Greetings from Waama Bible School! After nearly 3 months in the States, both Jesse and I are back at Waama ready for our 4th year of teaching and showing the Jesus Film!
The brief couple months we had in the States were a huge blessing. I was able to share a dozen times about the work we do in Tanzania! I was also able to meet up with many friends and family and had a very blessed time with all of them. God is so good. But before I knew it, it was time to head back to Tanzania for another year.
The return trip to Tanzania was quite eventful including a two day lay-over in Chicago, which paved the way for a volleyball game with a friend from 1st grade (thank you Facebook!), a tour of London, two overnight flights, a night in Dar es Salaam, and a 10 hour bus ride! And that only got me to within 3 hours of Waama! I felt like I needed to go on vacation again. But God has been so good to us and has given us a couple days of blessed peace and quiet here at Waama before the students come and classes start.
We actually have already had a couple teachers meetings and divided up classes for first semester! Usually this doesn't happen until AFTER the students arrive. This year I am going to be teaching Intro to Biblical History, Bible History 1, Bible History 2, and Bible Customs and Geography. These total 11 credits, 8 of which are new courses that have never been taught and have to be written from scratch. This is by far the heaviest load I've ever had, but I'm excited to teach these classes and love what I do! Classes are scheduled to start on Monday, October 12!
One of the first things we noticed when we arrived at Waama was that all the buildings had power lines running to them! Indeed, all the buildings on campus have been hooked up to the national grid! This is such an incredibly huge blessing, I can't even explain. On behalf of everyone here at Waama, THANK YOU to everyone who prayed for and gave toward this project! This will be a huge blessing for many, many years to come.
Would you praise God with us? Praise him for...
...electricity! This is such a huge blessing and answer to prayer.
...calling Jesse and I back for another year. We are excited to see what God has in store for us this year.
...a great summer. It was great to see so many of you this summer and share what God has been doing over here.
...Adela Hein. This summer I started courting Adela! We are excited to see where He leads us and covet your prayers on our behalf.
Would you please pray for us and this coming school year? Please pray for...
...students. 51 applications have been accepted for the 2009-10 school year. Capacity is 72 and we would love to max out this year.
...protection. We need protection while we travel - Jesse and I travel many kilometers for both ministry and personal needs. We need protection from sickness - Last week there were 20 confirmed cases of swine flu in Mbulu, 5 miles away. Pray for protection from the "pestilence that stalks in the darkness" (Ps 91:6).
...good ministry. With Swahili getting easier and easier, the opportunity for deeper ministry increases. Pray for wisdom, discernment, boldness, and cultural awareness in all our opportunities.
...rain. There is a pretty significant drought across the country. Many crops failed last year (though God blessed Waama with a huge harvest), many livestock are dying, and the government is passing out food by the truckload. Pray that the rains would come soon.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support! May God bless you,
Ben
PS We are at the beginning of a new year and many of you are new to this update list and have requested information on how to partner financially with me. Here are two different ways it can happen...
-Write a check, made payable to "AFLC World Missions". On a separate note write "For the ministry of Ben Jore". Then mail to: AFLC World Missions, 3110 E Medicine Lake Blvd, Plymouth, MN 55441.
-For those who would like to support me monthly but don't want to write a check every month, you can set up an automatic transfer. To do this, click here to receive the form, print it and fill it out. Then send it to the above address. If you have any questions feel free to contact me or the World Missions office at 763-412-2013.
