Day 5 in the Villages

Day 5

Today we went out to two different remote villages. 

Yawombai, and Canala.

Both over an hour and a half away from Morogoro.

These incredible people live out here in these remote places without electricity, running water, or a school/hospital.

Yet they will travel miles some even walk 5-6 hours just to get to church.

They gather in building just like these. Made out of mud, wood, and straw.

They usually have over 50-60 people meeting in these small small buildings. There are only 7 benches in the whole building yet they all gather together. 

But since the house is made of this materials, when the rain season comes it will destroy this building. When it is destroyed there is no more church for these people. 

But! There is hope!

ICC is currently collecting funds to build new buildings for these people. 

Buildings made out of stone and bricks! Buildings that will last.

Your supporting of us has opened so many doors for us to 

be able to help with the construction of these churches. 

Here of some of the bricks that will be used to reconstruct this very church! 

Here is Emanuel with the pastor of this church Pastor George.

We took time to pray over this building.

We also traveled to another village 30 minutes from the last village called Canala. 

Canala was the same in the way of lacking very important things. 

No running water, electricity, or schools/hospitals

But they stil have a church!

The following pictures are of this church and the pastor Aponali Francis and his wife.

Please pray for these churches, and also for the Aponali's wife 

as she is suffering from a bad leg wound.

God can bring healing!

Pastor Emanuel addressing the church.

Pastor Aponali Francis and his wife.

A few of the church's members.

Continue our journey with us in prayer, and we will see a harvest reaped like none that this place has ever seen.

As I am typing this I hear the prayers to the muslim God coming from the mosques.

God wants to destroy the stronghold the devil has on this place.

He wants us to intercede for this place.

Please be praying every single day.

Day 4 Picture update!

Day 4 

Rest Day

We took a walk around Morogoro

Pastor Emanuel Simon

Uluguru Mountains (ooo loo gu ru)

City of Morogoro with the Uluguru Mountains in the background

Uluguru Mountains again

I am loving this place! So much beauty. God makes incredible things. 

Check back for blog update number 5!

Day 3 in Morogoro

Day 3

Today we spent our Sunday at ICC (International Christian Center Church)

I love how pure the worship and seeking after God is in this place. The number one reason everyone of them are at this place to show God how much they love him. 

Timmy and Daniel's work with the praise team is most defiantly showing. The whole praise team has shown incredible improvement and are so excited to have Timmy and Daniel working with them. The worship this morning was so pure and powerful. God is moving in so many huge ways in this church and we are so humbled that we are able to be a part of it. 

And to all of you who supported us, you are just as much or more a part of this incredible growth. Without your faithfulness we would have never been able to get here. I know God has more incredible things to come for this church.

Here are some pictures of the church. 

Timmy preaching! The people have been so receptive of us, and of the teaching and preaching of the word from our team. 

We also got to see our favorite kids again. 

They are so happy just to play frisbee with us, or to run around with us. 

For them life is just... simple.

Here is Joe with the amazing kids.

Tomorrow is our rest day, so there will be a picture only update!

Check back for day Day 5 after that!

Day 2 in Morogoro

Day 2 

We spent the day playing with the children of the neighborhood. They are filled with such joy and happiness. 

At first there were two children playing a game with us. Within 30 minutes there were 15-20 kids with us. The word spreads fast that there are white men in the neighborhood so everyone in the area walks by to see us. We are usually goofy and just having fun, so we get very many confused looks from the people that walk by. But that just makes us want to be even more ridicules because it makes the kids smile. We have been able to meet so many wonderful people.  

Timmy and Daniel were able to teach the praise team at the church. They were all very receptive of them, and they have been improving so much already.

Today in prayer please be focusing on the International Christian Center Church, and those dear children you see above.

More to come!

Blessings!

Day 1 in Morogoro

Day 1

We arrived to Dar Es Salaam at 3:30am Tanzania time. 

Customs and VISA procedures went quickly and without any trouble. 

Emanuel M. Simon arrived an promptly at 3:30am and was waiting outside the doors to greet us. He has a smile a mile wide, and is one of the most humble and joyful people I have ever met. We are so blessed that he opened up his home to us. 

We started on the 3 and a half hour journey to the city of Morogoro. During the drive Timmy, Daniel and I were struggling staying awake. We all got under 4 hours of sleep on the plane ride here. As dawn was approaching my eyes were very quickly moving around to try and get the first glimpse of this beautiful place. Our first views were busy dirt roads full of people all getting prepared for the day, but as they were all hustling around they all had very content looks on their faces. Time moves very slowly here and I love it.

Our first visit in the city was Public Health and Nursing College (PHN) in Morogoro.We were allowed 45 minutes of time to share a message with the 1st year students that are studying there. First Daniel first shared his testimony. Following Daniel's testimony Timmy lead worship, and than shared a message about joy. The students were very receptive and happy to hear the word. At the conclusion of it, Emanuel summarized it all in Swahili for the students to better understand it. The students all speak English, but some do not understand as much as others. 

The next stop was to International Christian Center Church. There we had a prayer meeting and worship.

God is here with us.

More stories to follow this!

Continue to pray and follow up here!

Today we leave for Africa!

Today we leave for Africa!

We hope that this blog will serve as a way to encourage and strengthen you as you are seeing all that God will be doing through us. 

The team will be getting into St. Louis tonight, there we will stay the night and leave promptly at 5:30am to get to the train station. We have a 5 hour train ride to Chicago ahead of us, and than we will leave the country at 10pm.

We just want to say a huge thank you to all of the people that have supported us. We know God is going to do some incredible things on this trip. We pray God blesses you for your stepping out in faith and supporting us. 

As a recap here are some of the crazy things we have done, and the Lord has blessed, to raise funds! 

Timmy and Daniel did a Kayak-a-thon

Timmy, Daniel, and I walked a collective 100 miles

Brad Synder, Timmy, and I did a bowl-a-thon called Bowl or Die

And our last fundraiser was called Blonde or Die. 

We would dye our hair if we got $500 in donations.

We got $500 in donations, so we dyed our hair. 

God bless you all. 

We will update soon after we arrive in Tanzania!

Gauge or Die

Gauge or Die

Art walk Fundraiser

(Friends Forever Fosho)

$90 earned toward Tanzania Evangelism

"Bwana Asifiwe"

"The Lord, He Is Worthy To Be Praised"