We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. We thank God for what He allowed us to do in 2019. We had 2,379 souls trust Christ last year, 410 visitors, and 82 baptisms. We are looking forward to what God will allow us to accomplish this year. Thank you all for the encouraging emails, cards, notes, and prayers. These things encourage us and strengthen us here in Tanzania. We thank you for partnering with us and hope you all will be encouraged as well to see this fruit that was added to your account.
Many have been praying for our visa situation, so we wanted to keep you informed. First of all, here in Tanzania you need two visas. One is a work permit visa, and the other a resident permit visa. You cannot apply for the resident visa until you are granted the work visa. Back in October, we applied for the work visa, and we were just granted it on February 12. That was a huge answer to prayer. Now we take that visa and go to Immigration to start the process for the resident visa. Please continue to pray that this process for the resident visa goes smoothly and quickly. Once everything is settled, our visas should be good until February 2022.
As we wait for the final process of our visas, the ministry here in Tanzania still continues to grow. We went to a new area for soul winning back in January. The area was called Nane-Nane (translated it means “Eight-Eight”). We had 70 people come out that day, and the next day we had 10 visitors. Well, since then, we have started a Bible Club in that area and have been averaging 35 kids each Saturday afternoon. The kids said they wanted to come to church, so one Sunday we piled 17 people in our 7-passenger vehicle. They have been faithful, so the last two Sundays in February, we rented a vehicle for them. On Sunday, February 23, we had 41 come. We now officially have a new bus route.
We love to see God’s people growing in the Lord. These past two months, we had the privilege to marry two young couples from our church: Efeso and Rehema and Zebron and Harriett. We thank God for people who come to church and meet, and then we get to see how God grows their love for Him and for each other. It’s always a joy to be able to celebrate with them on their special day. We are looking forward to seeing how God will continue to use them in the ministry here at GBC.
We want you all to know how much we love and appreciate every single one of you. We could not be here without your prayer and financial support. Please know that we would love to have you come for a visit anytime. If we can do anything for you guys, just shoot us an email; we would love to help in any way that we can.
Your missionary friends,
Mshama, Martha, Esther, & Benjamin Kinyonga