I would like to thank you all again for your continued prayers for the dean of Waama, Pastor Zakaria Dallei. Ben and I were able to make a trip to see him on the 17th of May and we found him already released from the hospital and staying at home with his family!! This was an amazing answer to prayer. Even the different fractures that he sustained (shoulder, rib, etc) have been stabilized and seem to be healing very well. We have been most concerned with the injuries he sustained to his head which for several weeks seemed to be causing him to be quite unsettled and do a lot of rambling. When we visited him, however, he was very calm, extremely coherent, and pleasantly conversational. Even his wife said that his progress in recent days had been very noticeable and they are in very good spirits and quite optimistic. Please continue to pray for his right eye. Due to the fracture that occurred on his skull near that eye socket, he still seems to be having some problems with his vision. I don’t know if we are going to be able to see him again before we head back to the States, but I will do my best to give more updates as they become available.
I need to back up now and share some other exciting news that happened at the beginning of this month. As you all probably know, I turned 30 on the 3rd of May. I was so encouraged to receive greetings from so many of you. Thank you so much. The most amazing greeting that I received, however, was from my friend, Eric Paulson, who made a surprise visit May 7-9th!! Arusha at that time, and he just came walking into the restaurant where we were having dinner that Friday evening!! (Ben was in on the whole thing.) Eric had been up in Switzerland on business and decided it was probably his last chance to see where I have been living and working for these past 4 years! So, our plans for the weekend changed a little from what I thought they were. We ended up going to Mbulu the next day, spending a night at our house at Waama, and going on safari at Ngorongoro Crater that Sunday. We saw lions, elephants, giraffes, zebras, gazelles, buffalo, hippos, etc. It is hard to explain how much fun it was to show someone from home around this place! It was also just so encouraging to have such a good friend make such an effort and take time out of such a busy schedule to show interest in my life and this ministry. God is good…and may he bless Eric a ton! J
Following that exciting weekend, we had our weekend of Spiritual Meetings for this semester here at the school. We had one guest speaker who did most of the sharing but Ben and I also each took one session as we dealt with the theme: “The End Times”.
Another piece of big news: this past weekend (May 21-23) was our final weekend of village ministry!! It is amazing to see the different aspects of our ministry here come to a close. We spent the weekend in a region called Sabilo and had a good film showing in one village on Friday night, did a seminar in another village on Saturday, but then got rained out for the film showing that night. Fortunately, however, we were still in that same village for church the next morning so we trust that seeds were planted and God’s Word will not return void. I should say, too, that we have been trying to figure out what to do with all of our Jesus Film equipment when we leave but have been reminded yet again that God cares even about these small details and is more than capable of working them all out, too. Over the past several months, we have been approached by various individuals and groups interested in buying different components of our set (i.e. generator, speaker, etc.). We have felt, however, that since all of this was either donated or purchase for the work of evangelism in this area, that it would be best if it could continue to be used to that end. To make a long story short, we were approached just a few weeks ago by a missionary couple that lives about 2 ½ hours from us and they told us that they could use another set in their work with the Datooga people. So, since Sabilo is close to where they live, they came to pick up all the equipment on Sunday morning as we were drawing our weekend of ministry to a close. This meant that we didn’t even have to haul it back to Waama and it is already now in their hands. Praise God!
So, now we are wrapping up our third and final semester for this fourth and final year. I can’t thank you enough for your prayers and support!! Please continue to keep us in your prayers as…
· We finish up teaching this week.
· The students take finals next week.
· The school’s harvest of corn for the year is brought in over the next couple weeks.
· Preparations are made for graduation on June 20th.
· Ben and I both prepare to move back to the States at the end of June/beginning of July.
God richly bless you all!
In His service,
Jesse Long
Mbulu, Tanzania
