Kimira Kingdom Hall Dedication

A couple of weeks ago I received a surprise envelope containing our invitation to the dedication of Kimira’s kingdom hall.

Regular readers will remember several posts to our blog about the travails of our dear brothers and sisters over there – they’ve been battling to finish their kingdom hall project for 5 years.

Following the involvement of one of Tanzania’s KH build teams, the hall was completed, making use of society funds.

The hall can hold about 60 to 70 people on plain wooden benches. It’s not fancy, but the high standards of construction certainly bring glory to Jehovah, and show doubting neighbours that Jehovah’s Witnesses is indeed a credible world religion. (When congregations here meet in the homes of our brothers they are often mocked. People assume that they don’t have God’s blessing if they don’t have a proper church building.)

The brothers in Kimira congregation were so happy when we went to see them on December 19. A short history of the kingdom work in the Kimira area was followed by a dedication talk by Rick Stringer our circuit overseer.

After that, the local brothers and sisters had gone to considerable effort and expense to feed their visitors, providing fizzy drinks and hot food to everyone present. There was quite a party atmosphere.

Congratulations, Kimira congregation!

Lucas Fabian

Lucas has been studying since Scott Freedlun contacted him during one of Lucas’ brief visits to Arusha between travels around the country. Scott met him at the kingdom hall the first time and they had a conversation about spiritual things. Lucas accepted a What does the Bible really teach? book and then disappeared for two months.

When he returned in January this year, all he wanted was the truth, and he began attending meetings regularly right away. That was back in January. It was obvious to everyone despite the fact that his formal study had barely started that Lucas was unusual.

By the time he reached chapter five of his formal study in March, he was already a kingdom publisher. Scott passed the study over to me and Now we’ve reached chapter 16. I’m hoping, as is Lucas, that he’ll be baptised in a forthcoming assembly.

In the meantime Lucas was looking for work and was struggling. You see, he’d given up his travelling job that he’d had before working for his brother so that he could get to all the meetings. The work had been fairly lucrative. But now he’s been able to get a job on the missionary home site as a construction labourer – they are paying salaries to brothers in order to secure their services day in, day out.

Spending all day with dedicated witnesses from Tanzania and from abroad has brought Lucas on a great deal. Now he’s looking for something to do after he gets baptised. Perhaps he’ll preach full time, serve at the branch office, or join the construction team full time. He’s been a great source of encouragement to the brothers and sisters because of his earnest desire to help others.

Joshua ‘Nusugari’ Shinga

Joshua Shinga and I

You might remember, some time back, that I mentioned this fine African gentlemen, who was studying with me during 2007. In fact, he studied from March 2007 until October 2008 with me, and also began attending many meetings. He was well known to the brothers, and regularly gave heartfelt comments at the watchtower study. Our coordinator came to me and asked me why Joshua was not yet a publisher.

However, there was a reason why. Many people here who consider themselves married are only married by common-law, in many cases co=habiting for decades and bearing several children together. This is the case with Joshua. His wife, unlike the Shauris (who are both reaching out for more privileges since their baptism last spring) is uncooperative and undermines Joshua’s efforts to train his large family spiritually. Last October Joshua seemed to have given up on the truth, and we didn’t see much of him for about a year. We went to speak with him now and then at his little bike repair shop, but he didn’t share much with us during those occasions.

Joffrey

During that period, his 18-year-old son Joffrey began studying. He didn’t have the obstacles that his father has, and he was quite zealous. He’s been a publisher since June, and he’s working towards baptism. I’ve recently done a story about Joffrey, and I’ll provide a fuller update soon. Joffrey’s younger brother Samwele is also studying with a brother in the congregation.

Since last month, though, Joshua has made a clear decision to take his stand. He is back at the meetings, and has made it his goal to become a publisher of the good news. He still doesn’t have his marriage certificate but he’s working towards it. (- Hebrews 13:4.)

How thrilled I was to see Joshua at a recent Sunday meeting with all five of his children!

The Shinga Family

His wife still is not interested in joining her family at Christian meetings, but we keep going to meet her and to reassure her of our love for her and the warm welcome she’ll receive.

Star Cup Lamech

The ministry has been going very nicely indeed lately for both Avril and I, as you’ll perhaps have noticed from recent blog entries.

The first call work is a delight. Once a publisher masters the language and spends a sufficiently long time greeting before coming to the task of preaching, he can enjoy excellent results. One challenge is distinguishing real interest from material greed, especially if you’re obviously from abroad.

Recently I had a excellent experience. Pete Jennings and I were doing some return visit work not far from our place when one householder explained that he would be available after half an hour or so, and that then we could have a conversation at leisure. We didn’t have any back up plan, so we headed for a fancy open-air coffee bar called Star-Cup to wet our whistles.

I struck up a conversation with the manager about absolute truth. Many people here feel that all religions lead to God, whether they teach what the bible says or not. But most are surprised at just how much of church teachings have no basis in scripture – on the contrary, they teach the opposite. I showed him a classic example from 1 John 5:19: that Satan rules. Almost all Christians and Muslims here are certain that God rules the world he created, but the bible asserts that ‘the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.’ (If, dear reader, you don’t know why, ask one of Jehovah’s Witnesses to give you a scriptural explanation.)

The manager, called Lamech, was quite surprised to read that. Then he began asking other questions, and since that short first conversation we’ve met four times, gradually building towards a formal bible study.

Each time Lamech sees for himself a new and unfamiliar bible truth there’s a twinkle of excitement in his eye and a big appreciative smile. I hope that my efforts will come to something, with God’s blessing. (2 Corinthians 4:7)

Moussa Kileopa

I am often reluctant to accept new students because of my busy roster. Our local pioneer sister Anna Natai saw fit, as a result, to resort to underhanded means to convince me to take care of one man she’d met, back in April this year.

She agreed to take some of my lady calls from me in the same neighbourhood, and begged me until I couldn’t refuse. I learned a big lesson though!

Avril contacted Moussa the first time at his shoe repair shop by the roadside, where she gave him a tract or a magazine some time ago. The publication was enough to raise Moussa’s curiosity. He had been raised a nominal Muslim but soon became dissatisfied, exploring Christendom for a while with the local Assemblies of God. But he quickly recognised the ring of truth. Anna contacted Moussa next, and answered a few of his questions. Then she began studying with Moussa’s wife.

It was at this time that she asked me to begin conducting Moussa’s bible study. I did agree, and when I met Moussa, I was immediately impressed by his level of interest. He had already learned a good deal about the truth from Anna and from the publications he’d been able to read. Despite not having a good education, he had been able to study quite a bit on his own.

We started the study at chapter one of the What does the Bible really teach? book and rapidly made progress, assisted by Moussa’s zealous preparation for our little lessons.

In July he began asking how he could qualify to preach with the congregation, and the elders suggested he be given a little more time. This month Moussa qualified as a kingdom publisher, and I had the great joy of taking him out on his first house call.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are known as such because they give a witness – it is essential for each one to make a ‘public declaration for salvation.’ (Matthew 24:14; Romans 10:10-14; Isaiah 43:10-12)

Prison Preaching

Here’s me preaching in a low security prison to a local man who lives on site. He’s not actually a prisoner, but lives with a family member who works as a guard. His name’s Robert.

The prison is intended as a demonstration of how prisoners can be used to do productive work. The small population of the prison consists of offenders who are already near the end of a longer sentence, so there’s little reason to attempt an escape.

They keep ducks and hens and plant crops and, to some extent, pay for their keep by means of the work.

Camping in Loch Lomond

Whilst in Scotland in June Mike and Cathy and the two of us went together to camp for a couple of nights on the banks of the world famous Loch Lomond.

We set up our tents and built a fire, and prepared hot food on our stove.

On the middle day we decided to go canoeing on the lake itself. We navigated to a few of the islands that make the Loch so interesting. There were four of us, but only two canoes, each built for only one person. So we had to return twice towing the empty boat to pick up the two others. But we had fun, at least until the famous Scottish weather began to close in on us.