Elections, Etc.

     This past week, Tanzania experienced the most closely contested election in it's national history.  The election came and went (relatively) peacefully in our area.  The results were controversial with both candidates claiming victory.  Many Tanzanians are feeling quite upset with the political process.   The situation warrants keeping an eye on, especially in Zanzibar, but for now peace is reigning.  Thank you for the prayers this week.  Please continue to keep the country in those prayers.   

Wednesday Series

     During the months of October and November, I have been asked to do a special series of studies on the books of Acts and Romans at the Arusha church.  Attempting to survey those texts in that time period is proving to be an interesting study.  I'm enjoying it, and I hope the congregation is as well.  I appreciate the invitation.

Evangelism Meeting

    After taking a hiatus due to a packed calendar, the area evangelists resumed their monthly meetings this week.  On these occasions the brethren hold each other accountable for their efforts, and make plans for future collaborations.  It is one of the things that I like most about how the churches here cooperate together.

4th Quarter

     Meanwhile the 4th quarter of the school year continues.  I'm teaching a course on 1 and 2 Thessalonians.  It has been a joy to watch these men grow throughout their first year of study.  By this point they have a good idea of what is expected of them and how the school works.

Spiritual Disciplines

     This week I have the pleasure of kicking off the Spiritual Disciplines Seminar at the Monduli congregation.  This will actually be the first time that I've had the opportunity to visit with the brethren there, so it is an extra-special treat for me.  Our new teammate, Justin Maynard, is coming along also.  I'm training Justin to take my place in the seminar when I go away on furlough.  During that time, he will have the opportunity to take the seminar to Maji ya Chai and Kwa Morambo.  

Furlough Schedule

     Furlough is coming up soon, so if you would like a visit, then please contact me so that I can get you on the schedule.  I'd love to tell you about the great things that God is doing here.

TLC 2015

      This year's Tanzania Leadership Conference was a great success.  Participants came from the United States, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, and even Cambodia to be a part of this event.  Speakers focused on how Jesus modeled 21 Laws of Leadership, and how church leaders today can emulate that example.  

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Our ladies hard at work handling the registration table.  All attendees received packets with outlines of all the lessons, a song book, an empty notebook for note taking and a few other goodies.

Daniel addresses the TLC assembly

Our brand new teammate, Justin Maynard, jumps right in and does a great job with his first sermon.  We're very happy to have Justin and his family helping us here.

Attendees soak in the spiritual feast.

Daniel addresses the alumni

     With so many alumni present, we took the opportunity to have an alumni meeting and dinner together.  Since its beginning, the Andrew Connally School of Preaching has graduated 120 students into the field, 35 of whom were in attendance at the meeting.  Mike Hite gave a keynote address to the assembly.  Then over dinner we were able to catch up on some of the great work being done across East Africa by our graduates.  It was very encouraging.  

     In other news, the 4th quarter of our school year is now under way.  May God bless our students as they approach the finish line of this year's studies.

Teammates

We are delighted to be able to welcome some new additions to our mission team in Arusha.  Justin and Anna Maynard, along with her sister Samantha Edwards, have recently arrived to work with us.  Justin and Anna are going to be focused on helping to expand the farming aspect of the work at the school of preaching.  

This is a very important part of the school for two reasons.  First, it helps with the sustainability of the work.  By cutting food costs, and even creating revenue with surplus foods, the school's budget will be that much less dependent on outside support.  Second, the students can learn valuable gardening skills.  While the demand for preachers is high (we can't graduate men fast enough to meet the need), much of this demand is from congregations that can't fully support a full-time preacher.  Being able to garden will help our students to feed their families while they are working as evangelists. 

Additionally, Samantha has agreed to serve as librarian for our school.  She'll have the opportunity to be a great help by providing some badly needed organization to our book collection, implementing a system for maintaining that order, and training a permanent librarian for when she returns to the US.  This will be a tremendous asset for our students. 

You can catch up with the new workers on their blog here.

Pray for them as they get adjusted to their new lives in Africa, and bless their hearts that they now have to put up with me all of the time.  

Juggling Act

With short courses going on and the Tanzanian Leadership Conference around the corner, we have the pleasure of hosting a large number of guests in the coming days.  We're no strangers to dealing with a lot of guests, but usually it is one or two large groups at a time where everyone's schedules are pretty similar.

The current situation is unique in my time here.  We have so many individuals trickling in and out on different itineraries, that we are in the midst of making 10 airport runs over the course of 13 days.   Keep in mind that an airport run, realistically takes half a day for the driver.  On top of transportation logistics, we want to make sure that all of our guests are well cared for and have everything they need.  Almost all of these individual guests also have unique agendas for their visits, requiring personalized attention.

With the unfortunate limitation of only being able to be in one place at a time, there is absolutely no way that I could juggle the current situation alone.  That's why I'm taking the time now to praise our faculty at the school.  Charles, Ahimidiwe, Godfrey, Michael, and Augustine along with some others here and there have stepped up and taken on new levels of hosting responsibilities.  They've had Americans into their homes to eat, helped with transportation issues, and generally been absolutely indispensable resources.

I hadn't planned it this way, but necessity forced these increased roles.  In hindsight (if it can be called that from the midst of the situation), this is actually proving to be a valuable growth experience for local leaders, as well as for myself.

So to sum up the message of this report:  Thank God for teammates, both foreign and local.  I pray that He blesses them all.

Prayer Request

Our other teammates and dear friends, Cy and Stephanie Stafford are each facing medical situations.  Your prayers on their behalf would be much appreciated.