Pole sana (very sorry)! We have been very busy the last month with life here at the Chimala Mission and we have failed to send out a report the last few weeks. I'm sure you'll agree, however, that we haven't been sitting around.
Rena has received only 1/3 of the needed homeschool books to teach the kids. There have been a variety of reasons why the books have not arrived, and we are going to have to double up on assignments to catch up on where we should be at. We are hoping that the books will arrive this week so that we can get started on this work with the kids. Currently, we have a room fixed up at the next house into a classroom - complete with a white board, school desk, a computer lab, etc.
We have received our container! It finally arrived with most of our family's personal items. There were a few items missing, like shoes, toys, a radio, etc. We are unhappy that some items came up missing, but we are glad to finally have our container. In fact, a second container arrived a couple of weeks later with farm project tools, a tractor, etc. So, we had to unload our container quickly, arrange and store the items, and prepare for the second container to come in. We have been quite busy! Not only getting ready for the next container, we were busy unpacking our boxes and totes into our house. We moved all of the boxes, etc. up to the back of the house and our cook asked where we were going to put it!! It's nice to have our own stuff.
Chimala Mission Update
On September 24, 2012, I had a full day of working around the mission, making sure all is running smoothly, and getting ready to go home for the day. About 5 PM, I was at the Chimala Bible Institute when I heard a strange noise like a siren. I jumped into my car, Ezekiel Harrison (a CBI teacher) jumped in as well, and we drove down to the schools to see what was going on. Upon turning the corner to the Primary School Boy's Dormitory, I saw smoke, fire, and people wailing and working to put out a fire. I went directly into the middle of the effort, but my limited Kiswahili skills constricted me to saying, "maji, sasa" which is "water, now." They quickly formed a bucket brigade to bring water to the burning building. Many people from the community also showed up to help with the effort. There were two children hurt in the fire, but they are fine now. We are beginning to rebuild the dorm also.
At the Chimala Bible Institute, we are looking at adding our biggest class of new students ever with 28-30 new students. These students come from four different countries including a refugee camp which is too dangerous to visit. The future for the school is bright as God is especially blessing the school with new students. I am currently teaching the book of Isaiah.
The Chimala Mission Hospital has been served by a German doctor named Felix Dopple for the last month. He has truly enjoyed being at the mission and hopes to return. The hospital is in need of good western doctors to come and work at the hospital for a short term or long term basis. If you are interested in this opportunity to serve others and our faithful God, simply reply to this email.
Preaching the Gospel
We visited several congregations this past month. We try and visit a new congregation each Sunday. With over 100 different congregations in SW Tanzania, I have plenty to visit!
We are beginning a work with the Kibyoni Church of Christ. They only have 2-3 benches and have to borrow a few from others when it is time to worship. The mission is going to help the church with four benches and also some repair work to their windows. I handed out some 'Chimala Mission' pens to the members and some visiting children.
We visited with the Igawa Church of Christ today. I preached about the Gospel of Christ.
Since we are visiting so many congregations, I decided to start a new blog to post pictures and information about all of the congregations in the area. You can check it out here: http://swtzcoc.blogspot.com/
Support Level
We are still in need of support for our family. We came over to Chimala on faith that the LORD would provide. We pray that the LORD will work through you and your congregation to help us in our work.
Chad Wagner and family
To see the Wagner report with all the pictures, please click here.