Earthquake, tooth pulling, church building and more

We were blessed to be very busy supporting our students and doing outreach over the last several weeks.

The week we returned from Mbeya, we went out to be with half of the lay evangelism students at Mtili village where they had been for a couple weeks doing door to door work, health outreach and evangelism.   We assisted them in doing a Health Expo more than 40 village people attended (not including children.)  There were many people that came to get their height, weight, blood pressure taken, chair massage, lung capacity test, and to learn about various aspects of both physical and spiritual health.  There was one particular person that came that has been seeing witch doctors and was having serious spiritual issues.  Her mother gave us permission to work on her and to pray for her.  The mother took off the witchdoctor beads and encouraged her daughter to call out to Jesus for help.  It was quite an experience.  I am leaving out a lot of detail. I did a lot of praying, that I can say for sure.  I was very encouraged to hear that some of the people that we met that day decided to give their hearts to Jesus before the effort was ended in their village!  There were six baptisms.  The local church members also had many more that they were to continue doing Bible studies with.  It is so wonderful to see people giving their hearts to Jesus.  It is also so encouraging to see our students now being the teachers!

Mtili Health Exp (More than 40 people)

The following week, we drove to the other village (Kwatanga) to be with the other half of our students for another Health Expo.  We had over 100 people come to this event.  We also took reading glasses and did reading glasses test.  People continued to come long after we had planned to end, so we stayed late.  It was a very challenging drive there and back.  It was a very good thing that it was the dry season.  At the end of the efforts in that village 15 people decided to follow Jesus in baptism, and more will continue to study with the Bible worker that Kibidula has hired for that village.

Kwatanga Health Expo (more than 100 people)

The following week we packed up and went to Madibira for 17 days of evangelism effort at three sites.  We all stayed in a guest house together each day, and we split up into three groups for our respective sites.  We did one Health expo at each site.  My site was site #1 Ikoga, Doug’s site was #2 -Mahango, and site #3 was Iheha.

More than 100 people came to the Health Expo at Mahango

More than 150 people came to the Health Expo in Ikoga

Iheha Health Expo more than 63 people (not including children)

We did health talks with power point presentations (powered by portable generators) each night before the evangelism preacher would speak.

Site 1 - Ikoga (about one hour before the meetings)

Site # 2 Mahango Outside Meetings

 The speakers for the efforts were part of the ASI program from Czech Republic.  It was a “Share Him” program.  It was nice doing the health presentations before each meeting.  Many people came to the meetings, and also for health advice and help.  There was a Bible worker that was placed in those villages before we came, and he will continue a couple more months to follow up with more that want Bible lessons.  Before we left, there were 48 people that were baptized at the end of the meetings.   The rains have returned to this area of Tanzania.  Doug’s location had their meetings outside, and we are very grateful that they only had two meetings that were affected by the rain (affected but not stopped!)  We also helped to build two “one-day-churches” in the Madibira area.  The first was at site #2 – Mahango, and the second was at Namba Kumi (number 10.)

Site #2 - One-Day-Church we helped to build (Mhango)

Namba Kumi new One-Day-Church that we helped to build.

We packed up the guest house and came back to our Kibidula home and the following day we were picked up by Janet Fournier, director of Eden Valley Foster Care Mission.  She had asked us to do a L.I.G.H.T. training session with her staff and students in Mago, Makete (Tanzania.)  We have been here for five days and have been enjoying our work here very much.  It has rained almost every day.  There are some VERY receptive students in our class.  It is very encouraging to get the positive feedback and the “ah ha” expressions.

On our way to Mago, we stopped at the hospital and visited two of the patients that Anita sent there to get medical help from the village of Mkangwe.  They are both advancing well.

Pendo before and after surgery and Biatus before and after treatment.

Doug has also been helpful in fixing some electrical issues both in the house we are staying in, and the church.  He has been doing many odd jobs including the following:  fixing doors that rub the floor, installing water pipes, fixing leaks, putting in ceiling in the church, pulling teeth (there is a dental outreach here), massages and things I have already forgotten or don’t know.  We are taking turns teaching different subjects at the school.  This is the location that we have requested prayer for because the government has told them that they want to install 5 hydro-electricity dams on their river, and one of them would destroy this mission field.  She did get word from someone that they decided to drop the number from 5 to 4 and the one they would not do was the one located here, but all the officials she has asked about this (to confirm it) have said they know nothing about it.  So we would appreciate prayers that the final confirmation would come that they really have decided to not destroy this beautiful and productive work here.  We really would like to have the official word before the middle of December, since that is when she will be returning to the US for a while.  I also ask that you would pray that she would find a suitable replacement to be the director here.  Janet is ready to turn the project over to the person that God calls to run it.  It is a very challenging work and will take a special person, but God knows exactly who that person is and when they should come! 

Doug learning to pull teeth.

Our current plans are to finish the spiritual and health classes we have started here over the next few weeks.  To train the staff and students to do a Health Expo (and to do it,) to continue the nightly health presentations for the village and campus people, Doug wants to learn a lot about the dental work that Janet does (he is getting lots of opportunity, people come almost everyday to have teeth pulled), we hope to start doing some first aid for wounds, and whatever else God opens the door for us to do here while we are here.

Oh, and I got to experience my first earthquake here!  It woke all of us up on campus except those under 14 years of age (including Joshua who was disappointed he missed it.)  It was fairly strong, no damage that we know of, but lasted for a while also.  They have started having them here over the last few years….  Jesus is coming soon… it is another sign of His soon return.  I am thankful that we can be active in His fields to prepare people!