Thanks for Praying

Thank you so much for your prayers over the past few weeks! We have seen God's hand at work in a powerful way and are eager to share with you. Sunday evening was our final showing. On Monday Ben and Jesse returned to Tanzania and yesterday (Thursday) the rest of the team headed back to the US minus Joe who is on his way to Burundi for a few days. It was just the four of us around our table for breakfast this morning for the first time in a month!

It is impossible to share with you every detail of the Jesus Film Campaign, but I will share a few of the highlights. In Bulumba on July 6 we had a soccer match with all the bazungu (whites) on one team and some players from the local high school on the other. The bazungu's won the match with a lot of help from the Africans that they gave us to give us a full team. Anyway... we showed the Jesus Film that night in the marketplace of the town and a huge crowd came out to see it. The kids were pressing in on us as we set up the equipment. We can only estimate that there must have been between 1,500 and 2,000 people there! (Our average showing had around 300-400 people).

We showed the Film in Bulumaki on Saturday night, July 7th and then worshiped with the people the next morning. After service and lunch we loaded up to go to Buwooya where we were scheduled to show the film that night. The car wouldn't start. Weak battery. The generator had cut out the night before for the first time during the film but managed to start again and finish it out with much prayer. We could not charge the battery off the generator because the generator was not working and on top of all that the rain was coming. The spiritual nature of it all was very apparent and we joined together in prayer. The car started. I don't know why it did on that last time. "May as well try it again..." We drove through the rain to Buwooya and set up for the film. The generator started and ran for a half an hour with a new batch of gas in it as a test before the actual film. Once it was time for the film to start, the generator fired and then quit after 10 seconds. This prompted some more prayer... It fired again and lasted the whole Jesus Film! It actually quit again as Pastor Martin was offering some concluding remarks! The rain also started to come shortly into the film, but again after prayer it stopped and the stars were out for the rest of the showing. Praise the Lord! The next day was Monday, our day off and we were able to get both the vehicle and generator fixed.

There were many other instances of God's hand going with us. Thank you for upholding us in prayer! Each team member took their turn getting sick, but not all at once. Rhoda and I remained healthy, aside from mild colds. Rhoda did exceptionally well as she held down the home front cooking and looking after sick patients. We cycled team members through Jinja for rest and recouperation throughout the campaign.

It is incredible to look out over a sea of faces that are watching and hearing the Gospel in their own mother language. Eternity will only tell the impact of these past weeks. Continue to pray for the pastors (Martin, Charles, Wilberforce, William, Edward, Sospeter, and James) as a lot of the follow-up work is falling to them. Some new Bible studies are being started in some of the villages where the film was shown. Thanks again for your partnership in this ministry!

Nate (for Rhoda & the boys too)