Skip to main content

Posts

Isaya and His Desire to be a Doctor

This is Isaya (in America we would say Isaiah). He is 20 years old,  the son of Fred Bwile, a graduate of the Andrew Connally School of Preaching and he wants to become a doctor. He is an active member of the congregation that his father preaches for, often times teaching bible study. His family lives in Kenya where there are only 0.2 physicians per 1,000 people (2011-2015) compared to the 2.5 in America (2011). Teaching bible study. Mr. Fred contacted me a few days ago, saying that Isaya had completed his secondary education (high school) but that they didn't have the funds to send him to college. He said it would cost $240 per year. Correction: I was informed today that that number is not correct. It will actually cost $2,400 per year. I told him I would try and raise what I could. but that that was a lot more money than we both had originally thought. I know the Lord will provide if it is His will.  That's almost 4x less than what it costs to...

A Library Can Help Spread the Gospel?

   "Go, stand in the temple courts," he said "and tell the people about this new life." (Acts 5:20) Peter and several of the other apostles were put in prison for speaking about the gospel and as an angel let them free in the night, he told them to go to the temple courts. Where was the best place to reach those of the Jewish faith? The temple of course. And Peter had been entrusted to take the gospel to the Jews (Gal. 2:7). What does that mean to us today? We need to position ourselves in locations where we can be the most effective. Or maybe we need to create such places.  You know, I've had people say " a library?" like "That's cool and all, but we want to support a work that will convert souls, not keep kids in school." And I can understand why they might think that, after all libraries are not viewed as places that can aid in the spread of the gospel. Tanzanians view education as one of the only ways they can better themselves...

Potter Children's Home

   What a wonderful season Christmas is. Pretty lights, the scent of pine trees, delicious goodies and time with family! You want to hear a funny story? Adam has needed a new office chair for quite some time. Recently, I sat down on it with him and crack! I broke it. The poor thing would lean to one side when you sat on it.  So, I bought him the exact same one, brand new, for Christmas. It arrived today and I secretly began trying to put it together in the laundry room. After about two hours, I gave up. I decided to let him have it early so he could help me finish putting the pieces together (smart, huh). Well, he gets to looking at it and discovers I've placed the armrests on the wrong sides. Fix that, everything else goes in place. Ta-da! All finished. Get it into the office and it won't tilt back. Adam fiddles with the chair, sits back down, and almost falls face forward because it's leaning the wrong way! We had a good laugh over it. But I've learned m...

Reaching Out

Hello from Pa! We had another great clothing giveaway on November 7th. The congregation really stepped up and we had even more clothes to give out to the community this time. It was a good thing too, because a friend of a family who lost their home to a fire stopped by and gathered up 12-15 bags of clothes and food. That brought our total to 75 bags of clothing and food given out and 18 families aided. We also had a member bring a bunch of books she no longer needed. When I saw this table, all I could think was "I need these!" Even though they were mostly children's books, there was this desire to take them all home with me. I obviously have a problem, hehe. The helpers enjoyed a meal of sloppy joes and baked beans. We would have had a bigger turn out but one of the members needed help moving so 5 or 6 men spent all morning and some of the afternoon assisting them. All in all, it was a great day. Picture on Right: Emily...

Success!

                                                                                                   Deuteronomy 15:11- For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you "You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land" The night before the giveaway, several members helped us get everything in order. The foyer furniture was moved to make room for the racks of clothing. Tables were set up for odds and ends like belts and gloves and for the peanut butter and jelly. We had about 20 members sign up to be there the day of the giveaway; We arrived at the church building 30 minutes before starting time, cause you know, there's always last minute things that need taken care of. Tw...

Living in the Present

                                                               Hello from the small town of Pottstown, Pa!      It's so good to be back! What with the birth of our little girl and daily life, posting had been put on a back burner. Back in December of 2014, Adam spoke to the elders here at Coventry Hills and asked if we could stay for a few years. I prayed, asking God to show us (through the elder's answer) what we should do pertaining to Tanzania and how we should go about getting back. They asked us to stay. We have not set a date for when we wish to be back in Tanzania. The reason for that is because living for the future takes the joy out of living for the present. Always thinking " I can't do that because of Africa" made putting pictures on the wall or hanging curtains seem like a waste of time and mon...

Free and Even Better Than We Hoped

                         As we were preparing for PTP, we had hoped to have a small booklet of a combination of Paul's writings printed and bound to present to people that were interested in the work as a means of convincing them that we were capable of doing so. We contacted Logan Martin to extract some funds from the bank account to purchase a paper cutter. Low and behold, a gentleman at the congregation here knew of a paper cutter that we might have for free. It took him a little time to check into it, which resulted in our inability to produce the booklet, but the paper cutter is FAR better then anything we could have afforded and was FREE! We'll be able to use it here while we are in America and then be taking it to Africa when we return. It sure does look like a weird contraption! It weighs a few hundred pounds and is sitting on our dining room floor for now.      We also were given a foil stamper ...