Gift of Life

We thank the Lord for the many opportunities HE continues to give us here in Kigoma to share the Gospel in many different ways to many different people (such as these wordless book keychains above). Suffering and death are much more in your face here, and that just motivates us more to keep sharing the Gospel, and giving people the GIFT OF LIFE.

We love our Sundays out in Kizenga! We have been averaging between 50 and 60 kids each Sunday! It looks like it's time to build some more benches for them all to have a seat :)

Pagi is a young leader who has done a great job with these kids and taught them many fun songs. Jennifer even taught them the song "Deep and Wide" in English! They can sing it even if some don't understand the words :)

We are continuing weekly house to house visitation/evangelism in the village of Kizenga. We visit at least a dozen different houses each week on Thursdays. Everyone is so happy to have surprise visitors, and they stop whatever they were doing to pull out benches/seats to hear what we have to say. This is so different from American culture!

Each week is a unique experience! Sometimes you have to shoo away the livestock while you are sharing the Gospel! People are so happy to receive a New Testament or a tract explaining the way of salvation. Please pray with us over the many lost souls in this area that God would soften their hearts, and that they would respond to His loving call and receive the Gift of Life :)

The Maktaba continues to shine the light of the Gospel there in Ujiji. The neighborhood children often come in the afternoons to color and draw with crayons and paper we provide them. The Gospel films continue to be shown each day, and the Emmaus courses are flowing in and out. We get random visitors, mostly men, who come in to talk.

A man came in this past week, who said he had come for reading glasses. As Gerald talked with him, it became apparent that he had come for more than glasses. Through talking with this man, we discovered that he was HIV positive and had questions about how to know one was going to Heaven. Gerald is so good in these counseling situations, and is able to share the Gospel very clearly and gently, as he did with him. He seemed satisfied with what he heard, took a New Testament, a few tracts, and went his way. Gerald never even pulled out the bag of eyeglasses! I thought of the woman at the well, who left her water pot and went into the city to tell everyone that she had met a Man who knew everything about her, but still loved her!

We had a special visitor in the Maktaba last week! Elaina came out to spend Wednesday with us, and go with us to teach the children in the schools! She was a big hit, and was followed by a large crowd of Muslim girls as school let out while we were leaving. :-) We would love for her to teach a lesson or two in the near future! The kids would love it!

I was invited down to the soccer field in Ujiji two Sundays ago to preach the Gospel to two soccer teams who were having a big game. So I took the paint board down there and enjoyed giving this group the Gift of Life! Like any gift, in order for it to become yours, it must be received :-) My prayer is that everyone there that day received this amazing gift, and even you who are reading this blog!

The last few weeks have been busy not only with ministry, but also with travel. I travel with Isaac back to Dar Es Salaam by bus to get him to the airport for his return flight to school. The bus ride was 22 hours straight, with 2 different drivers, 4 bathroom stops, and lots of horn beeps!

What an experience!

We hosted a men's breakfast at our house this past Saturday for the missionaries in Kigoma. Because there were a few teams in town from the US, we had 22 men! It was a great breakfast, great fellowship, and a great Word from one of the brothers.

I think that catches everybody up on what's been going on here in Kigoma! We are preparing for our first team which is coming from the US. (7 people total) They will be with us for almost 3 weeks doing both construction and ministry. Please pray for everyone to stay healthy, and accomplish all the Lord sent them out here to do!

Please continue praying with us over these important items:

1 - Please keep praying over Camp Nuru and the spiritual battle over land right now!

2 - Please keep praying for Jennifer as she works through this sometimes challenging process here on the Tanzanian side of things to work in the hospital here.

 3 - We are praying about a second vehicle as we are often needing to go in different directions these days. (Village - Ujiji - Hospital)

4 - Please pray for our children as they have all started back to school .

Once again, THANK YOU ALL so much for your prayers and support!

 ~ The Kinlaws

1Corinthians 15:58