Preaching to the gravel makers

One hot afternoon in February, a few of the pioneers in Arusha Kusini congregation decided to go and work our most distant map, at the southern tip of our dog’s-leg shaped territory.

Our maps are based on a town planning map which is very detailed indeed, though a little out-of-date. We know there’s no houses at all on the territory in question. In fact, in the past we’ve told you about the ‘ditches,’ the spectacular canyon valleys, and it’s that point of land were we went that day to preach.

 

Charles Larry sharing bible good news with a gravel-lady.

When we arrived, we found lots of people sitting on the ground in the baking sunshine, with old hammers and axes in their hands. Among them were old women, and even children. They were engaged in gravel-making. Mining the cliff faces into hollows to extract large rocks, these would be carried up to where the workers would gradually split them into smaller and smaller pieces. Trucks from Arusha were constantly in attendance, being loaded up with the precious building commodity.

The work is hard and the sun relentless. The salaries for these people, who are employed, is a pittance, even for here in Tanzania. They work long hours, and are considered perhaps the most unfortunate of all here.

Though we don’t have the means to put an end to these people’s sufferings and labours, we were able to give them a little encouragement from the scriptures. We showed them that in future, and in contrast to their present situation, God purposes for everyone on earth to “build houses and have occupancy and plant vineyards and eat [their] fruitage” (- Isaiah 65:21.) Many were happy to listen to these words of comfort, since so many have a healthy respect for the scriptures.

Exam Disappointment

The exam results are in. Grim news. I failed them all again. Nothing to show for my effort – it’s time to jack it in.

Missionary Home Project

This week the branch finally gave the go-ahead for Arusha’s latest society construction project. The plot that was purchased for our extendable kingdom hall was considerably larger than was required. That project was completed in August 2007.

With much of the remaining space, the governing body has decided that it would be appropriate to build a missionary home. We’ve been hearing whispers about the project for over a year, and many discussions followed. A few months ago, in preparation for the project’s beginning, Tony and Anne Porter moved back into our congregation. Tony presided over the construction of our hall, so we already know this South African couple well. Shortly after, Laban and Stella Ephesy, a Tanzanian couple who married recently, also moved into Kusini. Laban was also involved in the construction of our hall, although then he was in another congregation.

This week we have been thrilled to welcome five new team members, with another local single brother yet to arrive. Two couples, registered as International Volunteers, arrived this week from Wales: Glen and Joanne Cole from Swansea and Dan & Kim from Cardigan. An Australian brother whom we’ve known for some time, Lindsay Cooper, is the fifth. They won’t be joining us in Kusini congregation but they’ll be nearby and we’ll be looking forward to supporting them and sharing good association.

The Missionary Home Construction Site

At the site, pictured here, you can see the toilet block, with 9 cubicles, to the left. To the right, you can see our extendable kingdom hall, with its large covered ‘patio’ area used to accommodate 500 extra people during our assemblies.Between these you can see the red shipping container where the site equipment is securely stored. In the foreground is where the missionary home will be built.

They’ve begun by placing posts to mark out the foundation excavation, though ground hasn’t really been broken as such so far. But we are very excited about the project, which will doubtless prove to be a blessing for the zealous missionaries who are assigned here.

Memorial 2009: Kusini Congregation

Much preparation went into Kusini’s memorial this year. Our meetings are normally finished by 7pm, but this year we were forced to take a later slot than usual, and the memorial had to begin at 7.30pm instead.

We predicted that this change would have an impact on our attendance, which it most certainly did. It had, on the other hand, some other effects too.

You see, I attended the English-language memorial which began at 6.15pm, and 65 people were present, perhaps a little over double the total of publishers. It was a nice programme, and an Ethiopian brother named Mesfin Haile gave the talk. Eveything went quite smoothly, in fact.

 

Until, that was, just after the closing song but before the prayer. The chairman was reading a rather long special announcement inviting any present to request a bible study, and the lights went out. It was pitch black. I really couldn’t see my hand in front of my face.

At the branch dedication in January a nice American brother made me a gift of a tiny torch which is very bright. It was on my keyring and I fumbled to find it, and walked up the aisle to give it to the poor brother so he could finish his announcement.

It was at this point that I realised that, in all probability, the power failure was going to last through our very much larger and more complex memorial celebration.

The time between the two programmes was only 20 minutes or so, and by the time the English programme had finished, many from our congregation were already waiting outside to come in. We hurriedly set up an emergency light on the platform for the speaker (The lamp was battery-powered, and we had no idea how long it would last.)

A few others had torches and so on and we continued with our programme as planned, by torchlight. Those passing the emblems were also carrying torches borrowed from those in attendance, and they used the light to follow the emblems as they were passed, to help prevent any spillages / accidents.

Avril sat at the back, facing away from the speaker, shining her little torch on Valerie Corey, another long-serving US pioneer, who was signing for a deaf Tanzanian lady who had turned up.

Really I perceived that evening that events were presided over by Holy Spirit, since not only did that unreliable but crucial emergency lamp continue to shine until everyone had left, but a drop of wine was neither spilled nor imbibed, and there were no accidents.

Perhaps most amusing of all was when one of the servers, Laban, got up to begin his duty, and promptly tripped over something in the aisle – a puppy. I had been wondering what the whimpering noise had been! It turned out that there were two tiny puppies in the hall that evening, and they had entered, not deterred by the presence of so many people, to see what all the fuss was about.

I nearly tripped on the remaining puppy, who showed up in the aisle just as the closing prayer finished. I scooped him up and held him in my left hand, shaking people’s hands as they left with my right.

Our attendance was 167, 250% of our publisher total, but still at least 30 short of what we might have expected had our memorial been earlier. Next year we’ll expect to be well over 200.

Exams

Regular visitors will have read our recent story about my translation diploma. I sat the final exams in January, but I’m still waiting for the results.

It’s very stressful indeed, being in this situation. The IOL (who administers the examinations once per year) promise exam results within 14 weeks, but I’m not expecting to receive them here until perhaps early May. The fourteen weeks ended yesterday.

I can hardly contain my excitement, and my fear of failing these difficult exams once more.

Update on Kimira Congregation

Many months ago we wrote on our blog about the struggles of a nearby rural congregation to complete its little kingdom hall.

Kimira recently completed its kingdom hall, with the assistance of a Kingdom Hall Build team. The brothers there invited me to go there to give a talk, and I was pleased to oblige. So our neighbours Charles and Sonya Larry from the US and the two of us headed there a few weeks ago, and we were able to give their new hall a close inspection!

The quality of the workmanship is really excellent, especially when compared to the other buildings being put up around about. The society has its special plans and guidelines for the halls which are well thought through, and the decision to use tirylene instead of paint makes the place look smart inside and out. It lasts far longer than paint, looking nice for years.

Here we present to you a couple of pictures of our time up there.

The sisters of Kimira congregation, with Avril and Sonya

The Hall in All its Glory

  The Watchtower Study at Kimira congregation.

Lucas

Our friendly local missionaries departed from us once more for a few months back in March. Scott had met a young man who was interested in the bible and started a study with him, but soon afterwards Lucas went travelling for work, and was away for some time.

When he finally returned, he had quit that lucrative job. He had been reading his ‘What does the bible really teach?’ book during his travels and had opportunity for meditation on the extraordinary things that he had read.

He took up his study once more and quickly qualified as a publisher of the good news.

Now Scott has left, Avril had the wonderful privilege to be the first to take him out on the preaching and teaching work, and he stayed out with her for a few hours as she tried to show him a few different aspects of our ministry. He is very zealous!

Now I have the privilege of studying with him myself for a while, and I’ll be hoping to play a role in helping him to baptism over the coming months.