very busy.

Missions is all about starting churches and equipping people to go out and start other churches which do the same. That is a simplification but I think you get the idea. Much of what has kept me busy the past 4 weeks has revolved around missions.
I was invited to preach at Karen Baptist Church in Nairobi the first Sunday of September. The church is taking the whole month of September to emphasize missions. What a blessing to see this mission church actively engaged in reaching out to the world with their own missionaries. Among the handful of missionaries supported by the church there is one missionary, a national who has been in Somalia for the past few years. He said something I don't think I will ever forget. I paraphrase his words:

During times of war many people leave the mission field or pull back. I must continue on because during times of war Satan is reaping souls. It is the time when people need the gospel the most.

I left the church service really fired up about our own missions program at our village church. We have taught about faith promise giving and the people have responded well. Now it is time to take the next steps and commit to support our own missionaries. Our missions program is still in its infancy at this point but I see huge potential in the coming year.

I have had a desire for about 2 years now to start another church plant near our home in Moshi. The Lord has not allowed me to do so until now. Greg Wagoner and I have been giddy with excitement over the planning of this new church. However, it brings some challenges and difficulties. Property is very expensive in Moshi. Even finding a place to rent will probably cost us $500-$1,000/ month. There are many established denominations in this city many of which incorrectly preach a gospel of good works (see Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5) and there will always be a Satanic presence trying to cause us to fail and quit. Please pray for this new church. The first service will be held on Feb 6th 2011.

Earlier this year I organized the shipping of a 40' container from the US to our home in Moshi. The container is stuffed full of ministry equipment, Bibles, many household items that are not available here in Tanzania, as well as some toys for both the kids and myself. The long journey of this container has finally come to an end. Just today we got approval from customs to open the container and remove our items. After we moved about 12,000 gospels one of the very next items to come out was a four-wheeler. We splashed some gas into the tank turned the key and it fired up! Praise the Lord! Now, it's not all just for fun and games, we have a lot of scriptures to hand out. Imagine me and the boys going hut to hut handing out scriptures. I love being a missionary!

While in Kenya, we had some work done on our vehicle. I had a car alarm installed and every window, mirror and removable part etched with our vehicle’s registration number. The etching is supposed to be a deterrent to thieves. It is much more difficult to sell a mirror with someone else’s registration number on it. We also got visas from the Kenyan immigration office allowing us to enter Kenya at will for the next 12 months. We then stocked up on groceries and returned to our home.
Now it is time to get ourselves ready to move to a new home. I want to get it done quickly so I can focus my attention on some new out reach efforts in our church.

Please pray:
For God to lead us to a location to start our new church.
For much needed funds to pay for this new church plant (we are asking God for $200/mo)
For our first service on Feb 6.
For our move to our new home.
For growth for our existing church in Kingereka (spiritual and numerical).
For me: My Swahili- especially in preaching, my soul-winning efforts and for wisdom as I lead our church.

Baptismal service in Kingereka

Our Sunday service went very well, thank you for praying for us. I preached on our responsibility to witness to others, salvation comes by way of Jesus, and what baptism represents from the story of Philip and the Eunuch in Acts 8:26-40. Several times in my message I emphasized that baptism is only an outward picture of what was done in your soul when you got saved. The people in our area have been taught that baptism is a means of salvation- a way of washing away your sin. But the Bible teaches that it is a testimony of your faith in Christ.

 After the message we all went outside to baptize 4 people. While we waited for them to change Filimoni came to me and told me that one of the ladies, Dina was requesting to be saved. Apparently, she had planned to be baptized but at some point during the message realized that she needed to be saved first. Paige Wagoner took her aside and led her through the scriptures and helped her receive Christ as her savior!

I then baptized her a few minutes later. What a blessing!

My Swahili was a little rough but evidently, God used it anyway. I am so glad that the strength and ability to do his work comes from him and is not dependant on my own ability.

Please pray for our Saturday Soccer club. 

Pray that it will continue to grow in scope and that souls would be saved during the Bible lessons.
Pray Jay and I- we have been suffering from some major sinus headaches the past few days.
Pray for next weeks services and sermon.

4 point message, 50 Bibles and 1 sick kid

4 point message, 50 Bibles and 1 sick kid

On Sunday I preached a message entitled "4 amazing statements concerning Jesus". I used the text in John 1:1-4, which tells us that: 1. Jesus is eternal, 2. He is not God the Father- He is a distinct person of the Trinity. 3. Nevertheless, He is God, 4. He is the creator of everything. That's quite a message to preach in English and honestly, even though I wrote out every word of the message, I struggled quite a bit with the Swahili. My vocabulary is still pretty limited. I have a goal this year to improve my Swahili to the point where I can easily translate for you when you come here to visit us. :)

This week we were blessed to receive 50 Swahili Bibles to use in our ministry. A church in Tennessee did all the work in finding the Bibles, ordering them, and Praise the Lord- paying for them. They even had them hand delivered from a city 1 1/2 hours away to our neighborhood. What a blessing! Now I have the difficult task of distributing them. It's not difficult to hand them out- it's difficult because everyone wants one. Because we freely hand out John and Romans booklets I am asked all the time for a complete Bible.

Pray for Daniel. He has had a high fever the past few days. We are watching him to see if he begins to show the signs of malaria or something else. One of our hardest jobs is being both pediatrician and pharmacist for our children. Thankfully, our kids have been very healthy overall and the Lord has had his hand of protection on them.

John looks to be in good condition this week. I was glad to see him at church because he is the one who leads our singing. Thank you for praying for him.

Just for perspective:
On one trip to the grocery store, I paid $31 for 4.5 lbs of mozzarella cheese (which turned out to be spoiled- still working on getting my money back), $8 for a gal of milk, $8 for the cheapest cereal I could find and on the way home, $90 for 18 gal of gas. (I mentioned this on my Facebook status recently but my figures were off by a few dollars.)

Getting back into the groove

Today I jumped into Swahili preaching headfirst. I am certain that I slaughtered all the grammar rules since I did all the translating myself. I preached from Psalms 119:17-24 about how David's life was consumed with knowing, obeying and following the Word of God. The people responded well and I think understood me fairly well.

I learned today that John, a man in our church was involved in a motorcycle accident on Saturday morning. If I understand the story correctly, John and his wife were on a motorcycle when they lost control and dumped their motorcycle. His wife was riding sidesaddle when she fell off and fortunately only banged her knee. John landed on his face pretty hard and also skinned up his arms and legs. To add insult to injury: a friend saw the accident and decided to help take them to the hospital. All three people climbed on the tiny motorcycle and began to head to the hospital. Along the way, they again lost control and had another small accident. John is doing all right but is in a lot of pain. Please pray for them. You may remember that he was the builder in our video. His wife still has not received Jesus as her Savior but clings to her good works for salvation.

We have been at our house for 1 1/2 weeks and have gotten mostly moved back in. We keep fighting the lizards for ground however. When we left for the US last year they invaded our house in mass and have squatted near every window. The eviction process has been slow and gruesome but we are winning.

Please pray for:
John and his wife.
Our health- the kids have been getting bit by mosquitoes at night. This could lead to malaria.
An elderly lady named Faibe has been ill for several weeks now.

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.

View Larger Map

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.

Colossians, criminals and cake

We had a good service this Sunday. I was able to preach from the book of Colossians about walking worthy of the Lord. The message was a challenge to my heart as well. The best part of the message for me was the fact that even though I had every word written out in Swahili, I was able to freely ad-lib. I’m sure the grammar wasn’t perfect and the ad-lib a little choppy but it felt good. While that’s good for me, that may be bad for the people who have to listen to it. You know how prone preachers are to rabbit trails.

Sunday evening we were able to participate in a missions conference in Ohio. We used our computer and Skype to make the phone call. The church was able to use their web cam to show us a view of the church service making it feel like we were actually there. I was a little worried at first because our internet service kept cutting in and out and we had a lot of difficulty making the connection. But in the end it all worked out well.
By the way, if you would like to contact us via Skype you can use our id: cathybeej As long as we have electricity and internet service you should be able to phone us. Just remember we are 8 hours ahead of the Eastern time zone.

As we were heading to bed our security guard came to the window and quietly told us that there were some thieves next-door stealing tires from a vehicle. He then asked me what to do. I did a 3-second pause to think of my options: There is no 911 number to call, and if there were there are no police available to answer the call, and if there were police, they would not have a vehicle to get to our place, but if they did it would take them hours to get gas and organize themselves, but if they were prepared already and could get to our house quickly, they wouldn’t know how to get to our house because we have no street name and no address, but if we did and they could find us they would probably just take a cut of the profit from the thieves and let them go. Believe it or not it took me a whole 3 seconds to think that through. I then told the guard to make some noise and try to scare the thieves away. It worked. He blew his whistle and shined a flashlight at them while I tried to get the dogs riled up and barking. We would not see the last of them however. They returned at 3am and tried to finish the job. Again our guard scared them off. And again they returned a while later. This time they had 6 guys and a vehicle parked down the street. Our guard was too frightened to sleep on duty for once so he was easily able to hear the thieves return and scare them away. He was frightened for good reason. Many times the first duty of a thief is to kill the night guard using their machete.

We slept lightly but we did sleep in peace knowing God is in control and is our sword and shield.

When we awoke this morning we noticed that a terrible transformation had occurred in the middle of the night. Our oldest son Jay became an official teen-ager. 13 years old! Wow! When he was a toddler, I never thought he would live long enough to become a teen. I believe all of Jay’s former nursery workers would all agree. But by God’s grace and great mercy, he has arrived.

Happy birthday Jay!
Today we will brave the busy and dangerous roads and head to Arusha to celebrate at a nice restaurant of his choosing.

Please pray:
Always pray for our safety and well-being.
Pray as I continue to preach in Swahili. I feel a lot like Moses did, slow of speech.
Pray as we figure out the logistics of scheduling furlough, finishing the kids home-school and packing up to leave for 7 months beginning in June.

A little R&R in Mombasa Kenya

There’s no place like home. After 11 days away it sure feels good to be back in my own bed again. Of course, I am not complaining at all because for 6 of those days we were sitting by the pool in Mombasa Kenya. The vacation was a much-needed break from the daily grind and stress.

I was able to do a few ministry things during the hottest parts of the day, however. I worked on writing a sermon and edited many discipleship lessons and on Sunday, we held a church service near the beach.

There are no Baptist churches in the immediate area that I am aware of. This fact is a matter of prayer with Greg and I. Last year during our visit to Mombasa we had the opportunity to hand out many gospels of Romans that include a salvation tract. One of the hotel security guards was saved after reading the tract. He has asked us to come and start a new church in his area. The work is plentiful but the time, money and laborers are in short supply. Pray that God would make his will known about this possible church plant.

We left Mombasa and headed to Nairobi to make some dentist appointments and to do some stocking up on fresh meat. There always seems to be a chicken shortage in our town and our local butcher is located in a building owned by a Muslim man. This owner will not allow the butcher to sell pork products. So we stocked up (154 pounds worth) on boneless skinless chicken breasts, spare ribs, and some ground pork and beef. Now we just pray that the freezer doesn’t die. Ha!

When we arrived in Nairobi on Saturday night, I was informed that our missionary friend, Denny Madory had to suddenly return to the US for a funeral and that I would be preaching in his stead. “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season...” 2 Timothy 4:2. We had a wonderful service. It felt really great to preach in English.

Apparently, there is a gasoline shortage in Kenya. I am not sure why but it was a chore trying to find a station that still had fuel. After searching several gas stations for gasoline, waiting in line for 30 minutes and finally topping off, we began our trip home. The 200-mile trip only took 6 1/2 hours in spite of the terrible roads, road construction and detours. The border crossing was uneventful and our house was just as we left it, albeit a lot dustier. We will gladly welcome the rainy season to get rid of some of this dust.

Please pray:
We are focusing our thoughts on the next church plant. We need God’s direction and guidance.
As I schedule furlough meetings this week. It’s difficult to communicate from Africa and a little tricky to get the meetings lined up properly.

Back to school

Another block session at Lake Victoria Baptist College started on Tuesday last week and was attended by 38 students! It is such a thrill to see so many nationals gather together to study the Bible for the purpose of ministry in local churches. 18 of the students are upperclassmen and many are pastors of indigenous churches.

I had the opportunity to join the ‘Spiritual gifts’ class and the ‘Baptist Polity’ 1 & 2 classes. I was able to give my two cents worth every once in awhile as well as proctor and grade the exams every morning. I think we had a good spirit among the students and I think much was accomplished in the first week of two.

I returned home on Friday after the first week of classes via airplane. It’s hard to believe that the 13-hour drive from our house to Mwanza can be flown in less than 50 minutes on an airplane. Pray for Greg as he makes the return trip home by himself in his vehicle.

Much of the day on Saturday was used for translating the sermon I would preach on Sunday. I spent 4-5 hours translating but was only able to get half of the message done. Fortunately, I was wise enough to schedule a young man named Enoch to help me with the entire sermon. My half of the message was close but still needed some major repairs in a few areas. My Swahili is getting better and I am getting more confidence daily.

Sunday I preached both the Sunday School hour and morning service. We had a decent number in attendance and I think the people enjoyed the services. One of the men in our church has asked to lead the congregational singing in the morning service. It is a joy to see the people desire to serve God.

Please pray
The national pastors as they study and then return home to pastor their churches
Safe travel for Greg on Friday
Our church to grow in number and spirit