Advertisement
Published: January 23rd 2007
It seems as if I am always taken in and struck back by the excitement of each new week living here in Africa. You just never know what's going to happen next and what lies in store for you just around the corner. God is doing wonderful things all around us that makes just being here a great blessing in and of itself. We went to the village of Karatu to begin the Lord's church in this area, and Sunday Jan. 21st 2007 Brent preached for the first ever, worship service that was held out in this little red dirt town. Anthony & Shasta Brown joined us and we all went with Bibles, communion cups and song books in hand....
It's a long trip from Arusha. We passed lots of animals on the way. Brent actually hit a duck! It came out of no-where and scared us all... but no damage done, well except to the duck. Anthony & Shasta were in their truck behind us and said all they saw was a burst of feathers.... and laughed...Then there was a herd of Zebra crossing the road as well... we just all told Brent a duck was better than hitting
a zebra anyday! The kids were all asleep for the most of the trip.. we left at 6:00am. You go out towards Mtu wa Mbo and keep going up the crater wall as if you were going to Ngorongoro. It's the very last town you drive through, just after passing all the baboons, the huge bayobob tree on the turn of the road, you wave bye bye to the final bathroom stop with a sigh and a hope that you can make it until you return, and drive past the over look point to Lake Manyara and right before entering the crater gates, you're there. We drove out just passed the power lines, up to the edge of a corn feild and walked in through the corn, wondering what was around that corner and how long the walk would be, surprisingly it wasnt far and we were welcomed at the home a very sweet family who had been studying with David and Gasper previously.. and they allowed us to hold the worship service right out side their home and there in the dirt and corn... we had the most amazing Lord's day! Singing and praising God, hearing Brent teach on
the acts of worship, and three were baptized just afterwards. We had to go in search of water and ending up using a small stream to bucket up water to the portable baptistry that the Brown's had brought along with them. We really need to see about getting a few more of these... for all the missionaries to have with them in their cars for when we are out in the villages where water can sometimes, like this Sunday be a complicated thing to find enough of.... without having to drive to another town to find it. It was an amazing day...... The church is just beginning to deveolp and grow in this area, so please keep them all in your daily prayers. And we will keep you informed on what's going on as best as we can from here... the three who were baptized were named Josephat, Elizabeth and Renata.
The kids loved it... Garrett said that he wished we could have worship outside every Sunday... rather than in a building and Gracie rather than drawing on my notebook she just sat down right in the dirt and drew on the ground with a stick.... of course sitting
on rocks is an experience we'll just have to leave to your own imagination and hope that you get to experience for yourself one day. Emily of course found a baby to hold, if there's one anywhere around, she's going to pick it up and cuddle it the entire time we're there. David taught class and Brent preached, Kelly said the closing prayer and Anthony led the communion prayers for the service. The singing was a little difficult not having enough song books for everyone, and being a new church they didn't know them by heart yet.... but we all leaned in and shared with everyone around us. Then to see the Africans trying to turn to the scriptures in the Bible without having ever had one before, they didn't know where to look for the books... so Brent, Anthony Shasta and myself would lean over and walk around flipping peoples Bibles to the right page so they could read along.... that really paints the picture of begining a new church from scratch in an area that hasn't been reached.
After leaving Karatu we drove back down to Mtu wa bo to take a look at the construction progress
of the new building there. The Cottondale church of Christ in Alabama raised the funds to improve on this growing congregation's building. Gasper Julius is the preacher there and they are doing a marvelous job in that area. The walls and foundation were up and they said that the roof and windows were on the agenda for the next few weeks...
Saturday we had our first snake encounter on the front porch of the house... Which I think for 4 months of going without seeing one is pretty good considering we live do in Africa. But the dogs did their job wonderfully and for finding and killing a snake were worth every scrap of food in the house I could find to give them.... They began barking like crazy, especially Zander our big male german shepherd... and Brent went out to see what was the matter... well they had cornered him all curled up right by the front door.... and were about to eat the thing before brent killed it with a "panga" large machedy knife that the guard carries around. So a little excitment was in the air... and the kids all crowded around the living room window
to watch and squeal.. but at least it makes them aware of the fact that there are snakes around and to be careful....
We were all very tired come Monday morning and while we were ready to rest and breathe, there was a whole new week ahead of us to look forward to working with. Brent returned to his 2nd week of language school and it must be helping because he used about 4 sentences in begining his sermon to thank them for being there and telling them how excited we were to begin the Lord's church in their area.... Which he did wonderfully. Around the house, we're packing and getting ready to make the move to Moshi and of course doing school Monday -Friday here at the house as well. Hopefully we'll be finding a house soon, we're down to three possibilities now, and waiting for negotiations to work out. This living out of boxes is getting a little tiresome. But we are excited about getting down there to work with John Hall who is doing a marvelous job and Charles Creel who has just returned from the states and Christopher and Julia at the Kilimanjaro Church of
Christ in Moshi. We will also continue doing the seminars and work with the outside smaller congregations as well... But we will help to focus on the development of the leadership and teachers in Moshi.
Thank you all for your sweet emails and cards of encouragment. We all look forward to hearing from each and every one of you.
In His Service and Love,
Julie Richardson
Advertisement
Tot: 0.22s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 14; qc: 129; dbt: 0.1584s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
Trina Gee
non-member comment
\"have baptistry...will travel\"
This is what I thought of when I saw the picture of Brent with the portable baptistry. Very interesting report. Lots of wonderful pictures. We're going to miss you when you move to Moshi (our loss, their gain!)