Saturday, November 24, 2012

Prayer Needed: Nov 24-Dec 17


This morning I've been working on finalizing my Church History class in our new offices of the "Tommy Nelson Center". I will be teaching Tuesday-Thursday mornings and wrapping up this 9th book out of 10 of the BTCP curriculum for our Ujamaa class.
The Tommy Nelson Center! On the left our new offices, on the right our new classroom! Praise God for His faithfulness!  May this facility bring forth as much fruit as the mango trees around it (see the top left of the picture)!

In a bit, I'm going to worship practice at the church, then back to Serve for Ben Karanja's (James Muthee's brother) graduation party. We also have a pastor from Tanzania, Pastor Kalinga, coming in for our new class here in Ukunda. I've mentioned before I desires to have a FULL BTCP class here in Ukunda and God has finally answered our prayers. We have a group of close to 12 who will be beginning classes here once a month from Mon-Fri. So this week is going to be a very busy week of classes here - Monday through Friday 8am-4pm. Dennis and James will be teaching Old Testament Survey, and I might pop in after my Church History classes finish. Pastor Kalinga is an excellent man of God in ministry near Dar es Salaam. He is a perfect candidate for a BTCP Teacher in Mwandege where Dennis and I have gone 3 times this year. I will also be going for a conference there in Tanzania next week.
Betty, Karanja, me, and Daniel.

On Monday, the 3rd, I go to Tanzania and spend a couple of days walking through the BTCP Curriculum with a couple of missionaries who want to start using it there. One of them I met while I was in language school in Morogoro. God sovereignly works all things for His good and in His timing! Then onward to Dar es Salaam / Mwandege for a 3 day conference of which I will be the only teacher and likely repeating a class I did on 1 John...of which I have very little time to prepare. But I am thankful that I prepared really well back in February the first time I taught it. Then I will likely be preaching at a church on Sunday...need to figure out what to preach on.

Then I'll travel back on Monday the 10th, spend a day in Ukunda on the 11th packing and such, and travel to Nairobi on the 12th. On the 13th-15th I will be going with our two stinters, Abbie & Christina,  and a couple of other friends to Amboseli for a safari (a well deserved treat wouldn't you say?). Back to Nairobi from there and then on a plane Sunday night - the 16th all the way to Dallas, Texas............
..........God help me!

In other news, we are continuing forward with our 3rd Serve Intern, Mr. Peter Mutemi. He is doing well and serving here with us as he helps us in ministry, volunteers at the church, attends classes, learns Leadership from Dennis Omondi, and Church History (1 on 1) with me. He is a delight to have around and we continue to pray for his spiritual formation as a BTCP teacher who will be able to start classes in the North Coast. Thank you so much for your contributions to the Internship Program. We sincerely believe that Mutemi will bear much fruit in ministry for years to come!
Mutemi under the Mango Tree.

Please keep me in your prayers for:
  1. Safety as I travel. 
  2. To trust in God and not be stressed over lack of preparation time.
  3. To be guided by the Holy Spirit to say what the Lord desires for the pastors and believers I encounter to hear.
  4. For continued grace and energy the next few weeks as well as a restful time of reconnecting with people back home.
  5. For the Denton Bible bi-annual Missions Conference in January which I will be a part of.
  6. Pray also for the Omondi family as they have been through a lot of trials with Allison and Anjela in the states and Dennis and BJ here. They are pursuing a travel exemption for BJ whose adoption is not finalized so that they can be together in the states as they hope to all attend the missions conference in January.