PRAISE the LORD! The truck is in Tanzania in a bonded yard. We have been granted our VAT and duty exemptions but are waiting for them to be processed by the government. Thank you so much for your prayers. This whole endeavor has been miraculous. We are hoping and praying to be able to pick it up by the end of May. Please continue to pray with us about this. The truck will be an invaluable tool to help us reach so many places that we have not been able to reach with our current vehicle.

We are also hoping and praying to pick up Sarah at the same time we pick up the truck. She will have a month break between college and a camp in which she will be working for a month. We are looking forward to having her back in Tanzania, even if it is for just a short visit. She will be a tremendous blessing to the ministry. Please pray with us for safe and enjoyable flights for Sarah and for our safety, as we use a public bus to go to Dar es Salaam (at least 16 hours away).

There has been an explosion in the spirit and attendance of children and young people in both the city church and the village church. With the increase in young people coming to the church, we believe it may be the time to start a Youth Session. Young people have always had a significant role in the ministry here in Tanzania. The children are also ripe for the starting of a Bible Club, a ministry that was and continues to be used by God in a marvelous way in the city of Morogoro. Please pray with us about these two new opportunities.

The last day before Easter break, we stopped by a new elementary school in which we teach to make sure that there would be a class later that day. The secondary school, where we teach in the morning, had canceled their religion classes and was holding an all-school assembly. The assistant headmaster of the elementary school said that they would not have a class that afternoon at the regularly scheduled time, but that if we were prepared and would like to teach right then, he would round up all the children for us. The children were just playing outside. There were no regular classes that day, and instead of the regular 40-minute time period, we had complete freedom to go as long as we wanted. Normally, we must also leave right after class in order to go teach at the local teachers’ college. That day, we did not have to leave, and 30 children stayed after class, instead of going out to play, and put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as their own personal Saviour. We had all the time we needed to be very careful and clear in our presentation of the Gospel. Thank you for praying with us for the school ministries as requested last month. Please pray for more Tanzanians to volunteer to be trained to teach in the many, many schools still without Bible teachers.

For Easter, we held combined services with the church out in the village, cramming into two large vans (with probably twice as many as the recommended number of passengers) and coming into the city church. In between the services, we ate beans, rice, kachumbali (a mixture of raw tomatoes, onions, carrots, green peppers, and lemon juice), and bananas. To cap off the day, we observed the Lord’s Supper with the members from both churches.

Tabora has a unique climate, at least to us. It rains for about half the year, and it doesn’t rain—at all (not a drop)—for the other half. We are nearing the end of our rainy season, and some were even saying the rains were over. Boy, were they wrong! It rained and rained the last Thursday night and the entire Friday of April! The rains left about 2 to 3 feet of water nearly surrounding the city church building. We decided to hold the Sunday services at our house. It was reminiscent of the beginnings of Faith Baptist Church in Morogoro. sWe held services at our house for almost six years before moving to the present location of the church. The spirit was wonderful, and it was such a blessing to have everyone at the house. The biggest blessing of the day, however, was to see Rachel leading a lady visitor to the Lord on our front porch.

When I woke up to fresh-cut flowers and a beautiful homemade card, I was so pleased and delighted that my husband was so kind and considerate in thinking of me in such a way this Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2019. God, however, had another special blessing for our family that showed us His love for us.

We had been taking a very important prayer request to HIM alone in prayer. That prayer request was for a 4WD, diesel, manual-transmission vehicle with high ground clearance that would enable us to travel to many cities and villages here in Tanzania, often using poorly maintained dirt roads. Since we had already been invited by Tanzanian pastors to come disciple, train, and establish the churches they oversee, we believed it would just be a matter of time before God would provide “. . . abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” Hudson Taylor once said, “God’s work, done in God’s way, will never lack God’s supply.”

Watching God supply in miraculous ways for the needs of our family and the ministry over and over again is so exciting. On January 6, the very day a group of baptized believers (picture attached) were covenanting together to start the Faith Baptist Church of Ndevelwa (a village just outside of Tabora where we have been preaching and teaching the Statement of Faith every week for over a year), a church back in the United Sates was voting, unbeknownst to us, to provide the funds needed to purchase that vehicle. Once again, we were in awe of God and HIS marvelous grace in supplying this specific need! Having received this wonderful news, we got on our knees and gave God thanks and glory for what HE was obviously doing!

We started the process of seeking the vehicle that God wanted for us. When you are truly seeking HIS will, HE can make it very clear, as we were about to experience very profoundly! We made attempts to purchase (inquiries about) four vehicles over the next few weeks. Each time we did so, that vehicle sold. The money was actually wired to purchase the fourth vehicle before we were told that it sold locally in the UK. Can you imagine how we were feeling about then? We knew God had supplied the funds in a miraculous way and that HE wanted us to have a vehicle, but we didn’t understand what was happening at the moment. After receiving the stunning email, we immediately contacted the Japanese export company offices in Japan by phone. They assured us that they would have a replacement for us that day. As soon as we disconnected our SKYPE call, we visited the company website to once again look through the available stock of vehicles. When we inserted our search criteria for the “100th” time, we were amazed at what we found—a beautiful 4WD, diesel, manual-transmission vehicle that was the same year, but cleaner, with lower mileage, and the exact color we preferred. It had just been placed online for sale. We called the exporter back and urged them to move on it right away. Within a short time, the “SOLD” message was seen online again . . . but this time, the vehicle had been sold to us! Praise the Lord! On Valentine’s Day morning, we received the confirmation that our vehicle had already been loaded onto a ship, and the departure date was that very day. It is on the way!!!

In the midst of all of the ups and downs emotionally, the Lord blessed us with opportunities to lead a mother of seven children to the Lord at her house (picture attached), two young people after Sunday school, a man visiting on a recent Wednesday evening together with eight others before and after the Sunday services!! Also, during this time, three more adults joined the newly organized Faith Baptist Church out in the village.

Please pray with us about:
…the school ministry and the many students that we are privileged to teach every week.
…the discipleship program and those going through the 20 lessons.
…our vehicle to arrive safely in a month or so and to clear customs quickly without problems.

Jerry Wyatt Jr. and Family

FAITH COLLEGE–TABORA was started on Saturday, October 6, exactly 11 years to the day that Faith College–Morogoro was started. Although we do not need fleeces when God leads, it is extra special when He makes His will crystal clear by unique circumstances that can only be arranged by Him. The date had already been set when we were looking over the schedule that had been used in Morogoro for the first class there. We noticed the date and realized it was the same date and also was on a Saturday. Although we are not much for figuring out the probability of that happening, we’re pretty sure the odds are significant. Our prayer is for the Lord to do it again and again and again! The first class for all students wanting to join Faith College is a class on evangelism. What a blessing that class has already been to the students themselves, to Faith Baptist Church, and to those who have trusted Christ as their own personal Saviour since that day. As a result of the young believers getting out and witnessing to their friends and neighbors, there has been an increase in the number of visitors to the church and folks trusting Christ. A few of those visitors have even begun the discipleship lessons after having trusted Christ.
Please pray with us about the logistical and spiritual aspects of Faith College–Tabora and that God in His grace would touch the lives of many believers here in Tabora and mold them into the image of Christ.

FAITH BAPTIST CHURCH–NDEVELWA will be holding its Covenant-Signing Service on January 6, exactly 16 years to the day Faith Baptist Church—Morogoro was started. DO IT AGAIN, LORD! This is a village church about 13 miles from the city church, FAITH BAPTIST CHURCH–TABORA, which was reorganized about 2 years ago. There has been preaching on the Statement of Faith for over a year. A baptistry has been built, and a 1,000-liter water tank, together with rain guttering, has already been donated to harvest rain water. There is no city water anywhere near this church. Up until now, the new believers have been baptized at FAITH BAPTIST CHURCH–TABORA. We believe there will be many visitors to this service from the villages around it. Please pray that the Lord would, in His marvelous grace, bless and lead the services that day, with many trusting Christ and being baptized, and that He would very clearly raise up, there in Ndevelwa, a Tanzanian pastor “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”

Here we are at the end of another year, and as we emphasized in our last update, “Where has the time gone?” The year 2018 was a wonderful one of growth, both spiritually and numerically, in all of the ministries here in Tabora. Our prayer is, “Do it again, Lord, in 2019!” We are so thankful for all of you who take a moment to pray for our family and the ministries in which we are involved and for all who are able to have a part financially. Please pray with us that we would continually recognize our need for God’s grace in our lives so that HE receives all the glory for all that is done.

We also want to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and God’s richest blessings in the coming New Year. Send us a note, and let us know what God is doing in your lives. Grace to you!