Sharing From the Heart

A single mother from one of our supporting churches was here this month visiting our teammate, Lisa Newland. Megan and her son Blake came to experience the ministry here in Tanzania. To see what life is like. Little did we know that she would come to have a great impact on our pastors'/leaders'  wives. 

It was kind of a last minute request of mine to invite Megan to give her testimony at the ladies meeting planned for August. I knew she would be there, and I actually moved the date up so she could attend. However, it wasn't until meeting her that I asked her to share what the Lord has done in her life. (Sorry about that Megan! More notice would have been appreciated, I'm sure.) Lisa told me later that Megan had spent many hours preparing for what she was going to say. She prayed and asked the Lord to give her just the right words to speak into these ladies lives. The Lord answered her request in a special way. 

As Megan began to share of her past and how the Lord saved her it moved all of us there. After she finished speaking there was opportunity for the ladies to share themselves. To be honest, I didn't expect them to say much. They rarely do. However, Megan's transparent testimony stirred the hearts of these ladies. One in particular shared her heart, with her face contorting in pained memories and tears threatening to spill, how her mother had died when she was just a little girl and how her father was an alcoholic and on drugs. He beat her until she finally ran away from home. She lived on the streets for a time but eventually went back home. The people in her village thought she had lost her mind and treated her as such. She wanted to go to church but her father wouldn't allow it. She has suffered much and can come across as being very harsh. Hearing her story helped me to better understand her and have more compassion. It also opened the hearts of the others present. I could see it in their faces as some wiped away tears - tears of empathy, and just maybe tears of understanding as they too have suffered. 

It all started with Megan being willing to open up and share from her heart. What if she had thought her life too messy to share with these women? What if she would have smoothed over the rough places and just talked about our loving, heavenly Father? It sure would have made her look better. But it wouldn't have spoken to the dark and messy places these women have lived. Megan's willingness to be transparent allowed these women to feel they weren't the only ones that had a past. It also didn't point us ladies to herself. No, the forgiveness, mercy, grace, and victory all pointed back to God. It reminded all of us that day who our God is and what His Son Jesus did for us. We were reminded of the mighty power of God to save us and transform our lives.

Hiding God's Word in Our Hearts

"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."

Psalm 119:11

Memorizing God's Word is an important spiritual disciple for a Christian. I've been working on memorizing 1 John myself, which hasn't been easy. There are so many things that vie for my time and effort. Psalm 1:2 challenges us to meditate on God's Word day and night. What better way to meditate than through memorization?! 

For the past two months I have been teaching the pastors/leaders' wives about biblical love. I challenged them in April to memorize 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. For those who could memorize it I promised a laminated Subway Art Print of the verses in Swahili. I was thrilled when six ladies quoted the verses! There were a few more who tried, but didn't quite get it. I've given them one more month to earn the desired Subway Art Print. 

What are you currently memorizing? I'd love to read about it in the comments!

Loving our husbands

Being a pastor's wife is no easy task.  The Bible teaches us in Genesis that God created woman to be her husband's help meet. How a ministry-wife helps her husband is somewhat different than how other wives fulfill that role.  This is why I am focusing in our Pastor's Wives Meetings on what are the responsibilities of the pastor's wife, and how to fulfill that role through walking with the Lord. 

In Titus 2:4 we learn that the older women are to teach the younger women how to love their husbands. With this month being February, I used the holiday of Valentine's Day to discuss the importance of loving our husbands. (First I had to have some of the city ladies explain what Valentine's Day was to the village ladies.) 

Just as it is common in Western cultures to gripe and complain about our husbands, so it is here. In a society where much of life is communal, there is much opportunity to sit around and gossip. There is always much laughter when I get on this topic because it is so prevalent. (Tanzanians laugh when they get nervous or feel guilty.) So rather than focusing on what we don't like about our husbands, I encouraged them to each tell me something they love/respect about their husbands. I enjoyed hearing the things they said. One wife appreciated how her husband handles money. Another her husband's humility and gentleness. Another her husband's faithfulness to the Lord and his ministry.

As part of our time together I wanted to do something fun that they wouldn't have opportunity to do otherwise. I decided we would make sugar cookies. They had fun rolling out the dough and cutting it into heart shapes. After they cooled we frosted them and put sprinkles on. As we sat and enjoyed some of our labors, I explained that I wanted each of them to take a cookie and give it to their husband and tell him they love him. I encouraged them to find a special way to give it to him. Maybe putting it on his Bible to find when he went to read it. Or perhaps on his pillow to see when he went to bed. Then I told them I would ask them next month what they did. Just today one of the husbands told me thank you for helping his wife make him a cookie. When I asked how she gave it to him he told me, with a big smile on his face, she made a card in the shape of a heart and wrote on it "I love you very much." He not only enjoyed the cookie, but he said this morning he again looked at the card and read it. He said it made him very happy. (Which makes this teacher very happy!)

Next month we'll meet again and continue learning how we can be godly pastor's wives. In the weeks in between we have selected prayer partners to pray and encourage each other. I'm sure they would appreciate your prayers as well. To assist you, I've added the wives names to the list of pastors/churches on the sidebar.

Teaching Pastor's Wives

This week I had the privilege of teaching at Lake Victoria Baptist College for the first time. I felt my Swahili had progressed enough to attempt teaching a class. I decided to teach about being a godly woman, with the emphasis on the role of a pastor's wife. I spent months reading over my material, studying, praying, etc. However, when the day finally arrived I felt a wave of panic. I did NOT feel ready to get up there and teach for hours and hours in Swahili! I don't know how many of you reading this have ever learned a foreign language, but let me tell you - IT'S HARD! I could feel my mind going completely blank and a dread fell on my heart. "What if I get up there and can't remember anything? What if all I can do is read what I've written down? What if those ladies walk away having not learned a thing because of my inability to communicate effectively?" All these questions and more...like "Why in the world did I agree to teach this class?!" came to my mind. So the entire drive to the college I BEGGED God to help me. "Dear Lord, I KNOW I can't do this on my own. If  you enable me to convey truth to these ladies through Swahili then I will give you all the glory."

When I arrived the ladies were excited to learn about being a pastor's wife. I started the class by telling them about myself. How old I was (important in African culture), how long I've been married, about my children, when we got into full-time ministry, etc. I went around the room and asked how long they had been pastor's wives. Several of the ladies have been in ministry for about 5+ years with two only about a year. This helped to calm my nerves as we conversed informally back and forth. Then I began teaching and the Lord helped me each step of the way. He allowed me to remember what I had studied and enabled me to teach His truths. PRAISE HIM!

Through this class the ladies are desiring a monthly Pastor's Wife meeting. They asked me to cover the same material over again, but at a slower pace that will allow more discussion and application. I'm looking forward to having more of an impact on the lives of these women as they serve the Lord in their various churches. Please pray for our first meeting which is scheduled for February 9th.

Ladies Seminar

This past Saturday I had the joy of teaching, along with my fellow teammate Lisa Newland, and two other pastor's wives at a ladies seminar in Nyasaka. We taught on Silaha za Mungu (The Armor of God). Each of us took a different piece of the armor and taught on it. I gave the introduction to the lesson and spoke on our enemies. 1. The World, 2. Our Flesh, and 3. Satan, as well as the Belt of Truth.


When I got up to teach I introduced myself. I told them, I am a mother just like you. I stay at home and take care of my husband and children. They all clapped! Ahh, here is a teacher they could relate with! I explained that since my main job is taking care of my home, my Swahili may not be as good as I would like. They were so gracious. They were just happy to have me there. They helped me along as I made mistakes, pronounced things incorrectly, or used a word that wasn't appropriate. It was a great encouragement to me.