Schultz Family in Tanzania

Tuesdays and Thursdays have become my soul-winning days as of late. Today, I went to a village that was about 5 miles from the center of nowhere. I was surprised to see so many people in such a remote location. As we arrived at 9:30 a.m. there were a few people who were setting up their goods that they planned to sell today at the market. We made short work of giving everyone in sight a Romans booklet and then began going house to house.

I had an opportunity to present the plan of salvation a few times today. One of those times was back at the market center around 11:00a.m. Many more people had arrived and so I began handing out the Romans booklets. I always try to tell everyone that the book tells them what the Bible says they need to do to go to heaven.

While explaining the plan of salvation with a few people I said, “Jesus died on the cross was buried and after the 3rd day he arose from the dead! Jesus defeated death. Truly Jesus is God!” This declaration of Jesus divinity got a few Muslims upset. The thought never crossed my mind that I may be within ear-shot of some Muslims who would not like what I was saying.

One man began to ask me questions concerning how could Jesus be the Son of God and God at the same time. He was using some vocabulary words that I didn’t understand so it took a long time for us to communicate. While we were talking many people started to gather around to listen.

Apparently, the Muslim man said something that the others did not like and several chimed in with a loud retort. This drew more people to the area. Within a few minutes nearly 50 people surrounded me. All wanted to hear what this white missionary had to say in his broken Swahili.

At one point I claimed a small victory. The man had asked me how could God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit be God all at the same time. It’s impossible to adequately explain the trinity in English let alone in broken Swahili. I resorted to the old example of an egg. I said the outside of the egg is the shell and inside you have a yolk and a white. All three things make up one egg. The crowd loved my word picture even though it falls far short of truly explaining the trinity. They cheered. Some clapped some said amen. Yet others shook their heads in unbelief still clinging to their faith in Muhammad.

I was wise enough to know that I didn’t have enough vocabulary to continue the public debate so I made my exit. As I left, a few Christians started a heated debate with the man and continued on for at least 10 minutes.

It was fun and challenging even though for a minute it was a little scary. I pray that the name of Christ was glorified and that some would come to know Jesus as their saving God. And, in case you’re wondering, here are a few good verses proving that Jesus is God. John 10:30; John 1:1-4; Heb 1:1-8; Acts 2:36; Rom 14:9; Lu 5:21

This entry is tagged: Ministry, Tracts, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 9:28 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

After the morning service last week I was approached by one of the Maasai men in our church and was asked to perform his wedding. This came as a surprise for several reasons. First, he has been living with his soon to be wife for several years and just last month their second child was born. I just assumed they were married already. Secondly, and most significantly, I was surprised because I had never performed a wedding before either in English or Swahili.

Recently, I attended a Maasai wedding and found it quite interesting. Read the amazing story here and view a few video clips. I have to admit that I am a little apprehensive about taking on this huge responsibility. While in the car on the way home both Majaliwa and Anna said that I shouldn’t do the wedding. They said if I mess it up the couple would be stuck with my mistake for the rest of their lives. Oh boy, more pressure. Fortunately, I will have Greg Wagoner’s help and the wedding is not until December so I will have plenty of time to practice and pray.

On Thursday, Mose and I went to visit a man I led to the Lord at our revival meetings several months ago. Unfortunately, he had just left for town to do some business. We stayed for a good hour or more and talked with his wife while she prepared some chai for us to drink. I asked her if she had received Jesus as her Savior like her husband did and after a few minutes of me explaining what salvation is she affirmed that she was already saved. It is difficult to communicate with the Maasai people in our area because they mainly use their own tribal language and their Swahili is not very good. Add my mediocre Swahili to the mix and you have a difficult conversation. Fortunately, Mose (aka Moses) is fluent in both Swahili and Maasai and he made many clarifications for me.

In the Sunday school hour I ran into a small problem: no one came. However, since this is Africa and starting on time is arbitrary I just waited until a few more people showed up. We started Sunday school 50 minutes late and just continued until I was finished! Try that in your Sunday school class. Ha ha. My lesson covered the fact that mankind needs a Savior, God promised He would send the Savior thousands of years ago in the garden of Eden and God never forgets or changes His mind about His promises. By the middle of the lesson we had about 20 people in attendance. During the following service Greg reminded the people that there was a Sunday school class and challenged them to make it on time next week. We shall see.

Please pray:
My preparations for the wedding
My son, Daniel has been very sick
Cathy will be traveling on Wed to Nairobi

This entry is tagged: Kingereka, Living in Africa, Maasai, Ministry
Posted by BJ at 12:00 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Thank you for your prayers for me this week as I preached 3 lessons in Swahili. I feel that my Swahili is getting better every day. I still have a long way to go however.

This Sunday we started Sunday school 35 minutes late because no one arrived until then. While we waited Jay and Cathy practiced their special music for the morning service. Jay played the guitar and Cathy sung the Swahili version of “The Solid Rock”. This was the first time either had done special music here in Tanzania and they did a really great job! You can see a video of it here on Cathy's facebook website:

We had 2 new visitors in attendance today and a small group of regulars. One of the visitors, Lidia came with Anna as her guest. You may recall that I baptized this same Anna last week after Greg Wagoner led her to the Lord the week prior. Already, she is bringing her friends to church and being a witness.

After we returned home Sunday afternoon a man who lives in our neighborhood came to visit me. He explained briefly about a sudden death of a young man in his family. He then asked me if I could help him with travel expenses to go to the funeral and offered to work it off in the future.

One of the things I notice here in this culture is that people will sacrifice a great amount to help a neighbor in these areas: health, death, food and education. So when he asked me for $8 to help him with the travel expenses, I readily agreed. He offered to pay it back but I won’t be upset if he doesn’t.

As we were saying our goodbyes he told me that after his trip he wanted to come back to talk to me. He said he has wanted to get saved for some time now. He had been thinking about it for many days and wanted to change his life. This man was on his way to attend a funeral of a young man whom suddenly died but he was going to wait until he returned to talk to me about salvation. I immediately snatched up the opportunity to share with him the meaning of salvation and explained how to ask God to save him from his sin. He understood and received Christ as Savior! How great was that! He told me that he would like to take time to study the Bible with me and learn more about God.

Please remember to pray for him as he grows in the faith. I think his name is Kora.
Also pray for others who have been recently saved: Anna and 3 Massai boys.
Pray for our church people to grow in Faith and number.

This entry is tagged: Cathy, Church Planting, Kingereka, Ministry, Salvation, Swahili
Posted by BJ at 4:36 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Due to my error this did not get published last week as I intended.

Two Sundays ago we had a wonderful service. Our field director, Dr. Ron Bragg was in attendance. He was finishing up a 2-week trip, which took him to many places from Kenya to Tanzania. His last stop before the airport was at our house for Sunday dinner. Cathy fixed up the best chicken fajitas you can get in East Africa. But I digress.

The morning service was very well attended and there was much excitement among the people. Certainly, Greg and I were charged up. It’s not often you get visitors from home here and the people seemed to be very lively. Many people came forward during the invitation time to pray. After the service we had a baptismal service.

We were expecting to baptize several but life happened and only one person was baptized. It was my privilege to baptize a woman named Anna. In our little church of 40 people we have 3 or more Annas. This Anna was someone I had never met before. Greg led her to the Lord last week.

Now, as you watch the video you will notice that I did not get into the baptismal tank. There is a good reason for this. Actually, there are 2 good reasons. First, I forgot to bring a change of clothes and a towel. I left the things sitting out in plain sight at home so I wouldn’t forget them. But I forgot them.

Secondly, the water was just plain gross. It was full of bugs, allege, dirt, a few rocks and bottle caps and who knows what kind of diseases. Go ahead, call me a sissy. Call me a whimp. Say that I am unscriptural or not a fundamentalist- it’s all right. I can take it. Just know that I drove the 30-minute ride home in dry clothes, I didn’t get sick or have my nice church clothes smell like sewer water and my soul is at rest in the Lord. Ha!

On a serious note: pray for Patricia, a 3-year old girl. She was accidentally pushed into an open fire and landed in a pot of boiling soup. She has spent the last 2 weeks in the hospital with 3rd degree burns. She is home now but will need your prayers as she has much healing to do. Her mother Anna was recently saved and attends our church regularly. She was planning to be baptized too, but this incident caused her to miss the service.

Pray for me as I teach and preach 3 times this week in Swahili.
Pray for 3 Masai boys who were saved 2 weeks ago to grow in faith.

This entry is tagged: Baptism, Church Planting, Kingereka, Ministry, Salvation
Posted by BJ at 4:05 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

The past two weeks have been very eventful. Very soon after my last report our internet radio died leaving us stranded on the side of the road of the world wide web. After 1 ½ weeks we are finally up and running.

We had an opportunity to plan a short revival meeting last Thursday through Sunday.
A national pastor/ evangelist/ missionary named John Naftary preached the messages. He is one of those guys who can do everything. He plays the guitar, sings, fixes small electrical appliances, has started 3 new churches, and preaches like he is on fire. He is one of Greg Wagoner’s preacher boys from Mwanza. Our church folks were thrilled to have him here for the 4 days.

We took the opportunity to make some visits and invite people to the meetings. I went with Majaliwa and Moses to the Massai villages. We had some good contacts but one stood out more than the others. A man named Imanuel lives about 200 yards away from another church. He told us that at that church all they do is sing, dance and clap their hands. They never teach the Bible. He said that we were doing a good job with our Romans booklets because they were teaching the people how to be saved from the Bible. I was happy to agree and invited him to come to the meetings.

It was a great blessing to have part in leading Imanuel to the Lord during the invitation time two days later! During the same invitation 2 other people also came for salvation. One is a young lady name Anna. She does some part time work for us at our house. I have spoken to her before about salvation but she was not ready then to accept it. The next day she said that she told her husband she got saved and he just laughed. She has a difficult marriage to a drunkard husband and will need our prayers.

On another visit the following day we met with a man named Goodluck. I asked him what a person needed to do to go to heaven. He said that he needed to attend church, follow the 10 commandments, do good works and stop sinning. All of those things are really good things to do and in fact, the Bible does say to live a life of good. However, none of those things are sufficient to remove the barrier that stops us from entering heaven: sin. Only the death of Jesus could pay our debt for our sin. After hearing an explanation of the gospel, Goodluck received Christ as his Savior! Amen.

Please pray
For the 9 people who were saved this past week
Pray for Ana’s difficult marriage
Our church to continue to grow in number and spiritual wisdom

This entry is tagged: Kingereka, Ministry, Preaching, Revival, Salvation, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 5:31 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

I have recently received a couple of emails from pastors inquiring about our financial support. With the value of the dollar falling drastically in many countries they wondered if we were experiencing any financial struggles. The dollar has weakened here somewhat and the price of many items has gone up but it has not been extreme as in other countries. We have tightened our belts a little and thankfully, we have been doing well.

However, I have decided that we are thin on our ministry budget and would like to raise some more support when we return home next year. If we had an extra $500 or more per month we could really do some great things here in Tanzania. It seems that money is the one of the top things that hinders our ability to church plant.

With the economy the way it is in America we are very thankful that we have had only a few supporters lower or drop our support in the past year. Pray that God would supply the extra support and pray for wisdom in using what he has given us already.

This entry is tagged: Ministry, Updates
Posted by BJ at 9:19 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

While at language school some of the guys thought it would be a great idea to hike up the mountain range on Saturday. They invited me to come. My first thought was, no way. Then they mentioned that two kids, ages 8 and 5 were also going. I thought, well I really do need some exercise and maybe I would be able to use the time to converse in Swahili with some of the local people. And after all, if two little kids can make this climb, surely I can too. Big mistake.

We started off hiking on a road that was much too steep to drive a car up, especially after a day of rain that turned the dirt road into slippery mud. As we left the road and started using a small trail the going got extremely tiring. I decided to take a break and told the group to go ahead. I had my first of several Swahili conversations with an elderly woman. After a few minutes I departed and continued to climb.

I came to an area that had several buildings constructed of sticks and mud. It looked to be a central gathering place for the village as well as a restaurant. I stopped for another quick break. After some small talk, one of the old men invited me to drink some pombe. Pombe is a local beer made from bananas. It is cheap to make and I hear that it is very potent. Its low cost allows many people to be able to drink it regularly and in the process become alcoholics.

I told the man “No. Pombe is the plan of Satan. It destroys families. It causes men to lose their jobs. It uses up all of one’s money. It causes men to beat their wives and children to go without food. It’s very bad.” The man gave me a sideways look with a puzzled face so I answered, “You asked me. The Bible says to stay far away from that stuff.”

After the mini-sermon I had a newfound energy so I left and soon caught up with my group. When we made it to our destination I saw 3 young men sitting and enjoying the view. As I started a conversation I soon discovered that one attended a Lutheran church and the other two were Muslim. We had a good conversation about salvation.

I turned my attention to the Muslims and began to witness to them. I started by talking about the pillars of Islam. They must pray 5 times a day, they must give an offering, they must participate in the time of fasting and they must make a trip to Mecca. I made a point to tell them that Jesus did all the work for us and all we need to do is receive it by faith. They seemed to be seriously pondering the words that I shared with them.

I invited them to church on Sunday and I hope that God will use the gospel seed that was planted in their hearts and lead them to salvation. It was a long trip up the mountain but I am glad I went.

This entry is tagged: Ministry, Our travels, Swahili, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 6:58 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

This report comes to you during the midst of our family vacation. We decided last year that we would save a few dollars every week and take some time to relax in Mombasa Kenya. It is a beautiful place with many palm trees and miles of sugar white sandy beaches. It was a much-needed rest for our whole family.

Because Kenya has endured so much violence since the December elections and we are still in the rainy season, there were very few tourists in the area. In fact we pretty much had the hotel all to ourselves. Because of this, we were able to use one of the hotel’s sitting areas that overlook the ocean for our church services on Sunday. Us, the Wagoner family and a few on looking staff members attended. I gave a short message while Greg led us in singing a few songs.

Soon, we became well acquainted with the staff. I had the opportunity to witness with a young man named Able. He had many questions that I answered for him. He told me there were some matters that were hindering him from becoming a Christian. He asked me what he should do. I explained very simply to leave those matters and choose Christ. Christ was so blunt when he told the would-be disciple to let the dead bury the dead.

I told Able that he could receive Christ at any time and asked him if he would. He answered in the affirmative. A few days passed when I saw him again and he explained that he still had those issues in his life. I tried to explain Rom 5:8 to him saying that Christ died for sinners while they were sinning- while their life was full of “issues.” I urged him to receive Christ without delay.

On Friday, I spent a few hours playing in the sand with Michaela. A man named Thomas joined us. He is one of the licensed tour guides in the area. He took us for a few short tours on the beach during our stay. Soon a few of his friends showed up trying to sell me their trinkets. Eventually, all conversations lead to a question of why am I (a white American) in Africa. It has been the greatest witnessing opportunity. I explained our work of missions to this group of 4 or 5 young men. I had spoken to one of the men before and he began to ask me questions. Some were regarding methodology and others were doctrinal. It was very interesting that many of his questions pertained to the few chapters in the Bible that I read in my morning devotional time. After answering all of their questions, I gave them a Romans booklet that also contains a thorough plan of salvation. They were very grateful.

A few hours had passed by when our hotel phone began to ring. A man named Elias was calling my room to see if he could have one of those Bibles. “Of course” I said with a huge smile on my face. On my way to his station, I gave Romans booklets to everyone I met. As I was returning one of the guards stopped me and said that he would like one as well. On the back of the books is a note that says if you like to write us, here is our email address. Today, I received this message from one of those guards.

Dear brother,
Much greetings from our Lord Jesus Christ, am very happy to have u in time of in need.
i read the booklet with lots of intreset, the way to ROMA, it was so plaesant i have decited to change my former ways to afresh life of internal. My names are JUMA MARTIN TUMBANI. I am security at ROYAL RESERVE HOTEL at main gate. I need total prayer & strength to this journey of salvation i wish to hear from u soon,bye God bless u so much.

Praise God!

Prayer requests:
Please pray for this man Juma as well as Able and Thomas. I witnessed to Thomas a few times this week too. We are praying that Able and Thomas will be saved.
Also pray for us as we travel to Nairobi to apply for our multi-entry visas. Pray that we will be able to get them with no delay. Pray that we will have safety while in this country. And pray for our safety as we travel on the road, it is truly a hazardous activity to drive on these roads in this traffic.

This entry is tagged: Ministry, Our travels, Salvation, Tracts, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 9:33 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

The Sunday services were well attended this week. In our Sunday School hour we took time for prayer requests. We learned that God had answered many of our prayers in the past few days. One lady named Fibi had asked us to pray for her son. He is a young man who works at a local gemstone mine. Last month, his mine caved in and he fell into the mine. Out of the 70+ workers there more than 60 died in this accident. Fibi told us that after a week’s time she finally heard from her son. He is in the hospital but she was happy to know that he was alive.

I preached a message from Romans 6, stating that Jesus died, arose again, and lives. I have been told that one doctrine that is hard to teach here is eternal salvation (or assurance of salvation). What better argument for assurance of salvation than the fact that Jesus died once, arose, lives and will die no more.

After we concluded the invitation hymn, we were giving some announcements when someone’s cell phone rang loudly. My son Jay, looked at me and said, “It happens even in Africa.” Go figure. Maybe I will hang a sign in the church telling people to turn off their cell phones. Uzime simu yako.

After church Fibi asked if she could stay for a while longer to pray. I readily agreed. Afterwards, I began reflecting on some of the core people in our congregation. Already, I am seeing certain spiritual gifts in some of these people. There are 2 people who have good singing voices and seem to carry the congregation with their singing. There is one man who is a servant-leader, one who is very good at speaking to strangers about the Lord, and yet another who has a compassionate heart. As I already mentioned Fibi seems to be given to prayer. We have asked specifically for God to lead good people to this church so that we can confidently turn it over to native leadership.

Thank you for your prayers and emails of encouragement.

Prayer requests:
Pray for me, I have had severe headaches a few times this week.
Next Sunday’s sermon in Swahili

This entry is tagged: Answered prayers, Boma Ngombe, Living in Africa, Ministry, Pray for us, Preaching
Posted by BJ at 12:48 AM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

As I expected, this Sunday was great! I am constantly reminded of the verses 2Cor 12:9-10 that tell me, when I am weak then am I made strong. I struggled quite a bit with my message. I mostly struggled with pronouncing some big Swahili words. I write out every word of my message in Swahili but I could tell that I wasn’t connecting very well with the congregation. I tried to reiterate my points (making up Swahili words as I went) but soon found that my grammar, or rather the lack of proper grammar, was detracting from the message.

I closed the message and began the invitation time. Of the people who came forward to pray, the first one I spoke to was Ana. She told me something in Swahili that I didn’t understand. Because she was a visitor, I had a hunch that she needed to be saved. I took her to Cathy and asked her to talk with Ana. Cathy looked a little scared or apprehensive knowing that her Swahili would be put to the test. We ended the invitation song and Ana came to the front of the church and announced that she received Christ as savior!

Before we conducted our Baptismal service I again told the people what baptism was. There are many churches in our area that teach the necessity of baptism for salvation. I explained that baptism is a testimony of salvation, a picture of Jesus’ work of redemption and was unable to save them from hell. I said that if you get baptized before you get saved you are a liar. The picture and testimony you give is a lie. With that said, I explained that anyone who wanted to be baptized could be baptized today. We had 8 people indicate their desire to be baptized. Thank you for praying for good weather. We had rain all night but the sun was shining by the time we started our baptisms outside.

One young man, Mashaka, came to Majaliwa just before the baptismal service and said, if a person needed to be saved before baptism then he needed to get saved right now! Majaliwa led him to the Lord and he was later baptized.

During our song service today, Majaliwa asked the people if there was anyone who wanted to give a testimony. Right away John stood up and brought his Bible to the front of the church. He read Titus 2:12-13 and then 2 Tim 3:16 and explained that it was necessary for every Christian to read his Bible every day and to avoid sin. I was thrilled! Not only did his verses fit in perfectly with my sermon but this new Christian is already making it a habit to read, study and then proclaim the word of God. We need about 100 more men with that kind of zeal.

Prayer requests:
Preaching in Swahili
Pray for Spiritual growth in the lives of these new Christians: Ana, Pauline, Mashaka, Elianna, Sophia, John, Samson, Maikol, Nasom, Fibi, Remsi, and Moses. All of these people were saved in the last 4 months and continue to attend the services regularly.

This entry is tagged: Baptism, Boma Ngombe, Ministry, Preaching
Posted by BJ at 12:35 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Last Sunday while Greg was away conducting Bible College, it was my privilege to run the entire service. Lately, I have only been teaching the Sunday School hour but this week and for the next 3 more weeks I will be running the show by myself.

It is an entirely new experience to try and do the song service in Swahili. I was able to lead 2 songs “Amazing Grace” and “Pass me not” but the other native songs I am still learning. Very few of them have been written down and sometimes the song leader just makes up verses.

We took our very first offering at this church; it totaled 13,200 shillings. Ten thousand shillings came from another church as a gift. They gave it to me two weeks ago when I preached at their church while their pastor was away. If you do the conversion on the remaining 3,200 the offering equaled approximately $2.60. We are thrilled that the 20 or so adults gave so much. I mentioned to the people that maybe we would use the offerings to buy some doors for the bathrooms. Right now we are using curtains so privacy is non-existent. Cathy posts one of our kids as a guard and to help keep the curtain from blowing open.

I preached from the book of Jonah. It is a message I preached before but I was much more able to deliver the message this time. I even ad-libbed a few times while I drew pictures of the story on the huge black board at the front of the church. During our Tuesday night Bible study time one of the men said that the message I preached caused him to go home and read the whole book of Jonah. He was amazed that Jonah stayed in the belly of the whale for 3 full days before repenting and praying. We often act like Jonah when we decide we don't like the plan of God.

On Tuesday I reminded the people that we would be baptizing on Sunday. The two men (Nasom and Maiko) who were already committed said that their wives wanted to be baptized too. Maiko (pronounced Michael) then said that Ana would be baptized as well. We talked a little more about the picture of baptism and the need to be saved before being baptized. Soon another young man (Mashaka) came to me and said that he and John would like to be baptized too. Mashaka was recently kicked out (read the story here) of the Jehovah Witness church because he attended one of our services and you might remember that I was able to lead John to the Lord on the last Sunday in March.

I have a feeling that this coming Sunday is going to be a tremendous day!

Please pray for:
Decent weather on Sunday. Our Baptistery is outside.
Our health. Michaela and Daniel had a case of Coxsackie’s virus but are doing well.
Greg and Remsi are at Bible College for the week.
My preaching next 3 weeks
My Swahili Skills

This entry is tagged: Baptism, Boma Ngombe, Ministry, Pray for us
Posted by BJ at 12:45 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

This was one of those Sundays that left me excited and thrilled to have a part in the ministry here in Africa. I began Sunday School with just a handful of people but as the hour progressed we ended up with a large crowd. In fact I made 10 copies of the lesson handout but I needed another 5 or more. Needless to say, I was thrilled that so many came to the class.

I decided to try something new this morning. At the end of each lesson there are several questions for the people to answer. During our first lesson, I told the people to answer the questions later as a homework assignment. This morning however, I decided to answer the questions in class. I read the first question and asked the people to give me an answer. One man answered correctly so I wrote his name on our chalkboard and gave him a point. This caught the attention of the other adults and soon the contest was on.

There was only one flaw, though it was major, with my Q&A contest. I can only understand about 50% of their answer. Even though I had the answer key in front of me and could translate it well enough, I still needed to clearly hear their answer and translate it before determining if it was correct. Thankfully, I only had trouble with two of the ten questions.

After Sunday School we began our morning service with the hymn “Glory to His name.” The people seemed to be singing very well and with the concrete building the song reverberated off the walls making it sound very full. After singing all 5 verses of the song acapella Greg asked for the people to give testimony of the date when they were saved. It was thrilling to hear at least 5 people say that they were saved in the past 2-3 months! I think Greg was excited too because he decided we would sing the whole song again pausing between verses for a testimony.

Many came forward to pray during the invitation time. One lady who has attended our church a few times told Greg that she was praying for Salvation and healing. He quickly sent his wife, Paige to deal with this young lady and after the service she accepted Christ as Savior.

While Greg was counseling a lady and Paige was leading another to the Lord, two men who were recently saved approached me and said they wanted to be baptized. These two men were both saved last week. They both attended the Tuesday evening service and have done many of the discipleship lessons. They seem to be really hungry for the things of the Lord.

As we sat in our van getting our seat belts buckled, Greg came to my window to talk to me about a man in our church named Remsi. Remsi told us two months ago he thinks God wants him to be a pastor. Greg and I talked about the possibility of enrolling him in Greg’s Bible college for the upcoming week-long session. Remsi said he would love to enroll and would be willing to make the long trek to Mwanza to do so. We are praying that God will use this man in a tremendous way in this church. Pray for him as he travels.

Whew! What a day!

Please pray:
I will preach the next 3 weeks in a row while Greg is teaching
For the new converts to be grounded in the Word of God
Remsi and others whom God may call to ministry
For my language skills
Greg’s family as they travel

This entry is tagged: Baptism, Church Planting, Kingereka, Ministry, Pray for us, Salvation
Posted by BJ at 12:02 AM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

This Sunday I was asked to preach in Arusha at the Bible Baptist Church. Arusha is about 1½ hours away from our home so we decided to spend Saturday night near the church.

I had only preached 4 times prior to this meeting and I still have to write every word that I want to say. While my fluency has increased quite a bit, my vocabulary and grammar are very poor.

I am always a little nervous just before preaching because I am afraid of messing up the message that God has for His people. I don’t want my lack of language skills to get in the way and prevent the message from being received. I remind myself that the Word of God will not return void. In other words, even if I slaughtered the grammar and stumbled upon every word, God would still use it to speak to hearts.

In fact, God used His word in a very powerful way today! A young lady named Kristine came forward during the invitation time to receive Christ as savior! Someone told me this was her first time at this church. I was thrilled to say the least.

While I was away in Arusha Bro Greg ran the show in Kingereka at our new church plant. Apparently, God did a great work there too. According to Greg's entry at his website (www.bimt.us/wagoner) there were 3 people saved and many in attendance.

Since I was not going to be able to teach the Sunday School class in Kingereka, I asked Majaliwa to fill in for me. This was only the 2nd time Sunday School has met so we didn't want to cancel it. It was good practice for Majaliwa who hopes to be a pastor some day.

I am always amazed at the fact that God uses ordinary people to do His amazing work. During a recent family devotion time I used an analogy of a hammer. A good carpenter can use any ole hammer to build a beautiful building. Granted, it is easier for the carpenter if he has a good hammer. In a way, that applies to God, The Master craftsman, who uses ordinary people to do His ministry here on earth. I’m not sure why He chooses to do this, but I am thrilled to get in on the action.

This entry is tagged: Church Planting, Ministry, Preaching
Posted by BJ at 6:06 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today, I had the wonderful privilege of leading John to Christ during the invitation time at church!

You may remember that I asked you to pray for John to be saved. He has been our contractor for our building and has attended every service since we started in January. Greg and I made a visit to his home last month and tried to convince John and his wife of their need of salvation. John’s wife clings to the hope that her good works will be sufficient for salvation. No amount of scripture or reasoning would convince her otherwise. John on the other hand, said he would consider getting saved- just not today.

A few days later I had the opportunity to talk to him again about being saved. I said, without being saved you cannot go to heaven. He agreed. I said if you die with out being saved you will go to… and he helped me say the word for hell (jehanum). He said he would get saved- just not today.

We have been praying for him the past few weeks and I was really hoping that he would get saved on Easter Sunday. During the sermon on Easter Sunday, I thought that surely he would get saved during the invitation time. The message was powerfully preached and called for sinners to repent and be saved however, John had decided- not today.

During today’s invitation Brother Greg said, “If you have not received Christ, why not? Today is the day of Salvation.” I have been very busy lately and I honestly forgot about John until today when he came forward during the invitation and said that he wanted to get saved today!

Wow! I was so thrilled. John and I went out side and around the corner. He prayed and confessed that Jesus is Lord and then asked God to save him from his sin. When we returned John and I gave a public announcement that he had received Christ as Savior today.

He has signed up to attend the discipleship lessons that I am teaching on Sunday mornings and Tuesday evenings. Pray for John’s spiritual growth and that his wife would be saved too.

This entry is tagged: Answered prayers, Kingereka, Ministry, Salvation, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 10:34 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today, Sunday school started at 8:00 am. Well, it was supposed to start at 8:00 but as is usual we started a little late. I decided to use the time to go over one more discipleship lesson with Majaliwa. I was just about done with a discipleship lesson at 9:30 when 3 other people showed up. By the time I got started at 9:45 we had a total of six. That is when the rain began to pour down. The sound of the rain on the tin roof was so loud I could barely hear myself speak. I belted out the lesson as best as I could, pausing occasionally to give the rain a chance to settle down. As I continued to teach others arrived. We would give them a lesson sheet and have them fill in the blanks to catch up to the rest of the group. One lady didn’t bother to fill in any of the answers because she could not write. In fact she couldn’t even write her own name I later found out. Another woman was very confused and kept putting answers in the wrong blanks causing the lesson to drag as we waited for her. I came to a quick conclusion that I needed to get a chalkboard up as soon as possible. Hopefully next week it will be ready to use.

We wrapped up the lesson just about the same time the rain let up. By the time the preaching started the rain had stopped completely.

I was beginning to get a little worried about the amount of rain we were getting. The area in which our church is located is fairly rural and the road infrastructure is non-existent. In order to get to our church property we use a main road that eventually becomes a narrow path. This path twists and turns through property lines and around newly laid house foundations until it gets near our church. We then cross over our neighbor’s property and cornfield to enter our property. The whole time we are constantly avoiding deep mud and potholes. Its quite a trip actually, and would be a ton of fun in a 4x4 truck. It’s a little harrowing in our minivan however. We arrived without incident and the extra rain did not prove to be a problem as we left.

Pray for us as I begin the mid-week services on Tuesday. Pray for people to come and pray for my Swahili speaking skills.

This entry is tagged: Church Planting, Discipleship, Kingereka, Living in Africa, Ministry, Preaching, Weather
Posted by BJ at 10:25 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Last week we announced our plans to go visiting on Sunday morning. We told the congregation to meet at the church at 8:30 am if they would like to join us. One man, Moses was very excited to join us. He reminded me twice during the week that he was coming. He was at the church before we arrived and had made plans for us to go visit some of his friends. Another man, Remsi also came to go visiting. Moses and I went together to visit his friends while Greg and Remsi went another direction.

I was a little apprehensive to say the least. Moses and I were going into the heart of Massai land. The Massai people still live and dress in the traditional ways. Many of their houses are made of mud and dung; they spend most of their efforts on raising their livestock – goats and cows. They use their donkeys to carry wood and water. It’s a hard, simple life. I have dubbed them the Amish people of Africa. Although I still shake my head and laugh when I see one of these guys pull out a cell phone and call someone.

We began by running into the “Mwenyekiti” of the area. He would be the chairman of the area, a sort of mayor. We had a good visit with him. I invited him to church, gave him a gospel track and briefly explained salvation to him.

We finally arrived at a very nice house by Massai standards and spent some time visiting with Moses’ friend. A few other Massai men joined us inside while a teen was immediately sent to buy 2 sodas. Since Moses and I were guests of honor, we were treated to a warm Coke. Yes, Coca-Cola has made its mark even in the remote regions of Massai territory. We chatted for a few minutes and I invited them all to church for our Easter Sunday service. I gave them a short summary of the plan of Salvation and after finishing my Coke, Moses and I said our farewells.

We did not leave alone however. Another friend of his, Emanuel, asked to join us. Moses and Emanuel talked in Massai to each other and then asked me if I would like to go visit some more houses. I wasn’t sure if they meant that they had more friends to see or if we were going door-to-door. After we maneuvered the van down a footpath we parked near several houses. I figured out that we were in fact going house-to-house just to great people and invite them to church. I introduced myself and greeted an elderly lady and several other people who were walking by. As we encountered other people, Moses would begin to interpret my Swahili in Massai since that was their primary language. Then after a few more visits, Moses and Emanuel started to do all the talking. I barely had a chance to say my name and goodbye. I could tell that Moses was telling the people about me and inviting them to come to church. He also briefly told them that the Bibles I was giving away told how to be saved. I was really amazed! I had not trained him to do this. In fact he has only been saved since January, but he knows the importance of being saved and was copying the way I was witnessing to the others that day.

I am not sure what God has planned for Moses’ life but I hope he will allow God to use him. Perhaps God will use him to be one of His preachers. Please pray as I make an effort to disciple Moses. I have a humorous story to tell about Emanuel, but it will have to wait for another day.

This entry is tagged: Church Planting, Discipleship, Kingereka, Ministry, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 9:53 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today I met with John, our builder to go shopping at the local Home Depot (if only there was such a thing here). We did go to the local lumberyard and bought several 2x4, 2x3 and 1x10 boards to continue our building project. These boards are the full 2 inches by 4 inches dimensional lumber that our grandfathers used. There was not a strait one among the lot however, and they were all very heavy with moisture. Since these were going to be used to roof our church we selected the best ones we could find. We loaded a truck with the lumber some rebar several bags of cement (for the outhouse) and a few passengers and then sent the truck to Kingereka where our church is located.

Majaliwa and I took a minute to check in on the progress of our pews. We quickly determined that they were severely lacking in strength and stability. I have been in probably 300 different churches in my life and have seen many good pew designs and this was not a good one. I pondered the situation and finally came up with a solution. I drew my design in the dirt and explained it the best I could with my broken Swahili. It reminds me of John 8:6 when Jesus wrote on the ground. I asked the builder to make a “test” pew first and then we will decide if any changes need to be made before making more pews.

After paying for the test pew the lumber and various other items we returned home to continue our discipleship lessons. Today we would cover the creation of man and the Garden of Eden. We introduced the penalty of disobeying God, death. It was a good time and Majaliwa is progressing well through the lessons.

Pray for our building project –especially for finances– and for a new mid-week discipleship class I will begin in the next 2-3 weeks.

This entry is tagged: Church Planting, Discipleship, Kingereka, Living in Africa, Ministry, Pray for us
Posted by BJ at 11:39 AM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Tuesday is my discipleship day and this past Tuesday I had some great opportunities to disciple and partake in a little adventure. I was told a few years ago that when it comes to discipling people it involves your life much more than a series of lessons. The same man also told me to never to anything alone. Always have a disciple with you. Here is a summary of my day with three potential disciples, Majaliwa (Ma ja lee wa), Moses, and Leodigadi (Lay o de ga de).

This is a picture of the pews we are using. Needless to say we need to get some real pews before our big Easter Sunday service. I decided that Tuesday would be a good day to do this business and I asked Majaliwa if he wanted to accompany me. He agreed. Another man, Moses, had already planned to meet me in town and take me to a guy who was a carpenter. All three of us met this man and we began discussing all of the design options. I say this “tongue-in-cheek,” because there really are no options other than the color of the varnish. But you should have seen these two guys hashing out the details with the carpenter. At one point they looked at me anticipating my input, that’s when I told them, this was their church, they were the ones who were going to have to sit on these pews. Big grins crossed their faces. A little while later and we had agreed on design and color all we needed to do now was get a good price. The carpenter gave me a price and I considered it for a moment and then asked the two guys if this was a white guy’s price or an African man’s price. They immediately began to haggle with the carpenter and after a few minutes of negotiations I received a revised price that was $2 per pew cheaper. Very acceptable.

We left the carpenter and headed to the Siha district 20 miles away. Our only intention was to meet an official of the district and personally deliver a letter that officially requested a piece of property on which to start a church. The trip went according to plan.

Majaliwa and I dropped Moses off in town and headed back to Moshi to go over some discipleship lessons. We began our lesson outside on the patio table just as we finished our lunch. Leodigadi was also present and was only listening in because he has finished lesson 1 but Majaliwa was already on the 4th lesson at this time. Lesson 4 discusses the creation of the world by God and it is really a great lesson. A few minutes into the lesson and Leodigadi had a question. I only partially understood his question and I began to give a simple answer when Majaliwa interrupted and began giving a spirited reply. I am not sure what it was all about but it was great to see Majaliwa unashamed and passionate about the Lord and the Bible. I was especially thrilled by his enthusiasm because I am not sure if Leodigadi is saved yet. This just added fuel to the fire if he is not. Two hours passed by before we wrapped up the lessons for the day. Whew! What a good day in so many ways.

This entry is tagged: Church Planting, Discipleship, Kingereka, Ministry
Posted by BJ at 4:03 AM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

On Sunday we had a good turn out for the service. Several people prayed at the altar during the invitation and one man told Greg that he needed help getting his family in order. Because the man came to church drunk, Greg plainly told the man that he needed to get his own life in order first. Hopefully, God will get a hold of this man and do a good work in his life.

We have been going visiting in the mornings on Sunday inviting people to come to our afternoon service. This visiting has brought in many new faces each week. This Sunday morning before church, Majaliwa and I made many good visits. I had the opportunity to give the plan of salvation at least 15 times in Swahili. Now, remember I still have a child’s vocabulary so I do the best I can with what I got. This summarizes what I said at a few of our visits- roughly translated.
This book tells you the way to enter heaven. (Kitabu hiki kinasema jinsi kuingia mbiguni)
Do you know the way to enter heaven? (Unajua jinsi kuingia mbiguni?)
In other words, what does the Bible say you need to do to go to heaven? (Maana, Biblia inasema unahitaji kufanya nini kuingia mbiguni?)
Many answer that they don’t know.
The Bible says that Jesus died on the cross for your sin, my sin, and every person’s sin. (Biblia inasema kwamba Yesu alikufa juu ya msalaba kwa dhambi yako, dhambi yangu na dhambi za watu wote.)
If you will believe this and receive Jesus as Savior, you will be saved. (Rom 10:9-10) (Ukiamini hii na pokea Yesu utakuwa okoka. Rom 10:9-10)

I am working on being able to present a more thorough plan of salvation. Pray with me as add vocabulary words to memory.

I want to share 3 encounters with you that make me realize I am in a foreign country.
At one house we spoke to a lady who was feeding her severely handicapped child. Majaliwa immediately began to inquire about the child.
He asked, “Can he walk?”
“No.” Said the mother.
“Can he talk?”
“No.”
“Hmm, What’s wrong with him?” Majaliwa said plainly.
“This is how he was born,” said the mother.

I explained later that in America being so blunt might be considered rude. He thought that was odd and chuckled.

Later we stopped at a house with several adults gathered around. One man was very old, perhaps in his 70’s (in Africa that is very old). I immediately handed him a booklet of Romans and began to talk about our church. Majaliwa interrupted us and asked the old man if he could read.
“Oh, very much!” was his reply. The others who were near affirmed this.
This was not said to be rude in any way. Majaliwa didn’t want to give away a book to someone who couldn’t read, plain and simple.

The last visit I want to mention seemed like every other visit we made today. Just as we were about to leave Majaliwa asked the lady for her name. She laughed a little and then gave us her name. I was feeling a little confident in my Swahili and upon finding her response a little odd, I asked her, “Why are you laughing?” I was immediately corrected. She was not laughing she was happy. “OK….” I said, just accepting the fact that I had somehow asked a rude question.

So, when you come to Tanzania remember that it is all right to ask the handicapped child’s mother “what’s wrong with your kid?” and the old man, “can you read?” but not all right to ask why are you laughing.

This entry is tagged: Church Planting, Kingereka, Living in Africa, Swahili, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 5:30 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Tuesday I began to disciple two men, Majaliwa and Leodigadi. Majaliwa has given a clear testimony of his salvation and demonstrates it with his life. Leodigadi has said that he was saved a while ago but with his Catholic background, I am not sure if his word "saved" means what I mean. You know what I mean? I do know that if he continues through these lessons he will likely either get saved or get assurance of his salvation.

I am meeting with them once a week at my house. We are planning to start a mid week service at the church in the next few weeks. The discipleship lessons will be the main topic at this service. There are a few who have already been saved and need to be discipled. Greg has told me that if we can lead people to salvation and then teach them the Bible truth that you cannot lose your salvation, then we will have made some great strides.

I am very excited about the opportunity to teach the discipleship classes! It will be a great help to my language skills and it will ground Christians in the word of God. It will likely lead others to being saved as well.

Pray as I teach these lessons. Pray that I will communicate well. Pray that the word of God would make a lasting impression on these men and change their lives.

This entry is tagged: Church Planting, Discipleship, Kingereka, Ministry
Posted by BJ at 9:45 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Many good door-to-door visits; 1 salvation before the service began; several first time visitors; 8 people at the altar and possibly 1 more salvation during the invitation. This Sunday proved to be a very exciting day!

It all started like this: Greg and I decided that we would do some visitation on Sunday morning to try and contact people who did not regularly attend church. We visited for a little more than 2 hours and made some good contacts. One of the ladies I visited came forward during the invitation to be saved!

We took a short lunch break and then returned for the 4:00pm service. As people trickled in, Greg spoke to a man named Remsi about his salvation. Remsi indicated to me a few times that he would like to be a preacher. I told Greg about this and we agreed that Remsi could study to be a preacher as soon as he got saved. As I started the 4:00 service promptly at 4:49 (only most of the people had arrived by this time- there is no hurry in Africa), I heard Greg praying the sinner’s prayer with Remsi. Amen!

The service took us many places today. Greg read a portion of what amounts to the church’s doctrinal statement. He spoke about the Triune Godhead and addressed the heresy of modern day speaking in tongues. There were a few questions from the congregation that proved to be a great teaching time. Greg segued from the question and answer time to his message on sin from Romans 1.

During the invitation time one woman came forward for salvation and another 8 or so prayed at the front of the church!

We then closed our service around 6:30, just as it was starting to get dark.

It was hot, very windy, and very dusty but proved to be a great day on the mission field.

This entry is tagged: Church Planting, Kingereka, Ministry, Salvation, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 12:14 AM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today I had another opportunity to preach to our newly formed church. Usually, Greg Wagoner does all the preaching but for the past two Sundays he has been in another town teaching a college class on the temple. It has been a good struggle for me to preach these two weeks in a row. Each time I preach, a few more vocabulary words stick with me and my fluency increases.

We had at least 3 new visitors that I recognized and a good group of around 35 locals. I preached a simple message from Rom 3 again emphasizing that you cannot earn your way into heaven, but that Jesus did all the work necessary for salvation. All that is required on their part is faith and acceptance.

I shared a testimony about when I received Christ at 8 years old. I tried to convey to the people that salvation is so simple that even a child can be saved.

We are praying that these people will receive Christ.

Last week I asked you to pray for John to be saved. I followed up with him on Monday. I again asked if he had received Jesus as savior to which he replied, “No.” He said something about waiting for a certain time, which I did not understand. I said to him that if he died without Jesus he would go to… and he joined me in saying the Swahili word for hell- “Jehanamu”. He understands this and he has faithfully attended every service since we began, but still delays his decision to be saved. We will continue to pray.

This entry is tagged: Church Planting, Ministry, Pray for us, Preaching
Posted by BJ at 9:12 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

This Sunday brought a few changes in our service. We had a Christian young man named Majaliwa lead the singing while I did the preaching. Majaliwa was a member at the Wagoner’s church in Mwanza and has worked for Greg for a while. A few regular faces were missing making our attendance a little low today (around 25).

I preached a message from Rom 3 emphasizing the fact that there is none righteous (v 10) but we are made righteous by the atoning death of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 5:21). It is hard to convince someone that they need forgiveness until they realize how sinful they really are.

This message was not very fun or entertaining to say the least, especially since it spoke about the depravity of mankind. I am praying that the word of God would make a lasting impression on the hearts of the people and that some would come to know Jesus as savior.

Thank you for praying for me. I feel that I did well speaking the message in Swahili. Everybody seemed to understand my sentences. In fact I think they probably understood more than I did. Swahili is easy to read even if you don’t know the words you are reading.

Prayer requests:
There are two ladies who seem determined to run the show at our church. Since this is only our 5th service it seems a little early for this sort of problem. Nonetheless, we are determined to do all to the glory of God, and these ladies seem to be getting in the way of that goal. Pray for their hearts to be changed and their wills submitted to God.

Pray for a man named John (pictured right). He is heading up the construction on our church and is doing a fantastic job. He also seems to have a heart to know God. Three weeks ago he told Greg and I that he was not saved, but that he would get saved next week. I do not think he has made that commitment yet. Today he was singing hymns with Majaliwa (left wearing tie) before the service began. Pray for his salvation, I hope to have an opportunity to speak with him about it this week.

Pray for my next sermon on Sunday (Feb 17), my Swahili skills and for souls to be saved.

This entry is tagged: Church Planting, Kingereka, Ministry, Pray for us, Swahili
Posted by BJ at 8:53 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

I have been told, “timing is everything”. Even Solomon said there was a time for everything. Thus, when Greg approached me with a goal to have our first service on Easter Sunday (March 23 2008) I thought it would be a great idea. Here in Africa nothing is ever “a sure thing” meaning our plans may change, but so far we have planned a great day. We have decided to have an all day event with dinner on the grounds. When Greg mentioned this to the people on Sunday there was a little excitement but as the week went on everyone was talking about it. Today, as we were making visits, the 4 people we were talking to said they think we will have a great number of people come to the church. Of course, this is exactly what Greg and I are planning. They continued on to say that so many people are talking about our new church. They want to know how much money we are paying the attendees for coming. Don’t laugh, I know of a church that does pay their congregation to attend.

Needless to say, there is a lot of excitement about what is going on. We are hoping to use it to tell as many as we can about God’s plan for forgiveness of sin. Pray with us as iron out the details for this Easter service.

This entry is tagged: Church Planting, Holiday, Kingereka, Ministry
Posted by BJ at 2:03 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Take a trip in your mind’s eye to Arizona and find a very hot and very dry area. (I know its winter now but let's play pretend.) Now, add some very intense sunlight, a good amount of heat (95 degrees or so) and a steady strong breeze. Can you feel the sun burning the tips of your ears and back of your neck? Have a friend fill a bucket with a very powdery, dirty dust and occasionally throw a handful in your face (remember, we are still pretending). Do all of this while sitting on a hillside participating in a Sunday service. Not so fun.

It wasn’t long after our first service that we deemed it necessary to construct a building as quickly as possible. In this rural area, there is no other place to meet for church and the climate is very harsh. There is a constant breeze that blows a lot of dust and the sun is just brutal. One day I went outside without applying sunscreen and was sunburned in less than an hour.

We broke ground on Friday and by Saturday the footers were completed. On Monday the workers began stacking the blocks for the walls and were able to complete half the building by Tuesday evening. We are told that the block work will be completed this week.

Can you believe it has happened so quickly? All of the cement is hand mixed on the ground, the water is carried in 5 gallon buckets from about 1 mile away and all of the sand has to be sifted to get all the gravel out. However, we did not pull any building permits (no such thing), we do not have any blueprints, and there are no inspections to be done making for a quick process.

The major difficulty we face now is the lack of funds. The building is 8 X 10 meters (26 ft x 33ft) and will cost less than $5000. We have enough funds to put the roof on it but we still need money to buy pews, iron security doors and windows and a sound system. None of these are essential, which is why we began construction without these funds, but they would sure make the building complete and give us a great day when we have our first service.

Pray for God’s provision and continual blessing upon the construction and outreach of the church.

This entry is tagged: Church Planting, Kingereka, Ministry, Weather
Posted by BJ at 10:41 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Another great service took place at our new church plant in Kingereka! We had a few new faces in the crowd and another great sermon by Brother Greg from Romans 1. I counted 22 adults and 13 children. I think we have seen some great success because so many of you have been praying. Certainly, God has big plans for this new church.

We began constructing our church building this past week. You should have seen the excitement grow. Every day people have gone out of their way just to see what was going on. Two Massai teens drove their heard of cows near our church so they could stop and see the action.

Apparently, there are many missionaries who come and begin a work only to abandon it shortly thereafter. I can understand why. It is hard work starting a church in this area. The climate is harsh, the people are steeped in their doctrine of good works and there are few resources from which to draw help. Only two people, Greg and me, do all of the work of church planting. We plan the construction of the building, hand out gospel literature, go soul winning and do all the preaching and discipleship. We would certainly be exhausted without the strength from God that comes as a result of God’s people praying.

The construction of the building is strong evidence that we are here to stay and see a church started in this area. We heard many people say how happy they are to have a church so close to their home. Many people walk miles only to attend a church that neither knows nor preaches the hope of salvation through Jesus.

Pray that many would attend our services and respond to the preaching of the Bible. Pray for me as I preach this Sunday and again on Feb17. It will be my 3rd and 4th time to preach and it will be a huge challenge for my Swahili skills.

This entry is tagged: Church Planting, Kingereka, Ministry
Posted by BJ at 7:05 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today we went to the village of Kingereka Tanzania where we have started a new church. Our plan was to do some soul-winning and speak with a builder about the church building plans. After a lengthy discussion with the builder we began our house-to-house visiting. Unfortunately, we forgot to re-supply my van with Romans booklets and had only 2 to give away. Greg told me that we would make a visit and that I would do all the talking. The biggest worry I have about soul-winning in Swahili is ruining an opportunity to see someone saved as a result of my poor language skills.

We began at one house but there were only children home and none of them could read so we moved on. We stopped at a few other houses but again there was no one home. One man saw us coming and welcomed us to come and talk to him. After our greetings I offered him one of the 2 Romans booklets but he refused saying he was a Muslim. His wife also refused one saying that she already had one from us a few weeks ago. Greg took some time to talk to him about the fallacies of Islam and invited his family to our services. We still had 2 Romans booklets to give away so we kept going.

After a few more empty houses we finally met a woman who welcomed us to talk with her and her family. I introduced us and then in the best Swahili I could manage, began to witness to her. I asked her if she knew how to enter heaven. When this lady Susanna, replied with “No” I asked if it was all right if I read the tract to her that explained how to get to heaven. “Yes,” she replied.

I stumbled my way through the 5 pages and occasionally asked Susanna if she understood or had any questions. After reading the last page of the tract I kind of ran out of things to say. I was inviting her to come to our church again when Greg said in a low voice, “Ask her if she wants to get saved.” For some dumb reason, this did not occur to me. I asked her if she wanted to receive Christ and she said “Yes”!

This is when I looked over to Greg and said, “Will you help me with this?” He agreed and reviewed the information in the tract and then we all bowed our heads and Susanna received the gift of salvation by grace through faith.

We went a long way to hand out those 2 Bibles but it was certainly by divine appointment.

This entry is tagged: Church Planting, Kingereka, Ministry, Salvation, Swahili, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 9:49 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today we held the 3rd service at our new church plant, International Baptist Church in Kingereka. Every week our crowd continues to grow larger and the scope of ministry broader. Today I counted 22 adults and 19 kids not including the 12 people in ours and the Wagoner's family. Some would argue that the late comers and infants shouldn't count in our totals but if it is human, moving and breathing I count them. Ha ha.

Earlier in the week Greg asked me to read a section from our new songbook to the congregation. It gives the plan of salvation using the Romans Road. To prepare for this I spent some time practicing the Swahili and trying to make sure I said the words correctly as well as the cadence to the sentence.

While practicing I noticed a hotel worker who was standing idle. I thought it would be a great way to practice and witness to him at the same time. I asked him if he would listen to me read the page to him and he readily agreed. After I finished I asked him to read it to me. It helps to hear how they pronounce the words and in turn he got a double dose.

I asked Raymond if he attends church anywhere. He said that he did not because he was always working at the hotel on Sundays. Pray for him and his salvation. I will see him again and I will have more opportunities to witness to him.

As the invitation was given at church, one lady came forward to learn more about being saved. I am not sure of the results but I don't think she was saved today. We will continue to pray and preach.

One special request for prayer. It will be my privilege to preach 2 sermons in a row. It is a monumental task for my language abilities. I have no doubt that I will be able to do the preaching but my prayer is that my language skills will not get in the way of people being saved. Please pray that God will do a wonderful work through me on Feb 10 and 17.

This entry is tagged: Boma Ngombe, Church Planting, Kingereka, Swahili, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 11:47 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Yesterday, Greg Wagoner and I went to visit a man named Moses. He had attended our church service last Sunday and requested us to come and visit him.
Moses is from the Massai tribe. Most Massai still live in mud or dung huts, dress in the old traditional ways and have many cows and goats. You can read a great article about the Massai here and you can see some pictures I have taken here.
We went to visit one man, Moses but before we actually got started at his house we had 14 adults and teens and even more babies all huddled together in a tiny sitting room. Because we were honored guests, Moses sent someone to go buy 2 sodas.

After the customary greetings and salutations, Greg began to talk about salvation. He began in Genesis with Adam's and Eve's sin and ended at the cross where Jesus died for that sin! Glory! Many agreed with Greg and the Bible about God's narrow way to salvation. Greg closed in prayer and invited any who would like to pray the sinners prayer to repeat after him.

As he led the sinners prayer, all the adults also prayed out loud. I know that simply saying a prayer does not automatically make a person saved, but when prayed by faith, believing-- a simple prayer is all it takes.

We finished our visit and Moses walked us to the car.

The story does not end here (it gets better) but you will have to read it on Greg's blog.

This entry is tagged: Boma Ngombe, Church Planting, Kingereka, Ministry, Salvation, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 4:34 PM | Permalink | What say you?(2)

Last week Greg and I were out visiting the people in the community and trying to give the gospel to as many people as we could. One man took an interest in us and our work and began to talk with us. We decided we would walk to the new church property to show him where it was.

As we walked we talked about many general things. Upon finishing our 1 mile hike to the church Greg began to speak about spiritual things with this man. For the next 45 minutes or so he showed him what the Bible said about our sin problem and what was necessary to remove our sin.

The man indicated that he understood and then began to give his reasons why he could not get saved today. One of the reasons he cited was that he feared his parents would kick him out of the house.

Now, I could understand some young teen aged kid giving this excuse, but I believe this man was 30 years old!

Apparently, one of his siblings or cousins was saved recently and his parents kicked him out of their house. Now he is afraid the same fate may befall him if he were to be saved.

Immediately, this verse came to mind:
Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

This entry is tagged: Boma Ngombe, Church Planting, Ministry, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 7:48 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today I spent some time practicing my Swahili with some of the locals. It is always easy to pick up a conversation with people in this area. They are always receptive and interested to talk with me. The 4th person I spoke to was named “Goodluck”. I am not sure how he spells it but his parents intended to name this boy to symbolize what was taking place in their life at the time he was born.

I have met other people here with unusual names such as:
-Godface
-Praygod
-Tumaini (Swahili for hope)
-Pendo (Swahili for love/like)

For some reason the people here have a hard time with my name. I tell them my name is BJ and they give me a confused look. I think they are trying to figure out how to spell my name. In Swahili there is a word “je” which means, “tell me” so that may be adding to the confusion.

Anyway, I said all that to tell you this. As I was speaking to Goodluck and his friend, we began to talk about Church. He attends a Lutheran church. I asked him this question, “What does the Lutheran church teach that you need to do to go to heaven?” He stared at the ground for a few minutes and then asked his friend to give the answer. He could not answer either. I mustered up the best Swahili that I could and told them what the Bible says, (after all, that is why they go to church right? So that someday they can go to heaven). I explained that the Bible teaches that God will not allow sin or sinners into heaven. I then explained that every one of us has sinned (Romans 3:10; 3:23). Because of this sin problem, God sent Jesus to die for our sins on the cross. If we believe this and receive it God said he would save us from our sin. (Romans 10:9-10)

Neither of these two men received Christ today but I am sure I will see them again and hopefully be able to water the seed that was planted today.

So when I say pray for “Goodluck” you understand that I mean to pray for his salvation.

This entry is tagged: Ministry, Swahili, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 9:40 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

On Thursday Brother Greg and I spent a few hours going house to house talking to people near the Church. We had several good visits. At one of the houses we were offered a meal. We were brought a bowl of stew. It had some fried green bananas and potatoes along with some boiled meat. It was actually pretty good. She then brought a fried egg and some hot tea with ginger in it. We were then brought some sweet bananas and avocados for desert. It was quite a meal for a couple strangers.

At our last visit Greg told me to take this visit all by myself, meaning I was going to do all the talking. I have to tell you, I was pretty nervous. The hardest part was...well... everything. Even though I have been going door to door calling since I was in 8th grade this was one of the hardest visits I have ever made. The lady we spoke to was very kind to just listen to me stumble, stammer and slaughter the Swahili (and Greg was kind enough to do the same, lol).
It was a real eye-opener showing me that I needed a lot more practice in Swahili.

I am amazed at how different it is here to talk with strangers about being saved. Everyone here has time to listen and very few people ever turn a cold shoulder or slam a door in your face. However, I am seeing more and more people who falsely believe they are Christians just because they go to church. Many churches in this area preach a gospel of good works giving people a false assurance of salvation. It is hard for them to understand the difference between living the Christian and being a Christian.

Pray for us as we share the gospel with these dear people.

This entry is tagged: Boma Ngombe, Church Planting, Ministry, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 9:54 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today, we made a visit to our new church property to follow up on a few items. We began with cutting through some red-tape at the land surveyor's office. We need to get legal permission to have a church on this particular property. To accomplish this, we need to have the land surveyed and then present a site plan. This is a little ridiculous to be honest. When we looked at the property we were shown 4 piles of rocks in each of the corners of the property. These piles of rocks represented the property lines. Nevertheless, we are doing our best to comply without complaining too much. Our main concern is that if we don't do this by the book the government may just decide to take our property away. There really is no private property here, if I understand it correctly. It is all owned by the government and then leased to the people.

After our red-tape visit we talked to the builder who is overseeing the construction of our bathrooms and our "African Amphitheater". After talking a short time about the work John invited us to his house. We gladly accepted the invitation.

During the 1 hour visit we were able to talk about many things and get to know John and his wife a little better. Very soon the conversation turned to a discussion about salvation. John says that he is not saved but is considering it. John's wife believes, like most people in this area, that her works are sufficient to gain entrance into heaven. It is very hard to convince religious people that the work to enter heaven has already been done by Jesus when He died on the cross.

Greg Wagoner showed them several verses from the Bible which state very clearly that man's good works are not good enough to gain forgiveness of sin and entrance into heaven. (Isa 64:6; Eph 2:8-9; Titus 3:5) He made a passionate plea for them to trust the Bible and accept what Jesus did for them on the cross as sufficient payment for their sin.

We are praying that the Holy Spirit will continue to work in their hearts and that they will receive Christ as their personal Savior.

Have you been successful at breaking through the straw man of "good works" and been able to lead someone to Christ? What was your method? Leave your advice here.

This entry is tagged: Boma Ngombe, Church Planting, Ministry, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 9:20 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Kingereka is a village about 4 km off the main road in Boma Ngombe. It has no church of any kind among its 2500 residents. The Lord led us to a great piece of property for a reasonable price. We began work on the property on Friday. Our main concentration was on a place to sit and preach as well as constructing an outhouse. While the work began, Brother Greg Wagoner and I set out to meet the neighbors and pass out booklets of Romans at the Bus stop. We were able to hand out about 2000 Romans in under 2 hours.

Continue reading "Our first church service at the first church in Kingereka" »

This entry is tagged: Boma Ngombe, Church Planting, Ministry
Posted by BJ at 8:26 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

1. He sought out and called disciples.
2. He trained his disciples using many different techniques.
3. He sent them out to evangelize in nearby cities for a short time.
4. Upon return he polished their training addressing their problems and successes.
5. He charged them to evangelize the world just as he had trained them.

Continue reading "Following Jesus' Example for Church Planting" »

This entry is tagged: Bible College, Boma Ngombe, Church Planting, Ministry, Pray for us
Posted by BJ at 9:12 AM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Continue reading "Offering a Bible Brings Chiding From a Muslim" »

This entry is tagged: Ministry, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 3:14 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Continue reading "Many have not heard the Good News" »

This entry is tagged: Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 6:02 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Yesterday was a trying day. I have not seen the end to the problems but I see that God is in it and will work these things for His glory. Let me list the woes and then emphasize the highlights of my day.

- Woke up with a terrible headache around 5am.
- Received the registration for our new van but soon discovered it was incorrect.
- Was told the license plates would be delayed for a few more days.
- Received incorrect insurance document for our van.
- Headache reduced to an annoying dull pain
- Received a replacement part which did not solve the original problem.
- More electricity problems
- Headache returned to very painful.

Continue reading "My woeful day brings worship to God" »

This entry is tagged: Answered prayers, Vehicle, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 10:56 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

I had several good opportunities to present the gospel message of salvation last week after helping Brother Greg Wagoner with his Bible College. While waiting for my flight home at the airport, I seized the opportunity to hone my Swahili skills. I sat on the curb next to a few others and began a conversation. Being the only white guy in the airport makes it easy to talk to people. They want to know what in the world a "mzungu" (Swahili for white guy) is doing here. I explain that I am a missionary starting new churches in Tanzania.

I sat next to Raymond and his wife and after some small talk, asked them if they attended church. The said they attended the Pentecostal church. I began to explain in my baby Swahili what the Bible says about going to heaven- after all that is why they attended church right? After running out of vocabulary words and feeling like I was getting in the way of the message, I left them with a tract. Raymond's mother asked if she could have a tract too. Of course! I had not noticed her there. On my right was another man who had been listening to our conversation. I handed him a tract as well and like most Tanzanians do, he opened it and immediately read it.

Finally, the airport opened the line for security and we were allowed to enter. After I passed through "security" I waited in another line at the ticket desk. I noticed one of the workers was eying my shirt pocket. She had been trying to read the title on the tract in my pocket. I handed her and her co-worker a tract and they both smiled and immediately began to read them.

While waiting for our delayed plane to arrive, we received an announcement that our delay would be much longer. In fact it would be delayed until tomorrow morning. With these words I reclaimed my luggage, and caught a taxi back to the church where I would spend the night.

The taxi driver said he had to take his sister home and asked if she could ride with us. No problem. On the way home I again did my best to share the gospel. I told the taxi driver, a Catholic, that doing good works and praying are good but not sufficient to enter into heaven. I explained a little more but quickly realized my words were being lost on him. I suspect that my taxi driver had a few drinks that night and although coherent he was acting a little off. However, I do believe his sister had a good gospel seed planted in her heart. We arrived at the church and I paid the fare and left them with my last two Swahili tracts.

We will pray that God will do the same as Paul wrote in 1 Cor 3:6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

This entry is tagged: Airport, Tracts, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 11:46 AM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today I was pushed in front of a class of first year Bible institute students to read a portion of the student handbook. This is Missionary Wagoner’s way of helping me polish my Swahili. Nonetheless, I was happy to do so. As it turns out I was to read the section in the handbook that lists certain infractions and their corresponding demerits.
When I was in college we received demerits for being late to class (5 demerits), not having your room clean (5-10 demerits), or skipping required college activities (25-50 demerits). When a student reached certain demerit levels he was punished accordingly. Once he reached the limit of 150 demerits he was sent home for the remainder of the semester and given failing grades on all his classes for that semester.
Here at Lake Victoria Baptist College a student can likewise receive demerits and will likewise be punished accordingly. Among common infractions like talking negatively about your school or teacher publicly (25-50), I found a few others that I thought were interesting.
If you speak in any language other than English or Swahili you will receive 25 demerits.
If you visit the witch doctor for treatment you will receive 50 demerits.
If you wear a talisman/jewelry pertaining to the witchdoctor you will receive 50 demerits.
I suddenly realized, I’m not in Kansas anymore.
Oh Yeah… I was never kicked out of college but I was one tardy demerit away from being so. God is so gracious!

This entry is tagged: Bible College, Living in Africa
Posted by BJ at 1:14 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today we went to the Bible Baptist Church located next door to the Wagoner’s house. This church was begun by another missionary several years ago and is completely indigenous today. Pastor Erneste is doing a wonderful job shepherding this church. Today he preached about what the Bible teaches about Baptism. At least I’m fairly sure that’s what he preached about. I was really encouraged to see such a good church thriving here. It makes me excited about starting a new church in the next district where there is no gospel preaching church at all.

This entry is tagged: Living in Africa
Posted by BJ at 2:45 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

On the 5th of July we pack up our bags, loaded two trucks and began a 6 hour trip to Tanzania Africa. We arrived safely without any incidents along the way. Well, I should say we had only minor incidents. We had one flat tire along the way but had that changed in less than 15 minuets. Our dog, Uma found the bag of dog snacks and ate them all. That was not so bad until she got car sick and threw up in the back of the truck. Yuck! Fortunately we had put down a rug and piece of plastic on the floor so no damage was done. We are anxious to get into our new house but it will not be ready until the end of August. Until then we will be able to mooch off our friends the Wagoners. You can use our temporary mailing address to send any mail to us.
PO Box 7242
Moshi Tanzania

This entry is tagged: Dog, Our travels
Posted by BJ at 7:08 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today I met a Kenyan named David. He was a very nice young man about 27 years old. As I was finishing my business with him he asked me why I was in Africa. Because I am white with an American accent it is pretty obvious that I am not from around here. I told him that we were in language school studying Swahili so that we could be missionaries in Tanzania. He asked which denomination I was. When I told him I was Independent Baptist he immediately pointed out a co-worker and told me that he was a Baptist. I asked, “What about you? Do you go to church?” He told me that he attended some non-denominational church. After he told me about his church I asked him, “What does your church teach that a person has to do to go to heaven?” He was really at a loss for words. He then said, “You know, these days, people go to church to get blessed. They don’t really go for teaching about heaven.” WOW! Can you believe he said that? I asked him, “Aren’t you concerned? Don’t you want to know what the Bible says a person needs to do to go to heaven?” Very sincerely he answered “Yes.” I took about 10 minutes and tried to explain in simple English that every person has sinned and is in need of forgiveness. I say simple English because even though he had a good grasp of conversational English, I didn’t want to loose him or confuse him with big Biblical words. Oh for the day when I can adequately witness in Swahili. I explained several verses from the Bible and finished by explaining that Christ did all the work necessary when He died on the cross. The only thing a human can do to go to heaven is believe that what Jesus did is sufficient, accept it and place your faith in that work. He did not accept Christ at that moment nor did he reject Him, but a good Gospel seed was planted in his heart today. Pray for him as the Holy Spirit tugs at his heart and shows him that he needs Jesus.

This entry is tagged: Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 4:51 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

The day we moved into our rental house I met an African man named Samson. He was passing by while we were unloading a pickup load of our belongings. Samson grabbed a box and began to help us bring our things into the house. He mentioned that he really needed work and would be able to do any kind of work if I needed to hire someone. He had left his 8 months pregnant wife and two kids back home; a 4-5 hour trip from here, because he was looking for work. He soon found a job working on the Green Acres compound where the language school is located. We have talked often about many things. One day as we were talking about spiritual things and his job situation, I told him that I thought it was a really bad idea to be gone from your family for so many months at a time. I gave him verses from the Bible from which I formed my opinion about this. He decided a week later to go and get his family and bring them here. Praise the Lord! I have met many men and women who are doing the same thing. I’m sure Satan uses this situation to cause many to fall morally.
Now, Samson needed to rent a house for his family. He found a place that costs $10.50 per month. Since he only makes about $80 a month it’s about all he can afford. He invited me to see his house and meet his family today. We walked into a room that was probably 12ft x 12ft. It has a tin roof and concrete floor. The walls are rough sawn lumber partially covered with scraps of cardboard for privacy from the other adjoining rentals. He offered me a bucket to sit on because they had no furniture at all. In fact they didn’t even have a bed or mattress. I was sure the bucket wouldn’t hold me so I opted for the floor. We spent about an hour talking and drinking tea. I finally asked him, “Where do you keep your food? Do you have a refrigerator?” He said if they had meat, he would cook it and it would keep for up to 5 days without refrigeration. Then he pointed to two grocery sacks hanging on a nail. “This is our food for today and tomorrow lunch, then after that, God knows” he said. He had about a pound of rice for lunch tomorrow and about 2 pounds of ground cassava flour to make a tasteless, mushy, porridge type food they call ugali. Think sticky cream of wheat prepared dry enough to roll into a ball and eat with your hands. It has absolutely no nutritional value to it at all.
During the rainy season, it gets very cold at night here. Tonight it will get down to 40F-50F and will probably rain. Samson told me that they have a sheet but no blanket. I asked him what he used for a blanket. He said he has to put on several layers of clothes to try to stay warm. Not only could I not sleep on a concrete floor, but I can’t imagine trying to sleep while freezing. Now I know for a fact that I am a sissy compared to this guy.
Today, my heart was moved by the poverty I saw at Samson’s home. Samson walked me half way home and I couldn’t help but to give him a few pounds of the meat I had just bought from the local butchery. I know I cant give enough to even one person to make the poverty go away let alone a whole country, but I had to do something right then. Pray for Samson’s family and his soon to be born child.

This entry is tagged: Compassion, Living in Africa, Witnessing
Posted by BJ at 6:14 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Today, I had opportunity to witness to an African lady named Pendo. Her name is the Swahili word for “love”. She works for the language school as a conversant. Her job is to talk with Cathy and me in Swahili. She knows very little English and I know very little Swahili. Together we would make a great team. I do not have enough language learned to explain salvation to her. However, I was able to take her verse by verse through the Roman’s Road. Since I am very familiar with these verses, I could make emphasize the correct phrases. I had asked her weather she was saved. She said yes. I asked her what she did to get saved. Since she is Lutheran she said that she had to quit sinning. That’s when I took her to Rom 3:23 and we began our safari down the Roman’s Road. I am so glad that sinlessness is not a prerequisite for salvation. Pendo took a good interest in what the Bible was saying. She did not make a salvation decision there, but perhaps a seed was sown on good ground. Pray for her that she will be able to understand God’s love (penda) for her as he took upon himself our sins.

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Posted by BJ at 5:45 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Did we leave America because we thought God made a mistake by placing us there instead of in Africa? Absolutely not. We have been asked a few times why are you going to Africa? Let me answer that question by painting a word picture.
A few days ago, we took a field trip. Literally. We went to the tea fields that are near by. This is where the very poor people work. As we approached, we could see miles and miles of lush yellow-green tea plants. At a distance, it looks like a beautiful green shag carpet stretched seamlessly across the hills. We rounded a sharp corner and saw 20-30 people standing in line on the side of the road waiting to have their tea harvest weighed. A tea picker will go into a select field and hand pick the very top two buds from each stem. Imagine pruning your hedges by hand. They will then toss them into a basket that is tied to their back. All through the day, they will pick each plant. If they take three buds instead of two it is rejected. A few too many rejects and they are forced to go through the entire basket by hand to weed out the rejects. On average, a person is allowed to pick 35 kilograms of tea per day. On a really good day when the demand is high they may be able to pick up to 75 kilos if they work really hard. After their tea is weighed they are paid. They receive 4 shillings per kilo. That equals 5.2 cents per kilo (2.2 pounds)! Imagine spending all day in the field bent over the many bushes picking each bud by hand to earn 75 cents. A pound of the cheapest hamburger here costs around $2-$3 per pound. You can buy a gallon of milk for $2.50. It doesn’t take long to realize that 75 cents a day is barely enough to stay alive. When people are faced with a hopeless situation like this they turn to anything that offers hope. Without the Hope of Jesus the people perish. They turn to every vice and are eventually destroyed by the deceiver. But we can bring them the Hope of Christ. With Christ all things are possible. David said “yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”
So did God make a mistake by having us born in America? No. He has allowed us opportunity to get prepared in America so that we can make a huge impact in Africa. Our prayer is that we would do an adequate job of revealing Christ to a very hungry people.

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Posted by BJ at 5:48 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

If you are not on our mailing list to receive our prayer letters you can click here and download the file.

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Posted by BJ at 4:17 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Cathy and I have been speaking to a Kenyan who is of Indian decent. She has had some religious beliefs in the past but does not hold to any religion currently. She thinks that the Christian religion is a good one because they try to help others. She is thinking of religion as a lifestyle and not a life changer. Please pray that the Lord will open her eyes and show her the need for forgiveness. Also, pray for us as we try to be a constant witness to her, and that we will have the right words to say.

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Posted by BJ at 7:15 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

I took some time as we were being driven from Nairobi to our apartment to witness to our driver. His name is John. He has been attending the 7th day Adventist Church since he was born. He believes that the way to heaven is through obeying the Ten Commandments. I tried to convince him that only Jesus was able to keep all the commandments and it is only through His name that we are saved. John knows very good conversational English, but as we began to speak about the Bible I noticed that much of our conversation was hampered because I could not speak his original language. Pray for John, we will see him again in the future. Also pray for us as we begin language school on Monday Jan 22nd. It will be a very important tool as we seek to evangelize the lost.

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Posted by BJ at 9:27 AM | Permalink | What say you?(0)