Luchelele

Rural territories-maeneo yaliyo mbali

Even here working the same territory over & over again can get tiring. Especially if the areas have been continually worked for years. The brother who headed it up basically said he's been preaching all his life & he's worked the same territories every week, every month, every year since he started. It's always good to switch it up.

So a small group set out to work a rural territory called Luchelele.  Getting there meant a daladala halfway & then a pikipiki the rest of the way in. The response was half & half. Many didn't know who Witnesses were & many were receptive while some had very strong views about their religion. We had one family who knew Kisukuma & I showed them the Why Study the Bible? video. The one Bibi loved it! Smiled the entire time. Then the brother we worked with got some amazing return visits. Genuine. Had so many questions & so much time we could've sat for hours. Many were shocked the questions they had could al be easily explained from the Bible. Since many didn't have a Bible they were delighted to be shown. It was a great day & can't wait to come back & do it again. 

Caleb & Sofia videos 

Spider anyone? 

Just one of those things

The second phase of homesickness has set in. Which is ironic because I only have less than a month before I leave. But I'm passing the 8th month & I've never experienced anything like this while being here. The irritableness, being done with hearing the cat calls of being called Mzungu, being harassed on the daladala, walking up our long hill after a long day walking in service, not just being able to jump into an airconditioned car & being dropped off at the door. But no matter how you feel or how long you deal with these feelings, Jehovah is always there. He always has your hand even though you may not see it as quickly as you want, its not according to your time. I had always thought of this as a job, we have a job to preach & at a job you need to make sacrifices. But it wasnt until yesterday, when it hit me how much it is my job. Pathetic I know. But then I thought about it more. How many days do you work? Normal people is Monday-Friday, 5 days. What do you have to deal with? Annoying customers, rude co-workers, hard core boss. Any job you do, whether hard physical work or work that just kills the brain mentally, you get exhausted in one way or another & at times you just get sick of it. 
Yes with our work we get tired, maybe disheartened. My return visit wasn't home again today, that householder really screamed me off his porch. If you are in a foreign language field you know the frustration of driving hours & miles to different studie's houses & them not be home or the exhaustion from canvassing & not finding one person who speaks Swahili. Stick with it. Because Jehovah will always always give you something to bless if you keep enduring. Always find something every day to be happy about. Today we were super tired, we were doing door to door in a new territory. You hardly ever meet anyone with opposition here. Every door people are welcoming & will talk & talk. Time goes slow here so it just felt like I had walked all day & it was only a few hours. We finish up the territory, start heading out, not really sure what road would lead us back but we just picked one & started walking. Decided to do one last house before we headed out. A young girl was in the yard hanging up laundry. We approached her & she didn't respond to us. She was deaf. We started using the only sign language that we learned. Its nice because sign language is so simple its easy to learn & understand. Then I talked to her parents. They were excited that we could communicate with their daughter. They get across what they can tell eachother but thats the extent of the communication. So we asked permission to study with the girl in TSL (Tanzanian Sign Language) & offered to teach the mom as well so that she could communicate with her daughter. What are the chances? I love it!! I love the unexpected turns where you can see Jehovah's hand. Yes you always have ups & downs & needgreating isn't for the faint of heart. Not everyone can do it & that's okay. There's plenty of work to do in Jehovah's organization. But I wouldn't of given this experience up for anything. 

Memorial & Special Talk

I didn't think I would be here for the Memorial of Christ's death but I was. I was so glad I was able to be part of this amazing expirience also. It was amazing. We had an attendance of 178 out of a congregation of about 50 publishers. The guy who works at the hotel by our house, Paulo, that we started a study with but gave to a brother attended. He asked someone else to take his shift so that he could attend. Then we had 9 students from our Kipindi cha Dini come. 7 of which weren't Witnesses & don't attend meetings. 

 

Of course the work of inviting people still wasn’t over, we had time to invite everyone to the special talk, “Are You on the Road Leading to Everlasting Life?” One day while going to visit a study who wasn’t home we met a few women who all invited us to sit. Then a few men joined us. They were asking us questions about our religion. If there was separate rooms for men, women, & children. We explained how everyone learns the Bible together because God desires that everyone be saved & we showed them the video, “What Happens at a Kingdom Hall?” to explain more about our program & what to expect. Then they asked what language is it in? Swahili of course but if others desired Sukuma (one of the local tribes) or Tanzanian Sign Language they could be found in other parts of Mwanza. One of the young men then asked what if someone who doesn’t know Swahili or Kisukuma but knows Kihaya only, how would they study the Bible. We told them about our website & how many languages it is availiable in & then downloaded & showed him. “What Happens at a Bible Study?” in…yep, you guessed it…Kihaya! He smiled from ear to ear. Then we told him if he comes to the talk on Sunday, he can meet one of our brothers, an elder in our congregation who speaks Kihaya & he would be more than happy to meet him & study with him in Kihaya. Of course a lot get excited about Wazungu speaking Swahili & may say they will come to the Kingdom Hall but never do. This guy though, showed up to the Kingdom Hall for the special talk, sat by the Kihaya family unknowingly while the Kihaya was presenting the talk, the wife of the brother took a second look at him she noticed right away that he was Mhaya, he looked exactly like her husband. This guy was amazing also, he followed along in his Bible, took notes, tried to sing the songs, even commented towards the end of the WT, “I’ve decided to serve Jehovah.” After the meeting he met his future Bible teacher & informed him he wants to study twice a week. 

“I have written to you in few words in order to encourage you and to give an earnest witness that this is the true undeserved kindness of God. Stand firm in it.”  ~ 1 Peter 5:12

Top picture is the Mhaya man we found in the ministry watching the video, "What Happens at a Kingdom Hall?" in Swahili

Bottom picture he is watching, "What Happens at a Bible Study?" in his language Kihaya. 

Him standing with his future Bible teacher also Mhaya brother