Soul Scarcity

During these days of social distancing and “lock-down” some of us have had a forced time for rest and reflection. For most of us, Easter has been an unforgettable time that has NOT been the “business as usual” --travel, church, food preparation and family reunions. I don’t recall when I have listened to “The Messiah” in one setting and it happened this Easter! God has allowed the world to “stop” and is surely challenging us to “be still and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10.

Memories of our East African visit are still fresh on my mind. One word that describes situations in East Africa is “scarcity”. Unlike North America, (with the temporary exception of toilet tissue, etc.) there is scarcity of food, water, electricity, shelter, basic needs, transportation, steady jobs, medical care, school fees, etc. We were inspired again during our visit to see the resiliency of the African people, their creativity and ability to make do. Since returning to Canada, I have reflected on my own scarcities.

1. Lack of Thanksgiving. I can identify with the 9 lepers Jesus inquired about in Luke 17:17,18 who forgot to return and thank Jesus for His amazing work in their lives. I have counted my own blessings more these days, appreciating God for Who He is and His good gifts. I suspect I have done less complaining and even worry. Recalling some of the sights and experiences in Africa just two months ago has given perspective how much we have to be thankful for.
2. Lack of Love. John 21 reminds me how our risen Saviour meets us in our routines and schedules and has us stop and experience His love afresh and hear His truth to our hearts. How easy it is to be caught up in good things even exciting ministry outcomes! Jesus' questions to Peter, John 21:15-17, caused a rekindling of love and fresh obedience to the Saviour.
3. Lack of Faith. Joshua 14:8,9 spotlights Caleb (and Joshua’s) example of whole-heartedly following God. They rejected peer pressure and the majority who saw giants and so many obstacles, Numbers 13,14. Adjusting to retirement and Canadian culture while continuing to feel heart passion for the people and works we have left in Africa and the Philippines continues to stretch my faith.
4. Lack of Consulting God. Even called and gifted Joshua relied on his own insight and strategy rather than asking God about the Gibeonites, Joshua 9:14. It’s possible to get so caught up in ministry and pressing things before us, we become presumptuous and even familiar with God. This results in failure to pray and lay our situation before the Lord. These days of staying home have opened up new possibilities of prayer.
5. Lack of Focus/Worship. Revelation 4 and 5 is a favorite passage that reminds us of the day coming when the whole universe will worship and praise Jesus the Lamb of God. It is from the Rev. 5 passage that we named our Blog “Lion Sightings.” With events of the last couple of months, it does seem that the world stage is being set for Christ’s Return. Oh to be prepared and watching for that Day!

Indeed, God is using these days of restraint from our usual routines and freedoms to cause us to pause and be still before Him, to look to Him, to listen to Him, to find renewal and fresh hope in our risen and victorious and soon-coming Lord Jesus. A song that has blessed me this week is the Chris Tomlin video arrangement found on You Tube, “He is Worthy”. Indeed, praise Him!

Is It Worth It?

Last week while Ruth and I worked on categorizing two months worth of financial receipts from East Africa, dealing with six currencies, and began to organize our pictures, we allowed ourselves to ask the question, “is the outcome worth the investment of energy and finances?” As we reviewed our time in East Africa and discussed what we experienced, we, of course, came to the conclusion that indeed, it was worth it. Among others, these four stand out:

• Obeying God’s Great Commission work is always worth it! The Saviour is so worthy of our all. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) words come to mind, “I go out [to serve] with two propositions in mind, first everyone ought to give his life to Christ, second, whether or not anyone gives his life, I will give Him mine.”
• We were allowed, as only God could arrange it, to witness first-hand fruit from ministry back in early 2018. It was then while we were training Christian South Sudanese refugees to use the module on Purity as an outreach to their own people in the camps, that several men started weeping with conviction over their own personal failure to be legally married, including one of the leaders. On Feb.22 that leader, Peter and Hellen, officially were married and Beth and Laura were there among the guests!
• During the Arusha, Tanzania, training, one of the participants, a pastor, shared that he had arrived at the training with much bitterness toward another pastor who had mistreated him. But during the training, he chose to obey God’s Word, and do what he was being trained to teach others to do, by forgiving that pastor and releasing the injustice to God. During the closing of that training, he offered Scripture Union Tanzania free office space in a building he is connected to in Western Tanzania. Stellah, the National Director for Scripture Union Tanzania, later told us that she and her Scripture Union board had been praying for an opportunity to expand into that area of their nation. Just a couple of days ago, we heard that indeed those plans are moving ahead and that region is opening up to Scripture Union!
• After working closely with several Scripture Union Tanzanian staff and volunteers and walking with them through two 3-day VOICE Trainings, we left for Kenya. However, what had got started continues...the Scripture Union Swahili Training Team have already conducted, on their own, two more trainings for volunteers with plans that in June those who have been trained will begin teaching Values Classes in schools in the Tanzania Lake and Western Zones.

There’s more that we could list, but praise God with us for what He, the Lord of the Harvest, is doing. It’s marvelous that He chooses to use us, His imperfect servants, to work with Him. THANK YOU for going with us back to East Africa these last two months through your faithful prayer and financial support...the results are also attributed to your eternal accounts!

Training Tanzanian Trainers

As you may remember, we mentioned that one of the purposes of this trip was to help Scripture Union Tanzania train some of their staff/full-time volunteers so that they would then be able to conduct trainings for Christians who want to teach the newly published Swahili Biblical values curriculum in school classrooms, churches, and/or communities. In response to that statement, one of our supporters asked us to describe how we plan to go about doing such a training of trainers. Our response was simple...not sure how that was going to happen but was requested by our Ugandan colleague, Beth.  During our second week in Uganda (please see photos in the previous blog regarding the first week), the three of us (Beth, Laura and Ruth), spent several days discussing logistics and strategies mixed with a lot of prayer. Although a huge dose of flexibility was demanded after those plans, the process began to come together as only God could do it.

Upon our arrival Jan.18 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, we met Stellah, the Scripture Union Tanzania National Director and, with joy, saw and held the first copies of the Swahili Forgiveness and Purity Modules in our hands! Stellah asked us to pour our efforts during the next four days into five of her key staff/volunteers whom she felt were capable of training others to teach this newly translated and published curriculum. All of them had taught at least a couple of lessons of the English curriculum in a school. During the first two days, we traveled about 1 ½ hours one way (some of the way over washed out roads!) to a Primary School and observed the SU Team teaching the brand new Swahili curriculum on Forgiveness in three classrooms simultaneously. Although we do not understand Swahili, we had the English Teachers Manual in our hands and followed as best we could. (Language was no barrier when it came to comprehending how much the students and their teachers were enjoying the Swahili lessons.) Following their classes, we met together for lunch and discussed our observations, giving affirmation and suggestions. Together they worked on learning the songs in Swahili and deciding on appropriate actions. The last two days were spent at the Scripture Union office watching them demonstrate the rest of the lessons in front of each other and giving mutual encouragement and suggestions. Stellah then selected four of them to become the Training Team for the first ever Swahili VOICE Training to be held on the island of Zanzibar the next week.

All of us traveled to Zanzibar via ferry and the 3-day training, focused on Forgiveness, began on Tuesday, Jan. 28…in straight Swahili! The Training Team bonded quickly with the 22 participants and learned the songs, actions, definitions, etc. effortlessly. Beth marveled at the speed and delight—there was no comparison with trainings she had done in the past with her English being translated into Swahili! On the third day, the participants then demonstrated some of the lessons with the Swahili Training Team leading the evaluation. The three of us merely observed and coached a bit from the sidelines. As we stood in a circle holding hands during the closing, all praised God for the training and the newly printed Swahili curriculum, and entered into fervent prayer that God would use the newly trained teachers to make an eternal difference as they determined to teach the curriculum to children and youth of that island. Of course, there were challenges and obstacles to overcome, but by God’s grace all went ahead and God’s name was lifted up. For Laura, unexpected news came on the morning of the first day of training that her 97 year-old Aunt had slipped into eternity. The day following the training, Beth and Ruth joined Laura in taking time to stop, reflect on, and remember Aunt Doris as Laura’s family members gathered in Canada for the funeral.

A couple of days later, Tuesday, Feb. 4, the same training was repeated in Arusha, Tanzania, for about 46 participants. One of the original four was unable to join us, but the remaining three did a great job. Upon our return to Dar es Salaam, we gave a glowing report to Stellah as we encouraged her to engage them in other training opportunities as soon as possible so as to not lose momentum.

As we write this, we are in Nairobi, Kenya, for several purposes, one of which is to sort out the printing bill for the Swahili VOICE curriculum…which is proving to be quite a challenge, but our trust is in God; prayer is appreciated.

Praise God for His plans, His amazing work of bringing this tool in Swahili to Tanzania, and how He put together the initial Swahili Training Team!

Sorry...no blog this time

There have been MANY Lion Sightings--seeing God at work--since we've been here. BUT, both time and internet are limited; we haven't been able to write a proper blog. Please check the Prayer Zone for some updates. 

God’s Generous Children

We both have been “blown away” by the generosity of so many over the past couple of months. Christmas cards, emails, and phone calls have carried news of gifts given toward all of the current projects, including our return visit. Thank you to each one and to God for His encouragement through His children...and to Him be all the glory!

Tanzania Highlighted

God certainly has been keeping Tanzania foremost in our thoughts these days; we don’t know what He has planned but we are certain He has “something up His sleeve.” When I (Ruth) shared with my home church that the Swahili translation (for use in Tanzania) of three of the VOICE modules on all three age levels was complete, the church broke out in spontaneous applause to God. I was shocked and almost thought I must be back in Africa! What an encouragement and blessing. Then when we look at the donor records from our mission, we shake our heads in amazement that almost $10,000 of the funds needed to publish at least some of those modules is already given. All praise to God!

Earlier this week, Laura made a number of visits in Moncton, New Brunswick, and was floored to hear how two of the couples she visited have very close connections to Tanzania! We knew about one of them, but she learned a lot more about that relationship. In the second home, she was totally surprised to learn that the wife has a brother working in Tanzania as a missionary. Almost that same day, Laura heard from Beth B (our Ugandan colleague who is planning our schedule) that one of the Training of Trainers is being planned for the same place the brother missionary lives! Beth also tells us that a Training is being planned for the island of Zanzibar (a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania), plus probably at least one more Training of Trainers in another place in that fairly large nation. We’ve also recently met at least one, maybe two, who sponsor a child from Tanzania. No, this is no coincidence. Please pray that we will cooperate attentively with God in whatever He is doing...all for His glory.

We’re including a map of East Africa. Zanzibar is the 2^nd and largest island from the top along the coast of Tanzania.

Together Again…Briefly at Least

As you can understand, after living and serving together for about 37 years, a big adjustment that has come with retirement for both Ruth and me has been living in separate homes in separate nations. Praise God for His gift to Ruth of unlimited phone calls which includes Canada, thanks to her brother/sister-in-law; we keep in touch via phone, text, emails almost daily…but it’s just not the same!

Our gracious God used friends to provide a way for us to spend just over a week together again—house-sitting in Maine. How fun to return to the familiar of sharing cooking, driving, corporate prayer, reading, debrief and discussions, playing games, walking and some sight-seeing…plus, thanks to technology, participating in long distance communication and prayer that included both SEND Canada and Scripture Union Uganda.

One of our goals for that time together was to seek God’s will regarding an invitation from Uganda to return for a 2-month visit in early 2020. After spending time in prayer, we both sensed God’s affirmation, which drove us to prayer again as we started to think through the logistics and goals. As of this writing, we have tickets in hand, health insurance nearly secured, and an emerging tentative schedule which includes both Tanzania and Kenya!

Why Tanzania and Kenya? A couple of days ago, we learned that the Swahili translation of three VOICE modules, Truth, Forgiveness, and Purity, is COMPLETE on all three age levels—answered prayer! As funds are available, plans are to print those three modules in Nairobi (more cost effective) and introduce them to the Ministry of Education in Tanzania in response to their two-year-old request for a Swahili edition. With these developments, training Scripture Union Tanzanian staff to be able to conduct training workshops for Christian volunteer values teachers across their nation is paramount. We hope to participate at least in the early phase of that huge project which has mammoth potential for reaching students for Christ through the teaching of Biblical values. Promotion and training is also planned for Kenya, while providing encouragement for Scripture Union Ugandan staff.

Please join us in prayer for the funds and the expertise to print the Swahili version in Nairobi. Ruth and I are also trusting God for provision for our own expenses for this trip. Pray also for wisdom as plans/dates are finalized for our activities in East Africa, and for our personal preparation and packing. Praise God for this opportunity to once again be able to serve together!