Safari For Souls Summer Campaign 2007

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May 30th 2007

Published: August 7th 2007

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Shastagail

Donkey in Church

We've all heard the song by Ray Stephen's about the squirrel who went to church. Kisongo meeting had Donkeys. But they heard the truth just as all those who attended the meeting.

Safari For Souls Summer Campaign 2007

Hold on ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be a little more lengthy than normal. It covers all 3 weeks of the campaign. Bare with me - it’s all good stuff!! Each year groups of visitors plan their trip to Tanzania around the Safari for Souls Campaign. It is a concentrated effort to get the word of Christ to the areas surrounding Arusha and Moshi. We have participated in the campaign in past years, but as a visitor, not a local. This was our first year to be part of it on a permanent level. And BUSY we were!!! Before the actual campaign begins there is a week of preparation. Angie and I redid all the bulletin boards at the Arusha building with the theme, “Walking in the Light”. Much much more preparation was done in so many areas by lots of people, and we say thank you to all of them.

The first day of the campaign started with a meeting at the Arusha Church of Christ. It was a time to get the newcomers familiar with what the process was for talking to the locals, and Roger Sheperd gave that

A child's prayer

This little girl got my attention, and I'll admit I should have had my eyes closed too, but couldn't resist the precious image.

presentation. I was pleasantly appreciative of the request for me to do “Kiswahili 101”. I tried not to overwhelm them with grammer rules and sentence structure, as I am still trying to learn those on myself, but we did want them to understand how to pronunciate the language and give them some common greetings and cultural facts that would help them. After this, it is off to the races so to speak! The emphasis this year was not to simply pass out material and invite them to the meetings, but to talk to them about where they worship, set up Bible studies, or do Bible studies on the spot. At 4:00 each evening, in both Arusha and Kisongo, a Gospel meeting was presented to all those who would accept the invitation to come hear it.

The first week of the campaign was divided into two areas; Arusha Town and Kisongo. The group from Freed Hardeman College, led by Ralph Gilmore, was designated to work in and around Arusha town. Also, working in the Arusha area was Brent and Julie Richardson and a group from their home congregation in Northport, Alabama, Cy and Stephanie, John Baker, John Hall, Callie Donaldson,

Behind the scenes

Behind the scenes of VBS the Northport girls helped out in any way they could.

and Ralph, Cindy and Katlyn Williams. Brent, Julie, Cy and John Baker helped to logistically get each group to an area in and around Arusha to do door to door campaign work. Then in the afternoons, Julie and the Northport girls came out to Kisongo to do the VBS for the children in that area. For the Kisongo group we had Steve and CameronWiseman, Fred and Penny Cabler, Debbie and Buddy Fry, and Anthony and I. Of course there are many locals and area members who came to help and act as translators in both areas that we are incredibly grateful for.

Each morning the groups set off to spread the Good News, then they all came back together for lunch. After lunch at Arusha the groups, except the Northport girls and Julie, went back out again. These girls came to Kisongo to present the VBS to the kids there. We had about 20 kids each day, and we were thrilled for that turn out. Abby, Daniel, Gracie, Emily and Garret got into it too! I want to personally thank the Northport congregation for their unbelievable preparation of materials for the VBS’s! You all would not believe the beautiful

A little help with the coloring.

There are times you just can't help but pick them up!

crafts, and Flip Charts they prepared. 500 of each of 5 crafts!!!! Five different lessons flip charts, all specifically for this years’ campaign! Thank you all sooo much! My favorite was Zaccheus in the tree!

Then in each of the two areas, at 4 in the afternoon the two featured speakers presented lessons. In Arusha it was Gary Box at the Arusha Church of Christ. In Kisongo, it was Buddy Fry in the market area in the Kisongo village. In the case of both, everyone who heard what was said, heard the truth. Each day the sound system had to be taken out and set up, and each night taken down and brought back to the school Joshua, as you can see, was very helpful in loading and unloading!

The second week the men and women seminars took place from 9 - 3, Tuesday thru Friday, in Arusha. The women held their seminar at Arusha building and the men held theirs at the Andrew Connally School. SO many men and women participated, each being given a topic that fit within the theme. On Monday and Friday I MC’d, while Stephanie MC’d on Tuesday and Thursday. The subjects I

Masterpiece

With no tables or classrooms, we use the benches to color on. Sometimes the floor.

had been given were, “Light Exposes”, and “Continual Cleansing in the Light”. By Friday we had so many questions that I gave up my spot to speak so we could get as many of the questions answered as possible. It is encouraging when the Tanzanian women are standing in front of the crowd presenting lessons. It lets us see that not too many years from now they will be able to do this on their own, and that is the long term plan. To know that when we leave, the Church won’t.

After the ladies finished, the VBS was presented to the children in Arusha. It was held each day from 4 - 6, Wednesday thru Saturday. With Arusha being a much larger city, no advertising is needed. The first day we had 125, the second 268, the third 317, then on Saturday back down to 200 or so. That many kids is near chaotic in an area where they do not have crafts, crayons, papers, etc. in class. The kids were divided up into 4 groups, basically based on size, and each day they rotated so they got to hear 4 different lessons taught by, Penny Cable, Angie

10 Lepers

This is one of the crafts the Northport congregation did for us. 500 handcut fully connected 10 paper dolls!! Now that took some time!

Baker, Jane Massawe, and Callie Donaldson and Katlyn Williams. Stephanie and I were on Koolaid and cookie duty! Good thing I had all those years of Shoney’s experience! It was almost deafening when they were all singing in the building. But they all had a grand time, and we hope that they took home more than a colored piece of paper.

Sunday marked Friends and family day and I noticed that the board said there were 198 in attendance for that service. This first two weeks of the campaign brought many new members to the Lord’s Church, lots of Bible studies, and our prayer is that over this next year, all those Bible studies will help the Church here in Arusha and surrounding areas to grow spiritually.

The third week, we all move to the town of Moshi. Brent and Julie Richardson and family live there, along with the George and Joy Jensen family, John Hall, and Charles Creel. New folks arrived to help in Moshi while the Freed group and Northport group departed. Anthony, Joshua and I decided to stay in Moshi instead of driving back and forth the 1 ½ hours one way each day. Brent

Joy Joy Joy Down in My Heart

This little girl showed up in her sparkly dress and captivated all of us!

and Julie graciously invited us to stay with them, and kicked Kelly out of his room so we’d have a bed. Sorry Kelly!

Moshi was slightly different in the format, but ultimately the same process. The mornings were door to door, Bible studies, then lunch at the building. At 2:00 the VBS took place at the building, then at 4:00 Greg Neil preached the Meeting in the market area. Tuesday Julie and I had kitchen duty. It started with washing dishes, led to sorting rice, then washing it at which point we had a snag. Brent came by and said that one of the nearby orphanages had brought 40 of their children. The VBS was not to start until Wed. So, I gave up the rice pan for a lesson on Naaman - entirely in Kiswahili! I will say it was one of those moments where I had a two fold theory going on in my brain. One side said, “YES, girl you got it!” the other side said , “Girl, you don’t know squat!” But we managed, and the kids seemed to have a good time and learn that Naaman got to take a bath, 7 times in

Outdoor Meeting

A stage was set up and each night Buddy Fry held the meeting in the area where the market is held. On Wednesday he preached to nearly 1,000 folks selling and buying.

dirty water! 

After about an hour with the kids, we got one of the local girls to play Tanzanian games with them so I could finish my tour in the ‘jiko’. Julie and I chopped green peppers, onions, tomatoes, shredded carrots and then served it all up with bananas. I ended the day washing dishes, just as I had started. The first day of VBS started with around 100 … by the end of the week there were almost 200 in attendance!

Joshua went out in the mornings with the door to door crowd and came back talking about the Bible classes that they had. One in particular seemed to bother him as they had studied with one young girl for a couple days in a row. She understood about the Gospel, but her parents would not let her obey. I was proud of Joshua for the effort he and those with him gave to help her. Please pray for all those who have been touched by the campaign this year.

I have soooo many pictures of what was going on in these 3 weeks that I hope you don’t mind that there are a couple

One more Soul

The portable baptistry's are really helping bring the "Jordan" to Tanzania.

of screens to get to see them all. And yes... Mt. Kilimanjaro blessed us with her presence during this week so we finally got a great family picture with her in the back ground.

So many baptisms took place, and so many studies set up, pray for those new Christians that they will remain faithful. Pray for us that we will not let them down, and pray for all those who heard but did not obey, that their heart will be softened and they will want to “Walk in the Light” as our theme was this year. Thank you to all those who were here helping, to all those who are there making it possible for us to be here, and for all you who want to experience this, give me a call!! We are going to get some rest ….. it might take a couple of days …..  Love you all, Shasta and Anthony

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