Dear Co-laborers,
We welcomed Ken Chambers and Sellers Crain to Tanzania today. They are here to teach in the Master's Program. Ken will teach New Testament Theology and Sellers will teach Advanced Homiletics. Ken is from Hixson, TN and attends the Mt. Creek congregation. Sellers is from Nashville and is an elder as well as the preacher at the Rivergate congregation. We are happy to have them with us and appreciate their efforts.
On the way to the airport today Jimmy attended the Usa River congregation where Fariji Paul is the preacher. He is doing a great work there. I did not get an official count but the "preacher's count" is between 40 and 50 in attendance. It was a joy to be with them. Fariji asked Jimmy to teach Bible study and preach. He preached on Luke 11:1-4 and the model prayer. We sometimes skip the first verse and go straight to the model prayer, but there is something there in verse one that is very interesting. One of the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. Why did he not ask him to teach them to preach, or evangelize? Evidently they saw something in the prayer life of Jesus that caused them to want to do things the way Jesus did them. May we learn the same lesson.
While at Usa River, Trina was at Kisongo and taught the ladies class on Genesis 15. Candace also taught the children's class. Trina said they had several visitors at Kisongo. And, speaking of Kisongo, the campaign that ended last Sunday resulted in 18 baptisms. What is so impressive about this is that Ahimidiwe Kimaro, the preacher at Kisongo, has already made up a list of the new converts and assigned certain ones to different Christians. Trina and Paulina will be helping three ladies and Jimmy is responsible for working with a husband and wife which are Lembris' brother and sister-in-law. We think it is a sign of great maturity on the part of our African brethren that they would make such plans. It will not be long before the brethren here are ready to handle the total responsibility of this work and we believe they will be more than ready for the task.
In two weeks time Cy Stafford and Jimmy will leave for Uganda to attend and speak at the East African Gospel Meeting. Jimmy preached this meeting when it was held in Nairobi in 2005. Each year it is held in a different African city. What you may not remember from that event was that we told you this event was planned and has been executed each year totally by our African brethren. The thought for it was born from the Safari for Souls campaigns that have been going on for many years. The brethren here saw that each year and said "Hey, we can do that!" Yes, they have asked us to help with the preaching and teaching from time to time but they are the ones who took the lead and have made these meetings a success. Tune in next week and we will tell you of another reason we are going to this particular series of meetings. Thanks for all you do and sacrifice to make this work possible!
In Christ,
The Gees