This month started with the Tanzanian Leadership Conference at Andrew Connally School of Preaching (ACSOP).   It is an annual event hosted by the school and attended by locals, missionaries, preachers from around east Africa and America.   We were able to attend several of the classes all centering around the theme of II Corinthians “We are Not Like the Many”.   It was wonderful to see old friends and make new ones while learning more about God’s word.

We were able to help transport representatives from Healing Hand international around the area for them to see the farm at ACSOP and several raised bed gardens that have been started by a local preacher named Kashumba.   Our stops included a local school and Neema Village, which is a local orphanage.   This is the view from the orphanage along with some of their garden.

We have also been blessed to have Olivia Barnes (from Madison, Alabama) staying with us this month.   She has been working hard doing Bible studies and encouragement studies all over the Kisongo area with the help of Vivian and Mkunde.  She was able to follow up on two specific Bible studies, that had been started before her arrival, that resulted in baptisms.  She was also very helpful in a recent planning meeting with the children’s class teachers for Kisongo.  In this meeting she encouraged the teachers to have the students act out the stories and gave them some great information to help them do this.   Olivia has also been learning to make Tanzanian food including sambusas (meat filled pastries).   She has been a great blessing to the work here and to our family and we will miss her greatly when she heads home next week.

Phillip is continuing to work with the secretary for the ACSOP farm to streamline the book keeping process.   They have been able to continue to improve and are very encouraged by the numbers they are seeing for the broilers, layers, farm (vegetables, corn, etc) and milk production.   The papaya that were planted earlier this year are close to bearing fruit and, Lord willing, other trees will produce next year.   Drainage ditches have been hand-dug this month by the farm workers, ASCOP students, Justin and Phillip.  These are dug across the farm in preparation for the rainy season (March-April) and everyone is grateful that they are now finished.   Tomatoes and peppers have been planted in the greenhouse to, Lord willing, prevent pests from destroying them.

Phillip has also been helping develop a teen curriculum that can be used at the congregations here.   He has started teaching from it on Sunday mornings and will continue to adjust it as he and the other teachers see where adjustments need to be made to help the students learn better about God’s word.   This curriculum is meant to span four-five years and covers: an overview of the New and Old Testaments; the authority of the scriptures; Christ’s church; salvation; and the gospels/life of Christ.   He is very grateful for the Tanzanians and Americans who are helping this come together.   On Saturdays Phillip is also teaching a teen class at the Kisongo church of Christ covering “People of the Bible”.   He continues to do encouragement studies with people around our area also.

I have continued to do encouragement studies with some of the ladies here in Kisongo with the help of Naomi and am truly blessed to get to study with these women.  Micah and Nathan enjoy playing with their children and it has been a wonderful way for us to get to know our neighbors better.   As the Maynards have now left for furlough, I am taking on Anna’s Bible class that she teaches at a local primary school every Friday.  In October I went with her to get to know the rhythm of the class and to be introduced to the Head Master.  It is a school of over 1,000 students and this class is always full!  I am also guiding the ladies class on Sunday mornings at Kisongo church of Christ and helping the children’s class teachers plan their weekly lessons for both the older and younger children.  We meet to help plan out what will be taught in the classes and how the classes will be taught.  Right now they are going through Numbers and will be covering Moses and the 12 spies this coming Sunday.  We are excited to help in any way that we can and are blessed to get to work and learn from the Christians here.

Micah and Nathan are picking up Swahili quickly and are a great help to our work.  They are doing great learning to read and do math and we are very proud of them both.  My dad taught Micah the basics of making a blueprint and he was very excited to get to try out those skills designing a play area for him and Nathan.  They also get plenty of play time which usually includes dressing up as a dinosaur, cowboy, maasai warrior or a combination of all of the above.

We have been blessed with three rabbits (who will get cages as soon as we have time to get them built) and we are looking forward to raising some of our own meat again.   No, we are not going to eat these guys.  They are our beloved breeders named Carrot (female), Radish (female) and Tomato (male). Our garden has been doing well aside from an aphid problem that we are working on.  We were given several bags of “mystery seeds” to plant.   These turned out to be a type of green grown here known as mchicha and radishes.   Apparently radishes grow well here and thankfully we enjoy them!

We thank each of you for your interest in our work here.  We thank you for your words of encouragement, your prayers and your support.   You are all in our prayers daily.

In Him,

Phillip, Bekah, Micah and Nathan

For those who have asked, support can be sent in two ways:

Through Paypal at: pbduncan20@gmail.com

Or:

Mailed to:

Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver
2707 S. Lamar Street
Denver, Colorado 80227 (Memo line: “Duncan TZ mission”)