[St. Paul's Church-news] Jambo from Tabora!

[Brad Good]

Hello everyone from the TMT! 
   
  Sounds like Shannon has been keeping everyone up to date. Our trip getting here as you may or may not know was a bit longer than expected. But, two broken airplanes, a near riot in Nairobi Airport and 40 hours later we did in fact arrive. Our luggage arrived two days later and all is well.
   
  We expected to come here and minister with the diocese of Tabora, but they ministered to us. They provided us with fresh clothes, bug repellent and anything else we needed until our things arrived. I think we all learned several lessons on patience, provision and how many small things we, as Americans take for granted.
   
  Our welcome at Tabora airport was amazing. We were expecting a welcome party and were greeted by about 10 Pastors here for the conference. We assumed this was it. We were wrong. We walked through the airport building and on the other side of the door were about 75-100 members of the diocese singing, greeting and thanking God for our arrival. I don't think anyone felt as touched or as humbled as we did that day. A funny thing happened as well... we forgot about our luggage problem.
   
  After a welcoming service at the church, which humbled us even more, we were treated to a feast of a lunch. The trip was off to a great start.
   
  Sunday, we attended services at St. Stephens in Tabora - WOW! This was incredible. The liturgy, the music and every aspect of the service was beautiful and energetic to say the least. Did I mention the music? Again at the service, we were treated as honored guests. Dick Bird was given the privilege of reading the Old Testament lesson in English. What an honor. Our Pastor, Dan delivered the sermon (Through a translator of course) and we were introduced to the whole congregation and many of the visiting pastors by Bishop Makaya. All were excited and overwhelmed. We know the Holy Spirit is in this place and it is powerful to say the least.
   
  Today, we began our portion of the construction project on the girls dormitory in the diocese bible school. The men helped with construction and the women went to the hospital to cut bandages and organize medicine. A local British missionary, Dr. Ruth runs the hospital. Everyone dove in and laid mortar and bricks, although I'm not sure if we slowed the workers down or not. When someone stands over you speaking Swahili, it sure sounds a lot like, "So who gets to fix the mess this guy's making?"
   
  We took a break from our construction and blew bubbles balloons and gave out Hershey's kisses to the children. You never saw a child savor a piece of candy like that in your life. It was truly heart warming. 
   
  Dan Good and John Olsen entered into a football (soccer) game with some boys Sunday evening. The boys laughed and smiled at Dan and John's skills. So today, Dan Good decided to organize a good old fashioned American baseball game. We started out with a few boys trying to learn the game. By the time we were done myself, Dan and Jim Burkholder had a line of boys waiting to hit and run the bases. Although somewhere along the line the hand signal for safe and the hand signal for an American Football touchdown became the same thing. Every time one boy took a base. Everyone gave a "Touchdown" signal and yelled safe. I think that's the most fun the three of us have had playing baseball. Who knows, in 20 years Tanzanians might be saying Football? We play Baseball!.
   
  I mentioned that Sunday night, Dan and John played soccer with some boys. What they were using could hardly be referred to as a soccer ball - more like yarn strung tight. Today in the market, we purchased a new soccer ball and Dan Good will present it to them tomorrow. That will be awesome!
   
  Well that's it for now. I'm hoping to send another update in a few days. There is so much to tell and write, I can only touch on a few things in this journal. We will have lots to tell and lots of pictures when we return.
   
  In His service
   
  Brad Good
   
   

 				
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