First Quarter Update

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We’ve had a great few months since our last update! I was ready to send this a month ago, then a lost a big portion of it accidentally, and lost all my motivation. But here’s to second-tries!

Please pray for:

  • The Tanzanian churches who are excited to partner together to train and send missionaries to the unreached people in our area. Pray for us as we work alongside them.

  • Our team here in Kigoma, that we would have unity of purpose and spirit, and that the Lord would protect us from spiritual attacks that might hamper the work.

  • Our sons, who always feel the tension of living in a different culture and must be resilient to thrive here.

We had a good Christmas here in Kigoma, spent with our family and friends. We roasted a ham(no small feat!), enjoyed a Christmas Eve service with the missionary community, and fellowshipped with our local Baptist church. We’ve said before that holidays are especially trying here, because it’s impossible to celebrate the way we did in the states (and it’s hot, which feels completely unnatural for Christmas time), and we really miss time with family. That said, each year it gets a little easier as we make new traditions.

After Christmas the older 4 boys took three flights by themselves to a camp for IMB kids in South Africa. They always have a great time at this camp connecting with other TCKs, and we’re so thankful for all those who gave generously of their time and money to make the camp happen!

January saw us wrapping up ministries for 2025 and planning ahead for 2026.

The “Bucket” mercy ministry was very fruitful last year! 120+ buckets were distributed, benefiting 700 people. 3 new assemblies/churches were planted and are meeting regularly, supported by nearby churches. A couple of our national partners really stepped up to lead the ministry this year and flourished in those roles. One of my prayers for them this year is that they will grow in discipleship, bringing on more helpers from our local churches.

Our pastoral fellowship met regularly and trained on principles of expositional preaching, baptistic doctrine, and administration of the ordinances. We helped administrate a couple of seminars for pastoral training, impacting 80 church leaders and about 30 local churches.

The preaching cohort group met weekly, completed our study of Acts, and is 14/16ths of the way through 1 Corinthians. We’ve expanded the group to include pastors/preachers from four local churches. We have seen a significant impact that faithfully preaching the Word can have on a local congregation.

Our children’s ministry had a good year, meeting in 2 locations and serving around 60 kids every week. We onboarded a new team member from Kenya, our dear sister Floridah. She and Rebekah (mostly Florida, though) are developing a year-long curriculum based on the New City Catechism, which we hope to release fully in June of this year.

My time at the hospital is sporadic but good. I enjoy the opportunity to teach new physicians and clinical officers, and care for patients in the ER. I also do a fair number of house calls for members of our church and missionaries in the community.

We welcomed a new team-mate, Neddy! She is a retired teacher from the US who has come out to help with homeschooling. She is currently studying Swahili. She hails from Grand Junction, Colorado and Bookcliff Baptist Church. Pray for her as she learns to live in Africa!

We’re excited to see what God will do in the upcoming year. Thanks for continuing to pray with us!

In February we had a visit from a Wyoming connection, as a UW grad student came to study our lake- we had a wonderful lunch with these three scholars/teachers and they taught us so much about Lake Tanganyika in a short time!

Another big accomplishment in the past year has been our property renovations. This is a very labor intensive project here as workers need consistent supervision and we really end up functioning as general contractors (this is no joke. We’re talking sometimes multiple trips per day to whatever property/building is being worked on. The one we were working on from August to January had a water feature appear from the peak of the ceiling, right after the walls had been fully prepped for painting and the ceiling board and electrical was all brand new and installed. One of the original water pipes, from when the house was built in the 70s, split open, allowing a steady trickle of water to seap through the new ceiling board and wash away paint and primer from the prepped walls. The painter called me that morning, tried to describe what was happening and then just said he didn’t understand what was happening. That was my answer for Josh, as well, when I called him on the phone while I was watching the streams of water ruin the walls. It took several of us walking around for an hour or so to figure out what the heck was going on and where the water was coming from, as the water to the house had been turned off for months.One poor guy got voluntold to shimmy up into the attic, into the 12” space available, to find the source. That was one of many days I just had to skip group school work with the boys, because of issues with the work down at that house that I had to go see. We halted everything for a couple weeks to let our plumber completely re-plum the house, bringing all pipes from the outside, like is typical in our area. We aren’t sure who EVER thought it was a good idea to put a house water main in the attic!) But we’re making good progress on updating some of the properties owned by our organization here in Kigoma. Come visit and you can see Rebekah’s handiwork in making them welcoming and comfortable!

2026 is off to a bang. We’ve had some lovely times in ministry, welcomed a new team-mate, and hosted some guests from out of town.

Last week I went with Fideli and Mzaliwa and we purchased supplies for 160 Mercy Buckets. It took two trips in the Land Cruiser and grants from SEND Relief and a supporting Baptist Church, but we got it done, packing all the buckets with a team effort. We’ve already started up for the year in the village of Kasuku.

The rainy season is here, and we’ve had some deluges. We have some leaky spots in the roof (one in the living room that is growing in size with each rain and now sports fuzzy black mold that is reaching down toward the couch from the 15 foot ceiling), but I think we got the spots either patched or put a bucket in the attic (except the aforementioned one). Along with the rain comes lightning and ensuing damages. We’ve lost a tree, a washing machine, circuit breakers, and more. But the rainy season is pretty awesome, and keeps the weather so nicely cool.

On a sadder note, death is an ever-present reality in Sub-saharan Africa. Mortality rates are very high, and it seems like every week someone in our orbit has lost a loved-one.
A couple of weeks ago our neighbor Maombi went into the hospital for a stomach virus. While there her status worsened, and she passed away after about a week in the hospital. Maombi had sickle-cell disease, so any time she got sick was a danger. She had been paralyzed for 10 years after suffering a stroke at the age of 7. Despite these challenges, she was a joyful and sweet child, and a light in our community. She had been suffering increasingly in the past few months, and we’re confident that she’s now in the presence of her Savior. Nevertheless, our hearts break for her family, and she will be missed greatly.

Funerals in TZ take days, with the community coming together every day until(and sometimes after) the burial. Maombi’s funeral was a testimony to her impact on this community as hundreds came to pay their respects. The funeral concluded with singing hymns and the men taking turn filling, then leveling the grave. It was a tough week for everyone, but thanks be to God, we do not mourn as those who have no hope!

That’s it for this update!

We are currently traveling to a medical conference in Greece- thanks to the many people who gave above and beyond to allow us to go as a family. We’re looking forward to a time of rest, learning, and fellowship.

One more thing- do you know a young lady who is 18-28 and would like to experience life on the mission field? The IMB Residency is a 3 month program for college-age folks to do something like a semester abroad.
We have one applicant coming for Fall 2026, but are looking for a ministry-partner for her. Our Residents will be developing relationships with Tanzanians and teaching ESL in local communities.
Deadline for applications is May 1, 2026, and the link is HERE.

As always, email me at M28StoreyFam@gmail.com for questions or more info.

You can support our work financially at www.imb.org/give.

Until next time, may the Lord bless and keep you.

With love and thankfulness,
the Storeys