Dear friends,
Finals have started! Monday through Wednesday (June 8-10) are final examinations for all the students for the third and final semester of the year. That means that another year has come and all but gone already. Graduation is not until June 28 as the school needs time to harvest their corn and beans - a laborious process done completely by hand. This harvest will provide food for next year's students and hopefully provide a little profit when the excess is sold. As I mentioned in my last update, Jesse and I will be returning to the States shortly after graduation for a brief furlough before returning to Waama for the 2009-2010 school year.
We praise God for the good year of ministry he has given us this year.
It was by far our best year of teaching we have had. Not only are we getting more and more fluent in Swahili, but we have taught a number of our classes in previous years and can build on what we learned those years rather than starting everything from scratch. Since neither Jesse nor I are teachers by profession, it has also taken some time to figure out how to teach well, especially in an African setting. Teaching has been a huge blessing for us and we look forward to another chance to teach again next year.
Our Jesus Film ministry has also been a huge blessing. We are done for the year now, but had a very good year. Though we didn't have quite as productive a year as last school year, we feel that we accomplished more, especially during our seminar and preaching opportunities (during all of our weekend trips we get the opportunity to teach a seminar and preach - an incredible opportunity). God has been incredibly faithful throughout this ministry. Please continue to pray that God would water the seed that was planted and cause it to grow and bear much fruit.
**Electricity Update** Not much to update on... at least not much good news to update on. The power company's truck is still not fixed. But worse yet is that the transformer that was earmarked for the school has disappeared. So now the power company is trying to get another one from Dares Salaam. I have been tempted to get discouraged, but none of the locals seem to be concerned. Elections are coming next year and they say that all the incumbents would love to be able to brag that they brought electricity to Waama. In fact some say that they are probably slowing the process down so that we'll get hooked up closer to election time so that it will be fresh in everybody's mind. Who knows. In any case, money for the internal wiring continues to come in. No more rewiring has been done as of yet, mainly because the electrician has had some health problems - first his own health (we heard that he had to have surgery), but now his child has not been well. But the school is optimistic that he will soon be able to continue his work. This project has been a good "cultural experience" for Jesse and I. Thanks for your prayers and gifts on behalf of this project.
Please continue to keep the school in prayer. This summer (while Jesse and I are in the States), the school will be offering Accounting and English summer courses for the month of July. Then in August the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania will have their biannual conference on campus here. Then as soon as that is done the school will start getting ready for classes to start in early October.
Would you please pray for my financial situation? As you probably already know, Short Term Assistants (like Jesse and I) are not salaried.
Whatever comes in for a given month is the amount we are given. This is quite exciting as the figures can change as much as 10 times from one month to the next. This being said, the first 5 months of 2009 have been on the lower end of things. In fact, so far this year I have received only slightly over 1/3 of my estimated budget. I should probably be quite concerned about this, but I'm only mildly so. God has provided in the past, he is providing now, and I have complete confidence that he will continue to provide in the future. I would, however, appreciate your prayers on my behalf in this regard. Thanks.
Thanks to all for your partnership in this ministry. I hope to see each of you this summer. May God bless you,
Ben
PS If you haven't checked out our blog recently, please check it out!
The address is http://benandjesse.blogspot.com/
