Greetings once again from East Africa!!
As I write this letter, second semester here at Waama Bible School is well underway. Since my last update, God has continued to guide and protect Ben and me. I returned here to the school campus on the 2nd of January. Ben returned safely from his time in the States later the following week and joined me here at Waama on the 9th. Classes started on schedule (Tuesday, January 5th) despite the fact that only about half of the students had actually reported back by that time.
Classes have been going well, though. This semester I am responsible to teach Minor Prophets, Evangelism, 1-3 John, and English. Ben has an equal load with three different Bible History classes and English.
Weather wise, this year has been a year of extraordinary blessing, especially in comparison to the lack of rain we experienced last year. In fact, the rain has been excessive in many areas (including here at Waama) to the point that the students had to spend the entire second week of this semester out in the fields trying to reduce the weeds that were threatening to overcome the corn harvest.
This work that came up for the Waama students ended up being a blessing for Ben and me since, that same week, Waama received 10 exchange students from a Bible school in Norway. In large part, Ben and I were responsible to host, oversee and even teach these guest students (6 boys and 4 girls) during their stay. As you can imagine, it was very beneficial to not need to teach the Waama students that week and be able to focus all our energy on hosting. It was a great week of blessing and both Ben and I very much enjoyed the opportunity to teach some of our favorite classes…and even in English!! Attached with this email is a picture of us with the Norwegian group.
Since our guests left, it has been a little quieter around here. We certainly miss them but it is nice, too, to be back to our normal routine and making some progress in our various classes with our regular students. Another aspect of getting back to our normal routine is going to be beginning our weekend village ministry schedule. We anticipate that our first weekend of Jesus film showings for this year will be this coming weekend (January 29-31) as we go to a region known as Tomati. We covet your prayers as we once again go to visit an area totally new to us. Pray that unbelievers would especially be drawn to this special event and that many who may even be hearing the Gospel for the first time would come to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.
Thank you once again for your prayers and support in various ways. Ben and I feel blessed to be the ones that have been sent to this place and we realize none of what we do would be possible without people like you. God bless you for your part. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. I look forward to sending another update once we have completed our first couple weekends of village ministry for the year.
God bless you all!
In Christ,
Jesse Long
Mbulu, Tanzania
