Dear Friends,
Thank you for your prayers for our future radio station. We praise the Lord for the one individual and one supporting church that sent in funds in the past two months for this new project. We are moving forward with our application; and, Lord willing, we will have it submitted shortly. Please continue to pray that God will provide.
We had the wonderful opportunity to visit the village of Kolelo. White, a man whom I had won to the Lord, began to have a burden for his village. He wanted them hear the Gospel as well. On one of his trips home to his village to visit family, he took a stack of our church tracts to pass out. People began asking when this church would come and preach in their village. We were able to set up a day when I and a group of staff men from our church went out to have an open-air meeting. It took us 3½ hours on remote roads to get to the village. As we were traveling, it seemed as though there could not possibly be very many people out in this jungle. As we neared the village, coming through brush and across rivers, we came upon Kolelo, a village of over 5,000 people. We had a wonderful time soul winning and talking to people. That afternoon we had our open-air meeting with nearly 200 in attendance.
There were many exciting things that happened on our trip, but I would like to share a few of the highlights. The most exciting thing was the 32 people who accepted Christ either at the meeting or through our soul winning. Another was seeing two unrelated people who had been to our church before, one of whom was very faithful but had moved away and we had lost contact with her. The final blessing was that, as we were confirming our open-air meeting with the village government officials, we met the Ofisa Mtendaji, the chairwomen of the village. She is the highest non-elected official in this village. The moment I saw her, I knew who she was, and she the same with me. We had grown up together in Morogoro with our houses just minutes away. It is amazing how God prepares our way months and years before we even get there. Pray for the village of Kolelo and for a man by the name of Emili. He has a heart, along with a few others, to start a church in Kolelo. We are excited to see what God has in the future as we work and disciple in this village.
In the month of December, I had the opportunity to officiate my second wedding. This wedding was of another one of our staff members, Dissi. This wedding was one I will never forget since it happened on my birthday. Please pray for Dissi and his new bride as they continue to serve the Lord. Dissi will be heading up our radio station, and he is helping to prepare the needed paperwork for registration.
As we look back on the year 2013, we are amazed at the work that God has done here in Tanzania. We had many special days: our churches largest ladies’ meeting, as well as our biggest kids’ day. It has been a blessing to see many of our church folks getting involved in the many different ministries. We are so excited to share with you that 1,826 accepted Christ this year, with 104 of those being baptized through our church’s ministries. Our church has averaged 233 for the year, and we
are praying that God would allow us to grow to the next level this next year. Our theme for the coming year is “Let’s Build Together,” referencing Ecclesiastes 3:3, “…a time to build.” We are praying that God would use us to see His work move forward in 2014. Please pray for Faith Baptist Church and the many exciting things that are on our calendar.
Your representatives to Tanzania,
Jerry & Rachel Wyatt
