Furlough in T -21 days and counting

It has been a nice cool and rainy week for us here. We are definitely in the midst of our rainy season. The rains have brought a huge blessing to the people’s crops. However, not every place is getting the good rains that we are getting. The area our church is located in is only 20 miles away from our home but they have had very little rain. It looks like many people are going to be in a lot of trouble. Their crops will die and they will have a hard time surviving this year. Please pray for them.

Thank you for praying for my work on my Sunday School lessons. I was able to prepare the last few lessons and make final edits of all the lessons for the rest of the year. I am so thankful Bro. Greg took the time to translate these 90 lessons. All I had to do is understand the Swahili so that I knew what I was teaching. Just reading through each lesson takes me 45 minutes or more. I can’t imagine how much time it would have taken me if I had to do the original translating into Swahili.

Please pray for our van to sell according to God’s will. I have had several people call to inquire about it but it appears that it is just too expensive. Tuesday, I am going to meet with the salesman who originally sold it to me to discuss some options. We really want to sell this van and buy a truck that is more rugged. The Tanzanian roads and my bad driving are just too much for this van to handle. I need a vehicle that is already pre-scratched and can leap a pot-hole without hesitation.

As I look at the calendar I get a well of butterflies in my throat. We have only 3 more weeks until we leave East Africa for our first furlough. There is a ton of things that need to be done and at times it feels debilitating. Pray for guideance and strength to get it all done. I have never left my home for 7 months. There are a lot of things to consider when doing so. I am sure I will miss something without God’s help.

Please pray:
Rain for the farmers
Our van to sell
That we successfully get everything done on time.

Update on Mama John's roof

Yesterday and today have been the first days in over a week that I have not woken up feeling sick. I think I am on the rebound now, thankfully. We have been getting tons of rain the past few weeks. It causes the plants to bloom and I think that triggers my allergies which brings on painful sinus headaches.

Speaking of rain, a few of you have been wondering about Mama John and her house. I was really surprised when several people were led of God to help this lady. It is a huge testimony of the ability of God. We were given gifts of money that exceeded my estimation of $300 to finish her roof. It is always a good thing to have more than you need, especially in this case. By the time we got done with everything the total bill was a little more than $600.

Mama John is lacking one small piece of roofing and a door, but please do not send any more money for this project. It is an difficult situation to be in. If we help her too much it actually does more harm than good. Especially for the others that are in the church. Envy is one of the worst sins in this country.

Here is a video of Mama John saying thank-you.

My translation is very loose but basically she says: Thank you, I am thankful for the good gift to help build my house. It is going well. Thank you to all of the churches who love Tanzania. I only need help in buying a door so that I can move into the house. Thank you so much.

If you missed the opportunity to give to this cause you can still get in on other blessings. We have a new church to build, property to buy, and many other people we could help. One woman in our church who is a widow and new Christian, asked me if I could loan her the money to buy 20 liters of cooking oil. She thinks she could re-sell it at the market in a matter of 1-2 days and make a weeks worth of profit from it. I love helping someone who is not looking for a free ride but is willing to do the work. There is a little risk that she may decide to never pay me back the $26 for the oil.

I think we are beginning to fall into our niches here on the mission field. Cathy has been teaching two young women some basic baking skills at our house. It began as one of those “this might be a good idea” discussions and has begun to grow.

We decided to send Anna, our part time house worker, to English school while we are gone for our 7 month furlough. She is in her 2nd week of classes and was struggling a little. Recently, Cathy went to the adult school in town where they are teaching the English class and while the class waited for the teacher to wander back from his 2 ½ hour lunch was able to help many of the students understand their lesson better. They all asked Anna where Cathy lived so they could come and get some more English lessons at our house. Thankfully, Anna declined to give out that information.

Please pray
I have been busy preparing Sunday School lessons to leave behind during our absence. Pray that I would have the energy to complete them all.

I would like to sell my van so that I can afford to buy a truck when we return next year.

Pray for us as we pack up to leave for fourlough, only 3 ½ weeks away.

Please pray that God leads us to a good house to rent in Michigan. I made some errors in my budget and it has left us homeless because I can’t afford the rent for a house I had planned on using.

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.