Missionary Fellowship
Sunday evenings we hold a team meeting and an English service for the BIMI missionaries here in Mwanza. During our team meeting we discuss African culture, and how we can best minister here in Tanzania. Afterward we sing, and listen to preaching.
This past Sunday we were blessed to have veteran missionaries Greg and Paige Wagoner, Tim and Kim Whitfield, and Robert Mickey here with us. We had these missionaries share what they've learned over the years on the mission field. Two pieces of advice that seemed to come up over and over again were: #1 Learn the language! Don't make excuses. It's hard, but you must learn it in order to be affective. #2 Don't go home for your first furlough until you desire to come back. Good advice for two of our first term missionaries here in Mwanza!
After some godly counsel we had a time of singing. My heart soared as a room full of believers sang praises to our Lord! There is great joy in singing Swahili hymns and choruses, however, to sing in our own language...words can't describe it! We followed our time of praise and worship in song with praise and worship in prayer. Again, what a blessing to come before the throne of God together with these servant's of His. The service ended with Bill sharing an encouraging word from 2 Corinthians 5:10.
Of course no Independent Baptist meeting would be complete without FOOD! The Mwanza missionary ladies brought a variety of goodies to share. We all had a great time of food and fellowship. Yep, definitely a Baptist meeting!!!