William and Queeni

Today I visited the home of William and Queeni. William was leaving as I arrived so I didn't have a chance to talk with him. Last Sunday he said that he wasn't saved yet but planned to think more about it. I was hoping to have time to speak to him today. Hopefully, I will see him tomorrow.

Queeni is William's new live-in girlfriend. I asked her if she had any spiritual needs. She said she did have some spiritual troubles but did not share the details with me. She looked very burdened. Please pray for this couple to be saved.

Richard wants to know more about salvation

Last week I visited Richard with the purpose of explaining the gospel to him. He is Mama Alexi's "husband". He recently sprained his ankle while trying to find Mama Alexi. He was drunken and intent on hurting her according to one witness. He told me last week that he wanted to begin attending our church. I welcomed him but explained to him that it would be necessary for him to forsake his Muslim faith and choose Christ only in order to be saved. You cannot hold on to Jesus with one hand and Islam with the other. He fully agreed. He told me that he wanted to get saved. After explaining it to him he was agreeable but wanted to talk more about it later. He attended church today and heard a very clear salvation message. Please pray for Richard to be saved this week. I hope to see him on Tuesday.

Richard

Pray for Grace

I had to snap this photo while Grace wasn't looking because the people are so shy about having their photos taken. She told me that she has attended a local church her whole life. I asked her when did she become a Christian. She said when she was baptized. I said, "No that was when you became a Lutheran." (her denomination) She then said she didn't know what Salvation was. I used the gospel booklet she is holding to explain to her what Salvation is. She did not get saved but a good Gospel seed was planted. Please pray for Grace. Religious people are some of the slowest to get saved.

Grace holding a John & Romans booklet

Village evangelism

The past few weeks have been filled with some great blessings. Our water project has caused our people to draw closer and become more like a family. As a result, ministering to them has become much more profitable. Our Sunday attendance has increased as a result of our bus ministry. Last Sunday we had about 25 riders on our 15-passenger van. If we keep increasing like this I will have to hire another van. Amen! Our Wednesday prayer meeting and Saturday Bible study have been well attended as well.

One of the most exciting blessings has been seeing our people getting involved in witnessing to others. In this culture most things if not all are done as a village. For example, if there is a personal dispute between two people any by-standers will automatically weigh in with their opinions. This can become very annoying to me but there are a few times when I have to admit that it has been beneficial. One of those times is while witnessing to others. While visiting a family in our church, 2 neighbors were passing by. They stopped to greet everyone and listen in to our conversations. After a few minutes the husband told the two ladies to come closer and sit down. When they did he asked me to tell them about being saved. As I walked through the Romans road there were several times when the others agreed with what I was saying and gave their opinions about it. In the end the two ladies interrupted me and told me that they heard enough they were ready to be saved! They were convinced by the Holy Spirit that the Word of God was true and all skepticism about me and my motives was eliminated because the rest of their "village" agreed with what I was saying and had accepted me. It is like "friendship evangelism" holding hands with "confrontational evangelism". Maybe I should call it "village evangelism". Either way, seeing people saved is always a huge blessing.

One of those ladies named Dina has asked us to pray for her. She has some very serious domestic problems with her "husband". He is a drunkard. He has beaten her and done some very hurtful things. One day Dina came home to find that some one was building a house on her property. She is the rightful owner of the property because their marriage is not official even though they have been living together for 13 years. She found out that her husband had sold some of her property without permission from her or her family. She is devastated and bitter. I gave her some counseling and several verse to help. Please join us in praying for her.

Please pray:

- For funds to complete the water project. We lack about $500 at this point.

- For our church to continue to grow in number and in the Word of God.

- For Dina and the others who have recently been saved (Patina, Dismas, Tumaini and Rose).

3 people saved today!

Thank you to whoever it was who was praying for our ministry today. During our visitation time I was able to lead 3 people to Christ! AMEN!

Pray for these ladies: Dina, Rose and Tumaini (aka Hope) that they would grown in Faith.

Soul-winning, visitation and Bible distribution

The past 4 weeks have been very busy for us here in Tanzania. We began an emphasis on out reach via soul-winning and visitation in preparation for our revival services (March 13-17) in the village of Kingereka. Each Saturday we have been going house to house presenting the gospel and handing out John & Romans booklets. On Wednesdays we would spend some time handing out John & Romans booklets at the bus stand and market before beginning our mid-week discipleship services. In the past 4 weeks we have been able to hand out approximately 3,000 scriptures.

We did have a little help when we were handing out scriptures at the bus stand one day. At each bus stand there are many young men who sell various snacks and drinks to passengers on the bus. As a bus pulls into the station these young men grab their cardboard boxes full of nuts, drinks, candy and cookies and jockey to get the best position outside the bus at each passenger’s window. If a passenger wants to buy something they simply hand the money out the window and the item is handed up to the passenger. Well, I was doing the same thing with these Bibles except that I was giving them away for free. A few people were afraid to take them because they thought I was trying to sell them. When they finally understood that the Bibles were free gifts nearly everyone on the bus wanted one- including the guys who were selling the concessions to the passengers. After a few busses came and went a few of these young men asked me for a hand full of the Bibles so that they could help me pass them out. I was a little leery at first thinking that the may try to sell them instead of giving them away so I kept a good eye on them. They were true to their intentions and honestly wanted to help hand out Bibles. We spent just 1 hour at the bus stand but were able to hand out more than 1200 Bibles to those people who were traveling all across the country! We definitely plan to do that again in the very near future. Our soul-winning and Bible distribution did not lead to anyone being saved as far as we know but we are assured by Isaiah that the Word of God will not return void.

During our revival services the preacher gave a lesson on how to give the gospel to others. It was a ‘hand slap to the forehead’ moment for me. I have been making a point in many of my messages about sharing the gospel with friends and neighbors but I hadn’t taken the time to teach them how to do that. I just assumed they knew how. I will begin teaching more about soul-winning as soon as possible.

I was really encouraged to see 3 visitors attend the revival service as a result of a newly saved man in our church. In fact, one of his visitors also brought a visitor! It is great to see a new believer excited about his new life in Christ. It reminds me of Andrew who immediately went to find his brother Peter (John 1) to bring him to Christ.

Please pray for us:
Pray for our soul-winning efforts and Bible distribution.
Pray for our Wednesday discipleship lessons.
Pray for our safety as we make a quick trip to Kenya for dentist visits (Mar 27-30). It’s a 7-hour road trip each way. Caitlyn will also have her 12-month vaccinations while we are there.
Pray for our new church plant in Moshi. We have a good core group of about 40 people attending but are asking God to use us to see people saved.

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

A great Sunday sets the stage for Salvation on Monday!

Sunday was a great day at church. In attendance were two men who have been absent for several weeks. We also had another man visit for the first time. His “wife” was saved and baptized in our church. 

Brother Greg preached a great sermon and afterwards the church honored him with testimonies and gifts. It was Greg’s last day at our church as he and I move on to start a new work in another area. I will be preaching at our church in Kingereka every Sunday while Greg takes the preaching load at our new church plant. After the services were over I talked to our visitor (named Mandara) and set up a time to meet with him on Monday.

That Monday afternoon meeting happened just a few hours ago. As we began to talk I found out that he was a devout Muslim for quite awhile. He began to see things in his religion that really bothered him. He explained that it had been almost 1 year since he quit practicing Islam. I began to explain the details of salvation by grace through faith and how that Jesus did all the work necessary for our salvation when He died on the cross. I explained that it’s humanly impossible to do enough good works to earn forgiveness. After showing him a few verses from the Bible, he bowed his head and prayed, confessed that Jesus is God and asked for forgiveness of his sin! Amen!

I told Mandara that there are many things to learn in the Bible. He interrupted me and said that he was going to read the Bible. I continued and told him about being baptized and becoming a member of our church. But there was one matter that preceded these; he and his “wife” needed to be officially married. He agreed. He told me that they have been living together for 2 years now and that it has been too long without being married. I told him that I was available even as early as tomorrow to help them with this matter. He asked, “What about this Sunday?” His wife said that was too soon because a certain someone would not be in town. She said, “Let’s do it in 2 weeks.” He agreed! Wow! That was easy.

It’s true that when a person gets saved he becomes a new creature. He changes his actions and instead of living to please self he lives to please God.

Please pray:
For Mandara and his family (wife and 1.5 yr old) as they grow in the Lord.
For more souls to be saved.
For the new church plant (beginning Feb 6 2011)
For good morale during the holiday season. It often gets very lonely during the holidays.

A three hour tour

Remember how the cast on Gilligan's Island went on a 3-hour tour and it ended up lasting nearly a generation? That's how I have been feeling the past 3 days.

Thank-you for your prayers for me as I travel to Tanzania. When I left Washington DC the plane experienced very heavy turbulence. There were times when all the passengers cried out in fear as the plane shook violently. I have a suspicion that the turbulence caused a problem to appear with a hydraulic pump. As soon as we landed in Rome Italy for fuel, they began to work on the pump trying to fix it. After sitting in the plane for 6 hours the airline decided they would let us wait inside the airport while they continued to work on the problem. We eventually made it to a local hotel until they fixed the problem. We finally left Rome after a 24-hour delay and have safely arrived in Ethiopia… only to find out that the connecting flight to Tanzania is delayed too. I hope to arrive in Tanzania soon, maybe before the end of the month. Ha!

I have always thought that traveling is not very enjoyable. I like to visit new place very much I just hate the process of getting there. However, on this trip I have had some really great opportunities to talk with many people about the Lord. There was one man named John who I talked to for at least an hour. Towards the end of the conversation he admitted to me that he did not believe that Jesus was neither God’s Son nor God himself. I very bluntly explained to him what was in store for all who reject Jesus. He wasn’t thrilled about that news but we parted ways agreeing to disagree. I am fairly certain I will never see John again or the others I was able to witness to but I know that the good seed of the gospel was planted today.

Thank you again for your prayers for my family and me.

BJ declares 'Jesus is God' and gets a few Muslims upset

Tuesdays and Thursdays have become my soul-winning days as of late. Today, I went to a village that was about 5 miles from the center of nowhere. I was surprised to see so many people in such a remote location. As we arrived at 9:30 a.m. there were a few people who were setting up their goods that they planned to sell today at the market. We made short work of giving everyone in sight a Romans booklet and then began going house to house.

I had an opportunity to present the plan of salvation a few times today. One of those times was back at the market center around 11:00a.m. Many more people had arrived and so I began handing out the Romans booklets. I always try to tell everyone that the book tells them what the Bible says they need to do to go to heaven.

While explaining the plan of salvation with a few people I said, “Jesus died on the cross was buried and after the 3rd day he arose from the dead! Jesus defeated death. Truly Jesus is God!” This declaration of Jesus divinity got a few Muslims upset. The thought never crossed my mind that I may be within ear-shot of some Muslims who would not like what I was saying.

One man began to ask me questions concerning how could Jesus be the Son of God and God at the same time. He was using some vocabulary words that I didn’t understand so it took a long time for us to communicate. While we were talking many people started to gather around to listen.

Apparently, the Muslim man said something that the others did not like and several chimed in with a loud retort. This drew more people to the area. Within a few minutes nearly 50 people surrounded me. All wanted to hear what this white missionary had to say in his broken Swahili.

At one point I claimed a small victory. The man had asked me how could God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit be God all at the same time. It’s impossible to adequately explain the trinity in English let alone in broken Swahili. I resorted to the old example of an egg. I said the outside of the egg is the shell and inside you have a yolk and a white. All three things make up one egg. The crowd loved my word picture even though it falls far short of truly explaining the trinity. They cheered. Some clapped some said amen. Yet others shook their heads in unbelief still clinging to their faith in Muhammad.

I was wise enough to know that I didn’t have enough vocabulary to continue the public debate so I made my exit. As I left, a few Christians started a heated debate with the man and continued on for at least 10 minutes.

It was fun and challenging even though for a minute it was a little scary. I pray that the name of Christ was glorified and that some would come to know Jesus as their saving God. And, in case you’re wondering, here are a few good verses proving that Jesus is God. John 10:30; John 1:1-4; Heb 1:1-8; Acts 2:36; Rom 14:9; Lu 5:21

Soul winning a Sunday school Swahili slip and a goat offering

As we were handing out the Romans booklets at the bus stand near our church I watched a police officer make his way towards Tyler. Jay, Tyler and I were out soul-winning on Thursday and after we got a bite to eat at the large bus stand we decided to hand out some Romans booklets to all the people in the area.

As I was boarding the buses to pass out the books Tyler was making his way along the various vending areas and small stores. I watched a police officer try to get Tyler’s attention and started to walk after him. Tyler had his back to him and didn’t understand the Swahili commands if he even heard them among the noise of the area. After a few more steps the officer took hold of Tyler’s shoulder, turned him around, looked him straight in the face and asked if he too could have a booklet. Without missing a beat or even a hint of fear Tyler gave him one and continued on down the way.

These Romans booklets are really nice. They have a very detailed gospel tract in the front including some nice illustrations. We know of several people who have been saved as a direct result of these Romans booklets. It was a very hot and dusty day and I am sure the Word of God will not return void. Prayerfully, some of those people will be saved.

Sunday was interesting. In the Sunday school hour I taught on the virgin birth of Christ. Looking back I don’t know how I missed this mistake but I did. The word for pregnant in Swahili is mimba. While I was teaching the lesson I wanted to say that when Joseph and Mary met one day, behold she was pregnant (Mimba). Instead I said when they met one day behold, she grabbed a crockadile! (Mamba) You should have heard the roars of laughter. It was a simple typo but I missed it and read it as is.

Later in the worship hour, a man brought a special offering- a goat! Now, what in the world do you do with a goat? I mean why do people raise them? And especially what do you do with it if it is part of the offering? Give it to the pastor? We have no pastor or even deacons at this point.

Apparently, this is not an odd thing in many African churches so the people knew exactly what to do. They would try to sell the goat to any church member for a fair price, and if that didn’t work they would sell it at the market and add the money to the offering. Thankfully, we did sell it to a church member so now my trip to the market with a goat in the trunk of my van is postponed.

Please pray:
For our soul-winning efforts on Tuesday and Thursday
For my Swahili skills
For our nations elections