Kigoma

We made a trip to Kigoma for a week; it was partly to get some R & R but also to visit some of our pastors and churches in our most western district. 
We visited Bishop Mulenda's church for Sunday services and earlier in the week visited two churches.  One those we visited was a small church with thatch roof and walls made from reeds with a dirt floor.  We saw the small sign for the church and followed a small dirt track that ended in front of the church.  The pastor was not there but several of the church people lived in the house next to the church. 
They sent a boy for the pastor and he soon arrived; he is a young man who has gone through one of our church planting schools and is now putting those things he learned into practice with this new church.
We stayed for a few minutes and visited with him and some of his members; they were so encouraged that we found them and stopped in to see them. 
Even though the church is a few months old, he has over 20 church members and over 20 children attending the church.

Goats

Tim's family, the Jarvis', recently contributed money to purchase a small herd of goats for the Mwanza Bible College.  This past week the Business Manager purchased 1 male goat and 11 female goats (2 of the females are pregnant) and placed them in the pen that students had prepared for them. 

With this small goat herd, the students will be guaranteed to have meat  at least a couple of times during each of the 10 week terms.  The students rejoiced at the arrival of this small herd.
In addition, the Jarvis family helped purchase a cow last term to provide meat for the students and also a new freezer to replace the old one that finally quit was purchased by Freedom Life Church in Henderson NC where Tim's brother and his family attend.
So, kudos to the Jarvis family for blessing the Mwanza Bible College! 

Graduation

Sarah, our youngest daughter, graduated last week from Evangel University with a Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology.  We are very proud of her; it's been a hard two years of intense classes, getting all of her required intern hours in and working a job as well.  She's made of tough stuff and God has truly proven himself faithful.
Although we could not be there in person our oldest daughter, Jenn, received permission from Evangel to set up a Skype connection so that we could view the graduation live from our office here in Mwanza Tanzania.  We were able to speak with Sarah after the graduation and even had a family picture taken with her and Jenn holding the computer facing the camera so that we were in the shot. 
We are so thankful for modern technology.  In the early days of missions the only way to communicate was through letters that took weeks to arrive.  In emergencies you could send a telegram or sometimes find a phone for a few minutes of very static conversation. 
God has proven himself faithful once again.