MOROGORO, TANZANIA AND BEYOND

After orientation through our 40/40 Safari and four months in language school, we made our move to Morogoro here in Tanzania.  We worked for several weeks one-on-one on our Swahili with a conversant and then began making trips up the mountain to tell a core set of Bible stories that show God’s plan of salvation for the world.  We are currently storying in three different locations: Kileka on Mondays, Towelo on Wednesdays, and an elementary school in Mbete on Fridays.  These areas in the Luguru Mountains are inhabited by the Luguru tribe and they speak the Luguru language as well as Swahili.  We are storying in Swahili. 

Since the roads are mostly dirt paths, we walk up the mountain to tell our stories and enjoy visiting with people outside their homes where they do most of their work to survive.  In Mbete we are teaching the stories as a class in the local elementary school.  The area is predominantly Muslim but we are finding people open and willing to listen to our stories that start with creation in Genesis and move through the Bible to Jesus and His plan for salvation.  Please pray for us as we build relationships, earn respect, and lead people to understand what God has done for them.  Pray also for them to respond by accepting Jesus as their Savior and Lord. 

In February, First Baptist Church of Alexander City, Alabama, will send us a volunteer medical team.  We will meet them in Dar es Salaam with an overland truck and travel company and drive 5 ½ hours into the bush to stay with the Maasai tribe where we worked with a team earlier this year.  There is a church start there with a worker in place so we are hoping to go and offer a clinic at the church to bring people in and also to witness.  Hopefully this will go to build credibility among the tribe members and leave the church with even more members who have accepted Jesus – and better health.  Pray for First Baptist as they work out tickets and logistics, for us as we prepare for their arrival on this end, then for the week of work while they are here – that God will use it to accomplish His plan for the Maasai people. 

March 8 we will make our move from Morogoro, Tanzania to Limuru, Kenya.  Limuru is about a 30 minute drive up the mountain from Nairobi.  We will have about a month to unpack our crate, settle things in our assigned house, get our required STAS physicals completed, and sit in on the first two weeks of the month-long session of music classes in April.  Mid-April we will board a plane and head off to the States for a short Stateside Assignment (STAS).  We will be in the States for 2 ½ months to see our son graduate college, speak at churches, visit with family, and rest a little.  The end of June we will return to Limuru and will have a month to finish settling our home and prepare to teach in the month-long session of classes in August.  More changes are on the horizon but at least this time we are arriving to our final destination – teaching at the Kenya Baptist Theological College!