A Sunday In Monduli

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This last week we welcomed Mike Reese and his mother, Nita to Arusha. They are from West Virginia and Mike is here to teach one of the graduate short courses at the Andrew Connally School of Preaching. This Sunday our family took Mike and Nita to Monduli for worship. The church in Monduli is worshipping in a small rented room, but are in the process of building a new church building. This is the same building I wrote about in our blog "Digging in Monduli". Well, the building is now almost completely finished. It still needs the roof, windows, and a door. The congregation hopes to be in the new building in a few weeks. We enjoyed worshipping in Monduli. Mike taught the adult Bible class and brought the sermon. I brought a lesson for the children and taught a class for them. After services several of the ladies pulled me aside to show me quilts they have been making. Those of you who follow Shasta Brown's blog knows that she has started Sew Be It classes here for the ladies. She is teaching the African ladies how to make quilts. Many of the quilts already made have been donated to local orphanages. Shasta recently held a class for the ladies in Monduli. They have just finished their first set of quilts and were deciding this morning who was going to take the quilts to the orphanage. The ladies were so excited to show me the finished quilts and they have done an excellent job on them. On the way home, Mike wanted to stop by and see Innocent's house. Innocent is the preacher at Monduli and he and Mike have worked together on Mike's other two missionary trips to Arusha. So, we drove up the mountain to Innocent's house. It is a beautiful drive! As we got closer to Innocent's house, we saw maize, coffee plants, and banana trees growing. Innocent explained that these are all his. He says that although he gets paid a salary for preaching, he wants the people he works with to see that he is not lazy. So, he grows these crops, raises cows and goats, and has recently learned to pasteurize milk!! No one could ever accuse him of being lazy!! We enjoyed visiting with him and his family. They are certainly an encouragement to us. We have several visitors coming to teach short courses in the next few months. We ask that you keep them, the Browns, and the Gees (they will be returning to Africa from their furlough on Friday) in your prayers for safe travel.We love and miss you all,John, Angie, Daniel, and Abby

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Photos

Congregation at Monduli
This is the building they are currently meeting in. It is a rented room in a building. It has one window and one door at the front.

Congregation
This was taken looking in from the door at the front of the room.

New Building
This is the new church building.

Standing in the Door
Pictured here are Innocent's two boys (the oldest is adopted), Daniel, Mike, and Innocent

The Finished Quilt
Here is the Sew Be It quilt. The third lady is Innocen't wife Harriet. Standing in front of her in their daughter.

Coffe Plant/Tree
John and I couldn't decide if it is actually called a tree or plant. So, I put both. :)

Coffee Bean
The coffee beans start off green. They turn red when they are ready to be picked.

Banana Trees
If you look close, you can see some bananas in the top of the trees.

Inside Innocent's House
Here we are sitting with Innocent and his family in their house.

Mike and Nita
This is Innocent and Mike and Nita.

Milk Factory
Innocent standing with his business partners. The small bags they are holding is the pasteurized milk. The bag costs about 40 cents for a half liter.

Abby and Her Teddy
This is Abby's teddy that she carries every where. He will definitely need a bath after being drug around in the dirt all day!!

Look, Cows!!
The kids were very excited to discover that Innocent had cows!! :)

Comments

[grammy]

Progress
It's great seeing the church building that Daniel and Abby helped build :-) From the pictures of Sunday's worship, looks like it won't be finished a moment too soon. You all looked very 'close' in the rented room. I can't wait to be there....Aunt Kathryn says its 89 days!!! and I AM counting.