April 2009 Update

Kigoma, Tanzania. This has been a very busy month for Jon. He is teaching Revelation every weekday at Lake Tanganyika Christian College and preparing to teach both Daniel and Revelation at Hope of the Nations Bible College. He is teaching the men at the church for two hours each Tuesday, and meeting with and discipling two local believers on Thursdays and Fridays. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are especially busy since adding a Swahili class to our schedule.

Carrie, Kevan, Keenan, and Caleb are also taking Swahili lessons three times a week. We all desire to be able to communicate with the people of Kigoma on a more personal level.

The kids are working hard on their school work and memorizing Bible verses. Even Jada is learning her letters and sounds. She is learning Swahili as well by copying what her brothers say. Jasmine is already five months old! She is laughing, rolling over, and reaching for food. Her first tooth came in last month! Learning to feed her here is proving to be a challenge. I can’t go buy Gerber baby food at the local market! I (Carrie) have learned to make spaghetti sauce without Prego, pancakes without Bisquick, cake without the help of Duncan Hines, cinnamon rolls without the dough boy, and pizza crust without Boboli! Baby food is next on my list. Thankfully, there are plenty of bananas and carrots to help.

Our family has missed drinking milk, so a high priority this month was for us to learn how to pasteurize milk. Our friend Ruthie - a veteran missionary of several decades - taught Carrie how long to heat the milk for, as well as how to make yogurt, cream, and whipped cream. Now we just need to find someone close by with a cow that will sell us some milk!

Jon is planning to travel to Congo in early June with some fellow FRM missionaries from Nairobi. They will be sharing the Gospel with the people in the town of Baraka, DRC (Congo).
Later in June and July we may be going to Southern Sudan again to minister to the pastors and chaplains in training there in the town of Nimule.

By God’s grace we were able to bless many people this month. With our tax return money we were able to provide a portion of the money needed for about 20 orphans to attend secondary school. The orphans being helped are required to attend a weekly Bible study so that they not only grow in their understanding of math, science, and language, but also in the things of the Lord. (We are still seeking sponsors for another 24 orphans who cannot afford to go to school). We were also able to give money to our watchman, Joseph, so that he could send his oldest son to school. In addition, our friend and helper, Mama Rachel, had her baby and we were able to provide her with two months pay so that she would be able to take some time off and tend to her growing family. We thank God for providing us with enough of a tax return to enable us to help meet these needs.

We hope that you have a wonderful time of celebrating the resurrection of Christ! “They went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, 'Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!' ” Luke 24:3-6 Praise the LORD! Bwana asifiwe!

Praise and Prayer. While we know that God knows all of our needs and even what we are going to say before we say it, He invites us, no commands us to pray. Why? So that we may have the privilege of talking to Him, hearing from Him, sharing our hearts with Him, and knowing His heart. Ultimately, we line up our thoughts and will with His. Even though He is already working everything together for our good, by prayer we prepare the way for giving Him glory for the things we prayed about, which we may have otherwise just taken for granted.
With that in mind we want to praise Him for the following:
- Praise the Lord, everyone is healthy!
- We are thankful to have some new missionary families in the area with children for our kids to play with.
- We have been able to meet many needs of the people here.

And we ask for prayer for the following:
- to continue to pray for Carrie and the problems/pain she is having with her wrists.
- for Carrie to overcome her fear of driving in Africa and to learn quickly.
- for continued health for our family.
- for everyone to learn Swahili quickly.
- for Jon and his very busy schedule (that’s why I, Carrie, am doing the Newsletter this month!)