John Steven Akwhari Testimony
Since I did not have room in our last letter, I wanted to share with you an amazing story that happened at our crusade. We had the honor of welcoming Mr. John Akwhari as our honored guest for the crusade and for our Soccer Sunday. Mr. Akwhari is a Tanzanian Olympian who became famous around the world, as well as here in Tanzania, for a statement he made after losing in a race during the 1968 Mexico Olympics. He is known as having the “greatest last-place finish” in the world. During the race he fell down because of a leg cramp. After getting his leg bandaged, he kept on running while rejecting calls to get in the pace vehicle. When he crossed the finish line in last place, he was asked why he kept on going to finish the race. His answer was simply, “My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race; they sent me 5,000 miles to finish the race.” At the end of Mr. Akwhari’s time with us, I had the opportunity to see him bow his head and trust Christ as his Saviour. Now this man can finish the “race of life” right as well.
Radio
Thank you for praying for our station manager Tito’s trip to Uganda. He was able to learn much from the “Word of Life” radio and Missionary Keith Stensaas. We have broken ground for the tower site and are continuing to move forward with the tower base and the tower-site building. Please continue to pray for the final funds needed for the radio. As best as we can tell, we will need about $12,000 to finish this project. We are excited to watch God continue to work with this project.
Baptismal Sunday
One of the doctrines that causes a lot of confusion here in Tanzania is baptism. Many believe it either cleanses your sins or is part of salvation. I dedicated two Sundays to preaching and teaching about what the Bible says on baptism. On our third Sunday, we invited those who had already trusted Christ as Saviour and whom the Lord had touched to come and take this step of obedience in baptism. It was an exciting day, and we saw 11 people come forward for baptism.
Trip to Kigoma
In just a couple of weeks, we will be traveling to Kigoma to be with the church that we helped to start in the village of Kaseke. They are now two years old and have continued to see people trust Christ and join the church. It is always a blessing to have Pastor Philemon from the church come visit us here in Morogoro, but they are very excited for us to go to them. It will be about a 16-hour drive. We will also be visiting a Christian radio station there to learn all we can about the running of a station. Please pray for our travels and that God would bless this trip
Faith Baptist Church Morogoro
God has continued to bless our church here in Morogoro, and we continue to see many trust Christ, get baptized, and join the church. We have seen an increase in attendance, and it looks like we will have our highest attendance average this year. Please pray that the church would continue strong, that converts would be grounded, and that we would finish the year out strong.
Your representatives to Tanzania,
Jerry & Rachel Wyatt