Last Day in Tanzania

While my plan was to blog much more often. There are things that prevented that. Namely electricity rationing (we never knew for sure when we would have it), and internet purchase is by the mb here so I did not want to continually use up the mb.
This week has truly been an eye opener. I have met the leaders of 7 different churches in "the bush". These leaders all face difficulties that our churches at home would think nothing of. When I asked for prayer requests so that people in the U.S. could pray for specific items there were two things that were common in all the churches.
First, each one of the churches is looking for leadership in the form of elders. Only two churches currently have elders with one of those only having one elder. The pastors really soaked up the discipleship and leadership training we provided and are going to apply it to their congregations. They really need Christians in their congregations to step up and be leaders.
The second was for the spiritual development of all of their congregation. There are many distractions here that we do not have in the U.S. Lack of food, water and electricity are only a few. But one church was particularly interesting. I knew that the Makuowa (indigenous) people were originally animistic. I also knew that Islam is prevalent in this country. One church is positioned across the street from the local "witch doctor". This person will walk people right by the church to his shrine which is located behind the church property. I could not get over the fact that this IS the front lines of spiritual warfare. These Christians are battling forces that we know very little about. Prayer is the answer.
I hope that everyone will join me in praying for the Christians in Masasi, Tanzania.

Tim