Gold

Tim and our guest evangelists just finished up their week of outdoor meetings in Geita/Sengerema. Geita is in the middle of an area where Gold is mined; they were given a tour of the Gold mine one day while they were there.

The massive mine is a modern, well equipped, technologically advanced, well guarded facility that is like a small city. Although Tim and his guests had a fairly high level of clearance, they never actually saw the gold. They did, however, see trucks tall enough for them to walk upright underneath; huge equipment that made them feel as small as insects in comparison. They were told that out of every 100 tons of rock removed from the mine, they will end up with about 4 grams (less than a teaspoon) of pure gold; millions of dollars worth of Gold comes from that mine every year.

Every night of the outdoor meetings dozens of people were saved and many were delivered from demon possession. It really had nothing to do with the preacher/messenger, but had everything to do with the prayer and fasting that was done weeks ahead in preparation for the meetings and the presence of the Holy Spirit during the meetings who drew people forward to receive eternal life through Jesus.

Every soul that was saved and every person that was delivered from demon possession has far more value to God than the gold that is pulled from those mines in Geita. It's a matter of Kingdom values and heavenly priorities.

The Outdoor meetings continue...

Tim, our guest Evangelist Bobby and his videographer Tyrone returned from Ukerewe Island yesterday afternoon. They have finished the third week of their 5 weeks of outdoor meetings; this morning they head for the Geita District to begin their fourth week of outdoor meetings and pastors seminars.

About 250 new believers came forward during the Ukerewe Island meetings; church members got the names and contact information for each one and they will be followed up for discipleship. Also, about 60 demon possessed people were delivered and set free through the name of Jesus.

Sadly, almost all of the demon possessed people being delivered are young girls beginning as young as 10 years old.

Continue to pray with us for the next two weeks of meetings; the men are growing weary.

Outdoor Evangelism

Tim and our guests from Alabama, Bobby and Tyrone, left this morning for Ukerewe Island to begin the third week of outdoor Evangelistic meetings. Last week we were at Mkuyuni just outside of Mwanza; several hundred came forward for salvation, 25-30 demon possessed people have been set free and two healings that we know about.

The first week was spent at the Mwanza Bible College; our students were challenged to walk in the Spirit and walk worthy of their calling into the ministry.

We have scheduled a total of five weeks of outdoor evangelistic meetings and with two weeks behind us we are growing a little weary. It is hard work to put together these meetings, have seminars for pastors during the day, preach every night and pray for those who need salvation, the demon possessed to be set free and people to receive healing. Spiritual warfare is hard work! We thank you for your prayers during these five weeks; our guest evangelist leaves Mwanza on April 6.

Buhangija School

Saturday we visited Buhangija School in Shinyanga district; this is another government school for the visually impaired. There are 68 Albino children, 40 non-Albino children with vision impairments and 20 deaf children. In addition to these 128 children, there are 46 children who attend other schools who live at Buhangija during their school breaks and call it "home".

There are a number of women with Albino infants/toddlers who live at the school to protect their children from those who would abduct them in their villages. These women help out at the school with cleaning, cooking and other chores in exchange for the protection the school offers their small children.

The staff was very open and congenial and the children were excited to have visitors. After their lunch of "uji" (a thin porridge made from ground millet and water), we served all the staff and children with sodas. This is a rare treat for the children and staff. We also handed out marbles and jump ropes to the children and 20 reams of Braille paper for the school. Each child also got a couple of pieces of candy to round out their special treat for the day.

The Shinyanga District Education Director was there to greet us as well; she is an Albino herself.

The school has many needs and we left with a long list of needs for the school and for the children.

Our first effort will be to fix the pump on the school well so they can have enough water and also to construct a laundry area so they can wash their clothes in better conditions.

A little boy, Eric, pictured above kept asking me for money. I finally asked him why he needed money. He said, "I want to buy a hat". His head and neck were sunburned and he had sores on his head. So, we are also going to attempt to locate and buy as many hats as possible this week to protect the children from sunburn. Hopefully, Eric will get his hat this week.

Freezer for the Mwanza Bible College (MBC)

Tuesday was a great day for the Mwanza Bible College.

The school has had to ration food for the students at the MBC since the term began six weeks ago; the students have been receiving one meal a day for several weeks now. In addition, they have had no meat this term; the situation was becoming serious.

We were speaking with some of our family members on the Jarvis side and they were very concerned about the food situation at the school. They decided to do something about it; in less than three days they raised $1,350. We were able to buy the largest freezer available in Mwanza and we delivered during chapel on Tuesday.

The students erupted into cheers and praise as the new industrial size freezer was carried into the chapel. As the cheering subsided, Tim told them that the following day we would be buying a large cow and delivering it to the school for their first meal with meat for this term. The remainder would be placed in their new freezer. There were also bags of sugar, flour, oil and other items to provide meals for the students.

The students stood to their feet and rejoiced and thanked God for the miracle of the freezer and for the cow that would be arriving the next day.

A sad day for the cow but a blessing for the MBC.

Mbeya Women's Conference

We have just returned from a two week safari; we were traveling with a team from Southern Missouri District.  The team had two parts; 13 of the team were women and were conducting women's conferences and the second part of the team consisted of 4 men who were here to work on the TAG Radio project.
The two day women's conference in Mbeya had over 1,000 women registered; the church was packed from wall to wall. 
The women of Mbeya were so excited to have a team from America who came just to minister to them; there was great teaching, powerful prayer, inspired worship and new friendships formed between Tanzanian ladies and American ladies.  The women of Mbeya were so gracious and hospitable and welcoming; they blessed us as much as we blessed them. 

Just when I think I have problems...

Just when I think I have problems....
I get a little look into the life of one of my Tanzanian friends.  My friend, Flora, is a single lady who is a licensed minister and a teacher at the Mwanza Bible College.
She has taken her first class towards her Master's Degree and is now attempting to write her final paper for the class.
First, her computer, which itself is a miracle, crashed.  When we arrived back from Kenya we found her stressed with no computer and a paper due in one week; all her research was on the crashed computer. 
Her father and mother have come to live with her and she also has 2 nieces and 1 nephew that live with her and she supports all six of them on her teacher's salary.  Her father is very elderly and has been quite sick.
 She is trying to get her niece and nephew in a boarding school in another part of Tanzania and she sent them there by bus only to have the school refuse them entry because they didn't bring the right school supplies.  So, they have been staying with a pastor in the same town.  Finally, she was able to gather enough money to wire them the needed amount and the school accepted them.
The electricity at the Bible school is off more than it's on, so she wasn't able to get very much done on her paper before her computer crashed.
Tim spent two days trying to get her computer to come on just long enough to put all her notes and research on a disc.  Finally we accomplished that task and she is coming to our home each day and using our computer in an attempt to meet her deadline.
Yesterday, her family called to inform her that her Aunt had passed away; they wanted her to travel with the body from here in Mwanza back to the village 5-6 hours away for the funeral and burial.  She had just sent her parents on the bus a few days ago to attend another family member's funeral in the same village.  It's expected of her because she is the single daughter and they don't understand that she is a teacher and can't leave whenever she wants. She politely declined and now faces censor from her family.
On her way out of the house yesterday she dropped her cell phone and it fell apart; thankfully we were able to resurrect it and it is now being held together by a rubber band.
And that's just the highlights of her life for the month of January.
Wow, still a lot of month left!

Happy New Year

It's the middle of January and I haven't blogged yet! Sorry.
We left Tanzania for Kenya a couple of days after Christmas to attend a week long East Africa Mission meeting; we stayed at the beautiful and cool Brackenhurst Retreat Center.  I'll take crisp cool mornings any time over hot and humid areas; it was great to actually feel chilly.
It was good to see all of our missionary colleagues there as well; of course, there are always new missionaries to get acquainted with at these yearly gatherings.
Before we went to Brackenhurst, Tim and I took a couple of days and nights to go on a safari to the Masai Mara Game Park.  We have been back in Africa for 2 1/2 years and haven't taken any vacation time.  It was time for a break and we thoroughly enjoyed the time away although it passed too quickly.
We arrived back in Mwanza on January 8th and have been trying to catch up since then.  We have a team of 16 people arriving on the 24th from the Southern Missouri District; the logistics have been a real challenge.  We have a number of places to go and none of them are easy to get to so we are still finalizing travel and lodging plans.
We leave this Saturday, the 21st to head for Dar Es Salaam; Tim has some meetings to attend and we will prepare to meet our team at the airport on the 24th.
Pray for us as we travel with this team as we have a lot of miles to travel; much of it over rough roads and it will all be on public transport buses.  We will need God's protection as we endeavor to meet all of our deadlines.
 We also pray that all the team members will stay healthy and be able to accomplish all they came to do.  Fourteen of the team members are women and they will be conducting a Women's Conference in Mbeya; there are over a thousand women registered!
Exciting but challenging!

Diversity

This week we celebrated Christmas with our Tanzanian friends on Tuesday night; the faculty and their spouses were at our home on Tuesday evening. We had a great time with them.
On Thursday night, one of the missionary ladies invited missionaries to her home for a Christmas party. Every one that came had to take part in an informal "program"; we could sing, read a poem, play an instrument or do whatever we wanted to do.
As I was looking around the group of missionaries I saw many different denominations represented; there were missionaries there from the AIC, Wycliffe Bible translators, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Pentecostal and others.
We were from various countries; USA, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, South Korea and England.
We sang "Joy to the World" in German, heard greetings in Swedish, greetings in Kisukuma,heard a song in Korean, sang a chorus in Swahili and sang American Christmas carols. 
We had American desserts, German desserts, British snacks, Canadian treats, and a Swedish dessert.
It was a fun night with people who were different on several levels; and yet we had in common that we were all there for one reason.  We came together to celebrate Christmas, the birth of our Savior.
Also, today we went to the English service at one of our TAG churches. During the worship service, we sang a chorus from South Africa, one from Nigeria, several Tanzanian choruses as well as some familiar choruses from America.
It's been quite a week of celebration and fellowship with brothers and sisters from all parts of the world; I suppose it's good practice for heaven.  People from every tribe, tongue and nation celebrating around the throne of God.  I wonder what language we will be using?? 

Sunday Marathon

This past Sunday we set out on a marathon to visit four new churches started by our pastor friend, Mwamluku. He has been asking us for a long time to visit his four church plants and we decided we could do it all in one Sunday.

We started out at 7:30 in the morning and returned home at 7:30 pm; it was a long day but it was a great day. The first church was only about 30 minutes from our house; however, they called us and said the road was impassable due to the rains. No problem, Mwamluku knows another way around. He failed to tell us that the other way would take us two hours! So, all day we were 2-3 hours behind. We drove through village after village that had no church of anykind; allwithin an hours drive of Mwanza.

However, these new little village churches were so excited that American missionaries were coming to visit them that they waited for 2-3 hours at each church for us to arrive. This was probably a once in a life time experience for them; I doubt if we ever get a chance to visit them again.

Tim preached, I greeted the people, Mwamluku encouraged them like a father, and our interpreter greeted them as well; our interpreter was our friend Lukilo who is a pastor and a teacher at the Mwanza Bible College.

To see the joy on their faces and to have the opportunity to encourage them to continue in the face of opposition and indifference in their respective villages was a privilege. For 3 of the 4 churches, they are the only church in their village and the local people are very steeped in Animism and they have local witch doctors as spiritual leaders.

We praise the Lord for Mwamluku's burden to see the Gospel preached in every village.

Grasshoppers - YUM!

We have seasons in Tanzania; but our seasons are different than those in the states. First, we have weather seasons:we basically have the rainy season and the dry season.

However, there are other "seasons" that are marked by bugs and insects. For instance, there is a time when the safari ants are on the move, there is a time when termites hatch out, there are times when the ants invade the house, their is a time for dragon flies, lake flies, etc. When these "insect seasons" come they come with a vengeance and for a day or two the insect of the hour/day is available in abundance; some are more annoying than others. My least favorite are the lake flies (tiny and they come in through the tiny holes in the screens) and the safari ants that can invade the house and move like an army across the property-and they bite.

This week has been the season for the grasshoppers; huge (bigger than my thumb) and green. At night they cover the outside of our window screens although they are scarce during the day. Our four workers love the grasshopper season; seems the grasshoppers are quite tasty when you remove their wings and legs and fry them in hot oil. So, for the past few nights/days our workers have gathered grasshoppers in empty containers to take home for their families to eat.

The above picture is an empty plastic water bottle (2 litre size) that our worker used to gather grasshoppers in to take home with her.

They have all graciously offered to "fry me up some" but I have declined this particular cultural experience.

The tree is up.

The day after Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas tree, dug out our Christmas CD's, set out a few other decorations and put up a wreath on the door. Our home is as ready as it is going to be for the Christmas holiday.

Last Friday night we hosted our monthly missionary potluck for Mwanza missionaries. We sang Christmas carols and told some of our family traditions at Christmas; this was very interesting since we have missionaries here from a number of countries other than the USA.

However, traveling around Mwanza there is no evidence that we are in the Christmas season; there are no decorations, music, Christmas ads/sales, Santa Clauses, nativity scenes. There are none of the Christmas trappings that Americans would associate with Christmas. Last year, one of the grocery stores (smaller than our house) put up a rather pathetic looking little artificial Christmas tree and had a couple strings of lights on the shelves. They were very proud of their Christmas look; they are Muslim but they have many Christian customers and made this concession for their Christian customers.

Tanzanians, even those who are Christians, don't decorate for Christmas and don't give gifts; Christmas Day is spent in church worshipping Jesus. Usually, there are no choirs, contatas, orchestras, Christmas hymns, plays or special programs. They just pray, worship, hear the word and sometimes share a meal together after the service which is then followed by another service. Hmmm, odd concept to us but I have a feeling that God is pleased.

Thanksgiving Day

Yesterday we had our traditional Thanksgiving meal with some of our American friends here in Mwanza; all missionaries with various groups but all Americans. There was a total of 11 of us and we had a great time of food, fellowship, food, playing games, food, watching football and food.
There were a few problems to remind us that we were in Africa rather than America. There were five of us cooking various dishes in our homes; I began getting text messages from the other four about 8:00am. There power was out and they were all in varying stages of food preparation. Fortunately, our power was on and we hooked up a little gas stove at one of the other homes and by working together we managed to get everything and on the table by 1:30.
We thoroughly enjoyed our $72 turkey (17lbs = over $4 a pound), dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, homemade rolls, vegetable salad and sweet potatoes (not as good as American variety but with some imagination they were fine). Later we had pumpkin w/Dream Whip topping and pecan pies made from carefully hoarded ingredients from the states. As an added little treat we had a dish of candy corn/pumpkins brought out for us from the states earlier this month; we snacked on this while we played some table games.
All in all it was a great day with good friends and good food. The icing on the cake was talking to my daughters, Mom and sister later that night.
Today we decorate for Christmas!!!!!

Always Ready

Earlier this month the Mwanza District WWK (Women's Ministry) had their annual conference. The first day of the conference was designated for pastor's wives only and our scheduled guest missionary was our field moderator's wife, Karen Hanson; we were also joined by new missionary Tiffany Richardson.

I had been invited to do a session for the pastor's wives as well but had declined since I had final exams at the Bible School, several groups of guests and other seminars all within the first two weeks of November. They contacted me a couple of times the week prior to the conference asking me to speak and I politely but firmly declined.

Karen, Tiffany and I arrived at the Women's conference and were warmly greeted by the leadership and pastor's wives.

Karen did a great job teaching the first one hour session of the day. As she returned to the head table amidst applause, the WWK leader announced that now "our beloved missionary, Mama Jarvis, is coming to teach her session".

Karen leaned over and asked what I was going to do. I replied that I was going to walk over to the podium and teach for an hour.

During Karen's teaching several thoughts had come to mind and I had written them on a scrap piece of paper along with a couple of scriptures. That scrap of paper became my "notes" for my session. God definitely filled my mouth with the words he wanted me to speak. After I finished my session we prayed for each of the 50 pastor's wives individually and God confirmed in my heart that I had given the right message.

I don't think it hurt that I have been teaching for 30 years and have spoken at numerous women's meetings.

I must remember to be a little firmer in my refusals in the future.

November 1-14

Just thought I would give you a glimpse of our schedule for the first two weeks of November in an effort to explain why I have not blogged recently:
November 1: Jerry Spain arrived to teach one week with the student body at the Mwanza Bible college and one week for the leadership from our six districts.
November 2-3: Final exams at MBC
November 6: Graduation for MBC third year students
November 8-10: Spiritual Leadership seminar with leaders from 6 districts
November 8-10: Missionaries Karen Hanson and Tiffany Richardson arrive for District Women's Conference
November 9: spent the day at the Women's Conference and taught a one hour session even though I had informed several of the leaders that I would not be able to teach during this year's conference. "Instant in season and out of season" applied, the Lord helped me.
November 10: Missionaries Rob & Jeanel Shipley arrive from Uganda to spend the night and travel to Dodoma with us the following day
November 11: Traveled to Dodoma for a field fellowship meeting and the first Master's Graduation at Dodoma Bible College
November 12: Field fellowship meeting
November 13: Master's Graduation 9:00am - 2:00pm followed by a luncheon.
November 14: 8 hour drive home from Dodoma
November 15: Shipley's leave for Uganda.
During those first two weeks I provided meals for our guests, made and remade beds and attempted to be a good hostess.
This week has been guest and activity free so we are catching up on office work and getting everything back to normal. We have no more travel planned until after Christmas and that is OK with us!
Be blessed.

Post Election

The elections are over and we have retained the incumbent; President Kikwete. His party, CCM, has been the ruling party since Tanzania became a nation in 1964. His re-election was announced on Wednesday and things were peaceful.
However, many of the Districts elected officials from the opposing party, Chadema, for the first time in this country's history. Also for the first time in it's history, except on the islands and along the east coast, there was rioting in Tanzania.
Tanzania has always been a peaceful country and its citizens are very non-confrontational. On Monday, the results of all of the local elections were to be announced in the early morning but by 4:00 the crowds were still waiting to hear the results.
The crowds feared that the incumbent CCM officials were attempting to change the votes back in their favor. Riots broke out across Mwanza, we heard tear gas cannons go off all over the city and all around us there were mobs of people carrying rocks and sticks and yelling. Riot police were called in with rifles and dogs to control the crowds. For about two hours around our house, in the road in front of our house and in our neighbors yards there was fighting and guns were being fired by guards and riot police. A crowd set the CCM building on fire.
Our house had a haze of smoke in it which drifted up our hill from the many tear gas bombs (15-20) that were fired into the crowds around Mwanza.
Finally, about 7:00, the incumbent CCM official came out and conceded his loss and the win of the ChaDema candidate. Almost immediately, people settled down and dispersed to their homes.
It was the first time such a thing has ever happened in Tanzania and we pray it will never happen again. It was a brief glimpse for a couple of hours into the fear filled lives of people around the world who live with constant war, rioting and violence and where "ducking for cover" is as normal an activity as walking down the street.

Elections

The Presidential elections in Tanzania will take place this Sunday, October 31. We have been alerted by the American Embassy to keep a low profile (how do you do that when you are a white person in an African country?) and to stay alert for possible problems.
The CCM party has been the ruling party for years; however, the candidate for the opposing party has come from behind and there may actually be an upset in this election. People are generally unhappy with two things about the current party and President; there is widespread corruption in the government and there is a fear that we are moving towards becoming an Islamic nation.
Already in Mwanza, the second largest city in Tanzania, there have been some mild clashes during rallies and there will be more police and military patroling the streets and city beginning Sunday. Tanzania has always been a peaceful nation but some people are concerned about this upcoming election.
We Wazungu (white people) will be trying to keep a low profile as instructed; we will also be praying for a peaceful election.

The rains have come at last, within a couple of weeks everything will go from dead and brown to lush and green; it's amazing how the presence or absence of rain changes the look of the landscape and even the quality of the air. By the end of the dry season even the air is hazy with dust which affects our sinuses and even our breathing. Keeping the house clean becomes an almost daily event; just a few hours after dusting the furniture there is a fine layer of dust on everything once again. At the end of the dry season I take down all the curtains and sheers throughout the house and wash them to get all the dust out. It usually takes a couple of wash cycles before the water is no longer brown from the dust. Bedding is removed and either washed or taken outside, shaken vigorously and left to hang in the fresh air for the day.
Last night we had quite a storm with lots of loud thunder and lightning flashes. And, at one point, we had some hail mixed in with the rain which makes an interesting sound on the metal roof of our house. We are always so happy when the rains finally arrive after a dry 3-4 months. However, in 2-3 weeks we will be complaining about all the mud and the mess that all of the unpaved roads get in during the rainy season.
Such is the nature of man; the grass is always greener on the other side. For us, it's the greener grass comes but brings with it the muddy roads. However, given a choice, I choose the rain.

Accident

It happens to many missionaries sometime during their ministry; at some point in the many hundreds/thousands of miles they travel they have an accident which involves someone being hurt or killed.
Tim has been traveling most of the past three months; long days driving on dirt roads. This week in a remote village in southwestern Tanzania while traveling with our General Superintendent for the TAG, Tim hit a man on a bicycle. Even though it was unavoidable and not Tim's fault, it was still a traumatic experience.
I won't go into all the details of the incident but the injured man was taken to the local hospital and is recovering from minor injuries. God intervened in many ways that were obvious evidence of His protection and provision.
Tim paid for the man's bicycle repairs, bought him a new cell phone and the local TAG leadership paid for all the man's medical bills. Tim gave the man a gift of money equivalent to about $35 (several months salary for the average Tanzanian) and was released by the local police to continue his journey.
The man's family contacted Tim yesterday and asked him to come back to the village of Mpanda, "they wanted to have Tim's picture taken with the injured man". Of course, the real reason was to tell Tim that they needed more money. The opportunity to get money from a "wealthy foreigner" is a once-in-a-lifetime occurence and they take full advantage when it comes along.
Of course, Tim was innocent of any wrong doing and the man had been generously compensated; however, they knew that Tim would not want to go to court over the issue because he would have to stay in that remote village for an indefinite amount of time while the case was settled.
So, Tim gave them an additional "gift" (amounting to about $70) and they happily settled the matter in front of witnesses.
Also, in the course of the journey, he shredded a tire ($250 to replace) messed up a shock and had to stop and have it temporarily repaired; it will need to be replaced before long (an expensive item as well for the heavy duty shocks we use here).
Still, it could have been so much worse. We thank God for His protection.

Tanga Construction

Tim just returned from a week long trip to the Tanga region of eastern Tanzania; he met a construction team there from the states.

When they arrived they realized that the land was not level; if they put up the buildings on the land as it was the building would be nine feet off the ground on one end! They were on a tight schedule; Tim's team was to put in the foundations and erect the skeleton of the building and another team would be arriving at the end of the week to finish the project.

They needed a bulldozer; that may not sound like a big deal in America but in Tanzania??? Equipment that large is usually connected with a road that is being worked on by a foreign construction company that has been contracted by the Tanzanian government.

It would take days or weeks for the site to be leveled with shovels and manual laborers and would not be ready for the two construction teams from the states.

Tim and the team enlisted the help of the local TAG leadership and they were told of a bulldozer that was owned by a local sisal plantation. They went to speak to the owner and he was willing to let them use his bulldozer to prepare the site.

The owner could have charged the team a huge amount of money to use the back hoe, instead, he didn't charge them anything at all. The man was not a Christian but God used him to meet the need of the construction team.

The back hoe was ancient, but it did the job and the site was leveled and the team finished their work just in time for the arrival of the second team.

God is definitely in the construction business and deals in large equipment.