An Amazing Weekend!

---

It's sometimes so hard to write and get everything covered that happens here in a week's time. This weekend in particular has been incredibly busy and like wise incredibly AMAZING!

Friday we finished out the initial week of working with the children at the Nursery school, and I got busy on trying to raise the funds for their school fees... After sitting down and creating that last blog I prayed long and hard that somehow, some way that the needs would be met be the end of the month, and God had other plans in mind. By the end of the day I had 8 emails with loving and kind Christians who were wanting to help however they could... The next day there were 5 more....Every time I logged on as a matter of fact there was another email wanting to help! As of right now there are 0 (ZERO) children needing school fees rather than the 31 there were on Friday! That's right, they have all found their SPONSORS! All I could think to say, was WOW, does God ever answer prayer! And sometimes His plans and ideas are bigger than we had even imagined. I am just in Awe to be honest with you! I had hoped for the end of the month, and God saw fit to see that it was accomplished by the end of the weekend! I can never say thank you enough! Timothy is just beside himself and in shock by it all, in such a sweet and completly overwhelmed way, he wanted me to express his gratitude to everyone involved and to give all THE GLORY TO GOD! For he doesnt know how else this could have been accomplished, and neither do I! God is so very good! There are several of you out there who are still wanting to help and that is great! There are still other areas of need. Anything above and beyond the school fees sent will be put into a general fund for the school to begin paying their teachers and building desks, buying books, building shelves and even putting money back to begin working towards buying their own land in the future to build on. With the growth will come more students and more who are in need as well and I will do my best to keep everyone posted on those needs as they arise! There are the 26 families who have paid the fees for their children on their own, who could also use some help from time to time, so if you would like to help any of these children as well, I know their families would be grateful. This is a great thing that has been accomplished in a very short amount of time, and I hope and pray that you are all as amazed and in awe as I am! Praise God for His Goodness! I would say that not much could top this, but there's one more precious soul who has been added to the kingdom this week, and that tops it all, through us making contact with her at the school, so it only gets better! Keep reading!

Saturday afternoon, after the Moshi congregation went out doing evangelism, the women got together for our second "Train the Teachers" Workshop! We started an hour late, but this is Africa, and the famous quote is "There's No Hurry In Africa!" and the women here are always so very busy! There were 9 Tanzanian ladies to attend and 16 in total there with Joy and her girls, along with Teresa Rachels and her girls. Teresa brought us a great lesson on making personal applications from Lessons as we focused this month on, How to Develop a Good Lesson. The ladies all grouped into pairs and began learning how to develop their own lessons, with a worksheet for them to use as a blank outline and guide. Timothy had helped me to translate it into Swahili, so they all were very excited about this new tool. The groups presented their ideas, their lessons, their memory verses, and craft ideas... there were even a few original songs to come out of the brainstorming session. It's so good to see the wheels spinning as they begin to think about how to Teach God's word! They were all given a homework assignment for the month to create another lesson and do the outline worksheets to create a lesson so that we can compile them in a folder at the building to be used again in the future, and they were all very excited about it! The greatest reward was seeing the same ladies early and excited to teach Bible class when we arrived on Sunday morning. They couldn't wait to show me what they had planned and had gotten ready for the kids! This is making a huge impact on the quality of classes being taught here for the children of Moshi. We're getting together again next month to continue to grow in this area! There were also ladies already turning in their quilt tops for the Orphanage, from our Sew-Be-It class last Saturday.

Sunday, Brent took the Rachels family and went to Monduli, where Brent taught the men's class and Teresa taught the women's class and then Forrest preached an amazing lesson. They all tell me that the earth shook and that there were earthquakes... But I can proudly attest to the fact that we didn't feel anything down here in Moshi... So it must be sad, sad, Meru that is shaking and quaking.... So the kids and I missed out on the experience! But I had told Mary Dixon, the head teacher from the Nursery school that I would be here at the building, if she wanted to come and continue studying with me Sunday morning, so I knew I needed to be there just in case! And God blessed my heart as she came walking in during service. She walked in, sat up front and turned around looking for me and smiled...

I grabbed John and asked if he wouldn't mind babysitting the kids for me and taking them to eat something so that I could stay and study with Mary for as long as we needed to.... So I have to thank John for allowing this mama the opportunity to be able to rely on Christian family to help take care of my babies so that I could stay and share God's word! (I love the way we work together as a family here.) But Mary stayed behind as the crowd began to head out to eat lunch.... Her sister Joyce, who is already a Christian herself stayed to listen in and Abigail stayed to translate for me.. and of course she had to find someone to go feed her son, Maxie, for her as well.... We sat in the office and searched the scriptures to answer all her questions, to explain better the church and the Gospel plan of salvation, and she had many questions on baptism itself... I thought it went really well and you could just see the heart inside churning on every word... You have to understand that Mary has a smile that just warms you all over... a heart of gold... and I knew she had been searching for the truth. But after 2 hours of studying we closed in prayer and she had to get to the market to buy groceries while she was in town. I walked out down the road from the church out to the Highway, just happy to have had the opportunity to teach and to know that door was opened as I knew I would be working with Mary every week. Sunday evening, Mary returned to class and stood up at the end of the lesson wanting to be baptized! My smile went from ear to ear from across the room she gave me the thumbs up and a grin! I cant begin to tell you how amazing that is, to see God changing and working in the lives all around you!

So now, we have two Christian teachers, working with Timothy at the Nursery school, and I can continue to study with Mary one on one as we get together each Tuesday to work with the children, so that she can grow in the grace an knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ! And Timothy is so very excited that his older sister is now a faithful Christian, because he knows the impact that will have on her as well as the children she is working with and taking care of. Thank you to every one who has helped with the kids at the school this week and for all of you who make us being here possible! It was an incredible weekend here in Tanzania!

In Christian Love & Service,
Julie Richardson

---