Happy New Year

Happy New Year from the Kinlaws!

Our family is enjoying a brief break in Dar Es Salaam, which we so needed,

and we are very thankful for! Like many of you, as we look back over the past year, we are overwhelmed by the faithfulness of God in our lives. We just want to use this blog to give thanks to the Lord.

Grace has been having a "ball" in Dar, and experiencing things she has never done before! It is amazing to think of how the Lord turned things around for her as she was left for dead in a muddy rice field, and now thriving and growing in a loving family. We thank the Lord for all HE has done over the past year to bring her into our family, and to complete the adoption process on the Tanzania side. We continue to persevere through the paperwork and lawyers as we await the adoption certificate and Tanzanian passport. Things are on hold for the holiday period, but will resume beginning next week.

We had a fun Christmas Sunday at Kizenga chapel the Sunday before Christmas. We had lots of kids and had games, songs, and a message from the Word. Each child was given a gift bag with rice, candy, cookie, and Gospel tract.

We prepared, as a family, approximately 200 of these gift bags for the children in Kizenga! John taught the kids how to play rock-paper-scissors, and they seemed to catch on pretty well! Over all it was a good day, with good teaching, and many blessings :) John brought a message to the adults from Galatians 4 on "The Lord Jesus - The Perfect Gift"

We thank the Lord for the growth we see in this small assembly of believers! Over the past year we began meeting for the Lord's Supper, a new concept for them. We saw spiritual growth among the children and adults.

The adults from the chapel in Kizenga came to Kigoma for a Christmas conference at the larger chapel in town. During one of the breaks, I took them out to see the Camp Nuru property! They have been praying with us, and now have seen what they have been praying about :)

The Camp is thankfully going well, and we have paused the work until after the holidays are over. We thank the Lord for all He has done over the past year in providing the building permit, sending out a team from Horton Haven to get us started in the work, and providing for us to get started on building the wall (we have built around 200 meters of wall already!)

About 6 years ago, I went down to the soccer field in Ujiji and preached the Gospel to a large group of Muslim young men. I never saw any results, but this is a very difficult area and I am resolved to just sow Seed. I am a sower, and another will come along and perhaps reap, but for now, I just sow.

A few weeks ago, I was talking with one of our security guards at Camp Nuru whom I have been friends with for 5 years, and discussing exactly when he got saved. He told me, to my surprise, that he believed the Gospel that day that I preached the Gospel on the paint board! He was a Muslim, trusted Christ as his Savior, and his family kicked him out.

I met with 3 new believers in 2022 (pictured above) to encourage them to get into the Word, spend time in prayer, and connected them with solid Tanzanian believers we knew in Ujiji that we are still currently working with. I had no idea that one of them was "John", who is one of our security guards now!

John is the guy in the white/red shirt! What a Christmas blessing to discover that one who is a close friend, partner in the work of the Lord, actually got saved when I preached the Gospel with the paint board almost 6 years ago! God is amazing! Keep sowing the Word because you know the Lord is working!

We had one last Emmaus trip down the lake road before Christmas, and while we were meeting with believers in the village of Ilagala, it poured rain and I got stuck! We are in the middle of Africa, on a muddy road, stuck, and all we had was a shovel! After a brief word of prayer, a tractor came by! Praise the Lord! He pulled us about a half mile in the mud until we got back to the main road (above). All I have is a picture of Elaina's feet to show how muddy it was!

Yuck! We were still able to encourage many believers, and bless them with a free Bible study course as a Christmas gift. We had 3 students who received certificates!

We thank the Lord for how HE has used the Emmaus course program to disciple so many pastors, preachers, evangelists, Sunday School teachers, and other leaders overt the past year! We have given out over 60 certificates of completion and seen close to 10 students complete all 35 courses! Praise the Lord!

As we look ahead to a possible return to the US, we recently learned of another obstacle. Below is a screenshot from the US Department of State website regarding the visa ban for several African countries, including Tanzania:

This does complicate things as we will need a B-1/B-2 visa for Grace to be able to return together to the US. This visa ban is different than others in that there are exceptions. We are continuing to trust the Lord to open a door for us, that no one can shut! Please pray with us over this issue - that the Lord would give us favor as we make an appointment with the US Embassy here in Tanzania.

Our remaining steps are as follows:

• Obtain Adoption Certificate (already in process and should be ready 1st week of Jan.)

• Apply for Tanzanian passport

• Meet with US Embassy

• Book flights!

Matthew 19:26

"With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

John will be returning to the US in March with Sam and Katie either way, but it would be amazing if we could all come back together for a few months. John will be speaking at the 26Below CMML conference in NC at the end of March.

We have so much to thank the Lord for! He is amazing! He is faithful! He is good! We also thank each of you who pray for us, and support us in various ways. We hope you all have a wonderful New Year as you serve the Lord and feed on His faithfulness!

~ The Kinlaws

Prayer Requests:

• Please pray for the Lord to open a door for Grace to be granted a tourist visa.

• Please pray for Camp Nuru as we continue building the wall - for good progress between now and March, when John leaves for the US.

• Please pray for the growth of the Emmaus students as they study the Word of God.

• Please pray for the church in Kizenga for continued growth.

• Please pray for our children and Jennifer as they prepare to start back their schooling.