Azimio Baptist Church (ABC)

We had a great day of worship with the believers at ABC.  Last week, Pastor Jackson came by the house to introduce himself and invite us to worship with them.  Besides pastoring his flock, he also leads the morning worship time at the Kigoma Baptist Hospital Monday through Friday.  He prays with the staff and also with patients.  He has a passion to serve like a chaplain there.

He began the work at ABC back in 1998 where they met in the bamboo walled church building (in the distance behind the brick church).  Later, with help from various people, they were able to build the structure that they presently worship in.  Pastor Jackson and his wife Esther live about 100 yards from the church in the town of Ujiji.  (The church is called ABC because it is located in the area of Ujiji called Azimio). 

Ujiji is a town of somewhere in the range of 150,000 people.  It is said that it is >95% Muslim.  Ujiji is famous for a few things including being the starting point of the slave trade route which reached to Dar es Salaam.  It is also famous for the time in which Dr. Livingston was found by the reporter who is said to have said “Dr. Livingstone, I presume.”

We had a refreshing time of praising God through songs.  ABC has a choir that led some of the worship songs, but it was nice to see others in the congregation leading as well.  We were about 40 adults/youth and 20 kids.  It was really nice to see about 20 youth there, probably a 80/20 ratio of guys/gilrs.  After several songs,  we then heard a sermon on the truth that the Kingdom of God has come.  That we need to be about the work of inviting others to come to Jesus, to be doing the will of God every day, not just Sundays, to be overcoming the temptations of Satan and the world, and to live lives that follow Christ.  It was a challenging message.  After the message, there was a time of prayer for those who were sick, with each person prayed over by the pastor.  Finally, a closing song and prayer.  It was truly a wonderful day of worship.

Oh yeah, last Monday, we did get our container turned around by a crane at the port.  With the help of 6 stong guys together with Sally, Kelly and I, we got it unloaded in about 4 hours.  We’ve spent the week re-assembling, arranging, cleaning, etc. to get our home set up.  I think by the end of this next week, it will be looking pretty good.

Thanks for your prayers and support.  We are truly blessed to be here.  Tomorrow morning (Monday) we’ll be heading over to the morning hospital worship time to introduce ourselves and let them know I will begin working the following week.  I’ll post more this week.

Daily by His grace…

Our Plans, God's Plans.

Well, most days we think that we have things 'under control.'  And interesting idea and a bit arrogant to be quite truthful.  I was reminded of that today.  After traveling 1,500 km from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma, our container of personal goods arrived at our house.  This was the container of our things that we packed with the help of our MAF friends in Lesotho last January.  

We were really excited to see the truck arrive and for it to make its way down our rather steep drive to the side of the house.  Our plans were all in place.  Unbeknownst to us, the container got loaded on the truck with the doors facing forward against the front wall of the truck.  Apparently this is done to protect the contents from thieves that will jump on the back of the truck when it is going slowly up a hill and then proceed to cut the locks and open the doors and steal things while the truck is moving!

We were completely surprised to see it loaded that way, as we have no way to turn it around at our house – it weighs 9 tons!  The driver and his helper were apologetic but really they just delivered it.  After giving thanks to God for their safe journey (4 days) and the safe arrival of the container, I told them that even though we were surprised and disappointed, that God knew all along that this was going to occur.  That if we would just continue to trust Him, he would show himself to be faithful as always. At least that has been our experience in our walk with God.  He is faithful, and his plans are always best.

Well, I had an idea to go to the Port Authority as the Tanzania rail ends here and they do some shipping from here.  They have a 50 ton stationary crane that they use to off load rail cars.  They don't work today but tomorrow morning we will go there with the truck/container and pay to have them pick up the container, turn it around, and put it back on the truck.  Then back to the house to begin the unloading.  Then the work really begins.

I would ask you to pray that the crane works, that we have favor with the staff there as we have to get permission for them to lift the container, that they won't over charge us, and that no one gets hurt in the process.  Also pray that no one gets hurt unloading the container.  It has a lot of heavy stuff, and it has to be lifted down from the back of the truck.  There are no ramps and no lifts here.  I plan to hire 6 guys to help us.

All that to say, I am thankful that God is in control and I am not…

Be blessed,

Larry

Blocked roads and beautiful sunsets

It is a comfort to know that God is in control of all things.  As I sit here writing this update, I am viewing an incredible sunset over Lake Tanganyika.  It is our 3rd sunset to watch and it is incredible.  God is so good!

We arrived Wednesday evening after a long 22 hours of driving over two days.  The last 350 km of road (I use that term loosely) was sand and dust.  Probably half of the time it was only one lane that was useable.  In spite of that, we made it without one problem.  God is so good!

We arrived to find the Millers here working hard with some guys doing the final repairs on the house.  We are so thankful for the two weeks of hard work they did to get the house ready for us.  As I write this, they should be back in Dar es Salaam.  The night we arrived, we were blessed to have some time of fellowship with other like-minded folks working in this area.  It was a blessing.  God is so good!

Blocked roads…yep.  Found out from the driver of the container truck that another truck broke its axel and has completely blocked the road – that dusty dirt one.  He still has about 250 km to go so will spend the night with the truck, and God willing, the other truck will be moved to clear the road and he will reach here some time tomorrow.  God is so good! (This one is hard to say but it is TRUE.)  I am challenged once again by the Apostle Paul and by James as they write to remind us to give thanks in EVERY thing and that these things serve a greater purpose of God.  God willing, we will unpack the container on Monday.

We thank you for your prayers for our safety in travel.  We had a few 'close calls' along the way with a kid running out in front of our truck, and nearly hitting deep holes in the side of the road.  

Tomorrow morning we will worship in Azimio.  We look forward to that.  Thanks for praying.  God is so good!

Daily by His grace…

Almost Home! 930 miles to go...

Back from a restful 4 days on the island of Zanzibar.  Kelly (our youngest daugher) arrived from her missions trip in Rwanda/Uganda and we went to the island.  She'll spend the rest of her summer break with us.

Tomorrow morning, 5:30AM, Sally, Kelly and I head out from Dar es Salaam toward the far West.  We have a little over 1,500km (930 miles) of African roads to travel to reach Kigoma.  I tried to point out our trail on the map.

For over a week now, our house has been being repaired by David and Dorthy Miller and their daughter Cheryl.  We are so thankful for the hard work the Miller's have been doing to get our place ready for us to arrive.  God willing we will arrive on Wednesday (July 6th) before dark.  

Our container of household goods hopefully will be on the road tomorrow from Dar and get there maybe by Friday.  Then the fun begins with unpacking it off the back of the truck as there is no crane in Kigoma big enough to lift it off the truck.

Our path will take us through the middle of Tanzania over a variety of terrains.  For those who have never driven in E. Africa, imagine driving on a two-lane American country road, but with semi-trailers, other trucks of various sizes, busses, taxis, cars, bicycles, cows, goats and people, all sharing the road.  That's what we'll be doing for the next two days.  We expect to have two full days of about 11 hours each of driving.

We are excited about finally getting to Kigoma to begin the ministry that God has called us to there.   We really ask for your prayers for:

• Safety and alertness as we drive, and that our truck will function well.
• Safety of other drivers that we meet along the way. Remember it's 1,500km of two way roads.
• That our container of our 'things' will be able to be loaded tomorrow and arrive safely in Kigoma
• Safety for the Miller family as they head back to Dar es Salaam on Thursday.
• I know that's a lot of requests for safety but the reality is that driving these roads is dangerous.
• That we will enjoy the grace and peace of Christ as we drive.  
• It will be a time to talk with Kelly to get all of her news from the last 10 months.  We also have some great pod-casts from some of my favorite teachers (Piper and Keller) and some fun 'News from Lake Wobegon'

Not sure what the internet situation will be when we arrive there, but we'll post some pics and update as soon as we can.

Daily by His grace,

Larry and Sally and Kelly