Building Dedication

This past Sunday we had a celebratory service for the Charity Baptist Church in the village of Bundilya. It was their first time to meet in their new building. I'll let this short video give more details...

Powerful Display of God's Word To Change a Life

We witnessed a powerful display of God’s Word to change a life during our week-long revival meeting at the church in Fumagira the week before Christmas. There were a total of 47 adult salvation decisions during the meeting, however, the salvation of one lady demonstrated the mighty power of the Word of God to convict and convert even one held in bondage by Satan.

As we have mentioned many times before, the villages where we are planting churches are steeped in witchcraft. Before hearing the truth of the Gospel, the people in these villages live in constant fear of curses and under the heavy influence of witchdoctors.  They believe the spirits of their deceased ancestors control every aspect of their lives.  They build little wooden huts for these ancestral spirits to live in.  They cook extra food to place in these huts in order to feed their dead ancestors.  The witchdoctors claim that they can communicate with these spirits.  When people experience trouble or what they consider bad luck, they visit the witchdoctor.  He claims that he can appease your dead ancestors in order to change your luck.  In reality, these people are opening up their souls to Satan and his demons.

 
This particular lady who was converted at our revival meeting was invited to this meeting by one of our church members at Fumagira.   We discovered later that this was the first time that this lady had ever attended a church in her entire life.  Kitabo, a preacher from a church in Bariadi, preached on the topic of witchcraft that evening. Kitabo knows all about witchcraft since he was a witchdoctor before becoming a Christian. As his message was coming to a close this lady fell to the ground and began yelling and screaming for almost ten minutes. Pastor Pelegrino and some other leaders in the church calmly took her aside and opened the Word of God. As they did so a guttural animalistic voice uttered unintelligible words from her mouth.  She was obviously being harassed by the forces of evil. At one point her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she went unconscious for a short time. When she came to she couldn’t remember anything that had just happened. They spent the next hour giving this lady the message of the Gospel. She desperately wanted deliverance and received Jesus Christ as her Savior.

 

She instantly became a new creature in Christ! She came every night of these meetings. She attended the Christmas service. She helped the ladies who cooked the meal for the Christmas service. Even her countenance was transformed! She looked like a different person. During our baptismal service on Christmas Day, she publicly declared her faith in Christ and submitted to believer’s baptism.  We are thrilled to report that she continues to faithfully attend our church at Fumagira, and she is growing in grace.  God’s Word has not lost its power. It is still “quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12).

Revival in Fumagira!

It was a busy week for Fumagira. Pastor Pelegrino, Pastor Petro, Pastor Naftary, and Kitabo organized a week long evangelistic meeting that led into a special combined service on Christmas Day. I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking...

Nightly Evangelistic Meetings

Each evening there was preaching. This is Kitabo preaching.

Of course there was singing. 

This lady in the middle got saved during these meetings. More on her story in another blog.

The Jesus Film or another Gospel film was shown to a large crowd each night.

Christmas Day Combined Service

Fumagira hosted this year's Christmas service. They started in February saving money to decorate. 

Sure looks festive!

Christmas morning people started arriving from each of the six churches. Boy can they pack a truck!

Each of the choirs from the six churches sang specials they have been working on for some months. Many even had matching outfits made!

The most important part of the day is the PREACHING. Here is a 20 second video clip of Pastor Naftary preaching in Kiswahili and then Kitabo translating it into the mother-tongue of most of the people, Kisukuma

This is one of the 57 who were baptized after the service. What a joy to see so many older people who have trusted Christ as their Savior and then followed in believer's baptism!

And of course we train them to be good Baptists by having a meal afterwards.

Church building requriements...

Land? Building permits? Surveying fees? Architectural drawings? Zoning clearance? How about a  MANGO TREE...

Back in May of 2012 the church in Fumagira helped Bonifice start a new church plant in the village of Kikano. They began meeting under a mango tree. 

At the beginning of the rainy season we purchased a tarp so the church could continue to meet in spite of the rain. Each week Bonifice arrives early in order to put up the tarp. And at the end of the service he takes it down and carries it back home. (This is done so that it is not stolen during the week.) 

Boniface continues to be faithful.  The church is now averaging 50-60 each Sunday. There are 30 baptismal candidates attending classes in preparation for our next baptism being held on Christmas Day.

Cupcakes with sprinkles

Yesterday I made cupcakes with sprinkles for Joseph's 4th birthday. Joseph is Pendo's (our houselady) son. We try to do little things for her kids, so Abby and I frosted some cupcakes and put some colored sprinkles on top. Sprinkles I picked up at Walmart, for next to nothing, during out last trip to the States. They are available here, but cost about $7 for a bottle. Needless to say, with them being that expensive, most Tanzanians have never had them before. It was a special treat for little Joseph and his brothers.

When Pendo arrived to work today she told me how happy Joseph was and how he enjoyed the crunch of the sprinkles. He went from person to person and chewed on them so they could hear them crunching. He wanted to share his joy to all who would listen!

It truly is the small things in life that will bring us joy if we let them. What little things can you find joy in as you look for them? I'd love to read in the comments the things God shows you today. Be like Joseph and share your joy with me!