God is Working (Part 1)

One day I was waiting for a taxi in Ujiji just outside the Maktaba, and I looked up and saw this sign. I had never noticed it before, but there it was :-) From the looks of things in the picture, it doesn't look like the plan to make Ujiji great again is working. Others would even dispute the "again" part! The Lord really used that sign to speak to me. HE is working... HE is working in hearts, drawing people to Himself. The people of Ujiji are on the heart of God, and HE has put them on our hearts as well ❤️!

Gerald is teaching in the picture above from Acts 3 on the power of Jesus name. The school divides the Muslim and Christian students for their religious class time, (because everyone is either Muslim or Christian - haha), we often have Muslim students sneak into our class, and others listen through the windows. We welcome them all!

We are coming to the close of another school year, as Tanzanian schools end the year for Christmas break and start a new school year in January. We're sad to see the upper class (6) move on, but excited about the younger students that will come into our class for the first time in January! Pray with us over these precious children as they hear the Word of God each week.

We are continuing in the door to door or house to house visitation each week. it's fun because everyone welcomes you into their home, or into their yard to sit and listen to what we have to say. Each week we visit for three hours, sometimes four, and we average about one house per hour!

About 99.9% of the people we have talked with believe that good works are enough to get them to heaven. It really is a joy to be given even a short time to explain the Gospel to them. The Gospel is good news because it's about what God has done for us to rescue us, and not what we do for Him to save ourselves. Once we explain the meaning of the cross, and how God can forgive us on the basis of Christ's sacrifice, often you can see them really processing the truth. Most of these people are hearing the Gospel for the first time.

Some that we have talked with have been taught that if they eat pork they will be demon possessed! Also, one day we stopped to talk to a very old man who was very polite and listened to us intently. It felt like we were going in circles as he continued asking us the same questions every few minutes until we realized he most likely had dementia.

Never a dull moment!

Riziki stopped by the Maktaba just recently and we loaded him up with Gospel tracts to give out to his customers as he drives his bijaji/taxi for as many as 14 hours a day in Kigoma and Ujiji!

I have been training Gerald and Pagi on the paint board this past week. They both plan to use this teaching tool in different ways. Gerald is especially gifted with young children and teenagers, so he will use this for kids meetings in the various places where he often speaks.

Pagi is an evangelist at heart, and wants to use this tool on the street for open air evangelism. Pray for us as we are assembling a small team and plan to begin the Friday of December in Ujiji. Although I can't wait to see Pagi preaching the Gospel with the paint board, he has asked me to do the first meeting :-) I'm looking forward to this and appreciate your prayers as we move in this new direction.

Speaking of new direction, our family was recently visiting a small village church called Kizenga. They have been struggling for many years, and our chapel in town has sent out a team every few weeks to lead the meeting and encourage them. This time I just had the thought of our family joining this small church and working to build them up and grow the work through prayer, sound doctrine, and evangelism. Interestingly Jennifer agreed immediately when I shared this with her! After sharing this with both Johnson families, and then the elders at our local chapel, we are going to begin going out there on a full-time basis beginning in January of next year. We appreciate your prayers for this work to grow in a biblical way to the glory of God.

We also had the youth group over to our compound last Friday, and together with Luke and Gina Johnson, we played some fun games together, I gave a message on our Identity in Christ, and then we shared refreshments together. It was a fun, relaxed time and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Isaac celebrated his 15th birthday at RVA this past Saturday! Happy birthday Isaac! We plan to celebrate with him this Saturday, as he arrives home for his Christmas break - woo hoo! We are all looking forward to having him back home for the next several weeks :)

We are making some progress on Camp NURU :-) We are still in the land-purchase phase of the process, but encouraged at some recent developments. We appreciate your prayers and we will keep you updated. We are excited about how the Lord will use this camp in this area in mighty ways!

Prison Emmaus courses are continuing to come in every few weeks! We are encouraged by the steady growth of the Emmaus correspondence course ministry also! Lots to praise the Lord about and especially to pray for!

Instead of a sunset picture, (which I have thousands of - ha ha), this picture is just before dark as the fisherman have selected their spots to fish for the night on Lake Tanganyika.

We thank you so much for your prayers and for your support!

The Kinlaws

Remembering Kittie this week ❤️

❤️ 3/2/1949 ~ 11/21/2021 ❤️