Dear friends and family,
We just arrived home from our last weekend of Jesus Film showings here in Tanzania before going to Uganda for our 3-week evangelistic crusade and then make our trip to the U.S. I first want to thank you for your prayers and support over this past year as we can testify to God’s definite protection as we have covered many miles and His faithful blessing as we have ministered in various ways.
As I mentioned in my last update, the area we visited this past weekend is extremely needy. It is a part of the Rift Valley referred to as the Yaeda Chini. Please pray for the people in this area. Ben and I both sensed a very definite spiritual oppression that is affecting all aspects of life, both physical and spiritual. Pray especially for the evangelists who have agreed to work in this area as they have a very difficult job ahead of them. To give a small example, as we went hut to hut on Saturday afternoon inviting people to the Jesus Film showing later that evening, one older lady actually told the evangelist that if the white people had not brought any gifts for them (food, clothes, etc.), they weren’t interested in hearing what we had to say. This seems to be the general mindset of the people – very few do any sort of work and yet they feel that they are for some reason entitled to help from the outside. Many people have, in fact, done work in this region, from mission groups to humanitarian aid organizations and even the government of Tanzania. In fact, students from this region can receive full scholarships to primary and secondary schools in the city simply because the government wants to encourage progress among these people. We were told, however, that virtually any student who comes back from those years of free education (which is diligently sought after by other people in this country) promptly sold any clothes they had received and simply went back to their former way of life – a life of dependency and self-inflicted poverty. We were even told of missionaries who brought hoes and distributed one to each family to help encourage agriculture. Again, the hoes were sold or traded for a small amount of food or even a few bottles of liquor. Again, prayer is what is needed. Only God can reveal to people the true needs of their hearts and the value of what He has to offer.
Please continue to remember our upcoming trip to Uganda. Pray that all our equipment would continue to function well during this time of intense film showing. Pray that all the other details of this trip would come together and that our work would have an eternal impact for generations to come.
As far as life here at Waama, all of us, teachers and students alike, are amazed at how fast this last term has gone. Thank you for your prayers as the school year comes to an end – finishing up coursework, final exams this week, work with the harvest, graduation details, etc. God has blessed in many ways and we look forward to being here again for the next school year if God allows.
I pray all is well with each of you and I look forward to seeing many of you during my time in the States, July 19-September 11th.
In Christian love,
Jesse
PS – I have attached a picture of Ben with bundles of Bibles prepared for village distribution – special thanks to those who made this picture possible. For additional recent pictures, see our blog at www.benandjesse.blogspot.com.
Dear friends and family,
