Today I had the pleasure of introducing the Spiritual Disciplines seminar to the brethren at the Kioga congregation. There was a full house, and the lessons were well received. Afterward, I enjoyed visiting in the home of one of the local evangelists as we encouraged one another.
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Those of you who have followed the work here for a long time might remember the interesting story of how this congregation was established thanks to "Blind-man Moses". One day two young men showed up at the church in Arusha saying, “Moses sent us down from the mountain to be baptized.” Sounds very biblical, doesn't it? Those men were baptized, and one went on to graduate from ACSOP and is now the preacher at the Ilkiurei congregation. It turns out that there was a brother living on Mt. Meru who had gone blind due to diabetes. Thus he was unable to make the difficult journey down the mountain alone. For awhile, the brethren would go and get Moses, but that soon became impractical. So a church was planted in Blind Man Moses’s 9’x8’ goat shed. Soon it could no longer hold the growing congregation, and a building had to be built. Moses has since gone on to receive his reward, but the congregation continues to thrive. Despite its remote location the Kioga congregation is the second largest in the Arusha area.
We're looking forward to a very busy week this week. There's a large campaign group that arrived a couple of days ago. They're joining a small group that was already here working in the Njiro Chini area. Tomorrow evening another group will be arriving to work in the Manyire area. It is exciting times as there is so much activity and energy being dedicated to the Lord's service. Keep these efforts in your prayers.
Josiah Update: The family has made it safely back to the States, and has gotten the process started of seeing doctors and scheduling tests. At this point we don't really know any more than that, but we're confident that he's in good hands. Thank you so much for the countless prayers that are being offered on our family's behalf.
Daniel Gaines