HELP WANTED: Africa

I tried to send two emails to some close friends lately, and didn't get a response, and finally got one of those automatic responders that their email is no longer working.  I had emailed them to ask them if they would pray about being missionaries here in Africa.

I wonder what people think when they think "missionary."  For many it means being on the front lines, going out, telling people of the Good News in Jesus. 

But many missionary jobs are less glamorous.  Especially if you are working with an established mission.  There are jobs like fixing the (constantly having issues) broken water pipes to the dorms or houses, fixing the spring-head for the agriculture school unit's which somehow started re-routing itself, building new building for the various programs (the avocado project, staff housing, the multipurpose building), installing solar electricity in various locations on campus, fixing the electrical issues on campus, teaching people how to use solar properly, unloading containers when they arrive (usually with One-Day-Church materials), going out to build One-Day-Churches through out the country, being supportive of other missionaries, helping look for a missing "this or that", various fixings around campus, fighting a fire if there is one on campus or in a neighboring village, helping with all the office things (and there are lots of various things that happen there from making sure that we have the vehicles all up to date with licenses, insurance and the various stickers they require), corresponding to email requests, sharing updates on the lay evangelist, the publishing work, the industry work (that we are trying to use to support the financial needs), the evangelism outreach, the tracts and publications that we send out, teaching and support for the three schools, and on and on and on. 

Then of course we have many opportunities to reach out in practical ways to the locals which I think many people think of as "missionary work" more directly.  And being a missionary is showing the Love of God in our lives in the way we deal with our daily job, with our daily duties, dealing with our children, family, friends and co-workers, how we deal with the person who comes to the door, how we handle not having a seat on the bus and just allowing Jesus to shine in our lives moment by moment.  But it is ALL SO VERY IMPORTANT! 

And many people come and are here for various amounts of time.  Some are short term missionaries - a few weeks to a few months.  Some have stayed for just over a year, but most are committed to three years or more.  Some have been here for over 10 years and some much longer than that...  In the last few years, we have had many families and individuals that have left.  Our head teacher at the primary school (of 7 years), another person (local) who had been with Kibidula for about the same amount of time, another worker who was here about one year from another country, two others that had worked in the offices left just before we arrived here, and another family has been called to work in another country (but that is still two years off.) 

So the workers have gone down, but the work is increasing! 

So - HELP WANTED: AFRICA!

Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.   (Matthew 9:37-38)

Maybe you are an up-front-person, maybe you are a behind the scenes person, maybe you have multiple talents, maybe you have been hearing God call to your heart to go and work for Him.  Whatever your situations is, please pray that God will send workers. 

PS - There is no greater peace and joy than knowing that you are exactly where God wants you to be, doing the work that He wants you to do, no matter the place, no matter the challenges, no matter the country.  If God is calling you,  I encourage you to say "Here I am Lord, send me!"

Joshua has his own blog website!

After it being suggested to me (repeatedly) by a friend, we have allowed Joshua to have his own blog!  If you want to check it out, here is the address:  http://www.missionkidinafrica.blogspot.com/

The Ceiling fell in - REALLY!

The meetings in Dodoma went GREAT.  They started early and went past 9 pm each night.  Then we had a ride back to the hotel.  So we got to bed LATE night after night.  But God is so faithful.  We have been praying about these meetings ever since we first heard about them, that God would use them to open doors for us to work more with the various health leaders around the nation.  God answered our prayers (and yours) and we were asked to spend a little time from the front telling about our work and letting people know that we are available to do mobile training and people can come to Kibidula for training.  They were hoping for 1,500 participants, but there were much less than that amount, but they plan to have it on a yearly basis.  So hopefully next year there will be a lot more people.  There were some very good presentations.  It was held at the University of Dodoma.  That place is HUGE!  It is one of the larges universities in Africa.  It was very impressive.  

Speaking hall at UDOM

I also let the need for a translator be known.  We are still praying for our teaching materials to be completely translated and edited to make them available to students who are in our classes.  
The bus trip there and back went well.  We had NO PROBLEMS with thieves this time!  YEAH!
We saw many great animals when the bus passed through the national park area.  There has been a fire (or fires there) so it looks different than any time we have passed through before.  Everything is so brown and dry (even so much more than normal for the dry season.  You can see a long way through the trees since the leaves have been killed.  It seemed like we saw many less animals than normal (especially on our trip there.)  We prayed that we would see animals on the way back, and we saw MANY.  We saw elephants, lots of giraffes, antelope, zebra, and baboons.  OH, Doug saw a crocodile by the river (not at the park.)  I had just mentioned that I wanted to watch as we passed the river to look for crocodiles.  I don't think even a minute passed by and Doug said, I just saw one.  How do you like that?  There is a camp close to that location called crocodile camp.  That is why I thought I would start watching for them.
What about the ceiling?
I tell you what, it seems like anything is possible and GOD IS SO GOOD.
We finished up the meetings Saturday night.  We got home (LATE AGAIN.)  We got up early and the taxi driver is to be there at 5:30 am.  (He didn't show up, by-the-way.)
We got the suitcase packed and the red duffel bag.  I only need to put a couple of things into my backpack.  Joshua is dressed and is putting on his shoes by the hotel-room door by the suitcase.  As soon as he slips on his shoes, he announces "I need to go to the bathroom" as he runs across the room.  CRASH!!!!
All three of us are standing by the bathroom door (as far as you can get from the room door) and the ceiling fell down right over the door.  The noise was so loud for 5:20 a.m..  I figured we woke up everyone in the hotel.  Oh, I just praise the Lord for having Joshua move away from there so quickly JUST before it happened.  He hadn't even made it IN the bathroom door, yet.  The ceiling was made up of some corrugated plastic stuff, and the dirt and dust that came down with it were amazing!  There were some pieces of wire and other debris.  We were choked up with all the dirt, but so thankful to see God's hand of protection once again.  
In this picture it is not very clear because there was SO MUCH DIRT in the air after it fell down.  We have moved the suitcase away from the door and had been in and out a few times before I took this picture.  So a lot of dust has already settled down.

The Ceiling Fell in - REALLY!

So we saw God protect each one of us from a very dirty, scary and possibly dangerous situation.  He is SO good to us all the time!  Thank you for all of your prayers!