New Year 2008

TRUTH Baptist Church: The church continues to grow since moving to the TRUTH Center location. We have seen many new vistors and decisions for Christ recently. We open the TRUTH Center each weekend for games like volleyball, net-ball, soccer, and playground. We also have an indoor game room where the youth can enjoy board games, carpet ball, and other games. We use this game time for opportunities to witness to people who would not normally come. We have seen several start to attend our services and a few have trusted Christ as Savior as a result of this outreach time.

Youth Camp: In December we were able to take a group of youth to participate in youth camp with other independent Baptist churches. The campers enjoyed the games and fellowship with other youth, but most importantly made many spiritual decisions during the services. Many campers were able to memorize the entire Sermon on the Mount during camp.

New Missionary: The Truth Baptist Church was able to begin to support its second missionary in December. Daniel Lekunga, from the Maasai tribe, is living with and reaching his own people in the bush of Tanzania. It was an encouragement to our church people to see a fellow Tanzanian with a burden to reach his own people. Please pray for Daniel and his family as they minister and also for our church to have a vision for local missions.

Holiday Services: We had a busy December with special services on Christmas and New Years Eve. On Christmas we were able to have a baby dedication and fellowship with a church-wide meal afterwards. On New Years Eve we had a midnight service with 120 in attendance. 54 people stayed for an "overnighter" until the morning. We had a great time fellowshipping and playing games. It was a great way to end 2007 and start 2008.

Missionary Perk: One of the many "perks" of being a missionary in this part of Tanzania is being able to enjoy hunting. Because of being so busy this year I was only able to go hunting once. Nate Wolf and I, along with another missionary friend, enjoyed a day of hunting where we shot 4 gazelle and 1 wildebeast.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Tanzania! We had a really lovely holiday as we reflected on our Savior's birth over 2,000 years ago. Needless to say, it was a different celebration than the one we had in America last year, but still good. On Christmas Eve, we went over to the Wolfs' house for food and fellowship, and enjoyed celebrating Hayden's first Christmas with them. When we got home, we let the kids each open one gift, and they loved that! Then we got up early this morning to finish opening the rest. Hannah's favorite gift was a doll from her grandparents, and Caleb's favorite gift was a Spider-man back pack. We hurried over to church for a special service. The children's choir sang the Swahili version of Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and after the service, there was a delicious meal of rice and beans, which all 120 of us enjoyed thoroughly. When we got home this afternoon, we relaxed and played with our gifts, and talked to family on Skype. Tomorrow we are going to Babati for 2 days for a Christmas party with 3 other missionary families, and also Steve will be going hunting for the first and last time this season. He is really hoping to come home with a warthog--that would make a great New Year's Dinner!

Happy 5th Birthday, Hannah!

Considering our location, we tend to group holidays/celebrations together so that out-of-town guests can kill ALOT of birds with one stone! So, the day after Hannah's K-4 graduation, we had her 5th birthday party. Usually we have some sort of theme, but Hannah, wanting to be sensitive to the fact that there would be BOYS at her party, decided to avoid anything "girly" and just have a costume party--even the adults had to dress up! This led to one of my more embarrassing moments in Tanzania as I tried to explain to a local seamstress how to make a Larry-Boy costume for Caleb. Anyway, Hannah was Genevieve, Caleb was his favorite superhero, Moriah was a princess, Shawn was a policeman, Jamison was a firefighter, Hayden was a dinosaur, Steve was a fisherman, Nate was a tourist, Heather was an Indian, and I (for lack of planning) stuffed a pillow in my shirt and was a pregnant woman. Hannah's favorite gift was a slip-and-slide, so after a big serving of yummy ice cream cake, we all headed outside to watch the fun.

Hannah's K-4 Graduation

The day after Thanksgiving, we had a special little "K-4 Graduation" for Hannah at home with the Myers and Wolfs. (Can you tell we don't get out much?) She shared with everyone some of the most interesting things that she had learned about this year, quoted some Bible verses, and read part of a small book for us. Steve prayed for her, that God would help her to continue to love learning her entire life, and that she would bring glory to Him while obeying His plan for her life. We celebrated with punch and cookies, which Hannah made by herself. We are very proud of our daughter!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It happens every year--someone in America asks us, "So, are you having a special Thanksgiving service at church?" This year, it was my mom, so I can't groan too loudly! Ok, my American friends, Thanksgiving is only celebrated by AMERICANS. No, we do not have a special service at church, and nor are turkeys readily available. I did manage to buy one imported from Kenya at the bargain price of around $4 a pound. It was a 22-pounder, so you can do the math. Anyway, we really did have a special celebration with our AMERICAN friends. The Myers came with their 4 kids from Babati, the Wolf family joined us, and 4 Peace Corps Volunteers in our district came over as well. The kids did a short-but-sweet program where they quoted Psalm 100 and sang "We Gather Together", and before the delicious meal we went around the table, sharing about the blessings we've experienced in the past year. We had already decorated the house for Christmas the previous Tuesday, so we enjoyed listening to Christmas music, and after playing football and basketball outside for a few hours, we watched the movie "Elf" while eating turkey and bacon sandwiches.

TRUTH CENTER NOW OPEN!

Praise the Lord the TRUTH Center is now open! What a great weekend here in Katesh! It has truly been the highlight of our six years of service in Tanzania. A group of 8 people from our home church, Canton Baptist Temple, including our pastor Mike Frazier have been with us all week. The group helped with painting and other finishing work for two days. We then had two days of evangelistic meetings where we passed out over 18,000 invitations and gospel tracts in the morning. In the afternoon and evenings we had games, singing, preaching, and a gospel film on the grounds of the TRUTH Center. All the activities were made complete by the dedication service of the Truth Baptist Church on Sunday morning with over 200 in attendance. Through the week of activities 16 people made a profession of faith in Christ. To God be the glory!

We have included the following pictures and will be adding more soon. In the near future we will be producing a short video of the entire project that we will make available to you. Thank you for your prayers and financial support that have made our vision a reality!

Life Goes On!

Even when we fail to update our blog for several weeks at a time, LIFE DOES GO ON! Maybe that's precisely the reason WHY we don't have time to write updates! Here are a few highlights of the weeks (and months!) gone by...



VISITORS FROM KENYA: Back in August, our friends who are missionaries in Kenya, Bob and Ericka Clark, came to visit for 6 days with their 3 boys, Vance, Edward, and Riley. They have ministered in Northern Kenya for several years to the Turkana people. Life there is difficult, but they have persevered and God has blessed. We really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know them better, and the kids had alot of fun together as well.



BABIES, BABIES, AND MORE BABIES! I want to wish the best to those nearest and dearest to us (in heart, if not in locale) who have welcomed new babies into their hearts and homes over the last few months. My sister Andrea gave birth to her 5th child in April, a girl named Katherine (Kate). Baby Hayden, 1st son of our teammates Nate and Heather Wolf was born in Nairobi in May. And finally my brother Dan and his wife welcomed their 3rd child in August, a boy named Aslan. Congratulations to all!



TRUTH CENTER: It has been such fun watching every stage of the TRUTH Center be built! Amazingly, the construction workers are putting on the finishing touches as I write this, and then we have some big jobs to do like landscaping, painting the inside walls, and getting the furniture built and arranged. But God really has had His hand in this whole project. We are looking forward to the group from our church coming at the end of this month for the Grand Opening. We have some exciting things planned, so please be in prayer for all of the festivities.



HOMESCHOOLING: Hannah and Caleb continue to do well with their schoolwork. Hannah has finished all of her K-4 books, so for the next 6 weeks we will just do some review work and fun activities. Here in Tanzania, schools run from January to December, with a month-long break every 3 months, so we are following that same schedule. We will officially finish our school year before Thanksgiving. Hannah and Caleb especially enjoy learning about other countries. Last week it was Japan, and this week it is The Netherlands. The countries that Hannah is most interested in are China and Iraq. I love that my kids want to know about the world, and are not just confined to the "American" realm, although they are certainly proud to be Americans! Starting in November, we'll begin studying about the Pilgrims and Indians and Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower, in preparation for Thanksgiving. They will also memorize Psalm 100 to recite at our Thanksgiving celebration. I am so thankful for the opportunity to homeschool my kids, and really invest in them and make learning fun. Because Hannah is also very interested in learning sign language, my mom is sending her dvd's for Christmas to teach her all about it, so that will be a fun new aspect of our curriculum.



TRUTH LEARNING CENTER: Something looming on my horizon is the opening of our new English-medium school (kindergarten) at the TRUTH Center in January 2008. At this point we are planning to only accept children who are 5-6 years old, as they prepare to enter 1st grade the following year. We hope to have 20-30 students, and I will be the main teacher, although I am praying that God will lead me to some competent assistants. This will be the first Christian school in Katesh, and we are praying that if it is God's will, He will lead someone from our home church to start a full-blown elementary school. We are excited about the possibilities. Please pray that we will get a good number of students as well as assistants. Hannah and Caleb will attend since I will be there all day, but I will have to supplement Hannah's studies at home. Caleb should do very well, although he is only 3, since he has a head-start on the other kids--he already knows English!



ASANTE ELIYA! Asante is Swahili for "thanks", and we truly do thank God for sending us Eliya 6.5 years ago when we lived in Bonga. He has worked for us since that time, even moving his whole family to Katesh when we came here 3.5 years ago. He has been so incredibly faithful and trustworthy, and we praise the Lord that he is confident of his call into the ministry, and is now working for the church full-time. We had a special surprise party for him to show how much he has meant to us.



WANAWAKE WA IMANI: "Women of Faith" is the name of our ladies group that meets one Saturday morning a month. We are studying Elisabeth George's book, The Remarkable Women of the Bible, and are enjoying it so much. This Saturday we are studying about Rebekah. We usually have around 10 women, and we play games, sing songs, share prayer requests and pray together, and of course have our lesson with a question time following. Please pray that these women, who come from various backgrounds and walks of life, would truly grow in their relationship with Christ and with one another.



SUNDAY SCHOOL: We have the neatest Sunday school kids around! They often arrive an hour early and wait outside for us to unlock the building. When we started our church in March 2005, I began teaching them chronologically through the entire Bible. Would you believe that after 3.5 years we are about halfway through the life of Christ? They have learned so much and retain an amazing amount of information. We had a contest two months ago where they had to learn the books of the Old and New Testament, as well as 26 Bible verses. This month's contest is to raise 10,000 shillings (a little less than $10) to give towards the church's water project for the TRUTH Center. If they reach their goal by this Sunday, then we will have a special party with hot tea and cookies. $10 might not seem like much, but most of these kids are only given about 2 cents a week by their parents to do as they please, so it can be quite a sacrifice to give it to the Lord. I praise the Lord that we have been able to train several new teachers so that now I only teach once a month. It is exciting to see others catch the vision for teaching children God's Word.



UNTIL NEXT TIME...I hope you feel a bit caught up. It felt good to get all of that out of me! We see God's grace in our lives on a daily basis, and we do ask that you specifically be in prayer for us this month as we finish the TRUTH Center and dedicate it to the Lord.