Happy New Year

Heri ya Krismasi (Happy New Year)
The year 2010 was a very busy year for us and we are so thankful for the strength and wisdom God gave us so that we could do His work for the Kingdom of God here in Tanzania.  I will give a quick summary of our Ministry activities for 2010:
Ministry trips (two or more days) - 19
Guests (at least one night's stay-groups count as one) - 15
Days with guests in our home (overnight) - 150
Days away from home for ministry (TIM) - 121
Tanzania Field Missions Meetings - 3
Tanzania Assemblies of God meetings - 6
National TAG conferences attended - 3
Planned meetings with local pastors/leaders - 9
*Numerous unscheduled and "drop-in" visits)
Seminars Taught: Joyce -1    Tim-5
Preaching services: Joyce-3    Tim-8
Albino Ministry-Visits to Schools: 19
Joyce: Mwanza Bible College Teaching- 3 terms (total of 54 days)
Five Week Evangelism outreach with outdoor meetings in five different locations.
As you can see it was a full year; we had successes for which we thank God and we had some failures and disappointments which we will learn from and keep working to move forward.  We thank each of you for your prayers and financial support; we appreciate your partnership.

Christmas 2011

Mwanza Bible College Faculty

The Christmas Season is drawing to an end and we have had wonderful opportunities to celebrate the birth of Jesus our Savior. 
We hosted a potluck fellowship with the Mwanza missionary community where we shared food, Christmas memories and customs from our families and countries, we sang Christmas songs, read the Christmas story and prayed together.
We had a Christmas party for the 32 Albino children at Jelly's School; we told them the Christmas story, sang songs, enjoyed Chistmas cookies and soda and each one received a Christmas package containing a toothbrush, toothpaste, candy, a pencil, a bar of soap and a small toy (rubber ball, matchbox car or jewelry). It was the first Christmas gift they had ever received and they were so excited they jumped for joy and clapped their hands.  How many American children would have been excited over those gifts?
We also had a dinner in our home for the faculty and their spouses from the Mwanza Bible College; these people have become dear friends through the years as we have worked together. 
We also had Christmas Sunday dinner with our very good friends, Seni and his wife and some of their children.  Seni and his family have been our closest friends here in Mwanza for many years and we enjoyed being part of their Christmas Day dinner.
We also had a traditional Christmas Dinner on Tuesday night, the 27th, with some of our close missionary friends here in Mwanza.
Lastly, we enjoyed a beautiful service at our church here in Mwanza; they even sang "O Come All Ye Faithful" in English and Swahili as well as "Silent Night" and "We wish you a Merry Christmas".  It was a great service. 

Christmas Party at Jelly's

Now it's time to take down the Christmas Tree and put away the decorations for another year. 

Thanksgiving Day

We were blessed this Thanksgiving to have a variety of guests join us for a very traditional American meal.  Missionaries Bob & Murriell McCulley from the new nation of South Sudan (Murriell is Tim's sister), Charles & Tahnya Porter and their 3 children-A/G missionaries from Dar Es Salaam Tanzania, Naomi Glock- AIC missionary who was born in Tanzania to missionary parents 72 years ago, Bill & Tammy Brouwer- Baptist missionaries and good friends, and Lisa Newland- young single Baptist missionary who rents our guest house and lets us be "pretend parents" from time to time.
What a wonderful day we had together; consuming lots of food and playing games and fellowshipping together for most of the day.
We all took the time to acknowledge God's blessings on our lives and express something that we were especially thankful for this year.

Dodoma Bible College Graduation



Three of MBC faculty received their Teacher Certification

This past weekend we attended the Dodoma Bible College Graduation with missionaries Bob & Murriell McCulley; Murriell is Tim's sister and she was the guest of honor and speaker for the graduation.  We drove for nine hours on Thursday to reach Dodoma from Mwanza and got there just in time to make it to the Banquet that evening.
Graduation was on Friday and graduations are lengthy affairs in Tanzania and this one was no different; we were on the platform under a large tent in the hot sun from 9:30am until 4:00pm.  There were 4 groups graduating for a total of 104 students; the one year English class, the Diploma level class, the B.A. class and the first graduation of Bible College teachers in the Teacher Certification program had 19 graduates.
We had four teachers from our Mwanza Bible College who received their Teacher Certificates; we are proud of our Bible College Staff.
By the time we had "lunch" at 4:30 we were finally able to head back to the hotel about 5:30.
We traveled the nine hours back to Mwanza on Saturday; it was a very full three days but it was rewarding to see the number of graduates and to visit with some of our national pastors that we don't have a chance to see very often.

Ukerewe Island

At the end of October we spent five days on Ukerewe Island, the largest of a chain of 20 islands about 45 miles from Mwanza in Lake Victoria.  We took a 3 hour ferry ride across to Ukerewe and our missionary colleague, Melodie Joice, accompanied us.
We had a full schedule of ministry; Melodie and I conducted a Children's Workers Training seminar on Friday and Saturday and Tim taught a Missions seminar to the local TAG pastors on Saturday.  We had about 20 in attendance at the Children's Workers seminar representing about 14 churches; there are 27 churches on Ukerewe and 5 churches on the next largest island, Ukara. Some of the churches are branch churches connected to other churches on Ukerewe.
On Sunday, we all preached in different churches and God moved by his Spirit; several were delivered from demon possession. There is a strong presence of witchcraft on the island and many demon possessed people.   
Ten years ago there were only 5 churches on Ukerewe and today there are 27 with 5 branch churches on Ukara.  There is still much work to do; most of the other islands, though small, are inhabited mostly with small fishing villages.  Ukerewe is 205 sq. miles and since people walk everywhere we need to establish more churches.
The pastors need encouragement and training and are so very appreciative of any visitors that come to the island to help them in their efforts to spread the Gospel.

Tuesday is Jelly Day

Every Tuesday I visit a school called "Jelly's" to minister to and love on 32 Albino children that attend there and board there year round.  Sarah, our daughter, started visiting there 3 days a week this summer to do group therapy with the children.
Now that she has returned home, I go every Tuesday and tell them a Bible story, play, do crafts/activities, pray with them and be a caring person in their lives. 
This week we talked about the creation story and I emphasized that God saw everything he had made and proclaimed it good; when he created man he proclaimed it to be "very good".  I encouraged the children to remember that God made them as they are and that he proclaims over them that they are "very good".
They drew self portraits on papers with the verse from Genesis 1:31, "God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good". 
It was a great day with hugs for everyone before we left. 

When the sun is your Enemy

Saturday we visited the Buhangija school for the visually impaired which is home to about 150 Albino Children (PWA-People with Albinism).
For the very first time, we were granted permission to have a church service for them; we told a story, taught a memory verse, sang songs, played a game and introduced puppets who sang for the children.
It was a wonderful opportunity to share God's love with these precious forgotten children; however, the day was marred by the physical condition of the younger children.
Many of the younger children (age 6 and under) were badly burned from over exposure to the sun.  They had deep burns on their faces, heads, arms and hands and some on their feet.  Some of the burns and sores were badly infected and the skin had drawn up on their hands and arms so that some of them were unable to straighten their hands out completely. 
The normally playful group of younger children sat listlessly on a blanket during most of our visit.  It was one of the worst things I have ever seen; my heart has been burdened for them since then.
We have visited one of our local churches and asked if they would send a group of medical personnel from their church to the school and treat their burns and infection. 
We hope and pray that the medical team can go soon to visit the school.