Far Away But Not Forgotten

It seems like I've been out of civilization for a long time now. Not having any access to the internet, and not even any TV has left me feeling out of touch...yet strangely I have enjoyed it. We are on our way home from spending 4 incredible days in the villages outside of Mbeya, Tanzania. We made the trip up on Tuesday morning and after about 14 hours of driving we spent the night in Mbeya and then drove an additional 2 hours into the mountains on Wednesday morning where we stayed until now. We have been living in a small village home that happens to be owned by the brother of the local church planter. There have been so many interesting things that have happened I could write pages and pages and the only reason I haven't up until now is that we have had no electricity so my computer was dead. The lack of electricity alone was a big hurdle to overcome seeing as how all my camera equipment is dependent upon it. Anyway, we found a villager who had a good solar system and he allowed us to charge my camera there so we could keep filming. He did charge me $1 to do the charging though. Unfortunately I forgot to get a receipt to put this on my expense report! It would have made for a good laugh in the finance department back home.

The number of testimonies I recorded was amazing, and all of them told of the same life transforming power of having a true encounter with Jesus. However, It was a few things that happened outside of the churches that I want to write about now.

The first regards our driver whose name is Mark*. He is from Dar-Es-Salaam and as his name suggests, he is Muslim. On the long drive to Mbeya, I know that David and Paul* were speaking with him regarding his salvation. He didn't want to hear much about it. His first night in the village he managed to find himself a bar and get drunk, coming back late at night and waking many people up in the house. Over the course of the next few days we invited him to attend the church meetings with us and during those times he seemed to be touched by God. If my understanding is correct through the translation we got, he has expressed an interest to Paul about becoming a Christian once he returns to Dar-Es-Salaam.

Secondly, as I mentioned before the man whose house we stayed at is the brother to one of our church planters. He was not a believer and in fact, it was he whom Mark had gone to the bar with and gotten drunk the first night we arrived. The day before we left, Paul had a long talk with him and he decided to accept Jesus as his savior. So, our two drunks ended up changed on this trip!

To add to that, just down the road from the house we were staying is a hospital. We stopped by one afternoon to see if we could pray with the patients. After praying with 4 or 5 patients we talked to the nurse on charge that day, a young girl named Mary. David and one of the church planters had a long conversation with her and she ended up accepting Jesus right there! It was awesome to be a witness to this. Even though I couldn't speak to these people because of language barriers, I found myself interceding on their behalf while they were listening to the gospel message and I believe that God heard my prayers and answered. I thank God for allowing me to be there and pray for them during that crucial time of decision making in their lives.

Getting to spend a few days living in a real African village was just awesome. Seeing how they cooked, ate meals, and just lived life was so insightful and a truly unique experience that not many foreigners ever get to have. One day we walked to a church because the roads were impassable by car. (The previous day we had gotten our vehicle stuck in the mud over 15 times trying to get to a church.) It was crazy to see the narrow footpaths they used to walk up and down hillsides, through fields of corn, and into the forests. I will never forget that journey as long as I live. The paths were so slippery and Warren was having the worst time of anyone keeping his footing. In one place, we were descending into a valley and on both sides there were many women working their fields. As Warren fell down you could hear the chattering among the women on the nearby hillsides. Paul turned and told me that they were all laughing and talking about the white man who keeps falling down! What was truly amazing though was looking out over the hillsides from a vantage point high up on a hill. As we looked out, Jackson pointed out the various villages that had churches. Nearly all of them did as far as one could see! God's word is spreading, and it is awesome to see every village reached with the good news in these remote areas that are all but forgotten to the rest of the world. Yet the Lord has not forgotten them!

*names changed for security reasons

Andre follows our guide through the endless fields of Corn












Walking through the country side African style