2nd Quarter Update: Teams and Travel and Trust
/Greetings, dear friends and family! We trust this update will find you well and blessed! We have been so comforted this quarter by the loving embrace of our Father in Heaven, and we pray that all those reading would know His peace!
Prayer requests up front:
Our dear sister Debra has faithfully completed a three year assignment with the IMB and is heading back to the States. Pray for her as she seeks out the Lord’s will regarding next steps, and for us as we grieve her departure and figure out how to balance a new work load without her help!
We are looking to grow our team- please pray that God would bring more workers to the harvest field in Kigoma
Continue to lift up the churches we work with here as they are under attack from all sides. Lawsuits, unjust imprisonment and other persecutions abound, and can distract us from the Great Commission.
Ok, now for the update. As always, italic font is Rebekah piping in with her running commentary…
I last wrote at length in March, and a lot has happened since then!
Our friend and national partner “K” was imprisoned under charges of spying and treason, but thankfully he was exonerated and ultimately only charged with illegal presence(without proper immigration papers). After 6 weeks in jail he was sent back to Burundi, where he is today. He continues to share the Gospel and lead bible studies there. We hope to visit him soon to see the work in Burundi. (He frequently sends photos of himself with dairy cows. He looks happy and the cows look healthier than any cows we’ve seen in TZ)
We hosted a short term team from VA, and spent some time in a very rural village teaching a new church plant some discipleship/bible study methods. It is part of an attempt to have a reproducible “curriculum” for short term teams so that they and the target villages can be edified together. That said, come and visit us and we’ll put you to work!
After the VA team left we began to prepare for the next team! In the midst of that work, we found out that my Dad needed an urgent abdominal surgery. Thanks to a hefty tax return I was able to fly back on short notice and support he and Mom during the first week post-op. What a blessing to spend time with them, and as a bonus I saw 5/6 of my siblings in Denver as well!
As much as I missed the fam, I will say that traveling solo internationally is a sight easier. I made it from my hotel in Dar es Salaam to my gate at the airport(through check in, immigration and security) inside of 30 minutes.
Thank you all for your prayers- Dad is doing well and has his last surgery for a while(we pray!) planned for July.
After I returned from jet-setting around the world, we hosted a team of students from California Baptist University. The school has a trip every year, and we are perpetually impressed with the students who come.
This year we hosted 8 students and their leader for 2 weeks. They did health screening clinics at 4 villages in partnership with local churches from those villages and larger churches from Kigoma. We saw hundreds of patients and diagnosed dozens of cases of hypertension and diabetes. After the clinics small groups went door to door in the community sharing the Good News of Jesus.
It was our first time hosting a team like this, and we learned a lot! The students who came to work were amazing and really encouraged us! Be praying for them as they are all considering and praying about how they are called to fulfill the Great Commission of Matthew 28.
In the midst of hosting teams and travelling our other ministries continue apace. Rebekah continues to host a kid’s club in our neighborhood, and we are still heavily involved in our local church, Azimio Baptist Church. We have a great group of preachers who meet every week to encourage one another and improve our exposition. I also stayed closely involved in our ministry for palliative/bed-bound patients. Some weeks our partners go together on a motorcycle, hence the picture below- they will fit two guys on that motorcycle as well, then drive an hour and a half on mostly dirt roads to deliver medical supplies and disciple local church members.
In early June I took 14 pastors from our area to northern TZ to attend a preaching workshop at Kweli Baptist Church. We had great teaching and fellowship with brothers from TZ and Nairobi, Kenya. We studied some of the Principles of Exposition from the Charles Simeon Trust- a wonderful organization with some really helpful resources.
After the CBU team left we continued to work to connect more established churches with the village churches. Our “Mama Church” study aims to equip and resource the established churches to fellowship with and disciple younger churches out in the villages. Our team-mate Kari is taking point on this and it’s been a great ministry thus far! Your generous gifts make it possible for us to help these believers with transportation to and from the places they’re serving.
This past few months has been a sweet but crazy time. We’ve had some wonderful moments with our friends and family. We got a couple of kittens(one from the market, and one we found in the woods!), spent time at the lake, took walks and played lots of games. Our team leaders came for a visit from the big city, and we had a team retreat for a couple of days.
In May, Rebekah and I celebrated 20 years of wedded bliss. We had a lovely get-away to a local hotel and took a long(er than expected) anniversary hike. (That was brief. Too brief. It was a brutal hike on a sweltering. sunny day. We never made it to the true base of the waterfall. We were covered stabby-sticky-seeds (that took a full 3 weeks to work out of our laundry) and drenched in sweat. I couldn’t walk right for 3-4 days after, but it was an adventure, for sure and for certain!)
We said goodye to our friends from Germany, the Fröse’s- we will miss them and their kids!
Finally, as I write this we are celebrating our last weekend with our dear sister Debra- she has faithfully completed her 3 year ISC term with the IMB and is leaving in 5 days for the USA. Debra has truly become a part of our family here in Kigoma. Our boys love her and treasure time with her. She is so patient and kind with them, and laughs at all of their jokes. She has been a confidant to Rebekah and a little sister to us both. She’ll leave a big hole in our team, but we trust the the Lord is leading her to the next chapter in her life of service to Him. (please pray with us for her as she seeks his direction for her life. Selfishly, we hope He leads her back to K-town, but we are praying for His will in her life) We thank the Lord for all He has accomplished through her in Kigoma, for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of our family. May the Lord bless you and keep you, sweet sister of our hearts!
That’s it for this update! Here’s some ways you can partner with us:
-Come visit! We are happy to host teams to teach how to study the Bible, serve local churches, and work with church leaders.
-Do you know a college-age student looking for a semester-experience in missions? Check out our IMB “Residency” program to teach: ESL under a mango tree!
-I have job descriptions written for team-mates to come and work with us. If you or someone you know is called to the field, or even just has questions, send me a message!
-You can support our work(and the work of thousands of IMB missionaries around the world) financially at www.imb.org/give.
-We TRY to post more on our Facebook page HERE
Until next time, and with love,
josh