Then and Now

I would like to introduce you to one of our dear friends, his name is Seni. Seni and his family live in Mwanza, Tanzania and we were in their home often to eat with them and visit with each other. They also came to our home; we count them among our dearest friends.

Tim and Seni traveled many miles together around the western part of Tanzania. Seni was the regional representative for the Gideons, so whenever he and Tim traveled Seni always took a case of Bibles with him. It is very common in Tanzania to come upon a police roadblock. This often means that you end up paying some type of fine (called “chai”) before you are able to continue your journey. Seni would always take advantage of these opportunities to pass out Gideon Bibles to all of the police officers at the roadblocks.

One of the most memorable characteristics about Seni is that he had a very loud laugh and he laughed a lot! He truly had the joy of the Lord in his heart. I remember the day we flew out of Mwanza to return to the states. Seni didn’t laugh that entire morning as he was at our home helping us prepare to leave. When we arrived at the airport we were all crying but Seni did not cry. Seni didn’t laugh either. He smiled and spoke much about the day that we would return to Mwanza. As we were walking towards the plane I looked back at our friend one more time. Seni had turned away with his back to us and his head was bent over; I think he was crying although he was trying to hide it. He could not watch us leave.

Usually they send us a short email of “Christian greeting” about twice a year. I accidently included their address in an email newsletter that among other things, mentioned our financial need that had to be met before we could return to Tanzania.
A few days later, we received this email from our friend, Seni; I have copied it for you below:

From: Suleiman and Anna Seni
To: Tim and Joyce Jarvis

How joyful we are to hear from you and all about the desire of your coming back to Tanzania!!! We strongly believe that your desire is God’s will. So before you step in the grounds of your destination we say to you WELCOME HOME!!! The Seni’s family will be supporting you with 100 $ for four months from September 2007. But if you need it all at once, we can have it ready for you by the end of October 2007.
You are in our Prayer calendar.
We love you and we say God bless you.
Yours in His Love, Seni's

Most of you have no concept what $400 means to a Tanzanian; most Tanzanians will not make even a $100 a year. And yet, our friend, Seni, believes in us and believes that it is God’s will for us to be in Tanzania. They are making a huge financial commitment to us because they want us to return to Africa and continue the work that we were doing there. Will you search your hearts and see what God is telling you to do?

We're Sorry!

Dear Friends,

We would like to express our sincere apologies for the huge numbers of emails that many of you received. We were trying to let you know about our new website and there was a “glitch” in our server which caused the email to continue being sent. We are deeply sorry for this; we know it caused many of you a lot of grief.

Tim called the tech support people at AGWM and they checked it out for us and discovered it was a “1 in a
million occurrence” and unfortunately we were the recipient of the problem. The problem was with our “agmd” server and we have been assured by the tech staff that the problem has been solved. I have included their comments below for you to read.

Again, accept our apologies; it was nothing we did or could have prevented we are sorry that we were the origin of the multitude of emails many of you received. I suppose some day this will be funny to us but it certainly has caused us much grief now.

We are also sorry it spoiled the big announcement about our big website. We hope you still check it regularly to stay up to date with our progress. We know many of you blocked us temporarily to avoid the massive amount of e-mails. Please remember to unblock us so you can continue to receive updates.



-----Original Message-----
From: Morton, Mark [mailto:MMorton@ag.org]
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 2:22 PM
To: tim.jarvis@hqmail.agmd.org
Subject: Email problem



Hi Tim,

We were able to isolate the problem on our email server and fix it. The problem was not anything you caused. It was one of those fluke things that happen where our server was not receiving any indication that the email was being received by the recipient so it kept sending out the message. Seconds for us can be an eternity for a computer, which is why hundreds of
these messages went out. The last time something like this happened was to one other missionary 2 years ago.

We apologize for the inconvenience that this caused. Feel free to forward this message to the recipients that were experiencing this issue.


Blessings,

Mark Morton
Technical Services Support Coordinator
AGWM Technical Services
Springfield MO 65802

The Gift of Glasses

Tim and I were reminiscing while traveling together last week to and from Michigan; we were remembering about our “eye glass ministry”. We had a couple of doctors who sent us an action packer full of eye glasses of all strengths and designs. We had watched many of our national pastors struggle to read their Bibles and had realized that they needed glasses.
We started carrying the glasses with us wherever we went and when we held seminars and meetings we would set up a little eye glass clinic for those who needed glasses. Since Tim and I had absolutely no training; we established a quick and easy system. We had two tables; at the first table Tim would have a pair each strength of glasses that we had. Tim would have each pastor open his Bible and hold it at the proper distance; they would try on glasses until they found one that worked! I would be at the second table with all the glasses grouped together by strength; Tim would say what strength that person needed and I would then show them which group of glasses to choose from. It was a delight to watch their faces light up when they could see their Bibles with their new glasses. There was a lot of fun and fellowship as the other pastors stood around and watched. They would help each other choose the “perfect” glasses and there would be many smiles and hand-clapping as the process moved along.

My favorite memory of our “eye glass” ministry actually occurred at our home one day when Tim was away. An elderly lady pastor who I was told had nine children showed up at my gate. Although she lived a day’s travel away, she would come occasionally to Mwanza to visit her daughter. She was brought up to the house and I welcomed her inside for a cool drink and snack. As we sat, she reached in her dress pocket and carefully pulled out a pair of broken and dilapidated eye glasses. I looked at the glasses and noticed that one lens was completely gone and the other had a crack across it. One arm of the glasses was gone as well.

She had been told by some of the pastors in her area that she could get a new pair of glasses from us. With great excitement I brought out the box of glasses and I had her start trying them on. After a bit, she found the strength that worked for her and I pulled out all of the glasses in that strength. In a few minutes she had narrowed it down to two pair: one pair was practical and simple and the second pair was blue with rhinestones in the corner. She was torn between having something pretty that she liked or getting something more practical.

I felt the Lord speak to my heart to give her both pair; so I handed them both back to her and explained that they were both for her. She jumped from her chair and began jumping around the office with her hands in the air praising God for his goodness. We hugged and I saw a look of joy on her face; the tired slump was gone from her shoulders and she left with a bounce in her steps. She was reminded by the gift of the glasses that her God loved her and cared about her needs; she would never have had the money for a new pair, but God saw her need and blessed her for her years of faithfulness to a small church and to her family.

Tim and I are encouraged by these memories, the God who feeds the sparrows, dresses the lilies of the field, and gives glasses to the isolated hard working pastors living in the remote areas of Tanzania is still the same God today. He blesses and provides for those who are faithful in extending His love to the lost people of this world.

Blessings to each one of you!