Our time in the States is rapidly coming to a close, and we have already begun to make preparations to get back to Tanzania the first week of July. We are thankful to have been able to change the date of our round-trip tickets, enabling this unexpected trip to become a furlough. By God’s grace during the five months of reporting this furlough, we will have been in 37 meetings, including a revival meeting, a camp meeting, and two Vacation Bible Schools. Thirteen of those churches were new to us, and all of them have been scheduled in miraculous ways! As we mentioned in our last prayer letter, our family has been so blessed by every church we have visited to share what God is doing in Tanzania and preach or teach about the grace of God! Please pray specifically with us as we travel to Georgia and South Carolina one more time this month.
Sarah is traveling with us for this last month of June, and then she will be flying back to Tanzania with us. PRAISE GOD! She has tickets to return directly to college from Tanzania at the end of August. Her time in Tanzania will allow her to say “Good-bye” to the folks. Please pray for our entire family, as we are scheduled to fly through Doha, Qatar, on our return to Tanzania, and specifically for Sarah, as she will fly back to the States by herself.
A very special thank you to all of you who have prayed for our Wednesdays to fill up. Not only have some of our Wednesdays filled up, but so have many of our Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and even a Saturday. In fact, God has given us the opportunity to teach or preach almost half of the days of the month of June! Now that Sarah is back with us, the Lord has also opened opportunities for us to use the puppets for two Vacation Bible Schools and a camp meeting. To God be the glory! Please pray with us for these ministry opportunities.
Meanwhile, back in Tanzania God continues to open doors of ministry opportunity whether we are there or not. Just a couple of weeks ago, we were told by the young man doing the teaching in the public high schools that he has now been invited into a fifth high school and the first elementary school. To God be the glory! HE opened the opportunity for our family to teach “faithful men, who have been able to teach others also!” We told Yohana that when we get back, we will not be taking his place, but rather will be praying that God would continue to provide new opportunities in more public schools of Tanzania to teach the Gospel and provide discipleship to students who literally want to be in those classes. We have complete freedom to teach the Word of God! Would you please pray with us that God would send forth more laborers, both Tanzanian and American, into this needy harvest field?
Just a parting thought: Did God ever call you to missions? Were the methods you were using for getting to the mission field overwhelming? Maybe you turned back as a result of the deceitfulness of sin or riches. Maybe you simply became weary in well doing. God’s grace can make the difference in your life, just as it has in our lives. We believe with all our hearts that all who would humble themselves and truly yield to the grace of God (His power and working) by faith, could eventually make it to, or back to, the mission field. Be assured, God can and wants to “. . . do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”
Life is simply our faith in HIS grace!