22 February 2008
Dearest friends and family,
We trust this finds you all well, and serving our King out of the amazing love that He puts into our hearts… we are just so aware that we need His love
and His ability to do all that He asks of us, but out of the revelation of our right standing we have with Him … we cannot do anything else BUT what he directs and asks of us.
“ I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the very power of God unto salvation!”
the power of God that gives me eternal LIFE, …. in this life on earth as it is in heaven!
‘For within the gospel a righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that is from faith to faith!’ Rom 1;16,17
We have finally caught up to our laptop again, we are in Dar Es Salaam, back from our trip down south, to Mbeya. So much has happened since leaving Kigoma, it takes a lot to think back and remember all the details…. We never got to the lake side village of Kagunga before leaving Kigoma, as the church postponed. Jean & Anita may go at a later stage.
We got the train from Kigoma as far as Morogoro, as we had a ‘seminar’ (local term, actually Evangelism training!) lined up here with two of the Moto Moto churches. Just before we left the Morogoro churches also cancelled… so we were beginning to wonder what was going on! We had another contact who we had arranged to meet with at the station in Morogoro, to see if we could set anything up en route back to Mbeya. The train trip turned out to be absolutely atrocious!
There are no words to describe the conditions or experience. In our culture there is nothing to compare it to to even be able to try and help others to relate to it,,, its just something you have to experience to ever be able to understand! All I know is that it was my “LOW-light’ x10 of all the experiences we have had up to now! Justin describes the train as a ‘bucking bronco’.. The train literally bounced us higher and higher, for 2 nights and 1.5days non-stop, ….causing us to literally buck off our beds at night, I mean to the degree that you are actually bucked into the air above your bed! This is because the train has no shock absorbers, and the lines are in a bad state of disrepair… The train was overcrowded, the toilets just SHOCKING, a hole in the floor. Toilet floors wet from all those before you who had tried their level best to aim as they where bucked to and fro…..There was no water in the toilets except for that which dripped onto to you from above!!???? Who knows where that came from!
On arrival at the station we were all looking rather harassed and pale! All experiencing varying degrees of trauma. Enough said…We met up with pastor Peter, and discussed a seminar en route to Mbeya in about a weeks time. We then bussed the rest of the journey to Dar Es, and were warmly welcomed by Dudley & Grace, Dawn & David. This family are working for FHI (Food for the Hungry International), and have been here for nearly 2years, they are from Eshowe, Kwa Zulu Natal, of all places in the world – the little town in which Justin grew up!!... so there was lots to talk about… They have been an amazing family, and really have opened up their home to us. These homes of ‘peace’ are always such a blessing in between all the hussle & bussle here, and we know that God will really bless them in return in ways we are not able to in the natural.
After a day of recovery and rest here in Dar, we did two ‘seminars’ in Moto Moto churches, alongside pastor Ezra. They both went very well, and in the 2nd seminar there was such an anointing after the evangelism training that we had a wonderful time of spontaneous worship together.
After our seminars in Dar, Jean and Anita convinced us to go on a short visit to Zanzibar. They had been to Dar three times before and each time had felt too guilty to go there, in fear of being seen as “spiritual tourists”! During one of their visits they had even gone as far as packing and organising the ferry trip, only to back-out at the ferry exit! They had just “celebrated” their 25th wedding anniversary on the train to Dar, and we were about to celebrate our 24th on the 18th, so we decided together that this was a chance of a lifetime.
We had an amazing 2 nights in Zanzibar, Jean & Justin were like two kids in their absolute element at the beauty under the water.
They had their goggles with them and made the most of the visit their. The coral, seaweed, starfish and fish of all shapes were indescribably beautiful. The absolute highlight though was Edwardt. He was sitting on the ferry next to us while travelling there. Justin started sharing the gospel with him, and then both of us were, he just sat there looking very sober and out of the blue asked the question “ well what must I now do to be saved?” WOW, … we lead him to Jesus then and there, and had an exciting time sharing the word with him. We had a New Testament with us which we gave him, and were showing him scriptures, which he was underlining and writing the page numbers as the references at the back of his new bible! Zanzibar, besides being beautiful and memorable, was quite sobering … there are very few churches there. There is an Anglican church in Stone Town that we visited, it is also a national monument. This island is apparently at least 85% muslim. You were constantly aware of all these people around you who were living a life that was leading to eternal torment and separation from the love of God…
After arriving back in Dar on the Wednesday night, our Zanzibar visit soon became a ‘blurr’ in our memories. Thursday morning we were up at 4.30am in preparation for our bus trip to Morogoro and the seminar we had set up with pastor Peter. It was arranged for 9.30 that same morning. The seminar was with a mixture of about 25 pastors, leaders and evangelists from different churches in the area. The leaders responded well. Pastor Peter really has a heart after God. We met again with him and his wife in the evening over a cup of coffee, what an amazing couple, we could really sense the hand of God on their lives.
They encouraged us and brought to our attention that the evangelism training we had shared with them had come at a real key time, as they had had a 3 day seminar in January with the focus on evangelism. They were not however given any practical ‘tools’ or handles. They were excited about the message of the ‘heart’ we had shared with them, along with the chart as a tool and felt this to be a very valuable tool to mobilise the church into evangelism.
Friday morning we were on the next bus to venture south to Mbeya. What an amazing trip this was, we passed through Mikumi Game Reserve where we saw many animals. Elephant; giraffe; buck etc. then we travelled through a huge mountain range, really stunning; with lush vegetation, palms and baobab trees. We decided to stop of at the Chimala Mission, about 70km out of Mbeya, Jean and Anita had met the couple on their previous trip. They run the mission. The first meeting in Mbeya was only on Sunday am. We too got to meet Bill & Cindy, the couple running the mission, they are from the Church of Christ. They were just so hospitable, and really spoilt us. We got to have exciting conversations and times of testifying of the goodness of Jesus with them, and really were encouraged. Jean, Anita and myself all visited the hospital the Saturday morning, as we were feeling pretty run down, and all got put on antibiotics. We had all been struggling for a week already; I had a bad sinus infection, and J&A had a relapse of the tummy-bug caused by ‘giarrdia’.
Sunday morning was again an early start on a dala-dala into Mbeya. We split up into couples ministering at two different churches. Justin & I shared at the Baptist church, where the Zambian missionary couple David & Alice fellowship. This is the couple we had met up with 2 months before on our Mbeya trip from Mpulungu. They are working in the surrounding areas with unreached tribal groups, training in evangelism and planting churches.
David had organised a seminar for us on the Monday, where God really smashed down some strongholds in the minds and hearts of some of the pastors and leaders there. I really felt God piercing the hearts of some there, the word was sharp and powerful as we ministered and there was a real sense of the Holy Spirit at work bringing into the light and revealing to individuals areas of their hearts that were hard and unsurrendered. We came away from that day feeling that God was definitely with us, and had had an appointment with many that were present. God is always looking for opportunities to work deep in the heart of man, he wants ALL of our hearts and not just the areas we are comfortable with giving Him. We then had an unplanned ‘seminar’ about 2 hours after this morning one. It was requested by a gentleman who ran a bible school. He desperately wanted us to come and do a ‘Heart’ presentation with his bible school students… Justin & Jean opted for the challenge, and were blessed out of their socks, as were the students. Many present were renewed by the powerful anointing of the Holy Spirit who baptises us to be His witnesses!
Tuesday was another busy day and also had some unexpected happenings. We had a ‘seminar’ planned at the Moravian Church Bible School, which was an hour and half trip away out of Mbeya. We were all ‘geared up’ for a 2 hr trip in a squeeshed dala dala, as this is always the only option, but to our supprise were picked up in the Moravians private Landcruiser! What a pleasure… sure takes a lot out of the stress of a seminar day… we were accompanied by a local, named David, who was a very interesting fellow.
He had written a few books, one being a Tour guide of Mbeya, so he really enjoyed educating and pointing things out to us on our journey. Mbeya has an amazing volcanic mountain range running by it, it is absolutely beautiful with hills covered with tea and banana palm plantations as far as the eye can see.
It even has a cool climate, which we all enjoyed after the very hot and muggy climate of Dar!
We had a seminar with the students followed by an unexpected presentation at a secondary school close by. The principal is a Christian and gave us a free hand with all of the 800 students in the school!
We shared the Good News of the gospel with them, including the staff, many being muslims! What a God given opportunity. Most responded positively to the call and we donated many New Testaments to them.
We ended the day off with a courtesy visit with the director of the Moravian church before being taken back home in Mbeya. Wednesday was the last day in Mbeya for Justin & myself, we were due to head back to Dar first thing on Thursday. We had planned an evangelism training with the unreached tribe that David and Alice have been working with, it was sure to be one of the highlights. Turned out that the weather was rainy when we woke up, and as things are during this rainy season, it was pretty difficult to get to this area in the Usungu basin. In the end just Jean & Justin went along with David and 2 other of his evangelists ‘in training’. Anita and I were left with the responsibility to pray and to catch up with all the admin that was lagging! Justin & Jean came home beaming with excitement, and let us know that the time they had was definitely a highlight for them. In the dala-dala on the way home, they were accompanied by some of them that had been with them at the seminar, and they promptly started witnessing to those on the dala! In the one case, the person who had been witnessed to followed on by taking a hold of the ‘heart’ message pamphlet and sharing with someone else who was next to him! 11Tim2,2. They had definitely caught on to the message of ‘GO…. Into all the world…!’ how rewarding…
Justin and I made the long 12hr journey back to Dar by bus yesterday… we are thankful to Him and His angels for taking charge over us and protecting us on these hectic roads. Drivers on these road have seemingly zero driving sense or skills!! We had many hours to reflect over our 10weeks spent in Tanzania .. and continue to feel such a deep sense of privilege as we availed ourselves to be used by Our great King as co-workers here with Him.To be in a position to be wherever He led us and opened doors for us. It felt good to us and the Spirit, that our time was up for this trip, and we continue to have open hearts and ears to hear and obey wherever He leads us next…
It was VERY sobering leaving Mbeya and our dearest friends Jean & Anita… we have had such amazing times together, memories that will always be with us, they are such examples to us of….
‘never lag in zeal, but keep your spiritual fever; be on fire and burning with the Spirit,
serving the Lord’ Rom12;11
We really felt God unite us together, and enable us by His Spirit to work together as well as compliment each other as a team working for Him, He is SO worthy of our lives …
Lets continue to be committed to praying for Jean and Anita, as they plan to spend the next month in Tanzania. There plans are to head for Subawanga, on the south east end of Lake Tanganyika. They want to do a heart presentation there, and then continue onto Kipili, the village we were heading for on our trip up to Kigoma a few months back that did not work out. After Kipili they await the Liemba ferry to get back to Kigoma where they plan to visit as many schools as possible and continue to use the Heart presentation in evangelism training. They also plan a trip to Kaleme in DRC, across the lake from Kigoma, where they hope to make a big delivery from the stock of French bibles we have in Kigoma and are obviously trusting to be able to do an evangelism training while they are there. Then one of the main reasons for their extra stay is the annual Pentecostal Moto Moto Church seminar at the end of March when all the Moto Moto leaders come together. Here they plan to finish off their stay in Tanzania with an evangelism training with this group of leaders and do a final hand over to the church leaders, to encourage them to take the ‘tool’ back to their local churches and train up their evangelists and believers to use the heart tool and trust God to mobilise the believers to ‘GO and preach the Good News….”
We have had 2 days in Dar before our flight home, we have spent today organising our luggage as we have excess from our last trip here, which we had left in Kigoma. We are trusting that the angels tip the scales tomorrow when we check in… and that all goes smoothly. Justin has been working on Dudley & Grace’s electrics today, the power supply here is very erratic here, and generator back up is essential for fans and fridge’s, etc. as it is very hot and humid here, and very unpleasant, almost unbearable without fans at night to sleep!
Well we are not sure which will reach you first, this email or our selves! We are so looking forward to being back with both our friends and our family at Westcoast.
Once again our prayer is that God blesses all that were involved to make it possible for us to be here… We pray that all who have sewn WILL reap, according to His promises, which are Yes and ‘amen’ in Christ.
With much love from us all
Justin & Jeannie
Letter from Jeannie - 30 January 2008
Dearest friends and family, 30 January 2008
We praise God with each new day for making a way for us to be here– its such a privilege to be here, and we so thank you all for being obedient and also helping make it possible – you are very much apart of all the goings-on here and the work in this field. We can never thank you enough for your faithful prayers, financial contributions and encouraging contact & friendship with us;
On Sunday I ministered at the Nazareth Moto Moto Pentecostal church, I had a real prophetic word for the church, but it was tough ground! The holy spirit challenged them as to ‘how much do they want of God, and how much room are they making for Him and His Light & truth in their lives .. they could have as much as they desired of His abundant life. The encouragement was to continue to chose Light & keep in the Light, and to bear fruit of righteousness ….’
We have been having a great time ministering in the schools this week, we have been to 4 schools so far- and ministered to about 380-400 students and staff. The 1st 2 schools were to the Christian groups in the schools, …. but the last 2 we made a point of making it clear that ALL were welcome, so we got real mixed groups of Christians, muslim & unbelievers.
Nazareth Pentecostal Moto Moto Church
The response has been very good and people have been open and accepting Jesus and the Holy Spirit. What an
opportunity, especially to those who have been born into families of the muslim faith-and may never hear the gospel openly being proclaimed! We have been working with both pastor Ezra and also Peter, who heads up the ministry into the students inter denominational Christian groups; and has organised most of the outreaches.
Jean and Anita are slowly recovering from some bug; fever, nausea, diarrhoea which they have had for
the last few days. So they are feeling rather ‘pap’, but nothing holds them down and they have been keeping full pace inspite of this physical battle. They are amazing! They started an anti biotic course today to see if it will help. We are believing God for breakthrough for them as we have a busy schedule up ahead!
Justin & Jean met up with some of the pastors in whose churches we did Evangelism training with during our last years visit. We did the training with their leaders and potential evangelists.
We had some exciting feedback, some churches using the evangelism tool more than others, the one church in particular is still evangelising every Sunday night using the tract! They have had 10 new converts, including 2 muslims who are now coming to their church! They are so encouraged and he is going to get back to us with a full report! Another of the pastors is keen to continue the school evangelism and to follow up with those who got saved, making sure they get channelled into healthy local churches. We are going to be keeping in close contact with him once back in SA. The 3rd pastor that we saw says they are still using the ‘tool’, and is still very excited about it, but will come back to us with a full report. We are still trusting God to use this evangelism tool and to mobilise the church to ‘GO’ by the power of the Holy Spirit, to impact their communities with the Good news of Jesus Christ, and seeing MANY come to Christ!
Typical transport for crops to the market!
We were to leave on Thursday with Ezra & Susan for Katanga village north of Kigoma, and planned to be back on Saturday pm. We have just heard from Ezra that the pastor has cancelled the trip to Katanga, due to some repairs to their building they are busy on. We are not quite sure of the details as Ezra is out of town at the moment. We were excited about Susan coming with us, she has not been on any trips with us up to now as they have young Barnabus (8.5mnths) She is very interested in the basic healthcare and wants to learn as much as she can while we are here, with the heart to teach others! We are also a bit disappointed in the trip being cancelled as this would have been our last lakeside village trip, but we trust God, He knows all the details of our lives and we trust Him to direct our steps. Instead of this trip Justin will be doing repairs to Ezra’s ‘pikkie-pik’ and he also wants to install our solar panel that we brought up with us in his house. This way they will be able to at least have some lights and be able to charge cell phones, etc. with Anita still not well today, Jean & Justin are doing the school outreach today instead of us ladies. We trust God for the miracle of salvation in lives, especially as Ramie (picture above) gives his testimony.
We have our train tickets for Dar Es, and leave on Sunday pm. We still plan to stop at Morogoro on the way to Dar, which we will arrive at after a 2 night and a day train trip from Kigoma. We will need to get the bus or train again to Dar Es once we have finished the 1 day seminar. Please pray for us on the train, apparently it is much more comfortable than bussing BUT just extremely hot as it is not safe to leave your windows open, especially at night because of thieving through the windows!!
After we have been to Dar we may continue onto Mbeya, which is the town we visited from Mpulungu and is way down south of Tanzania, here we have books and bibles in storage. We are still praying about this plan, as we are feeling our time in Kigoma and surrounds is up for this season. Please could you pray with us on this, Justin & I would then need to pack up in Kigoma before we head off to Dar Es and store our luggage in Dar while we do the training and bible distribution in the Mbeya region. The plan will then be to return to Dar after about a 10day-2 week stay in Mbeya and leave for SA from Dar?? By then it will already be the beginning of March or later if we do Arusha before Mbeya!!
So we continually hold our plans up to God… we need to constantly be hearing Him and following His leadings. Please continue to pray with us that we hear Him as a team, and His full plan for this season is accomplished.
Ps 40;8 ‘ I delight to do Your will, Ooooh my God; YES, Your law is within my heart. I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great assembly. Behold, I have not restrained my lips, as You know, O Lord! I have not concealed Your righteousness within my heart; I have proclaimed Your FAITHFULNESS & Your RIGHTEOUSNESS and Your SALVATION. I have not hid away Your steadfast love and Your truth from the great assembly!’
With much love from us all here in Kigoma,
Justin & Jeannie
Xx
Blogspot: hulleys.blogspot.com
We praise God with each new day for making a way for us to be here– its such a privilege to be here, and we so thank you all for being obedient and also helping make it possible – you are very much apart of all the goings-on here and the work in this field. We can never thank you enough for your faithful prayers, financial contributions and encouraging contact & friendship with us;
On Sunday I ministered at the Nazareth Moto Moto Pentecostal church, I had a real prophetic word for the church, but it was tough ground! The holy spirit challenged them as to ‘how much do they want of God, and how much room are they making for Him and His Light & truth in their lives .. they could have as much as they desired of His abundant life. The encouragement was to continue to chose Light & keep in the Light, and to bear fruit of righteousness ….’
We have been having a great time ministering in the schools this week, we have been to 4 schools so far- and ministered to about 380-400 students and staff. The 1st 2 schools were to the Christian groups in the schools, …. but the last 2 we made a point of making it clear that ALL were welcome, so we got real mixed groups of Christians, muslim & unbelievers.
Nazareth Pentecostal Moto Moto Church
The response has been very good and people have been open and accepting Jesus and the Holy Spirit. What an
opportunity, especially to those who have been born into families of the muslim faith-and may never hear the gospel openly being proclaimed! We have been working with both pastor Ezra and also Peter, who heads up the ministry into the students inter denominational Christian groups; and has organised most of the outreaches.
Jean and Anita are slowly recovering from some bug; fever, nausea, diarrhoea which they have had for
the last few days. So they are feeling rather ‘pap’, but nothing holds them down and they have been keeping full pace inspite of this physical battle. They are amazing! They started an anti biotic course today to see if it will help. We are believing God for breakthrough for them as we have a busy schedule up ahead!
Justin & Jean met up with some of the pastors in whose churches we did Evangelism training with during our last years visit. We did the training with their leaders and potential evangelists.
We had some exciting feedback, some churches using the evangelism tool more than others, the one church in particular is still evangelising every Sunday night using the tract! They have had 10 new converts, including 2 muslims who are now coming to their church! They are so encouraged and he is going to get back to us with a full report! Another of the pastors is keen to continue the school evangelism and to follow up with those who got saved, making sure they get channelled into healthy local churches. We are going to be keeping in close contact with him once back in SA. The 3rd pastor that we saw says they are still using the ‘tool’, and is still very excited about it, but will come back to us with a full report. We are still trusting God to use this evangelism tool and to mobilise the church to ‘GO’ by the power of the Holy Spirit, to impact their communities with the Good news of Jesus Christ, and seeing MANY come to Christ!
Typical transport for crops to the market!
We were to leave on Thursday with Ezra & Susan for Katanga village north of Kigoma, and planned to be back on Saturday pm. We have just heard from Ezra that the pastor has cancelled the trip to Katanga, due to some repairs to their building they are busy on. We are not quite sure of the details as Ezra is out of town at the moment. We were excited about Susan coming with us, she has not been on any trips with us up to now as they have young Barnabus (8.5mnths) She is very interested in the basic healthcare and wants to learn as much as she can while we are here, with the heart to teach others! We are also a bit disappointed in the trip being cancelled as this would have been our last lakeside village trip, but we trust God, He knows all the details of our lives and we trust Him to direct our steps. Instead of this trip Justin will be doing repairs to Ezra’s ‘pikkie-pik’ and he also wants to install our solar panel that we brought up with us in his house. This way they will be able to at least have some lights and be able to charge cell phones, etc. with Anita still not well today, Jean & Justin are doing the school outreach today instead of us ladies. We trust God for the miracle of salvation in lives, especially as Ramie (picture above) gives his testimony.
We have our train tickets for Dar Es, and leave on Sunday pm. We still plan to stop at Morogoro on the way to Dar, which we will arrive at after a 2 night and a day train trip from Kigoma. We will need to get the bus or train again to Dar Es once we have finished the 1 day seminar. Please pray for us on the train, apparently it is much more comfortable than bussing BUT just extremely hot as it is not safe to leave your windows open, especially at night because of thieving through the windows!!
After we have been to Dar we may continue onto Mbeya, which is the town we visited from Mpulungu and is way down south of Tanzania, here we have books and bibles in storage. We are still praying about this plan, as we are feeling our time in Kigoma and surrounds is up for this season. Please could you pray with us on this, Justin & I would then need to pack up in Kigoma before we head off to Dar Es and store our luggage in Dar while we do the training and bible distribution in the Mbeya region. The plan will then be to return to Dar after about a 10day-2 week stay in Mbeya and leave for SA from Dar?? By then it will already be the beginning of March or later if we do Arusha before Mbeya!!
So we continually hold our plans up to God… we need to constantly be hearing Him and following His leadings. Please continue to pray with us that we hear Him as a team, and His full plan for this season is accomplished.
Ps 40;8 ‘ I delight to do Your will, Ooooh my God; YES, Your law is within my heart. I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great assembly. Behold, I have not restrained my lips, as You know, O Lord! I have not concealed Your righteousness within my heart; I have proclaimed Your FAITHFULNESS & Your RIGHTEOUSNESS and Your SALVATION. I have not hid away Your steadfast love and Your truth from the great assembly!’
With much love from us all here in Kigoma,
Justin & Jeannie
Xx
Blogspot: hulleys.blogspot.com
Letter from Tanzania - 24 January 2008
Dear Friends and family,
We do trust you are all keeping well. We are so thankful to God for our good health, we really have to trust Him in all situations here, as the food places are so dicey sometimes , and sometimes we land up in unplanned situations where precautions against mosquito’s and cleanliness are definitely not up to scratch. Choosing to trust Gods word and His promises in these circumstances is essential! ; you definitely have to intentionally walk by faith! ’NO deadly poison can harm us..!’
We have had a wonderful past few weeks, since the last e mail sent. I do want to apologise for the mistakes in my last email, I was really battling with the laptop while typing it out… and had a challenging time as it did as it pleased, reading thru it now- I did notice some mistakes and incomplete thoughts where I had experienced the mouse jumping around, etc. I still have not worked out why or what exactly I am doing to cause this!
Since our arrival in Kigoma we have made contact with some of the pastors here, word gets out quickly.. and we have not had to do much to look up pastors here…they have come to us! Out of these visits we organised our last trip to the Lagosa area. Lagosa is about 90kms south of Kigoma, and is on the boundary of the Mahale Nature Reserve, well known for its chimpanzees. We were so excited that this trip was finally organised as we were meant to go there during our last visit to Tanzania. We tried to fit it in many times and by this stage the churches were feeling quite desperate wondering if we were ever going to actually keep to our word and come! We have fast learnt that we do NOT set any ideas or plans in concrete but ALWAYS make clear to the pastors that our hearts are that we really want to come to them, and do plan to, BUT all our plans are submitted to Father God and we will get there when and if God is willing!
Justin & Jean have been very occupied working on the original green boat ‘Mercy 1’, that has been here in Kigoma since our last stay. The idea was to use her to travel to Lagosa. We planned to send pastor Ezra the luggage and the bibles & books ahead on the Liemba, and the 4 of us go on ‘Mercy 1’. This was so that we could have a boat once we were there to visit more than 1 village and the school, and we would not have to rely on local boats and have to be there until the Liemba’s return trip to Kigoma. It turned out that we had 2 very bad storms during the week we were due to leave, so we decided to all go on the Liemba. Trips on the Liemba to small villages along the lakeshore are difficult, as there are many stops along the way and there are no definate arrival times as it all depends on how big a load of cargo there is to off laod and on load at each stop. So it is very difficult to know where you are and when to get off!! What tension… we did not sleep at all as the arrival info we did get was for 11pm, heads were popping up at each stop all night long… and we eventually only arrived at 7AM!!!!!!! We were very relieved to find that pastor Rafael had managed to organise a small boat especially to pick us up off the Liemba so we did not have the stress of scrambling onto a local taxi boat. To be able to do this the pastor waited all night on this small boat because of the not knowing any Liemba arrival time! It was an hour long row to the village from the Liemba drop off point. Having been on the noisy Liemba it was blissfully peaceful in the little boat, being at water level we could appreciate the clean blue water and the stunningly beautiful greens of the Mahale mountains and villages below; indigenous plants, palms and trees as far as you could see….
We launched into ministry time at the Secondary School, straight after our arrival, we went there by boat as the recent hard rains had caused the rivers to flood and it was not possible to cross them en route to the school. It took all of 7 strong guys from the church village to row us – we had a strong head on wind and it took us over 2hrs to get there! We had a wonderful time evangelising the class of about 45 scholars, aged 15-18, plus the staff including the principle. They were very open to the gospel and we felt that there was a genuine response by some of them. There were some muslim children amongst them, who were there by there own decision and seemed to respond well to the Good News. By the time we left for our row home, it was raining and the wind had changed and was coming from the opposite direction! The young guys were exhausted so we decided to get back to land once we had passed the rivers and walk the rest of the way. There had been a lot of rain, so it was a great & slow adventure walking as the dense red mud packed onto our shoes like snow ski’s and we were slipping and sliding our way home in the rain!
While at the school we met up with pastor Damas, he & his congregation had been awaiting a visit from us since April last year, we had met up with a guy Nicholaus on the Liemba, who is running a Nature Conservation project in the villages, who had let him know we were back! Pastor Damas was SO excited to see us all, he had a photo of us from our last visit, which his son had taken on one of his trips to Kigoma. He hugged and hugged and hugged us each individually until we did not know which side to hug… I thought he was going to kiss me! Turned out that this was not to be the last that we saw of pastor Damas during this visit, he is just the most refreshing person, just SO in love with God and committed to Gods kingdom and evangelism.
Back in the village of pastor Rafael, we were too late for a church meeting that he had set up for us for 4pm, we were relieved as we had not expected this meeting and we were totally exhausted, after our no sleep on the Liemba and our walk back to the village. Together with Ezra, we set up our tents in the church, in 3 pitch dark rooms, with red sand floars. We did not notice our living conditions too much as the people made us so utterly welcome, with hot water for our bucket baths in the new palm leaved shelter they had made just for us to ‘bath’ in. The long drops are always my big challenge, one of those with the wooden floars over the dark-hole! Oooooh I have ‘day-mares’ about them and literally have to shake my head as I take my thoughts captive with the images of that floar collapsing and me being swallowed by the deep dark, fly & mozzie-ridden and ‘ wat ook al’ pit! We have heard some real life stories of this actually happening. Including Jean, who fortunately came off lightly as it was only his leg that ‘entered into the pit’! Can you just imagine that? I have told Justin that if that ever were to happen to me I would ask the Lord with ALL my faith to take me right there and then! Anyway, sorry, got off the subject a little there…! We were served a hot village meal and were in bed by 8pm. Boy did we sleep!
We woke up with all the children gathered around the church, so Justin & Jean decided on a spontaneous story time for them. They so enjoyed it, they had there own drummer and song leader amongst themselves, and celebrated Jesus together in song and dance, followed by the story and then they prayed for each other. The evangelism training followed, with leaders and potential evangelists from most of the denominations, many of whom walked far distances to be there, from villages in the area. The training went well and there was such a tangible presence of the Holy Spirit amongst us. After a lunch break everyone practised with the evangelism tool, and were then prayed over and sent out 2 by 2 to evangelise. The report backs were SO exciting, faces beaming and testifying how they had experienced Gods power as they shared the Good News. There were reports of salvations and connections with others that wanted to come to the next church service.
Saturday was set for the basic health care with the woman by Anita and myself. Justin & Jean started the morning off with another story with the children, by the sounds of the animations and exclamations from the two story tellers they had a whale of a time!! The children responded well and it was encouraging to hear the knowledge of the word from some of them when they were asked questions. The health care went so well, and we were overwhelmed by the number of mamma’s that attended – there were over 100 woman from near and far, again with their pen an paper, absorbing the practical help that we taught them. We covered different topics like; what causes sickness, ways to prevent sickness e.g. through good eating habits, clean water, hygiene and vaccines. Also how to recognise & treat common sickness like scabies, fever, diarrhoea, dehydration, worms, woman problems, etc. We shared from the good Samaritan and matt.24 and encouraged the woman to make a difference in both their families and in their communities. We ended off by praying for the sick.
Straight after the health care we were served another cooked meal; this time it was ‘dagaar’ a little very smelly fish that is either fried fresh or dried and then fried with tomato and onion. This cook was kind enough to chop their heads off, so we did not have 100;s of these tiny fish with their dried eyes staring at us from the plate… I regretfully did not manage to consume any myself- they were the fresh kind fried and looked a little slimy. I did however manage to eat a few of the dried variety that we were served the next day!! they were surprisingly quite nice. Shew another eating challenge overcome, but the worst was still to come later on during the week. An hour later we were whisked off by pastor Damas, he had arranged the Mahale nature Conservation speed boat from Nicholaus to take us to his village… he was determined for us to visit & share in his church, after all, they had been waiting for us for nearly a year!! We decided to move from pastor Rafael’s church to Nicholaus’s house on the lake, he had offered for us to stay with him as it would be easier to hear and to reach the Liemba from his house, which we were expecting to arrive at about midnight. We had to really convince pastor Rafael that this was a good idea, and that our commitments were up at his village. The pastors really try to get more and more and more from you once you are with them. We had to spend some time with him, patiently explaining and processing the idea through with him, he eventually released us, and even then accompanied us on the boat trip to pastor Damas’s village and church meeting.
We had really been blessed by pastor Rafael’s church, they had made sure we were well fed, and made us as comfortable as possible during our stay with them. We really have so much to learn from these people who have so little, yet are so open hearted and ready to give so much. The balance of this is we are so often faced with the challenge that at some stage during our visit most pastors will make sure they get the opportunity to let us know of their church and/or community needs, and ask us what we are able to provide. We are constantly presented with the challenge of trying to break their mindset that we are not their answer to all their needs, but God is, that we do not come with silver and gold (dollars!) but such as the Lord has given us we desire to give to them- the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the love & blessings of the Father, to encourage and to equip them for works of ministry in any way we are able to!
Our arrival at pastor Damas’s village was quite over whelming as we were welcomed by the church congregation waiting for us on the lake shore… they carried all our goods and led us singing as we walked to the church, which was full to capacity, over 90 adults waiting for our arrival! What a God-filled meeting we had together, the Holy Spirit was so tangible, and Justin preached his heart out, proclaiming the word of God, encouraging the church in their right standing with God the Father and His commission for us to ‘GO’ into all villages and the nations! This particular church we found out was a new church and was growing rapidly. They evangelize every Saturday in the market, and pastor Damas and his wife have such hearts filled with Gods love and very evidently overflowing into the lives of their congregation and into their community. God is really at work in this congregation of believers, and they are really kingdom focused. We were SO blessed that God had made it possible for us to meet with them, our hearts definitely were connected!
After 2 hours we had to politely excuse ourselves from the meeting as we were fighting against the daylight hours left of the day and still had to set up camp at Nicholaus’s house. We were again ‘boated’ back to Nicholaus’s house where we pitched tents to sleep in on his front lawn which overlooked the lake – it was like paradise. We made a big fire and we enjoyed a lovely meal and fellowship around the fire as we prepared ourselves for a long night waiting for the Liemba, only to find out shortly afterwards that it had been delayed by a whole day and would only arrive the next day, Sunday, after midnight! This was seemingly a bit of a disruption to our plans as we needed to leave Kigoma on Monday for a 2 day bus trip to Ruwnada, where we were to meet up with Jean’s dad. He was doing a few day seminar there and had asked us to join him. We decided to trust God and committed all our plans to him, as we realised there must be some purpose in this delay.
On Sunday pastor Ezra had the opportunity to visit with one of the Moto Moto Pentecostal churches that he had never been able to visit up until then. After lunch we met up with Hamin, a big fishing businessman who we had met on the Liemba on previous trips, he was so pleased to see us and offered for us to wait over for the Liemba at his house in the next village, as he was also waiting for the Liemba and had a small boat organised to the Liemba pick up point on the lake. The pick up point was directly in front of his village, so things were looking better and better towards getting onto that Liemba. We had a good afternoon and evening with Hamid, who is a muslim. We are really trusting God for his salvation, and know God has got a plan for us to share with him the gospel as we have met up with him many times, and he knows our stand. While sitting chatting a friend of Hamin’s, Peter, arrived and quite aggressively confronted us, wanting to know what our reasons were for visiting their village and what exactly we were going to contribute to their village, as they had needs like a school, clinic,etc,etc, (the usual list of requests). We patiently explained to him that we were invited guests by friends in his village and those around, and our interest was mainly to ask people about the condition of their hearts. He huffed and puffed a bit , Jean got onto asking him what condition his heart was in, was it is like hard stone or soft, did he have light or darkness in his heart? He answered that he had both light and darkness in his heart. Jean carried on by asking him what condition he would actually desire for his heart to be in? His answer was that he would like it to be full of light! We got so excited at this answer, but were a bit concerned as at that moment he was called away to something else. We prayed together for him, recognising that this man was obviously part of God’s plan for us being delayed in Lagosa. Ezra explained to us that he had obviously been sent to confront us on these things on behalf of the other muslims in the village, that they would obviously have discussed us together and sent a ‘spokesman’ to us. The village had a big muslim following, and a real ‘fisherman’ atmosphere, who are really mostly a rough crowd. It was really ‘heavy’ going spiritually in this village. Peter returned a little later to say goodbye, but we quickly invited him to sit down and chat, we were determined to finish our conversation with him and share with him the way of salvation. Well Peter accepted Jesus that evening, his heart was turned from stone to flesh…darkness was overcome by Light!! How amazing!!
Well the next meal challenge was near at hand… we were presented with goat and chapati’s (like a pancake/roti) for supper!!! I never did manage to eat any, O how I need grace for these occasions. Ever since I had the experience of the hanging chunks of slaughtered animal on the Liemba I have not been able to stomach any meat of any sorts… I stick to the ugali (pap), rice, beans, greens, chips majay (omelette) or fish! Praise God there are some options! The Liemba eventually arrived at 2.30am, we were given a ride on a small and very ‘flimsy’ looking fishing boat with Hamin, which seemed to literally flex over the waves. Getting onto the Liemba was hectic, our boat pushed in first next to the Liemba, after first of all ramming head on into it!! I thought the flimsy boat was going to splinter into pieces with the impact! Taxi boats just ram into each other and push each other out of the way, in the dark of night, and do not care a hoot for their passengers, they just want to get the incoming passengers off as quickly as possible so that they can load up with out going passengers back to shore! By this time another boat rammed in between us and the Liemba, so we had to get out of our boat into that boat first then from that boat into the Liemba. There was a much bigger taxi boat with a motor who was totally ‘peeved-off’ with our boat as our boat had pushed its way in next to the Liemba, so at the first opportunity it rammed our boat out of the way!.. at this stage, we were all on the Liemba except for Justin, who was passing all our luggage to us from the taxi boat. So with the bulshy move of the motorised taxi boat who decided to take off despite the fact that Justin was still on his boat! - Justin was left hanging suspended on the side of the Liemba!! Thankfully other passengers got a hold of Justin as he was vertically suspended and passed him on from one person to the other as the boat sped off, and others heaved him up into the Liemba..!! I did not see any of this, praise the Lord, it was hair raising enough just hearing what happened.
Once on the Liemba, there were no cabins available, as the Liemba had been picking up passengers for the last 500plus km, so we went for the 3rd class option with the idea of pitching our tent on the deck. Justin & Jean slept in the tent pitched on the deck or roof area at the far back end of boat on top of the pile of life rafts. I unfortunately could not get myself to get there as the area was just to open and there was no railings around this particular area, I really felt like the bad-sport, but I could not do it! In the end Anita and I slept on roll out camping mattresses on the deck in a more protected space … shew can you imagine that? I cant believe we actually did that? We managed to get a few hours sleep before the sun came up, and eventually arrived safely in Kigoma at 2.30pm. It is hard to believe that it takes 12hrs to travel 90kms hey?
On route home we were so blessed to see one of the young guys from pastor Damas’s church ministering to a muslim on the Liemba with the evangelism tract that we give out at the training. He was so persistent and spoke intensely to this guy for over 3hrs! We are looking forward to hearing what happened, as we are meeting up with him during this week.
As we reflect on our 6 day trip we are amazed at Gods hand over all the happenings, all the blessings and the way He faithfully provided for us, all the amazing contacts, all of which we have met previously, and how the Lord worked it altogether in a wonderful time in the Lagosa area. We estimated about 450 people that we ministered to directly, that excludes any others that the people outreached to themselves on the day of training and since then.
Well after a day of loads of washing, and after doing some enquiring about the bus trip to Ruwanda, and finding out that it would be at least a 2 day trip as some portions of the road are in a very bad condition, and praying we decided not to do this trip.
We are so excited to see what God has in store for us next, pastor Ezra sat in on the health care morning with the ladies and is very excited about the idea of Anita and I sharing it in the churches around and about Kigoma, he says it is ‘compulsory’ as it is a valuable and practical help to every day needs in the peoples lives. He is keen for us to make it part of any trip we go on! So I guess we will be sharing that at a few more churches whenever possible.
Please pray with us over the following planning and opportunities;
- We are planning a trip to Kagunga next, it is pastor Ezra’s home town about 50km north of us. This trip will be over the 1st week end in Feb. We will be there for 2 nights and plan to go on our green boat ‘Mercy1’, or a small boat. We will be doing the usual day training with all church leaders on the Saturday, as well as health care on the Friday we arrive. After the Sunday meeting we will return to Kigoma.
- on the Sunday evening that we return. 3 Feb, we plan a trip to Morongoro and then onto Dar Es Salaam, as we are going to minister and do training with a group of Moto Moto churches in those places. From there we plan to go to the Arusha area, where we have another container of bibles and literature.
- Up until then we plan to go to as many schools as possible, to evangelise and hand out bibles starting this Friday at 2 schools.
Please pray that God opens the doors in the places where there are those with open hearts to the gospel, where the harvest is ripe,ie. those just ready and waiting to be saved, commissioned, encouraged and equipped to serve Jesus and to love God with their whole heart, to ‘GO’ and take the Good News of Jesus to their communities and villages around them,
We are so thankful for all of Gods amazing blessings and the wonders of His love and care for us.
Big thanks to the faithful prayer warriors and all those who help towards supporting us financially, in friendship, in communication and love.
We love and miss you Mike & Anne and all our family and friends at West Coast.
We especially miss Luke, Dan and Candice …… and the new addition to the family ‘Pax’.
And to Mom Hulley and family in Canada – your sms’s and calls mean so much to us, we love you dearly.
With much love from
Justin and Jeanz
Xxxxxxxxxx
We do trust you are all keeping well. We are so thankful to God for our good health, we really have to trust Him in all situations here, as the food places are so dicey sometimes , and sometimes we land up in unplanned situations where precautions against mosquito’s and cleanliness are definitely not up to scratch. Choosing to trust Gods word and His promises in these circumstances is essential! ; you definitely have to intentionally walk by faith! ’NO deadly poison can harm us..!’
We have had a wonderful past few weeks, since the last e mail sent. I do want to apologise for the mistakes in my last email, I was really battling with the laptop while typing it out… and had a challenging time as it did as it pleased, reading thru it now- I did notice some mistakes and incomplete thoughts where I had experienced the mouse jumping around, etc. I still have not worked out why or what exactly I am doing to cause this!
Since our arrival in Kigoma we have made contact with some of the pastors here, word gets out quickly.. and we have not had to do much to look up pastors here…they have come to us! Out of these visits we organised our last trip to the Lagosa area. Lagosa is about 90kms south of Kigoma, and is on the boundary of the Mahale Nature Reserve, well known for its chimpanzees. We were so excited that this trip was finally organised as we were meant to go there during our last visit to Tanzania. We tried to fit it in many times and by this stage the churches were feeling quite desperate wondering if we were ever going to actually keep to our word and come! We have fast learnt that we do NOT set any ideas or plans in concrete but ALWAYS make clear to the pastors that our hearts are that we really want to come to them, and do plan to, BUT all our plans are submitted to Father God and we will get there when and if God is willing!
Justin & Jean have been very occupied working on the original green boat ‘Mercy 1’, that has been here in Kigoma since our last stay. The idea was to use her to travel to Lagosa. We planned to send pastor Ezra the luggage and the bibles & books ahead on the Liemba, and the 4 of us go on ‘Mercy 1’. This was so that we could have a boat once we were there to visit more than 1 village and the school, and we would not have to rely on local boats and have to be there until the Liemba’s return trip to Kigoma. It turned out that we had 2 very bad storms during the week we were due to leave, so we decided to all go on the Liemba. Trips on the Liemba to small villages along the lakeshore are difficult, as there are many stops along the way and there are no definate arrival times as it all depends on how big a load of cargo there is to off laod and on load at each stop. So it is very difficult to know where you are and when to get off!! What tension… we did not sleep at all as the arrival info we did get was for 11pm, heads were popping up at each stop all night long… and we eventually only arrived at 7AM!!!!!!! We were very relieved to find that pastor Rafael had managed to organise a small boat especially to pick us up off the Liemba so we did not have the stress of scrambling onto a local taxi boat. To be able to do this the pastor waited all night on this small boat because of the not knowing any Liemba arrival time! It was an hour long row to the village from the Liemba drop off point. Having been on the noisy Liemba it was blissfully peaceful in the little boat, being at water level we could appreciate the clean blue water and the stunningly beautiful greens of the Mahale mountains and villages below; indigenous plants, palms and trees as far as you could see….
We launched into ministry time at the Secondary School, straight after our arrival, we went there by boat as the recent hard rains had caused the rivers to flood and it was not possible to cross them en route to the school. It took all of 7 strong guys from the church village to row us – we had a strong head on wind and it took us over 2hrs to get there! We had a wonderful time evangelising the class of about 45 scholars, aged 15-18, plus the staff including the principle. They were very open to the gospel and we felt that there was a genuine response by some of them. There were some muslim children amongst them, who were there by there own decision and seemed to respond well to the Good News. By the time we left for our row home, it was raining and the wind had changed and was coming from the opposite direction! The young guys were exhausted so we decided to get back to land once we had passed the rivers and walk the rest of the way. There had been a lot of rain, so it was a great & slow adventure walking as the dense red mud packed onto our shoes like snow ski’s and we were slipping and sliding our way home in the rain!
While at the school we met up with pastor Damas, he & his congregation had been awaiting a visit from us since April last year, we had met up with a guy Nicholaus on the Liemba, who is running a Nature Conservation project in the villages, who had let him know we were back! Pastor Damas was SO excited to see us all, he had a photo of us from our last visit, which his son had taken on one of his trips to Kigoma. He hugged and hugged and hugged us each individually until we did not know which side to hug… I thought he was going to kiss me! Turned out that this was not to be the last that we saw of pastor Damas during this visit, he is just the most refreshing person, just SO in love with God and committed to Gods kingdom and evangelism.
Back in the village of pastor Rafael, we were too late for a church meeting that he had set up for us for 4pm, we were relieved as we had not expected this meeting and we were totally exhausted, after our no sleep on the Liemba and our walk back to the village. Together with Ezra, we set up our tents in the church, in 3 pitch dark rooms, with red sand floars. We did not notice our living conditions too much as the people made us so utterly welcome, with hot water for our bucket baths in the new palm leaved shelter they had made just for us to ‘bath’ in. The long drops are always my big challenge, one of those with the wooden floars over the dark-hole! Oooooh I have ‘day-mares’ about them and literally have to shake my head as I take my thoughts captive with the images of that floar collapsing and me being swallowed by the deep dark, fly & mozzie-ridden and ‘ wat ook al’ pit! We have heard some real life stories of this actually happening. Including Jean, who fortunately came off lightly as it was only his leg that ‘entered into the pit’! Can you just imagine that? I have told Justin that if that ever were to happen to me I would ask the Lord with ALL my faith to take me right there and then! Anyway, sorry, got off the subject a little there…! We were served a hot village meal and were in bed by 8pm. Boy did we sleep!
We woke up with all the children gathered around the church, so Justin & Jean decided on a spontaneous story time for them. They so enjoyed it, they had there own drummer and song leader amongst themselves, and celebrated Jesus together in song and dance, followed by the story and then they prayed for each other. The evangelism training followed, with leaders and potential evangelists from most of the denominations, many of whom walked far distances to be there, from villages in the area. The training went well and there was such a tangible presence of the Holy Spirit amongst us. After a lunch break everyone practised with the evangelism tool, and were then prayed over and sent out 2 by 2 to evangelise. The report backs were SO exciting, faces beaming and testifying how they had experienced Gods power as they shared the Good News. There were reports of salvations and connections with others that wanted to come to the next church service.
Saturday was set for the basic health care with the woman by Anita and myself. Justin & Jean started the morning off with another story with the children, by the sounds of the animations and exclamations from the two story tellers they had a whale of a time!! The children responded well and it was encouraging to hear the knowledge of the word from some of them when they were asked questions. The health care went so well, and we were overwhelmed by the number of mamma’s that attended – there were over 100 woman from near and far, again with their pen an paper, absorbing the practical help that we taught them. We covered different topics like; what causes sickness, ways to prevent sickness e.g. through good eating habits, clean water, hygiene and vaccines. Also how to recognise & treat common sickness like scabies, fever, diarrhoea, dehydration, worms, woman problems, etc. We shared from the good Samaritan and matt.24 and encouraged the woman to make a difference in both their families and in their communities. We ended off by praying for the sick.
Straight after the health care we were served another cooked meal; this time it was ‘dagaar’ a little very smelly fish that is either fried fresh or dried and then fried with tomato and onion. This cook was kind enough to chop their heads off, so we did not have 100;s of these tiny fish with their dried eyes staring at us from the plate… I regretfully did not manage to consume any myself- they were the fresh kind fried and looked a little slimy. I did however manage to eat a few of the dried variety that we were served the next day!! they were surprisingly quite nice. Shew another eating challenge overcome, but the worst was still to come later on during the week. An hour later we were whisked off by pastor Damas, he had arranged the Mahale nature Conservation speed boat from Nicholaus to take us to his village… he was determined for us to visit & share in his church, after all, they had been waiting for us for nearly a year!! We decided to move from pastor Rafael’s church to Nicholaus’s house on the lake, he had offered for us to stay with him as it would be easier to hear and to reach the Liemba from his house, which we were expecting to arrive at about midnight. We had to really convince pastor Rafael that this was a good idea, and that our commitments were up at his village. The pastors really try to get more and more and more from you once you are with them. We had to spend some time with him, patiently explaining and processing the idea through with him, he eventually released us, and even then accompanied us on the boat trip to pastor Damas’s village and church meeting.
We had really been blessed by pastor Rafael’s church, they had made sure we were well fed, and made us as comfortable as possible during our stay with them. We really have so much to learn from these people who have so little, yet are so open hearted and ready to give so much. The balance of this is we are so often faced with the challenge that at some stage during our visit most pastors will make sure they get the opportunity to let us know of their church and/or community needs, and ask us what we are able to provide. We are constantly presented with the challenge of trying to break their mindset that we are not their answer to all their needs, but God is, that we do not come with silver and gold (dollars!) but such as the Lord has given us we desire to give to them- the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the love & blessings of the Father, to encourage and to equip them for works of ministry in any way we are able to!
Our arrival at pastor Damas’s village was quite over whelming as we were welcomed by the church congregation waiting for us on the lake shore… they carried all our goods and led us singing as we walked to the church, which was full to capacity, over 90 adults waiting for our arrival! What a God-filled meeting we had together, the Holy Spirit was so tangible, and Justin preached his heart out, proclaiming the word of God, encouraging the church in their right standing with God the Father and His commission for us to ‘GO’ into all villages and the nations! This particular church we found out was a new church and was growing rapidly. They evangelize every Saturday in the market, and pastor Damas and his wife have such hearts filled with Gods love and very evidently overflowing into the lives of their congregation and into their community. God is really at work in this congregation of believers, and they are really kingdom focused. We were SO blessed that God had made it possible for us to meet with them, our hearts definitely were connected!
After 2 hours we had to politely excuse ourselves from the meeting as we were fighting against the daylight hours left of the day and still had to set up camp at Nicholaus’s house. We were again ‘boated’ back to Nicholaus’s house where we pitched tents to sleep in on his front lawn which overlooked the lake – it was like paradise. We made a big fire and we enjoyed a lovely meal and fellowship around the fire as we prepared ourselves for a long night waiting for the Liemba, only to find out shortly afterwards that it had been delayed by a whole day and would only arrive the next day, Sunday, after midnight! This was seemingly a bit of a disruption to our plans as we needed to leave Kigoma on Monday for a 2 day bus trip to Ruwnada, where we were to meet up with Jean’s dad. He was doing a few day seminar there and had asked us to join him. We decided to trust God and committed all our plans to him, as we realised there must be some purpose in this delay.
On Sunday pastor Ezra had the opportunity to visit with one of the Moto Moto Pentecostal churches that he had never been able to visit up until then. After lunch we met up with Hamin, a big fishing businessman who we had met on the Liemba on previous trips, he was so pleased to see us and offered for us to wait over for the Liemba at his house in the next village, as he was also waiting for the Liemba and had a small boat organised to the Liemba pick up point on the lake. The pick up point was directly in front of his village, so things were looking better and better towards getting onto that Liemba. We had a good afternoon and evening with Hamid, who is a muslim. We are really trusting God for his salvation, and know God has got a plan for us to share with him the gospel as we have met up with him many times, and he knows our stand. While sitting chatting a friend of Hamin’s, Peter, arrived and quite aggressively confronted us, wanting to know what our reasons were for visiting their village and what exactly we were going to contribute to their village, as they had needs like a school, clinic,etc,etc, (the usual list of requests). We patiently explained to him that we were invited guests by friends in his village and those around, and our interest was mainly to ask people about the condition of their hearts. He huffed and puffed a bit , Jean got onto asking him what condition his heart was in, was it is like hard stone or soft, did he have light or darkness in his heart? He answered that he had both light and darkness in his heart. Jean carried on by asking him what condition he would actually desire for his heart to be in? His answer was that he would like it to be full of light! We got so excited at this answer, but were a bit concerned as at that moment he was called away to something else. We prayed together for him, recognising that this man was obviously part of God’s plan for us being delayed in Lagosa. Ezra explained to us that he had obviously been sent to confront us on these things on behalf of the other muslims in the village, that they would obviously have discussed us together and sent a ‘spokesman’ to us. The village had a big muslim following, and a real ‘fisherman’ atmosphere, who are really mostly a rough crowd. It was really ‘heavy’ going spiritually in this village. Peter returned a little later to say goodbye, but we quickly invited him to sit down and chat, we were determined to finish our conversation with him and share with him the way of salvation. Well Peter accepted Jesus that evening, his heart was turned from stone to flesh…darkness was overcome by Light!! How amazing!!
Well the next meal challenge was near at hand… we were presented with goat and chapati’s (like a pancake/roti) for supper!!! I never did manage to eat any, O how I need grace for these occasions. Ever since I had the experience of the hanging chunks of slaughtered animal on the Liemba I have not been able to stomach any meat of any sorts… I stick to the ugali (pap), rice, beans, greens, chips majay (omelette) or fish! Praise God there are some options! The Liemba eventually arrived at 2.30am, we were given a ride on a small and very ‘flimsy’ looking fishing boat with Hamin, which seemed to literally flex over the waves. Getting onto the Liemba was hectic, our boat pushed in first next to the Liemba, after first of all ramming head on into it!! I thought the flimsy boat was going to splinter into pieces with the impact! Taxi boats just ram into each other and push each other out of the way, in the dark of night, and do not care a hoot for their passengers, they just want to get the incoming passengers off as quickly as possible so that they can load up with out going passengers back to shore! By this time another boat rammed in between us and the Liemba, so we had to get out of our boat into that boat first then from that boat into the Liemba. There was a much bigger taxi boat with a motor who was totally ‘peeved-off’ with our boat as our boat had pushed its way in next to the Liemba, so at the first opportunity it rammed our boat out of the way!.. at this stage, we were all on the Liemba except for Justin, who was passing all our luggage to us from the taxi boat. So with the bulshy move of the motorised taxi boat who decided to take off despite the fact that Justin was still on his boat! - Justin was left hanging suspended on the side of the Liemba!! Thankfully other passengers got a hold of Justin as he was vertically suspended and passed him on from one person to the other as the boat sped off, and others heaved him up into the Liemba..!! I did not see any of this, praise the Lord, it was hair raising enough just hearing what happened.
Once on the Liemba, there were no cabins available, as the Liemba had been picking up passengers for the last 500plus km, so we went for the 3rd class option with the idea of pitching our tent on the deck. Justin & Jean slept in the tent pitched on the deck or roof area at the far back end of boat on top of the pile of life rafts. I unfortunately could not get myself to get there as the area was just to open and there was no railings around this particular area, I really felt like the bad-sport, but I could not do it! In the end Anita and I slept on roll out camping mattresses on the deck in a more protected space … shew can you imagine that? I cant believe we actually did that? We managed to get a few hours sleep before the sun came up, and eventually arrived safely in Kigoma at 2.30pm. It is hard to believe that it takes 12hrs to travel 90kms hey?
On route home we were so blessed to see one of the young guys from pastor Damas’s church ministering to a muslim on the Liemba with the evangelism tract that we give out at the training. He was so persistent and spoke intensely to this guy for over 3hrs! We are looking forward to hearing what happened, as we are meeting up with him during this week.
As we reflect on our 6 day trip we are amazed at Gods hand over all the happenings, all the blessings and the way He faithfully provided for us, all the amazing contacts, all of which we have met previously, and how the Lord worked it altogether in a wonderful time in the Lagosa area. We estimated about 450 people that we ministered to directly, that excludes any others that the people outreached to themselves on the day of training and since then.
Well after a day of loads of washing, and after doing some enquiring about the bus trip to Ruwanda, and finding out that it would be at least a 2 day trip as some portions of the road are in a very bad condition, and praying we decided not to do this trip.
We are so excited to see what God has in store for us next, pastor Ezra sat in on the health care morning with the ladies and is very excited about the idea of Anita and I sharing it in the churches around and about Kigoma, he says it is ‘compulsory’ as it is a valuable and practical help to every day needs in the peoples lives. He is keen for us to make it part of any trip we go on! So I guess we will be sharing that at a few more churches whenever possible.
Please pray with us over the following planning and opportunities;
- We are planning a trip to Kagunga next, it is pastor Ezra’s home town about 50km north of us. This trip will be over the 1st week end in Feb. We will be there for 2 nights and plan to go on our green boat ‘Mercy1’, or a small boat. We will be doing the usual day training with all church leaders on the Saturday, as well as health care on the Friday we arrive. After the Sunday meeting we will return to Kigoma.
- on the Sunday evening that we return. 3 Feb, we plan a trip to Morongoro and then onto Dar Es Salaam, as we are going to minister and do training with a group of Moto Moto churches in those places. From there we plan to go to the Arusha area, where we have another container of bibles and literature.
- Up until then we plan to go to as many schools as possible, to evangelise and hand out bibles starting this Friday at 2 schools.
Please pray that God opens the doors in the places where there are those with open hearts to the gospel, where the harvest is ripe,ie. those just ready and waiting to be saved, commissioned, encouraged and equipped to serve Jesus and to love God with their whole heart, to ‘GO’ and take the Good News of Jesus to their communities and villages around them,
We are so thankful for all of Gods amazing blessings and the wonders of His love and care for us.
Big thanks to the faithful prayer warriors and all those who help towards supporting us financially, in friendship, in communication and love.
We love and miss you Mike & Anne and all our family and friends at West Coast.
We especially miss Luke, Dan and Candice …… and the new addition to the family ‘Pax’.
And to Mom Hulley and family in Canada – your sms’s and calls mean so much to us, we love you dearly.
With much love from
Justin and Jeanz
Xxxxxxxxxx
Jeannie's latest letter.
To our precious friends and family,
we had a good trip to Mpulungu, we have been staying with the missionary family, Div & Eleanor and it has been good. justin has been a GREAT help with the electrics there, in the orphanage and in the homes of some of the pastors relating to Div & Eleanor.Jean, Anita and myself kept busy in the library they have just got up and runnign, we had to categorise boxes of bookks and colour code them ready to be put on yhe shelves. Boxes of very good christian literature had been donateed to them for the library...
we are in Mbeya now, wearrived yesterday and are stating in a moravian Hostel.we travelled here in Jeans bakkie, very rough road!! today we visited the place where the books are stored here, we sorted through them, and did a count to be able to keep some kind of a stock control from Kigoma. we have loaded some to take back with us to mpulungu, as we will use these to do the training in the few villages we will vsisit by boat from mpulungu once we are back.
yesterday we met up with a very intersting african couple working with an indigenous group outside of mbeya, they relate to the same group as Div & Eleanor. we hope to come back in the future to visit with him and the group he is involved with.
they invited us back to do an evangelism training with their group here - and 6 associations that they are working with !
today we met a faimily who were staying wiht the guy who is storing the books in mbeya, they have just moved here from kenya(been there for 20yrs) they work with Whycliffe - and do bible translating -
we are still settling in to the lifestyke here in Tanzania, really trying to not run ahead of God. we plan to leave for mpulungu again tomorrow, then will try the boat out on the lake in the days to come - we still have not tried her out as we had rainiy days during our stay there so far. once we feel confident with the boat we are going to try to get to about 3 villages from mpulungu to do some training and follow up some guys that anita & Jean had to do with in their original vists to the area. we will be able to do day trips from Mpulungu to do this.
We have been asked by Div & Eleanor to do a days evangelsism traiingnwith their pastors here in this area on the 2nd Jan, once we have done this we will probably aim up towards kigoma. we may go up some of the way, as far as Kipili in our boat, do some training there, then get the Liemab from Kipli to Kigoma.
the Liemba has not been running to kigoma recently, it has been busy with transporting refugees to the congo, so we still have to find out when next if makes a trip to Kigoma, to plan when we will aim for there.
so our intention so far is to go to about 7 villages along the lake, the first 2 will be from the south, Mpulungu. the rest from Kigoma. God willing!
we are all well, missing every one from home STAX! we appreciate all the prayers and sms's!
love you lots and lots,
Justin & Jeannie
contact numbers;Tanzania +255 762 183 746
Zambia +26 0985 46749
we had a good trip to Mpulungu, we have been staying with the missionary family, Div & Eleanor and it has been good. justin has been a GREAT help with the electrics there, in the orphanage and in the homes of some of the pastors relating to Div & Eleanor.Jean, Anita and myself kept busy in the library they have just got up and runnign, we had to categorise boxes of bookks and colour code them ready to be put on yhe shelves. Boxes of very good christian literature had been donateed to them for the library...
we are in Mbeya now, wearrived yesterday and are stating in a moravian Hostel.we travelled here in Jeans bakkie, very rough road!! today we visited the place where the books are stored here, we sorted through them, and did a count to be able to keep some kind of a stock control from Kigoma. we have loaded some to take back with us to mpulungu, as we will use these to do the training in the few villages we will vsisit by boat from mpulungu once we are back.
yesterday we met up with a very intersting african couple working with an indigenous group outside of mbeya, they relate to the same group as Div & Eleanor. we hope to come back in the future to visit with him and the group he is involved with.
they invited us back to do an evangelism training with their group here - and 6 associations that they are working with !
today we met a faimily who were staying wiht the guy who is storing the books in mbeya, they have just moved here from kenya(been there for 20yrs) they work with Whycliffe - and do bible translating -
we are still settling in to the lifestyke here in Tanzania, really trying to not run ahead of God. we plan to leave for mpulungu again tomorrow, then will try the boat out on the lake in the days to come - we still have not tried her out as we had rainiy days during our stay there so far. once we feel confident with the boat we are going to try to get to about 3 villages from mpulungu to do some training and follow up some guys that anita & Jean had to do with in their original vists to the area. we will be able to do day trips from Mpulungu to do this.
We have been asked by Div & Eleanor to do a days evangelsism traiingnwith their pastors here in this area on the 2nd Jan, once we have done this we will probably aim up towards kigoma. we may go up some of the way, as far as Kipili in our boat, do some training there, then get the Liemab from Kipli to Kigoma.
the Liemba has not been running to kigoma recently, it has been busy with transporting refugees to the congo, so we still have to find out when next if makes a trip to Kigoma, to plan when we will aim for there.
so our intention so far is to go to about 7 villages along the lake, the first 2 will be from the south, Mpulungu. the rest from Kigoma. God willing!
we are all well, missing every one from home STAX! we appreciate all the prayers and sms's!
love you lots and lots,
Justin & Jeannie
contact numbers;Tanzania +255 762 183 746
Zambia +26 0985 46749
Justin & Jeannie on their way to Tanzania again - DECEMBER 2007.
Between the hum-drum of Christmas lights, Jingle-bells, the sweep of a hot-summer-Cape Town-southeaster and holiday-makers catching the first rays of a sun-an on our beaches, two people have set, once more, on a long and willing journey back to the 'almost' centre of Africa, to follow the call of the Fathers heartbeat for them.
Justin & Jeannie left in the early hours of Saturday 15 December, by Air-craft to Johannesburg. Then caught a bus to Lusaka, and headed for Mpulungu to stay their for a few weeks until they met up with Jean & Anita. They arrived on the 17th and have started launching the boat. Justin has been helping missionaries with electrical wiring of the a new orphanage house. This was before they left for Mbeye. The plan is to spend a few days there, to meet up with Scripture Union people, who are storing books and bibles for them to take back to Mpulungu.
The general and continious prayer request, is always for travel-mercies, good roads and safety all the way.
Following this introductory post, I will publish Jeannie's first letter.
As you might have noticed, I will be doing most of the Hulley's communications via the blog and emails. My aim is to send less inividual emails, and use this site as the main access point for all general prayer requests and info. Only when and if, there are emergency news or prayer requests, will I send it directly to individual emails. I encourage all of you to put this site as a 'favorite' on your computer, to log into at least once a week, to check on updated sms's and news.
Sharon Richter is doing all the intercession co-ordinating
Robin & Estelle, once again will be keeping a close reign on logistics of the Hulley's personal affairs here at home.
Thank You to all the involved parties, and Pete Norval who has regular contact with them, and relays all messages and important information to us all.
Most of all, we honour Mike and Anne for sending them as a son & daughter in our house, as true missionaries to spread the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to all nations.
Regards,
Sonja du Plessis
Justin & Jeannie left in the early hours of Saturday 15 December, by Air-craft to Johannesburg. Then caught a bus to Lusaka, and headed for Mpulungu to stay their for a few weeks until they met up with Jean & Anita. They arrived on the 17th and have started launching the boat. Justin has been helping missionaries with electrical wiring of the a new orphanage house. This was before they left for Mbeye. The plan is to spend a few days there, to meet up with Scripture Union people, who are storing books and bibles for them to take back to Mpulungu.
The general and continious prayer request, is always for travel-mercies, good roads and safety all the way.
Following this introductory post, I will publish Jeannie's first letter.
As you might have noticed, I will be doing most of the Hulley's communications via the blog and emails. My aim is to send less inividual emails, and use this site as the main access point for all general prayer requests and info. Only when and if, there are emergency news or prayer requests, will I send it directly to individual emails. I encourage all of you to put this site as a 'favorite' on your computer, to log into at least once a week, to check on updated sms's and news.
Sharon Richter is doing all the intercession co-ordinating
Robin & Estelle, once again will be keeping a close reign on logistics of the Hulley's personal affairs here at home.
Thank You to all the involved parties, and Pete Norval who has regular contact with them, and relays all messages and important information to us all.
Most of all, we honour Mike and Anne for sending them as a son & daughter in our house, as true missionaries to spread the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to all nations.
Regards,
Sonja du Plessis
We "hired" an unprofessional videographer.....
I hope you all enjoy this video-clip of the Hulley-home-coming on Thursday morning 19 July 2007. I'm so sorry that you have to twist your neck for the first few seconds, as I clearly should have given someone else the camera to hold. Hope you find it "authentic" or otherwise forgiving that we did not have a professional videographer available.....
ENJOY!!!
ENJOY!!!
A Letter Fresh from the Hulley's, since arrival!!
Hello to all our loved ones
We have been back for a week already!!!..
We arrived home all safe and MOST welcomed…
WHAT a welcome we had at the airport… the SA & Tanzania flags flying high!!, surrounded by the faithful faces we love! And O how good to see Luke… who we missed so very much… We have since had great moments together with Luke & friends; catching up & trying to communicate our heart & our experiences.
And then there has been the process of trying to absorb the reality of being back… ????! which has been both rather disorientating and daunting… Justin is back into contracting, and God has already proved Himself faithful In providing work for us this week. I had to get my computer sorted out before plunging back into admin, emails, bookwork, etc… somehow a “bug” managed to creep in during the short while we were away!
We were so blessed on the trip down to SA and we had opportunity to both meet new people and share Jesus and His precious gift of salvation with some on our journey “home”, O the blood of Jesus, NOTHING but the blood of Jesus, which cleanses us and is the power unto salvation and relationship with precious Father God.
After the 3 day & 2 night trip on the Liemba ferry from Kigoma, our first stop was an overnight stop in Mpulungu, Zambia, with Div & Eleanor and family, missionaries in the area, who blessed us with their warm hospitality, love & friendship. I must just mention that on the Liemba, we had opportunity to share the gospel with a couple working in Africa under “Doctors without borders”.. what a God given moment… they had both had bad experiences of religion when growing up, and were flabbergasted at our “relationship” with Father God! A real eye-opener to them the way we spoke about the “Good News” of Jesus… & Jesus being the Truth & only Way to have relationship with Father God, they did not have a clue what we actually meant!.. so we seized the moment and explained… we pray& trust that the Holy Spirit will water the seeds of truth shared with them. The 2nd night we stayed over in Kabwe,Zambia, at the mission compound with a family who Div & Eleanor relate to… we arrived in the dark and cold after a LONG day on the road, & waiting for us was a HUGE pot of stew…we got to meet Coen & family, whom we think we will walk a road with yet, in our work in Africa… The 3rd stop was at Livingstone , Zambia , we camped there at a backpackers, we arrived with just enough daylight left for Jean & Anita to visit & experience the Magnificent sight of Victoria Falls… which we had visited on our trip to Tanzania .
The 4th night we again arrived late in the town of Silebe Phikwe, Botswana, our last stop before entering SA!… we did not have a place arranged to stay, but we asked Father to direct us to a place where we could be comfortable and safe, but also for opportunity to share the gospel with if the owners were not saved… well it turned out we had a wonderful time to share Jesus with them. They did not have rooms for us to stay over in,but after chatting to them a little, they were kind enough to let us camp on their guest house grounds. In the morning, after a rather chilly night, they had made us a camp fire and set a breakfast table for us! All set with white table cloth & red overlay, white crockery and hot milk coffee, with a cooked breakfast!! The Lord bless them!.. they were like angels in disguise.
On the last night we were blessed by my uncle Geoff & Aunt Ruth, we had a lovely family time with them & catching up.. they took us the airport early-bells the next morning…4.45am!
Well back home has been rather daunting as I mentioned, and taken some adjusting! I cant say that I am there yet!!…but we are comfortable in our little flatlet & Luke is with us. Dan & Candice have found themselves a lovely garden flat through someone in their church. God is good & we continue to thank Him for the amazing opportunity of having been in Tanzania . We continue trusting Him in providing for us daily, for our good health and His continual leading & directing us. We thank Him for the powerful work of salvation in our own lives … so that we can continue to be a witness & testimony to Him and of His glory… wherever we are.
Our experience in Africa was one of being constantly aware of Africa ’s spiritual darkness. We lived each day in spiritual warfare…constantly aware of the darkness even in the lives of the believers. How devastating to see how the powerful gospel of Jesus Christ, and the work of salvation in individuals gone cold, and lives been covered over by a deep darkness & “sleep”. Their poverty stricken lives now overshadowing them & now become a stronghold of hopelessness. Where there once was hope- now ….only despair.
As we ministered the powerful Gospel unto salvation and ministered on the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Righteousness & who we are in Christ, and gave them tools on spiritual warfare, there began to be something of an awakening…. The power of the good news of the gospel was again re kindled, bringing the Hope that salvation gives to all that choose to follow after the Truth & choose to not only believe but to embrace Truth, & to desperately seek out truth and Him Who is the giver of Life and ALL things good!
It was so rewarding to see the power of Truth again impacting the lives of some afresh…seeing them committing again to TRUTH, and hope being restored. Amazing to see how God used us, just the “ordinary”, but because we had availed ourselves to His call and became part of the “who so ever will”, we became the vessels He could work through and deliver His presence through- To encourage those in places of despair & bring the refreshing power of the Holy Spirit into situations and lives of precious children of God. We became the vessels of His glorious Light in a dark place…. WHAT a privilege…
We really want to thank some of those who so faithfully supported us over these initial months…. & made it possible for us to go… we know that without this support it would not have been possible. We went on your behalf!
Thank you to ALL for the scriptures sent to us… we literally held onto them with our lives at times!
Mike & Anne, for your love and support… for trusting us and wholeheartedly partnering with us in the”fields” of Tanzania .
To Pete, for your heart for Father God and His Kingdom, then out of that… your heart & 100% backing for those like us who “go” you are an amazing example for us. Thank you for you friendship & all your encouragement & prayer while we were out “there”, and just the way you consistently & wholeheartedly rallied around us and the support team that backed us, as we all continue to learn together…
To Robin & Estelle ; shew… you showed yourself faithful, both in you friendship towards us, your encouragement & prayers and then…. ALL the details of our lives …finances, the house renting and the hundred little “itsy bitsy” details of our lives…Thank you!
To Sonja.. you did an excellent job with the communications… the “blog-spot” …. What can we say- you excelled!~! thank you for your friendship & faithful prayers- you were great, great great!
To Sharonie… prayer warrior & now a friend! Thank you for committing to heading up the “warrior” team, for all your praying-thru till the end! AND your encouragement.
To all the prayer warriors that came alongside ..your commitment &praying for us some we hardly even knew,,, for praying with us through some of the spiritual battles we were in …until victory came!!..!
To our families…for your faith-filled love & care, encouragement, prayer, support AND the phone calls… how good it was to hear your beautiful voices in the “outermost” parts! We love you dearly….
To all those who gave in prayer, financially or supported us in anyway to help us along… some we don’t even know of… your reward is in Heaven! WOW!! We pray that as you sewed… so shall you reap.. in this life and the next.
Please continue to pray for us… that God continues to use us and lead us into the next phase.
We love you and would love to hear from you.
Much love
Justin & Jeannie
We have been back for a week already!!!..
We arrived home all safe and MOST welcomed…
WHAT a welcome we had at the airport… the SA & Tanzania flags flying high!!, surrounded by the faithful faces we love! And O how good to see Luke… who we missed so very much… We have since had great moments together with Luke & friends; catching up & trying to communicate our heart & our experiences.
And then there has been the process of trying to absorb the reality of being back… ????! which has been both rather disorientating and daunting… Justin is back into contracting, and God has already proved Himself faithful In providing work for us this week. I had to get my computer sorted out before plunging back into admin, emails, bookwork, etc… somehow a “bug” managed to creep in during the short while we were away!
We were so blessed on the trip down to SA and we had opportunity to both meet new people and share Jesus and His precious gift of salvation with some on our journey “home”, O the blood of Jesus, NOTHING but the blood of Jesus, which cleanses us and is the power unto salvation and relationship with precious Father God.
After the 3 day & 2 night trip on the Liemba ferry from Kigoma, our first stop was an overnight stop in Mpulungu, Zambia, with Div & Eleanor and family, missionaries in the area, who blessed us with their warm hospitality, love & friendship. I must just mention that on the Liemba, we had opportunity to share the gospel with a couple working in Africa under “Doctors without borders”.. what a God given moment… they had both had bad experiences of religion when growing up, and were flabbergasted at our “relationship” with Father God! A real eye-opener to them the way we spoke about the “Good News” of Jesus… & Jesus being the Truth & only Way to have relationship with Father God, they did not have a clue what we actually meant!.. so we seized the moment and explained… we pray& trust that the Holy Spirit will water the seeds of truth shared with them. The 2nd night we stayed over in Kabwe,Zambia, at the mission compound with a family who Div & Eleanor relate to… we arrived in the dark and cold after a LONG day on the road, & waiting for us was a HUGE pot of stew…we got to meet Coen & family, whom we think we will walk a road with yet, in our work in Africa… The 3rd stop was at Livingstone , Zambia , we camped there at a backpackers, we arrived with just enough daylight left for Jean & Anita to visit & experience the Magnificent sight of Victoria Falls… which we had visited on our trip to Tanzania .
The 4th night we again arrived late in the town of Silebe Phikwe, Botswana, our last stop before entering SA!… we did not have a place arranged to stay, but we asked Father to direct us to a place where we could be comfortable and safe, but also for opportunity to share the gospel with if the owners were not saved… well it turned out we had a wonderful time to share Jesus with them. They did not have rooms for us to stay over in,but after chatting to them a little, they were kind enough to let us camp on their guest house grounds. In the morning, after a rather chilly night, they had made us a camp fire and set a breakfast table for us! All set with white table cloth & red overlay, white crockery and hot milk coffee, with a cooked breakfast!! The Lord bless them!.. they were like angels in disguise.
On the last night we were blessed by my uncle Geoff & Aunt Ruth, we had a lovely family time with them & catching up.. they took us the airport early-bells the next morning…4.45am!
Well back home has been rather daunting as I mentioned, and taken some adjusting! I cant say that I am there yet!!…but we are comfortable in our little flatlet & Luke is with us. Dan & Candice have found themselves a lovely garden flat through someone in their church. God is good & we continue to thank Him for the amazing opportunity of having been in Tanzania . We continue trusting Him in providing for us daily, for our good health and His continual leading & directing us. We thank Him for the powerful work of salvation in our own lives … so that we can continue to be a witness & testimony to Him and of His glory… wherever we are.
Our experience in Africa was one of being constantly aware of Africa ’s spiritual darkness. We lived each day in spiritual warfare…constantly aware of the darkness even in the lives of the believers. How devastating to see how the powerful gospel of Jesus Christ, and the work of salvation in individuals gone cold, and lives been covered over by a deep darkness & “sleep”. Their poverty stricken lives now overshadowing them & now become a stronghold of hopelessness. Where there once was hope- now ….only despair.
As we ministered the powerful Gospel unto salvation and ministered on the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Righteousness & who we are in Christ, and gave them tools on spiritual warfare, there began to be something of an awakening…. The power of the good news of the gospel was again re kindled, bringing the Hope that salvation gives to all that choose to follow after the Truth & choose to not only believe but to embrace Truth, & to desperately seek out truth and Him Who is the giver of Life and ALL things good!
It was so rewarding to see the power of Truth again impacting the lives of some afresh…seeing them committing again to TRUTH, and hope being restored. Amazing to see how God used us, just the “ordinary”, but because we had availed ourselves to His call and became part of the “who so ever will”, we became the vessels He could work through and deliver His presence through- To encourage those in places of despair & bring the refreshing power of the Holy Spirit into situations and lives of precious children of God. We became the vessels of His glorious Light in a dark place…. WHAT a privilege…
We really want to thank some of those who so faithfully supported us over these initial months…. & made it possible for us to go… we know that without this support it would not have been possible. We went on your behalf!
Thank you to ALL for the scriptures sent to us… we literally held onto them with our lives at times!
Mike & Anne, for your love and support… for trusting us and wholeheartedly partnering with us in the”fields” of Tanzania .
To Pete, for your heart for Father God and His Kingdom, then out of that… your heart & 100% backing for those like us who “go” you are an amazing example for us. Thank you for you friendship & all your encouragement & prayer while we were out “there”, and just the way you consistently & wholeheartedly rallied around us and the support team that backed us, as we all continue to learn together…
To Robin & Estelle ; shew… you showed yourself faithful, both in you friendship towards us, your encouragement & prayers and then…. ALL the details of our lives …finances, the house renting and the hundred little “itsy bitsy” details of our lives…Thank you!
To Sonja.. you did an excellent job with the communications… the “blog-spot” …. What can we say- you excelled!~! thank you for your friendship & faithful prayers- you were great, great great!
To Sharonie… prayer warrior & now a friend! Thank you for committing to heading up the “warrior” team, for all your praying-thru till the end! AND your encouragement.
To all the prayer warriors that came alongside ..your commitment &praying for us some we hardly even knew,,, for praying with us through some of the spiritual battles we were in …until victory came!!..!
To our families…for your faith-filled love & care, encouragement, prayer, support AND the phone calls… how good it was to hear your beautiful voices in the “outermost” parts! We love you dearly….
To all those who gave in prayer, financially or supported us in anyway to help us along… some we don’t even know of… your reward is in Heaven! WOW!! We pray that as you sewed… so shall you reap.. in this life and the next.
Please continue to pray for us… that God continues to use us and lead us into the next phase.
We love you and would love to hear from you.
Much love
Justin & Jeannie
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