Oct-Dec Update
/It’s December! Can you believe that 2025 is almost over?!? We cannot.
Prayer requests up front:
-Pray for Tanzania! Since the election at the end of October there has been some unrest, and there are concerns that it will continue until the end of the year. Please pray for peace to reign, for justice to prevail, and for gospel work to continue despite it all!
-Pray for our boys to persevere in school
-Pray for Elijah as he considers what to do next year after graduating high school
-Pray for our new team member Floridah as she transitions into Tanzania life and starts working with children’s ministries
-Pray for our new team member Neddy as she completes her training in the US and joins us here THIS MONTH!
Happy December! In western TZ, Nov'/Dec = rain! So the rains have arrived in force, and everything is green again! After 4.5 months of no rain, we’re always excited to see it return! (Though it creates a lot of work around the house. With pretty much every heavy rain Josh is moving the ladder around scrambling to unclog gutters and downspouts, and I’m walking around looking at ceilings watching for new wet spots.)
November marks 2 birthdays for our family- Zeke and Judah, just 3 days apart. We had chicken pot pies, cake, and a caramel apple bar with our friends at the lake.
We enjoyed a Fall Festival with our missionary community here until we got word that a curfew was being instituted (due to violence taking place around the country because of the election). This was the first time we’ve had to leave a party earlier to beat the police roadblocks!
At the end of October there was a national election, and in the aftermath there was a significant amount of unrest and violence. You can read the news stories for yourself. The bottom line is: pray! We are relatively safe in our area, and thankful for that! We are also thankful that we have been permitted to continue Great Commission work in the midst of uncertainty. It’s a providential opportunity to “not be anxious about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition”, to present our requests to God.
The biggest ministry thing that happened recently is that our new team-mate came down from Kenya! Our sister Floridah arrived and has jumped into discipleship and children’s ministry. She’s been a wonderful addition to our team, and we’re excited to continue to work with her! She’ll be focusing on preparing/translating theologically sound children’s curriculum to utilize in multiple Baptist churches in the area.
The “Bucket Ministry” for palliative/bed-bound patients is finishing up another successful year. I’m thankful for my brother Fideli who so faithfully administrates this program! We’ve seen multiple new groups form this year through the evangelism and discipleship, and at least one is ready to begin meeting together as a church!
In November we went on Elijah’s senior trip, to the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti. It was great! We can do it for a lot cheaper being residents, speaking the language, and being comfortable in “local” conditions.
The crater is a pretty amazing place- the steep walls mean many of the animals are isolated in the crater and never leave. They use it for conservation, and it’s well protected from poachers.
The Serengeti is world renowned for a reason! We stayed in a lovely tented camp and took a number of game drives. Some of the highlights were:
-Road tripping across the country, listening to audiobooks
-Seeing a pride of 19 lions all around our truck, hunting, and facing off with a couple of crocs.
-3 juvenile male elephants battling it out for dominance.
-Staying in a local guesthouse on the way back which was right next to a very loud bar, causing Bek and I to get about 2 hours of sleep, but by God’s grace we were able to drive back 10 hours the next day!
We also enjoyed a really sweet evening with the community here for a shared Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving day. Holiday’s can be a bit rough here away from family and home culture, but we are so thankful for our community here.
In our second term, we’ve really started to figure out some things! Living here gets progressively easier and richer.
In the first picture below Judah and I swam out to an empty cargo ship and jumped off the bow. This boat is pretty typical for the cargo boats on the lake- they run them on a 50-75hp motor and go all up and down the lake. The boat below was anchored until the wind switched direction so they could get to port.
In another of the pictures I’m working on my butcher skills. A local farm calls me when they’re slaughtering a pig, so I go and help them dress it(with a machete on a banana leaf). Then I take the cuts I want and bring them home, dry them in the fridge, and part them the next day. I’m still pretty sloppy, but this time we got a bunch of pork chops, two racks of ribs, and about 12 pounds of pork belly(the main event). I cure the belly for 10 days in the fridge, then the smoker, and finished in the sous vide. After cooking and taking off the rind we still ended up with over 8 pounds of bacon,. Ya’ll- it’s delicious. Tastes like home. (Seriously. This is next level. If we wanted pork of any sort before, it was hacked apart with a bush whacker, and then we just pressure cooked it to be pulled pork. Having cured hams, bacom and then the option for more speciality pieces has been such a huge treat!)
We’re getting ready for Christmas here, which is hard when the local culture doesn’t celebrate until the day of! Rebekah does a wonderful job of decorating the house and preserving various traditions. I’m thankful for her persistent nostalgia! (It’s a blessing and a curse. Nostalgia helps a lot of things like the keeping of traditions, but it makes me a weepy mess especially around Christmas. This is Elijah’s last Christmas at home, until….whenever, so it’s been an especially emotional month).
That’s it for this update!
We’re thankful for the many people we know lift us up in prayer regularly! Prayer is the foundation of our lives here and we cannot overestimate its importance. So, thanks!
We have open jobs on our team!! If you feel called to serve the Lord overseas, send us a message at M28Storeyfam@gmail.com and we would LOVE to talk about how you might fit in!
Are you (or do you know) a college age person who would like to see what missions looks like for a semester? The IMB Residency program is a 100 day introduction to missions. Here in Kigoma we’re looking for volunteers to teach ESL classes (no prior experience necessary). More info HERE.
If you want to give financially to global missions, you can do that here: www.imb.org/give
We’re still raising money for the CMDE conference in Greece. If you would like to give specific to that trip or another specific project, send us an email at M28Storeyfam@gmail.com
Until next time!
SDG,
Josh