June 2015 Newsletter

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me." John 17:20-2
Getting to feel comfortable in a new culture
We are beginning to see progress in our language learning and culture adaptation here in Tanzania. Our formal language classes ended last month, though we continue working on learning Kiswahili with people in Kisesa. There is also great improvements in our culture adaptation. One thing we are trying to do is to pick out the positive aspects of the culture and in doing this, to also help them to consider changes to things that are not so positive from the Christian stand point.
  At this early stage of our work in Kisesa, we have worked with the congregation to address problems they were having with time management and financial accountability. Lack of accountability was starting to cause a decline in members giving their tithes and offerings. The congregation has now adopted new ways of handling the offerings in a way that is restoring trust. Christy and I have promised to give each month 15% of our total living expenses to the church. A new management structure in the congregation now allows the Evangelist and Dixon to focus on the spiritual matters of the Church.( Acts 6:1-7)
Official welcoming by the Church
It is a tradition in the Lutheran Church in Tanzania to officially welcome missionaries or pastors posted to their church. On the 5th of April, we were officially welcomed into the congregation. This was a wonderful experience. We got to see members and groups showing love to their pastor by giving gifts in many forms. Christy got to receive many kinds of African cloth, which she is hopping to sew when the baby comes and as she gets back in her original shape. There were also lot of food items given us and a letter was read by the congregation to us, stating their willingness to work together with us to grow the congregation.

It seems that whenever we solved one problem in our new house, there seems to be another one coming up. We found that since water was not regular, we often ran out of water. We are thankful to one of our supporters who contributed the amount we needed for a water tank so that when water comes, we can store up sufficient water.
  For our safety and solutions to some of these problems that keep coming up, the church has now found a new house for us closer to the congregation in Kisesa. We moved into our new home 26 May and will install our new water tank soon. The new house is more spacious and has enough space to receive visitors and host families and friends, whenever they visit.
Ministry
I Dixon have started working in the church even as we continue learning the language and culture. The first thing I have done as I mentioned in our last newsletter was to start a Bible Study. We have seen a tremendous improvement in the attendance at the Bible Study and we  are also beginning to see a gradual improvement in members understanding of the Bible and their interpretation of scripture passages.
For the Church to run smoothly, we appointed some people to do particular work within the church.
We were able to conduct a four(4) days workshop for workers in the church and it was a wonderful experience for many members, who all along never knew the importance of working in the church.
Our New Car
Our new car has arrived in Tanzania. As we mentioned in our last newsletter, the car is a used car that we ordered from Japan. We are still going through the process of trying to get it released from the Customs. God willing we hope to have the car in a week. Thank you to all who have contributed for the car.

Christy has not yet started her work with the school which is to open in January 2016. She is however, serving on a committee that is preparing everything for the opening of the school. Moreover, she is carrying the  baby and will need some rest since she is now in her ninth month.
 Our friends Eric and Linda Funke were able to raise some funds that have helped the diocese to construct some of the needed buildings for the school. There is still lot to be done, but we pray that the money will come so that the school can meet government standards.
Prayer Requests

• Pray for Christy and the baby as we draw nearer to the date of delivery.
• Pray for Language and culture adaptation.
• Pray For our ministry here in Kisesa as we adapt to our new community.
• Thanksgivings for our new home, water tank and car.
• Pray for completion of our residence permit process.