Dear Fellow Co-laborers,
We are happy and blessed to have the opportunity again to give you an update on what the Lord has been doing over here in Tanzania. We are always honored and grateful that you would take the time to read our prayer letters. We first would like to thank you all for sending birthday cards and notes to Esther for her birthday. She enjoyed them so much. Whenever we passed the post office she would say, “Is there another card in there for me?” Thank you also for all the cards that were sent just because you all were thinking of us. We covet and appreciate them too.
We started out the month with a Kids’ Day at the church, which we have had many times before. We didn’t have flyers this time, just promoted by word of mouth. That day the Lord allowed us to host over 700 kids. It truly was a blessing, with many of them trusting Christ. We were so thankful for our faithful church members who teamed up and allowed us to have a very successful day.
We had some friends of our come and visit from America: two young ladies from Arkansas. Upon their arrival we had a soccer match between two of our Bible Clubs. We had been prepping the kids about the match for a while. Both teams were to stay after Bible Club and practice. We told them that we had Americans coming with candy and ribbons, so they should do their best to win. The day of the match, it rained terribly, but it didn’t matter. The kids played, and the church members stayed. The final score was 1-0. There were 100 kids in attendance, with 11 salvations.
These past few weeks, we have had some big days at church. The first week we had “Piki Piki (motorcycle) Sunday.” Each visitor who came with a motorcycle received two liters of gas. Even though it poured all day, the Lord did send some visitors our way. The following week was “Meat Sunday.” We killed two cows and had some food on the side. We had 575 in attendance, with 40 visitors and 33 saved. The week after that, we had “Orphan Sunday,” hosted by Calvary’s Love Children’s Home. This day promoted orphans who had lost one or both parents and their guardians. We had 630 that day, with 94 first-time visitors and 66 adults and 77 children trusting Christ as Saviour.
It’s always fun to see lost people come to the realization that they need a Saviour. All these big days and the money and energy spent are always worth it when we can see fruit. Out soul winning with our teens one evening, we had 20 people trust Christ.
We are so grateful for faithful people we can work with not only in Morogoro but also those of you with whom we co-labor. Thank you again for allowing us to be here and for remembering us even though we are thousands of miles away. We are always happy to hear what God is doing in your churches as well. It encourages us to go forward.
Your missionary friends,
Mshama, Martha, & Esther Kinyonga