While many of you in America are sweltering in the heat and dreaming of ice cream, we are in the middle of winter and digging out our jackets!   It truly does get cold here (ok, in the 70’s during the day and upper 50’s at night, but I’m cold :).   Thankfully it only rained during the first campaign’s time here and dried up nicely for the next two campaigns.  I do apologize for getting behind in posting by completely skipping last month but if you want to read up on a wonderful campaign that Central church of Christ from Augusta, GA helped with at Kisongo go to Anna Maynard’s blog.

Campaigns have kept us running since the middle of May and there has been some wonderful growth in so many people here. We have had groups here Montgomery, Alabama; Augusta, GA and Hoover, Alabama. There has been an exciting youth day, well received marriage seminar and over 20 baptisms! Between these new converts and the more than 20 baptisms that have happened already this year thanks to the never ending work of the Kisongo Christians, Kisongo is growing! Not everything that has happened has been easy, but we have seen so many Christians here step up into roles that they were previously uncomfortable filling. God is moving in mighty ways and we are excited to see who is willing to follow Him through this transition time.

Changes are always difficult at different points and with the Maynards moving back to America soon and us leaving on a two month furlough, we ask for prayers for the Christians here to do what God is leading them to do with wisdom, courage and initiative.We were so proud for Kisongo and all of the work and money that they put in to planning their campaigns.  There are enough people at Kisongo to handle translating which is a HUGE deal!  Many Kisongo Christians, along with others who came to participate from surrounding congregations, have been out doing studies for two months now!  Many have taken time off from jobs, house work, etc to make this happen.  The congregation donated money to feed lunch to those involved from TZ and the USA and the women cooked TONS of food to keep everyone going.

Those who aren’t able to translate went out on studies too.  This is so important.  It means so many things!  Most importantly it means that they realize that EVERYONE can do this, not just those who know English.  God speaks Swahili too!  It means that Christians and non-Christians alike got to study more.  It means that the Kisongo Christians worked together to make this happen.  This congregation is growing and we are so proud for them!  Several of the women I have been studying with and the men Phillip has been working with were out there working hard and it truly did our hearts good!

 

Phillip has been working with the youth and the youth teacher over the past year and thanks to God several of them have been baptized and are working to grow!  This past week Kisongo had one of the largest groups at a Youth Camp help in Mwanza.  The youth had a great time, learn much and a few more were baptized into Christ!  We are so thankful and excited for these youth.  They are a wonderful group to see as the up and coming church.  This picture is of the entire Youth Camp group from all over Tanzania.

Since Anna and I are both getting ready to leave we decided that the only sane thing to do it a three day Children’s Seminar (VBS)!  Ok, so maybe it wasn’t sane, but we had a great time and the kids enjoyed it!  We had the women come last week and help get crafts ready, decorations painted, etc and they came in number!  We had over 30 women come help us.  During the week of the seminar we had some of the youth come translate, decorate, teach, manage coloring and were overall great!  We had around 100 kids come the first night, 150 the second and 120 the last night.  We covered the fiery furnace, the lions den and the big fish!   Not bad for carboard, fishing line, paint and construction paper!

Even with all of the campaigns, there has still been work going on at the farm.  The broiler project is doing very well and providing more than enough meat for the school.  The vegetables in the raised beds are also doing well and providing greatly for ACSOP.  Several of the raised beds have been cleaned and are ready for replanting now.  Mchicha (a type of leafy green plant that is eaten here) seeds are also being dried now to be used for replanting.  Sunflowers from the greenhouse were recently harvested for cooking oil production.  Sweet potatoes were also grown and are being harvested on the farm. Sadly, the corn and most beans did not survive the drought.  Farming is the same all over the world.  Sometimes it is great and sometimes it rips your heart out.  Thankfully there has been a balance of both this year.  God’s plans are bigger than ours!

 

Another exciting development is the new Kisongo building!  With the help of many from the congregation here and in the states, the new Kisongo building is moving along quickly!  The roof is on, iron bars for windows are in, doors are hung, electricity is run, water for the baptistry is plumbed, glass for the windows is coming, and the walls are starting to be plastered very soon!  We have been able to meet in there several times but will have to wait until the rest of the construction is done before we can go in there again.  Lord willing that will be VERY soon!

This picture was taken about a month ago:

And this picture was taken today:

While Central coC was here we were able to get a BIG family photo!

Since we know that many of you keep up with us just to keep up with our kids (you know who you are :), then I wanted to let all of you know that the boys rocked campaign season!  Was it all easy?  No. Were we all worn out?  Yes.  Were there some sketchy parenting/child-ing moments? Also, yes.  BUT, we made it through with the help of God, friends from here and America and maybe some coffee and chocolate.  🙂   The boys learned how to make chipati (a local flat bread), saved chameleons, went on Bible studies, helped shop at the market, and played in all weather

We will be leaving for furlough in the near future, I will not be updating this blog until we get back here in October.  We will be taking Nathan to doctor’s appointments, presenting the work to a few congregations and seeing family and friends stateside.   While we love this work, we are also looking forward to this time to rest and regroup.

Phillip will be presenting the work at Byron church of Christ in GA on August 4th and at Huntingdon church of Christ in TN on August 25th.  We also plan to be at Polishing the Pulpit in TN (not presenting anything, just being there) for the whole week.   We hope to see many of you at one of those places! 

We do what to thank each of you for all of the prayers, encouragement, donations and help.  This past year (how has it been a YEAR?!) has been one of the most challenging, encouraging, growth educing, tear jerking, joy filled and wonderful years and we look forward to taking a breather so that we can come back in October ready to go again!

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:

Checks can be made out to and Mailed to:
Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver
2707 S. Lamar Street
Denver, Colorado 80227 (Memo line: “Duncan TZ mission”)