Dear friends and family, we give thanks to our great God and Savior for each of you who think of us and pray for us in the challenges we face as messengers of the Good News.
One highlight of this past month was the voyage on the sailboat "Wings of the Morning". A team of 8 went south with the purpose of visiting the village churches at Buhingu and Igalula. The two-day journey down there turned into three due to strong winds. Once they arrived, the meetings with these believers was of mutual encouragement, with Biblical teaching in the mornings and afternoons, and evangelistic films in the evenings. One evening they experienced such strong winds and high waves that Luke and Ruth were up most of the night bailing the boat while the rest of the team, who were ministering on land, prayed hard for them. We are thankful to the Lord for the blessings we experienced, and also for His strong hand of protection over the team.
Another highlight was the choosing of 4 deacons for the Gungu chapel here in town. This has been in the works a long time and has been made a matter of long-standing prayer by the believers. We are excited to now have these 4 godly men who have been selected for this role of service in the church. Pray with us that it will be a catalyst that will soon cause growth and awakening among the saints here.
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| Heshima, Japhet, Peter & Husseni (4 deacons) |
Looking ahead, we have a youth conference we are getting ready for (Feb. 23-26) at the local assembly. Luke will be teaching several sessions of the morning and mid-day seminars. In the afternoons there will be evangelistic meetings. These consist of many church choirs along with energetic congregational choruses, followed by the preaching of a special speaker and evangelist. In the evenings we will show Christian films. The purpose is to reach the neighborhood around the church with he gospel. Pray for God's Spirit to draw many to come and hear His life-changing and saving Word, and that many would be obedient to the faith. Pray for the preparations, as the youth are mostly in charge of getting things ready, under the guidance of the elders.
As we write this email, 3 students from the Kigoma region are on their way by bus to Berea Bible College in Moshi, to start their 2nd. semester of training. Please pray for them, and all the other students from many other parts of the country, that they would have eager and willing hearts to learn and put into practice what they are taught by God. Also pray for their families at home as they will be gone for 4 months. Many of the students are elders in their churches or are otherwise very active in their churches. It is not uncommon for them to leave behind their wife and 9 or more kids.
Our family is doing well, although lately we have been troubled by various illnesses. Esther was sick with malaria last week. Luke had a bad sunburn, followed by bad stomach pains earlier this week, and Emily currently has a throat infection and is running a high fever. However we rejoice in our tribulations and know that the Father is always near.
We are truly humbled by your participation in the gospel until now, and look forward to what God has in store for us and you.
In His grace,
Luke, Gina, Esther & Emily Johnson
Gina, recently I ran into some talk on the internet that papaya seeds are great for somehow preventing malaria. I filed it away for later use for our family, but reading your blog just now, made me remember it. The people who swore by it were people who lived in areas with high occurrence of malaria and took 4-6 seeds (frozen or sun-dried and then ground or chewed) daily. I have no idea if it would work, but if you can easily get papaya, it'd be worth a try?! here's the link: http://www.earthclinic.com/CURES/malaria.html
ReplyDeletemuch love to your family from ours,
amy in peru
Interesting. There's always new stuff coming up. Thanks for the tip.
ReplyDeleteWe have loads of papayas, eat one almost every morning for breakfast. Have heard that the leaf is anti-malarial and the seeds are good for stomach bugs but you have to eat a lot of them to make a difference. I tried giving Esther the seeds several times but I wasn't very successful, they're very bitter.