Dear friends,
After sending my last update (March 22nd), I realized that I hadn’t so much as mentioned Easter!! I pray it was a special day for each one of you as you reflected on the victory that is ours through Jesus’ resurrection. I was blessed to be able to attend the international church in Arusha and enjoy singing familiar, English hymns with a couple hundred other expatriates. While in Arusha, I was also very blessed with opportunities to visit several of the friends we have made in that city.
On Friday (March 28th), Ben arrived safely back in Arusha from visiting his brother in Uganda. Praise God for His blessing on Ben’s time with family, as well as for his safe travel, and the refreshment he was able to get. The day after his return, we made the trip back to Mbulu and to our home at Waama Bible College. This is also a huge item for praise as there had been several good days of rain and we were concerned about the condition of the roads we had to cover. As it was, apart from a few places with water over the roadway and some sloppiness toward the end of the trip, there were no real problems.
The following Monday (March 31st), was third-semester reporting day for the students. A few showed up, anyway. J On Tuesday, we had our teachers’ meeting for the semester to determine who was teaching what. Fortunately, as Ben and I were hoping, we were both assigned many of the same courses we taught last year. In addition, however, we did pick up a couple more music classes (“Rhythm” and “Music History”). This was because the regular music teacher needed some relief as he pursues some continuing education. Classes formally started up for the semester that Wednesday, April 2nd.
So, life is back in full swing. We appreciate your prayers so much as we face a significant amount of class periods each week and especially as we will once again spend most of our weekends this semester doing village outreach events. Pray especially for the students as they wrap up this year of study. Pray that they would finish well and be well-equipped for the work they will face upon completion. There is no doubt that the devil will do anything he can to disrupt the good things that are happening. In fact, I regret to report that there are a couple students who, due to some recently exposed moral failure, will not be back for this third semester. Again, what is needed is prayer. Thank you for your part. Please also continue to pray for the diocese here as a whole. With Waama being THEIR school, we have seen their increased support to be a huge need ever since we first arrived in Tanzania. It seems progress is being made in that direction and we are very encouraged…but don’t stop praying yet!
For those that have not visited our blog recently (http://benandjesse.blogspot.com), I did post some new pictures while I was in Arusha. Thank you so much for your patience. Unfortunately, posting from here in Mbulu is usually somewhere between difficult and impossible due to the poor internet connection but we will continue update as we are able. Thank you again for your interest, prayers, and support. Sorry to those of you whose correspondence from me is limited to these generic updates. Please know that my thoughts and prayers for you all are much more frequent than even these update emails. Personal notes from that direction are always welcome, too, but I know life is busy for all of us. So, until next time, God richly bless you all!
In Him,
Jesse Long
Mbulu, Tanzania
