Mshama Kinyonga Prayer Letter: God’s Blessings

APPRECIATION

We first wanted to take this time to say thank you all so much for the birthday and anniversary cards and emails that were sent. Your taking time to remember our special days is always a true encouragement to us. We really do appreciate your thoughtfulness. We also appreciate the money that was sent so we could buy some extra things at the church. We were able to purchase songbooks, benches, windows, and fans; and we were able to complete my office. We know the blessing is from God, but we also realize that God uses people to channel His blessings. Lastly, thank you for praying for our guests who came. They made it here and back home safely, with no luggage lost and all health intact, and we appreciate your praying for them.

MINISTRY

We are now in two other public schools. We go in and teach the Bible each week. We have songs, games, and a Bible lesson. The doors are wide open for now, and we are grateful that our folks at GBC are willing to go and teach. Our Bible college is up and running and going well. We meet only once a month for now, but we have 26 eager and excited students, who are willing and ready to learn. This year for Mother’s Day, we also incorporated a Baby Dedication. This is a new idea for some. We had 19 babies/young kids dedicated to the Lord on that day. Knowing that our people see the importance of dedicating their children to the Lord is always a special time.

Our last big event for the month of June was camp. We had been preparing for a few months and praying for a lot of teens. We wanted to make it an evangelistic camp, not just a camp for our church teens only. We used sports as a way to bring them in; we invited a bunch of teens and even went to the schools. Unfortunately, Ramadan (Muslim fasting) fell during our camp dates. At the last minute, many backed out of coming. We were disappointed at first, but then we realized that we were grateful for the 107 teens who did come and even happier for the 14 people who trusted Christ. One of the teens who trusted Christ was one of our teens at GBC. His name is Yusufu (Joseph), and he realized that he had never really been saved after all the times of hearing the Gospel. Our efforts were worth it for even 1 soul, and God blessed with 14.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• My mother-in-law is retiring and coming to live here in Tanzania full-time in August 2018. Please be in prayer as she finishes her time in the States, and pray that she will adjust well to life here in Africa.
• Pray that the folks who are attending Bible college will continue to do well and that God will open up a door for them to be used in the ministry somewhere, either here at GBC or to start more churches elsewhere.
• Pray for jobs to open up here. Many folks struggle daily to find work, and it can get discouraging at times for them. Pray for their marriages as well.