Greetings Fellow Workers;
What a Day! We hope and we pray that God is working in your life in ways that will bring you closer to Him as you serve Him and our fellow man faithfully. Today was a wonderful day of worship, fellowship and friends.
Stephanie, Exel and I began our day picking up Ahimidiwe, his wife Lodavika and their two precious children as we made our way to Maji ya Chai for Bible class and worship. We arrive around 10:15 for Bible class to find a room full of God’s children singing praises to our God. We found out later that they come together 30 minutes early each Sunday to sing.
I also noticed some changes since our last visit some months back. The first thing I noticed was two new benches. New benches can mean a couple of things; both being very positive. The first thing is growth and need for more seating. The second is growth, they saw the need, met the need and did what any faithful and maturing congregation would do. They did not ask the “missionaries” for help with something they were capable of doing for them selves. And yes, I noticed some new face and more small children. God is growing His Church in TZ!
Saturday morning I was asked to come to a meeting at the ACSOP. When I walked in I was greeted by a number of evangelist from a number of different congregations. Ahimidiwe, Gasper, Daudi, Suli, David, Marutu, Michael, Clement, and Matthew, representing six different congregations of the Lord’s people had come together to plan their upcoming Safari for Souls campaign, to be held at Kisongo this year. They are planning and will execute on their own this effort. They discussed a host of issues on how best to rotate and conduct such evangelistic efforts.
They had set a budget of 2,000,000/- ($1,335). Each man had committed 20,000/- each, “to lead by example” as they put it. The congregation committed another 1,000,000/- and they asked if the “mission” would help with 600,000/- ($400). I was so impressed at their level of commitment, their zeal, their willingness to lead by example and most of all, their working together for the purpose of glorifying God through their evangelistic efforts.
These men, representing seven congregations that did not even exist ten years ago, represent a Sunday morning attendance of God’s people around 300 in number. These men also represent the efforts of the ACSOP/TZ2000 mission effort and all those making it possible. Each of these men are either graduates of the school or converts from one of our graduates. Amen!
Make no mistake, what God is doing through the Tanzania 2000 mission effort and all Her supporters IS working, and working in a grand way to be sure. One would find it hard to argue with positive results if they genuinely desire to know the truth!
We thank God and we thank you for your part is this grand mission effort. We thank Mike Reese for coming our way, for teaching his Short Course this week here at the ACSOP and for his desire to travel to Kenya to work with some of our graduates in the “first annual” youth conference. Please keep him/them in your prayers over the days to come. We ended our day with a meal, singing, devo and in our home. Rick and Cindy Nobles, the Gee family and Mike were all here.
Our prayers are with you as you being yet another week of service in the Kingdom.
In Him,
Cy & Stephanie