Itineration

It's been awhile since we last posted; we've been in a whirlwind of activity the past two months.  After our last team of 23 people left in March, we had a week to vacate our house so the renters could move in.  We packed, took care of business, said our farewells to the Bible School Staff and a number of churches, paid one last visit to the Albino children at two different locations and trained 3 new outside workers.
Finally, ready or not, we departed Mwanza on March 30 and flew to Ireland for a five day tour.  Ireland was incredible and a life time dream come true. 
We arrived in the states on April 5 just in time for Easter; Jenn, Sarah and Janelle Thacker met us at the airport.  It was great to see our daughters!
We have now been in the states for about a month; we've had four services and attended the Southern Missouri District Council.  We have purchased a car (changed the title, took out insurance, got it inspected, etc), we both got new driver's licenses, new cell phones (it took three for me before I got one that worked), gathered items for a display table, visited family, moved twice, seen the eye doctor and Joyce had lab work done so she could get her meds. Oh yes, last but not least, bought new clothes!
We are ready for itineration; we leave for Michigan in two days and then on to North Carolina!
People should not refer to furlough as "vacation", it's just a different kind of work!

Nebraska Team

Women's Dorm MBC

Orientation time

Jerry Spain's team of 23 people from four different churches, mostly from Nebraska, finished their work and left yesterday to return to the states.  They are a wonderful, hard-working, big-hearted group of people; they were a blessing to us personally as well as to the Mwanza Bible College and the Mwanza District. 
In a week's time they accomplished an impressive amount of work. They put in the footings and put the roof up for the new Women's dorm at Mwanza Bible College, painted the classrooms, teacher's offices, hallway and library, poured new cement flours in the classrooms, poured a sidewalk for the men's dorm, put up a wall to form a storage room and took down a wall to make two small classrooms into one large classroom.
In addition, they went out to the Mwanza District Church Planting School site and put up roof frames for two buildings.
WOW!  What a blessing; thanks to each one of the team members for their sacrifice and hard work and thanks to everyone who prayed for them. 

Pathfinders Team from Madison TN



Campsite at Nyambiti



The Pathfinders team from Cornerstone Church in Madison TN arrived on February 20th to put up a church roof in the village of Nyambiti.

The truck that was to bring the building supplies did not arrive until Wednesday so the team went to the site for the Mwanza District Church Planting School and put in the foundations for the buildings on that property and put together some of the roof components.



Finished roof at Nyambiti village



On Wednesday about noon the truck arrived with the building supplies and the team spent several hours off-loading the supplies to two different locations. 

By staying up until about 1:00am Wednesday and working with lights and starting again Thursday morning about 5:00am, they were able to get the roof project completed for the Nyambiti church. 

Although Satan seemed to try to hinder us on this project in multiple ways, the team persevered and finished the project for the glory of God.  Thanks to the hundreds of our friends and supporters who were praying for this project. Satan and his demons were defeated by the power of prayer. 

Flexibility

As missionaries, one of the factors that determines your success is your ability to be flexible and quickly learn how to come up with and implement a "Plan B, C, or even D". 
For instance, we have a team coming from Cornerstone Church in Tennessee on Monday to put up a church roof and do some preliminary work on the Mwanza District Church Planting School. 
Months ago, a container of building supplies and tools were sent from the states and arrived in Dar Es Salaam on December 3.  Yesterday, with three days to go before the team arrives, we had the final word that the container was being held and would not be released for sometime while about $12,000 in storage fees were being haggled over. 
With the help of our National Church leaders who are sending another container of building supplies that was designated for another site, and the help of our missionary colleagues who are gathering tools and supplies that would have come in the container in Dar and sending them out to us by bus and truck, and with the help of the team from TN who are also bringing items we will need with them, and with the help of some of the local churches to help with food...we are implementing Plan B.  We have three days so we may end up creating some Plan C's or D's before we have everything we need on hand.  However, we have many helpers here in TZ working to make it happen and many prayer partners all over the world who are doing their part as well. 
God will build His Church, Bible College, Kingdom, etc, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.  We are thankful for an all-powerful God and for many partners working together doing Kingdom work. 

Buhangija School



Tim opens some of the clothing bundles



Children sitting at the new tables and chairs



Two weeks ago we visited the Buhangija school for the visually impaired with some guests from the states.  We bought five 50lb bundles of clothing and took to the school; one of the bundles was made up of sheets and towels which were also needed.  We took a large supply of sunscreen and two new soccer balls which were the biggest hit of the day.  Children in Tanzania LOVE to play soccer. 

It was good to see the children; school was dismissed for a short time so we could visit briefly with all the children. The number of CWA (Children with Albinism) has increased at the school to about 200 now which makes for very crowded conditions when the dormitory space was built for less than 100 children.  We are looking at estimates to have new beds made and to help them complete a new dorm that has been started but there are no funds to finish the project. 



We had a chance to examine the 10 new tables and benches that we paid to have built for the dining hall as well as checked the well pump that was broken and we provided the funds to restore it to good working order. There are still many needs remaining.  We will be making perhaps two more trips there before we leave on furlough at the end of March.

Computer Lab



New Computer Lab at Mwanza Bible College



In January, we hosted a team of four men from Africa's Hope in Springfield MO.  Their purpose here in Mwanza was to install the new computer lab at the Mwanza Bible College.  Thanks to their many hours of labor for the week they were here, we now have a wonderful, well outfitted computer lab at the Mwanza Bible, the teachers all have computers, and all computers have been freed from viruses and upgraded.

We have a lab with 12 computers; it will be the first time that most of the students (pastors) have touched a computer.  We will begin with the basics and work our way up from there. We thank the Lord for the gift of the computers and all the software, wiring, remodeling of the room, etc that was provided for this project.

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.