Another Day, Another Soul

The days begin to run together and our time seems short, but it is fun--very fun. I don't know that Tanzanians know what to think of us North Texans. We must look like a crazy bunch!

The first day we saw nearly 500 professions of faith in Christ. We rejoice in the work, and know it is only the beginning. The distance between our two cultures almost guarantees that many of those professions are incomplete. There must be follow-up to preserve the harvest so that is why we plant churches! There is no better place to grow in Christ than a church and for many of these people, there is not a church withing walking distance, so they have zero opportunity to be discipled. Bibles are more precious than fresh water, and fresh water is plenty dear.


Tanzanians are very receptive to our bunch. In many ways they are amazed we would take the time to come to them. In the bush (countryside) where we are working, they know they are poor and don't understand why we would even be interested. So they are touched when we tell them the love of Christ made us come. They are very open, but the culture gap couldn't be wider. Our best strategy is to mentor and encourage leaders, for it will be they who really connect with the Tanzanians and disciple them to maturity.

It is our last full day of field ministry before we close this part of our trip. Tomorrow, we will revisit Fonelisco and celebrate the work with a closing rally at a nearby church. The pastors in each of the eight areas will be there with many of their people. The celebration will be packed and we will try to get pictures enough to give you the feeling of the event. There will be choirs and music and preaching and food and everyone will have a great time in the Lord. He is good!



I went out with Donna this morning. We haven't done that together for four years. She is a joy to work with. Her love for Christ really shows and the Tanzanians catch it. It reminds me that none of us could do this work without each other. Thanks for those who are supporting us financially and with prayers.

For the Harvest,
Phil

In The Thick Of It

Our trip here was rather uneventful, although some others lost their bags. Although we don't look like it in the picture, we are quite exhausted already and trying to stay awake in London so we can get our sleep schedules coordinated to Africa time.

This is us in front of Buckingham Palace (minus Scott and Phil) We arrived in Mwanza Saturday morning ready for a full day of ministry, which we did.

After checking into the hotel, we made our way to the opening rally, where we heard some choirs and experienced some great worship. We met our translators for the week there, and did some last minute training.


The next day was Sunday. After worshipping in each of the churches, (each team went to their respective sites. See Donna with new friend.) we ate lunch and then went to Fonelisco.


Words cannot describe the experience we had there. These street kids performed for us by singing and dancing some tribal dances. The orphanage has very little, but they love these kids and it shows. And the kids know it.


Scott was able to record some really great audio of it which I'm sure we will use in some kind of video soon.

Monday was the first day of real evangelism. I went out with Steve and Jessica, who both did terrific. We stumbled upon four guys sawing logs with a giant ripsaw. After we tried our hand at it (and were even more thankful for POWER tools at home) Steve settled in and shared the gospel with them.


It turns out that the main guy in the group was a witch doctor. He told us that he had been thinking about becoming a Christian and hoping someone would tell him about Christ. Steve led him to recieve Christ sitting on the log. It was a phenominal experience which don't think any of us will ever forget.

Much more to share but that's all we have time for today.

Blessings,
Phil

Ready to Pray?

Our team is hours from lifting off. In fact, some already have. We are coming from all parts of the U.S. and will converge on Mwanza, Tanzania for a week of evangelism, training, orphan ministry, and all around fun.

Will you pray for us? We are trusting the Lord for His help and strength in this work He has called us to. And we pray He moves and gets the glory.

Check back often and we'll try to keep you posted regularly. Perhaps you will feel like a genuine part of the trip. If you are praying, you will certainly be part of the results.

We're counting on you.

Phil

The Last Conference

This morning we wrapped up our final conference. Actually I was the guest speaker at a pastor's conference already scheduled, and instead of my usual church planting training, I taught a series on Ecclesiastes, which I recently taught at The Mill. We had a great time with the men and there were a lot of good questions.

Dar is hot this time of year, and the heat is accompanied by humidity which surrounds you like an electric blanket in a sauna. But we did manage to get a couple of games of squash while I was here. It was good to get some exercise since I haven't been running for nearly three weeks.


Almost everything is set to go for the journey home. It has been a fruitful trip, but I will be glad to be home. I miss The Mill and if you asked me right now, I wish I hadn't scheduled someone to preach on Sunday, but I know I will feel very differently by the time Sunday rolls around.


I may make one or two more posts when I get home depending on how I feel and what happens on the way home. Please pray for me as you have been. It has kept me healthy and productive.

For the Harvest,
Phil

Morogoro

Once I landed in Dar, Dave and Bonnie were there to greet me. We had some Cokes together(because there was no Dr. Pepper) and then I was off to Morogoro in the truck they let me borrow.

Morogoro is 2-3 hours from the coast of Tanzania and although the town isn't elevated that much, it sits next to some beautiful mountains which are rugged and seemed like they were carved out just yesterday.

The trip to Morogoro was a breeze because it is one of the few good highways in Tanzania. Once there, I checked into the Hotel Oasis, met David Masalu to talk about the conference the next day, and crashed. I was exhausted from the trip.


The next morning I got ready and met about 70 pastors on the top of the Roof Garden Hotel. (It was on a roof of a hotel, but we're still looking for the garden.) I shared with them for about two hours the vision for church planting and a ministry of multiplication. They asked questions and wanted to know when we could come back with a team. Please pray that God would give us wisdom to know whether to bring on here or to simply send trainers.

That night I had dinner with some veteran IMB missionaries Ralph and Vivian Boyle, who have served in Tanzania for 23 years. We laughed and shared stories and I learned a lot from their experiences. Pray for them and their ministry here in Morogoro.

The next morning I was up early to return to Dar for church services. More on that to come.

For the Harvest,
Phil

The Return Trip from Mugumu

I am a few days late on my blog so I am telling you of things that happened that much time ago. But I can’t miss telling and showing you this stuff because it interests me and therefore I think it might interest you too.

I had hoped the trip back from Mugumu would be easier than the trip there; and on the way back I purposed to take pictures of the mud holes. Well the trip wasn’t any quicker, and I didn’t get pictures of many of the mud holes, but I did get a couple of the big one. Mud holes are deceiving. Sometimes they look uncross able and turn out easy. Other times they look easy and then watch out . . .


I’ve heard of worse—water over the hood of the car and such (have you seen the pipe that goes up the side of the land rover from the hood? That’s so that the engine can get air when the car is submerged (!)). But on the way back we crossed swollen streams that I thought would have the potential to carry us away. I guess our Land Cruiser was better than I expected. (Though I wasn’t sure about our driver.) Some mud holes were easier for smaller vehicles, but large ones had a lot of trouble. Such was the case at this crossing. What the picture does not show was the ten or more other large trucks that were waiting to cross, had crossed, or stuck in the mud. I never saw this one get out although I’m sure they figured something out.


We took breaks on the journey as well and stopped again in Ikizu, where we were entertained by a group of school children just freed from their studies. It’s rare that foreigners go through this town, much less white ones so we were quite the attraction. Sheila made herself at home and tried to teach some of the kids English and Math. We’ll never know what affect she had on the students, but it was fun to watch!

Once we were back in Mwanza it was pizza for the night at the local pizzeria and then a good night’s rest before we were off to the airport. Two went to the ‘States; three spent a day in Nairobi and then off to the ‘States; and I was off to Dar to meet Dave and Bonnie Jones, who would let me borrow their truck for my trip to Morogoro. More on that later.

For the Harvest,
Phil

In the Hard Place

Mugumu means “hard place” in Swahili and it is appropriately named. The town is very poor and the farmers are at the mercy of the land and the weather, which is too wet this year. They live a hard life, yet the believers here love the Lord and are eager to learn.

We held a conference for about 125 pastors, mostly Mennonite. They seemed to enjoy it although they asked fewer questions than those in Mwanza. Perhaps because they are more reserved being from the countryside. Nevertheless, they showed their enthusiasm in the singing and in their comments after the sessions.


After the conference, the attendees went into the neighborhoods to do some evangelism. There were 162 professions of faith. Hallelujah!


One of the bright spots was meeting Samuel Ongong’a, pictured here between Paul Buhwahwa (left) and Michael Omega (right). Samuel went to a First Steps conference just like this one last October in Mwanza, then moved here and started a church which now runs about 25 members. We were excited to hear his testimony.

We call the conference “First Steps” because it lays out very simply how to start a church. The material is really easy to learn and remember and has been used to start thousands of churches around the world.

The way back to Mugumu was just as adventurous as the trip there. More on that in the next post.

For the Harvest,
Phil