Surprise It's a GIRL!

Yes, that is right, the baby "boy" we have been waiting for for nine months now is not a boy at all! You can imagine our surprise as a beautiful baby girl was born. I guess the ultrasound technician made a mistake and our own eyes deceived us. However, God knew all along and He makes no mistakes. We are so pleased to have a happy healthy baby girl. So without further ado let me introduce you to SARAH ELISABETH BURKHOLDER. She was 8 pounds and 11 ounces and perfectly healthy. Natalie is doing fine and healing well. Enjoy the following pictures.

Sarah's first picture after she was born. This is her reaction when I told her she was a girl. Just kidding. She got much happier after seeing mommy.

She has "sleeping like a baby" down pat even with Daddy flashing the camera in her face!

Natalie is the only one who can really make her happy and "smile".

We are blessed to have "grammy" (Steve's mom) here for the birth. She has been a big help with watching the other children and loves to hold her newest grandchild.

Hananh was thrilled to have a sister, what she wanted and prayed for all along.Even Caleb is happy to have sister and be the ONLY boy in the family.
A very proud daddy!

Some Busy Times

The Truth Baptist Church at the TRUTH Center celebrated its 4-year anniversary in March. Many of the church people invited friends and relatives for the special day. There were 5 baptized on this day and it was a joy to baptize Hannah as one of them.

It was also a special day because the Burkholder family (Mom, Dad, and brother) was here for a visit. With Brad and Tricia Henderson (Steve's sister and brother-in-law) now in Katesh working with us it was a unique family reunion in the African bush.

We have officially begun Stage 2 of the TRUTH Center project. The first step in Stage 2 was the drilling for water on the property. As we continue to grow and expand the ministry we will need more water. After a month of trying, we drilled past 200 meters and no water was found. However, hundreds of people received the news of the "Living Water" as we handed out copies of the book of Romans to those who came to watch the work. Please pray for water to get to the TRUTH Center in some other way. Pray also for the other steps in Stage 2 such as building new classrooms and getting more land.
The vision of the Truth Baptist Church is to start churches in the villages surrounding Katesh. From May 1-3 we saw this vision in action as a team from the church led by missionary partner Nate Wolf held evangelistic meetings in the village of Basotu. This new church plant met for the first time on Sunday morning May 3. After all the weekend activities 5 people made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. The Truth Baptist Church will continue to help this new church until it can stand on its own.

We will be heading to Nairobi, Kenya in the middle of May to wait for the birth of Samuel (Baby Burkholder #3 which is due to be born the first week of June. Please pray for a safe delivery for Natalie and a healthy baby.

Blessings of 2008

Dear Praying Friends,

It is hard to believe that 2008 is over and 2009 is here! In many ways this past year as been very challenging for us, but we praise the Lord for the many blessings as well. Below are some of the highlights since our last letter. Please join us in praising the Lord for these blessings and praying for the requests.

Friend Day- On October 26, the one-year anniversary of the TRUTH Center, we had "Friend Day" at the Truth Baptist Church. We challenged our church people to bring relatives, friends, and neighbors. They did a great job inviting people and we had over 250 adults in attendance. One faithful lady brought 8 friends. The best part of the day was that 5 people received Christ as their Savior. Please pray for these new believers and also for us as we follow up the other visitors.

School Graduation- We also had a special day on Sunday December 5 for our kindergarten graduation. Many parents, family, and friends came for this special service. They were amazed to listen to their children sing songs to God, recite their Bible verses, and receive their certificates. We had a great first year for school ministry and in January we will be adding a nursery class and also first grade. Please pray for us as we need good teachers, more students, and also wisdom as we get the school registered with the government.

Youth Camp- In December we took a group of 19 to youth camp in the town of Babati. We rented a boarding school which was on break and met with two other Baptist churches. We had over 70 youth at camp that participated in games, quizzes, memory verses, discussion groups, and services. Praise the Lord for the 7 youth who made the decision to accept Christ. Pray for these young people to be dedicated to the Lord in the youth ministry of the church.

Picture: The youth leading a service after returning home from camp.

Missionary Team- We were so excited to receive Brad and Tricia Henderson as new missionaries on December 8th. The church surprised them with a church wide meal and gifts. They are getting adjusted to Tanzanian life and culture. They are putting the finishing touches on their home and getting ready to start language school in January. We are also excited to have Nate Wolf and family returning from furlough to join us in a few weeks. We also praise the Lord for a new missionary that will be joining our team in June of 2009. Rather than being "called" to Tanzania, he/she will be born into the team as Natalie is expecting again. Please pray for our family and ministry team as it grows and ministers together.

Picture: Brad received a welcome gift of a traditional Datooga "toga" and Tricia received material to have a traditional dress made.

Picture: The first photo of the new "missionary" that will be joining our team in June 2009

Family Christmas- We had a wonderful Christmas celebration together as a family and are looking forward to all that God has planned for us and the ministry here for the upcoming year. May God bless you this New Year and as you continue to partner with us through your prayers and support.

Picture: The kids enjoying their new trampoline!

One scrambled egg for 16 people!

Steve was able to go hunting recently and along with bringing home a car load of meat from shooting 2 Grants Gazelle and 2 Wildebeest, he also brought home an ostrich egg from a nest that was found. We scrambled the egg and it fed 16 people, as there were two missionary families traveling through Katesh.

Pray for this Land

Please pray for God's will concerning a piece of land next to the TRUTH Center that could be used for future ministry. With the future expansion of the Truth Learning Center we will need more land for other ministries to grow. We will need the local government's permission to use this land and then follow the process for getting it re-zoned for ministry use. We will be submitting our proposal to the local government very soon. Please pray if it is God's will for us to have this land that He will bring it to pass.

Kweli Learning Centre (Truth Learning Center)

We opened our school in January 2008. The school year here in Tanzania runs from January to December--three months on, one month off. We currently have 27 children, and will be adding first grade in January, and a new grade each year to follow. Please pray that our school will glorify God in all that it does, that we will influence children and parents spiritually, and that we will have a good testimony in our community.

Enjoy these pictures! Some are of our field trip to a local farm, others are from a small program we did for the parents, and the rest are just fun days at school. Please pray for these precious children--we are so proud of how they have grown mentally, physically, and spiritually in the last 9 months!

Missions Conference June 2008

The Truth Baptist Church had its first missions conference in June 2008. God truly blessed and the following are some of the highlights: We started each morning with a prayer meeting and fellowship. God answered many of these requests during the missions conference.

Over 20 people went to the village of Basotu to do a spiritual survey of the area. After interviewing over 100 people and recording their answers, it was determined and we are burdened that a Bible-believing church is needed in this area. Please pray for this new area and ministry.

On the second day of the conference over 20 people went to the village of Garawja to dedicate a new water well and present the gospel. Over 200 people heard about the "everlasting water" of Jesus Christ.

Each evening we had services with singing, preaching, and a missions video. Our theme was "The Harvest is Great, but the Laborers are Few." God worked in many people's hearts about giving and going for the harvest of souls. Pray for a young man named Christopher who surrendered to the ministry during the missions conference. (He is pictured above wearing green, with our assistant pastor and missionaries.) Our two church missionaries, Daniel Lekunga and John Naftari, did an excellent job presenting their burdens and ministries. Our church people had them in their homes for meals, gave a love offering, and they were each given a goat in appreciation.

After the three day conference was over, we took our missionary John Naftari home to his ministry in Bariadi. We also took 3 Bible Institute students and assistant pastor Eliya. These young men did an excellent job sharing testimonies, witnessing, and teaching. We were able to help our missionary John start a new church plant under a tree in a nearby village. We thank the Lord for the 27 souls who accepted Christ during our time there.