Dear Supporters, Family, and Friends,
God continues to bless us with rain and in other ways. Thank you for your prayers! Today at the Kisongo congregation, Sean Hochdorf taught the Men’s Bible Class, Jimmy preached on the subject of “Giving,” Abigail taught the Children’s Class and Trina led the Ladies in reviewing Genesis 13 and 14 (continuing the review of Genesis 1-25). It is always the aim to seek the “Life Lessons” that can be learned from each chapter.
Lindsey continues to study with new Christian, Teresia (sorry, we have been misspelling as Theresia) last Tuesday on Gen. 3. Teresia continues to be faithful in her attendance (and it seems the Pentecostal church has given up trying to win her back). Esther made us happy with her attendance again today. After services, Lindsey spoke with two visitors (young adults) named Joyce and Salome, originally from Mbeya in southern TZ but have been here since January). Non-Christians, Lucy and Rehema, continue to attend both Bible study and worship. We are very happy that Anita Hochdorf has agreed to study with Lucy and did so yesterday. ACSOP students will be learning English this next quarter and Sean will instruct in Philippians and Philemon. The Hochdorf’s are trying their best to get settled but are meeting challenges. They finally were able to secure a house to rent this week.
While waiting in our van for a tire to be repaired (we’ve had 3 flat tires in one week), we watched a little one-year-old girl playing. About 3 feet away from her, a lady, whom we assumed was the child’s mother, sat on a bench talking on her phone. Three feet away from the child in another direction was a man cooking french fries in a pan over hot coals. The little child was leaning on a bucket of freshly peeled potatoes and, one by one, was tossing them onto the dirty ground. This went on for about 5 minutes without the mother or the man noticing her (and she was right by them). But we kept watching in case she decided to leave the bucket of potatoes to investigate the pan of boiling oil and stumble onto it. As a mother, Trina sees danger all around in Tanzania (open wells, open fires, young children wandering around far from any adults, putting broken pieces of glass into their mouths, walking right beside busy highways, riding as passengers on motorcycles, chasing cars, going barefoot all around a trash dump area, adults crossing a busy road without holding the hand of a toddler, etc). It doesn’t seem to bother many people here until something terrible happens. In our book, an “ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Penny Cabler is coming at the end of May, making this her 8th trip to Tanzania. Along with many others, Penny has contributed to the growth and maturity of the Tanzanian church. It has taken many dedicated people, working together, to achieve the level of success being enjoyed today in the Tanzania. Penny is well-suited to conduct personal Bible studies and does so systematically and very thoroughly (we heard part of her study once while standing outside a mud hut). As normal, it will be easy to find people who want to study God’s Word.
Along with Penny, we are anticipating the arrival of many others from now until late September. Please pray for their safe travels and good health as they plan to put forth time, energy and expense to teach God’s Word, introducing the Tanzanians to an everlasting Hope. We thank you for your constant prayers, concern and joy in being involved in a growing and prosperous work. To God be the Glory!
In Christian Love,
Jimmy, Trina, Lindsey, Abigail, Heather, Candace, Stuart, David, Naomi, Elijah and Matthew