Schultz Family in Tanzania

Today is Friday and as I was making some last minute preparations for our departure I decided to do some double checking on my visa situation. I discovered that our residency visas expired last month. I immediately drove to the immigration office to find out what I should do. His advice was to find a border patrolman who would "close his eyes" about the situation. Of course this service of ignoring one's infractions is not free. I explained to him that I couldn't ever pay a bribe and asked if there were some other way to make the mistake right. As far as he knew the only legal resolution is to buy a "special visa" at $400 each. That's $2,400 I don't have.

My hope is to arrive at the border and if needed try to convince the boss to forgive me for my forgetfulness in renewing my visa. Please pray that God will give us favor and that we will be able to exit Tanzania properly and without paying a ton of money.

This entry is tagged: Furlough, Our travels, Pray for us
Posted by BJ at 10:29 PM | Permalink | What say you?(1)

Please pray for our family as many of us have been fighting various illnesses. Specifically pray for Daniel. He has been sick for more than a week and has had a high fever at times. Saturday night his temperature was 105 F. We had him tested for Malaria but the test was negative. Today he is fine if we keep him dosed up on Tylenol or Motrin.

This entry is tagged: Daniel, Health, Pray for us
Posted by BJ at 12:40 PM | Permalink | What say you?(1)

I think you will be excited to see how the Lord has answered our prayers. I have listed the prayer requests that I have made just in the past month and what God has done in each situation. Truly, God is the God who answers prayer!

1. Pray for us as I begin the mid-week services on Tuesday. Pray for people to come and pray for my Swahili speaking skills
The Tuesday evening service has been well received. It is slowly evolving into a good time of fellowship, prayer and Bible study.

2. Pray the Lord will use the classes (Sunday School and Tuesday) to change lives and see people saved.
None saved yet but many have had false teaching refuted by simple verse-by-verse Bible studies.

3. Pray for Spiritual growth in the lives of our new Christians.
Several people have made some great strides in their life and it shows on the outside.

4. Decent weather on Sunday. Our Baptistery is outside.
The sun shown brightly as we baptized 8 on Sunday.

5. Our health. Michaela and Daniel had a case of Coxsackie’s virus but are doing well.
Both have recovered from this illness but Michaela has a bad cough. Also, on Wednesday our day-guard killed a green Mamba snake in our yard. It was in the shrubs that line our fence and only about 10 feet from our garage; a place the kids like to play around often.

6. Greg and Remsi are at Bible College for the week.
Greg said they arrived safely and the classes are going well. The course ends Thursday 5-1-08.

7. Remsi and others whom God may call to ministry.
We are constantly looking for those whom God would call to preach. Like Samuel, my eyes see the outside and I think surely this is God’s anointed. There is one man in our church whom I think would make a good pastor but again I see only the outside. We will wait to see God move obviously in the lives of our people.

8. My preaching next 3 weeks
I have had a good time of writing my messages but I had a difficult time preaching last weeks message.

9. My Swahili skills
I am continuing to advance but I have reached a point where I need to take a refresher course. I have made plans to attend a class beginning in June.

10. For the new converts to be grounded in the Word of God
As I mentioned in #3 the Lord is doing a good work in the lives of these people.

11. Greg’s family as they travel
See # 6

12. For my language skills
See # 9

13. pray for John to be saved
John received Christ as savior March 30!

14. Pray for John’s spiritual growth and that his wife would be saved too.
He continues to do well, but his wife still holds to her false doctrine of good works for salvation.

15. Pray for us as I begin the mid-week services on Tuesday. Pray for people to come
and pray for my Swahili speaking skills.
See # 1

Thank you to everyone who supplies this ministry with the labor of prayer. With out your prayers we would fail miserably.

As you can see the Lord has helped us get our website up and running again. We still don’t know what happened to cause the problems but we are thankful it’s fixed.

This entry is tagged: Answered prayers, Boma Ngombe, Ministry, Pray for us
Posted by BJ at 12:13 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Just wanted to shout "Praise God!" because we finally received the missing $3,000 money wire!

You might remember that I requested you to pray for these missing funds a few months ago. In fact the money turned up missing in early October. So after 4 months, some heavy investigation by our financial guru Doug Cunningham at BIMI and many prayers we have received the missing funds.

As it turns out the money was accidentally placed into a Bible college's account not too far away from us. It is a complete miracle that this Bible college did not withdraw the money and spend it. I can't think of anyone who would not spend an extra $3000 in cash after 4 months of it just sitting there. Especially a Bible college! We all know they need money.

Thanks for praying!

Now if I could just find my car keys...

This entry is tagged: Answered prayers, Pray for us
Posted by BJ at 6:37 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Dear friends,
Please be in prayer about a $3000 money wire that is missing from my account.

Continue reading "Missing: $3000.00" »

This entry is tagged: Pray for us
Posted by BJ at 11:49 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Have you ever said "Never"? There was a day not many years ago when Cathy and I were first married when I said "We will never, never-ever, never-ever-ever own a mini van." I said this because we were too cool for a mini-van. Well my coolness faded away quite quickly and I must say we not only have a mini-van but this one is our 3rd mini-van. I actually like them a lot these days. As a matter of fact this mini-van is an answer to many prayers. We are so thankful to have a vehicle.
You may remember that we "mail-ordered" this vehicle sight unseen (see entry "These walking shoes" Oct 16) from a person who is but a stranger to us. The guy told us that the van was a blue Toyota Hiace made in 2000 and in immaculate condition. Well, it is a Toyata Hiace but it is a 1998 model and you can tell from the picture that it is white. To his credit it is in immaculate condition. This is not the van we picked out but it is the one God provided in answer to our prayer for a good, safe, reliable vehicle. And we are so thankful.

This entry is tagged: Family, Vehicle
Posted by BJ at 5:37 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

These shoes may be made for walking but quite honestly, I am getting rather tired of all the walking. And as you can see, my shoes are a little worn out from all the stress of me walking them. ha! Yes, I know its good for my health, and truthfully, I don't have to walk very far to get what I need especially when I'm just going to the taxi. Still, it is time for a better mode of transportation. We "mail ordered" a used van that is due to arrive this week. I have never seen this van other than a badly taken picture on a cell phone. I have never driven the van and won't until the day I go to pay for it. Our prayer has been that God would bless us with a good reliable vehicle. We are anxious to see God answer that prayer. We have been with out a vehicle since January. A whole +10 months! I never thought I would be with out a vehicle for so long. HA!
I'll let you know how it all turns out and I'll even try to include some photos.

This entry is tagged: Pray for us, Vehicle
Posted by BJ at 12:52 AM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Just a quick update on our house. It is officially sold. The sale has been finalized and the keys handed over to the new owners. Thanks for your prayers on this matter.

This entry is tagged: Answered prayers
Posted by BJ at 9:45 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

Please join us in prayer for our container situation. We have a 40' container which has arrived in Tanzania Africa. In it is everything we own and need to live here in Africa. We need to go through the paper work of getting it cleared through customs now. As usual, the clearing agents are trying to get us to pay a very high price in order to release the container. ($8,500!) According to others who have gone through this process before, many these charges are not legitimate and over inflated. In order to get them corrected we will have to go to the port and fight the charges. It will take time, money, patience and prayer. Right now, in the midst of language school, time, patience and money is a commodity that is precious. Please pray that the Lord would turn their hearts for our favor and allow us to clear the container with very minimal cost.

This entry is tagged: Answered prayers, Container, Pray for us
Posted by BJ at 7:02 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

We have been praying much for God to sell our house and van in Michigan. This past week we have seen God answer those prayers. Our van was sold last week for a good price. We originally purchased the van knowing that it would re-sell for a decent price. With all the extra missionary miles we put on it, the value of the van dropped quite a bit. However, we were able to come within just a few hundred dollars of breaking even. The Lord is good!
Our home has a story it’s own. Before we ever listed the house for sale we had a contract to purchase the house. Eventually, that contract fell through. We waited and waited for the next buyer. We only had about 10 people look at our house in 10 months. Real-estate in Michigan has been in a slump the past few years. This past 2 weeks we received two offers to buy our home! The most recent offer is moving ahead and Lord willing, will close the end of March. A second offer has been made and will continue on if the first one falls through. Apparently, God wants to sell our home soon.
Pray that everything comes together with no problems. I have sold 2 other houses in my past, but I was never on the other side of the world in Africa when we sold them.

Our next 2 huge obstacles:
-We have our 40’ container sitting at the port waiting to clear customs. Technically, because we are missionaries, it should not cost us anything to get the container through customs. However, because of some paper work that has not been filed, we could run into some huge problems. Pray that all goes well and inexpensively as we clear our container.
-Our second big “thing” is to purchase a vehicle. We will have to buy a 4 wheel drive vehicle that is large enough to carry our family and dependant enough not to leave us stranded in a dangerous situation. Pray for the extra $10,000 need to make this purchase, and pray for wisdom in buying the right vehicle.

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Posted by BJ at 5:02 PM | Permalink | What say you?(0)

It looks like we may be moving again shortly. The place where we are located is due for demolition in the next 4 weeks. We have a few options and are praying that the Lord will direct us to the best one. Please join us in prayer as we look for the best place to locate during this language school time.

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Posted by BJ at 7:16 PM | Permalink

Today is our departure day. Pray for us as we get everything in order. There are many last minute details to work out.

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Posted by BJ at 9:22 AM | Permalink | What say you?(0)