May’s last minute photos

Yeah, we’re off to England in just a few days now – we’ll be in Blighty by first thing on Friday morning. And we’re looking forward to it now too.

In the meantime, please enjoy the following pictures. I apologise for the poor quality – my phone has a poor camera in it, but I always have it with me, you see.

Progress on the missionary home site

Yeah, our friendly build team have broken ground a few weeks ago. Concrete has been poured for the footing, which is pretty deep and very solid looking, reinforced with pre-fab box sections of re-bar. Now the foundation is being build up using breeze blocks. I suppose by the time we get back to Tanzania it’s possible that the walls will be erected as high as the ring beam over the windows.

Rick Stringer, our CO and local missionary brother

Yeah, Rick and Malin Stringer’s visit finished yesterday. Rick is an experienced missionary with 26 years of missionary service behind him. Rick went to Gilead as a single brother, one of the last bachelors to be invited. Just a few short years ago, whilst in his assignment here in Tanzania, he met Malin, a Swedish need-greater, and they got married.

The visit was a great success, with plenty of support for the field ministry. 102 people attended the public talk, and we heard that our congregation has reached 72 publishers, including 7 completely new publishers since the last visit in November. Our publishers average over 14 hours in the field service, and on average conduct 1.5 studies each – not including the pioneers. (The regular pioneers’ average is nearly 8 studies.)

Avril taking her life in her hands

This was a snap from our field ministry. You may imagine that we were in the ‘rurals’ here, but no, this really is quite an urban location, ten minutes’ walk from the Kingdom Hall. Avril and I were preaching together during the circuit visit last week.