Travel in TZ

 Our trip to Mwanza took 14 and a half hours, not 13 like we had thought! Driving with little ones makes for lots of stops. Especially if one of them gets sick on the last leg of the journey. It's good to be prepared with plenty of water for washing on the side of the road.

Kids keep each other entertained for a lot of the journey. 

Luke was really missing some cruise control by about midday, but no such luck.

We are thankful for an uneventful journey (apart from the incident by the side of the road that had to be washed off a particular kid), the old car ran well and the traffic police let us off with a warning for going 54 kph in a 50 zone. (whew!)

Peter's graduation.

We were happy to attend Peter's graduation in the city of Dar Es Salaam. His wife was also there from Kigoma and beaming with pride for her husband. He finished an intense one-year course on missions and he would like to reach the Wataturu tribe with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Please be in prayer for him as he takes this big step of faith with his family.

December Update

Praise the Lord! We had a nice time at the beach on Saturday, celebrating Esther’s 11th birthday (even though it was a bit rainy).  

Esther's 11th Birthday

Praise the Lord! The graduation for the Disciples of Jesus school went well today (Wednesday). The 7 graduates (the 8th one was not present) were challenged by the Word to go into God’s harvest fields and serve the Master faithfully and with all their heart. Please continue to pray for them in the days ahead.

Graduates.

Tomorrow morning we get up at 4 AM to begin our 13 hour drive to Mwanza, then we catch a flight to Dar Es Salaam to attend Peter’s graduation from the Missions school (Saturday) and then Sunday we fly to Bolivia. We will be there for 6 weeks for Christmas, the new year and Christopher Mattix’s wedding on January 6, 2018. Please pray for our many travels these next few days.

Thank you and have a joyful Christmas celebrating the birth of our kinsman Redeemer.

Blessings,

Luke and Gina Johnson

Rainy season

It's wonderful to be back in warm Kigoma. The kids have enjoyed playing outside every single day, except when we get a downpour and they have to take cover from the rain. We are in the beginning of rainy season and we are so thankful for the good rains in this region. Everyone is busy planting their corn and beans. Even in our yard, the guards have sectioned off a large portion of the property and were busy planting last month. Now with the new shoots coming up, our ducks get herded to a fenced-in area so they don't eat the new plant shoots. Later they need to guard the flowers that come up from the bean plants, and then the ducks will be free to roam once more. The kids are excited for the 3 new nests that the mama ducks have laid, two have 13 eggs each and the other has 5.

Emily in action.

Emily and Aaron catching "kumbikumbi".

Our first week here, we had a nice hard rain. The very next day, the termite mounds were full of activity as the big termites came out of the ground and took flight. The ducks eagerly grabbed at the clumsy termites, the birds swooped down and snatched them up, the lizards were quick to get the ones on the ground and our kids were not to be left out.  They ran into the house to get their empty containers, returned to the busiest dirt mound they could find and grabbed them by the handfuls. About an hour later, when the excitement wore off and the termites were retreating to their underground homes, the kids sat on the steps and de-winged their stash of "kumbikumbi", (flying termites) to get them ready for the frying pan. That evening the kids enjoyed a batch of freshly fried kumbikumbi.

Enjoying their snack after their hard work of collecting them.

Two weeks later we had a couple more hard rains and the kumbikumbi were out in abundance once more. In fact, this time they came for 3 days straight, more than I'd ever seen. The kids filled a 4-liter container! Well, that probed to be a bit much so they gave a lot of them away to the grateful guards.

Enough about bugs...

Kigoma is right on Lake Tanganyika and the port is a busy place. From our house we can hear the horns of the big boats as they arrive from Zambia and DR Congo and also the whistle blowing from the trains as they arrive from the western coast of Tanzania.

Kigoma port.

For Thanksgiving some 30 people came over to our place and we all enjoyed a feast and we thanked God for his provisions and blessings in our lives. We are also thankful for this community of missionaries that we meet with regularly for fellowship, encouragement and teaching.

Thanksgiving.

Kids' table.

Living by the lake, it provides for a great get-a-away as a family. Our kids enjoy the water and all the fun that it brings. Even Aaron, has lately been enjoying looking for small fish with his little net.

Esther and her friend jumping from the rocks.

I have been enjoying the beautiful colors that come with the rainy season. Everything is fresh and green and bursting with new life.

Colors in our yard.

November Update

Hello dear praying friends,

One more week until graduation. We have been going full speed ahead ever since we arrived back in Kigoma about 4 and a half weeks ago. Luke has been teaching at the discipleship course since our arrival and has 2 more classes before the final exam. Gina has been working hard with the girls to get as much homeschool done as possible before our extended Christmas break. Esther will be turning 11 years old on Dec. 8 and we plan to have a birthday party at the beach on Saturday (Remember, it’s not cold here).

Lord willing, on Wed. Dec. 13, 2017 eight students will be graduating from the Disciples of Jesus school here in Kigoma town. We will celebrate and praise the Lord with them at the graduation ceremony. The following day we drive 13+ hours to the big city of Mwanza to catch our flight to Dar on Friday. Then, on Saturday, we will attend the graduation of our good friend Peter Yamungu from the Missions School where he has been studying for the past 8 months. His desire is for he and his family to be a missionaries to the mostly unreached tribe of the Wataturu. On Sunday we fly to Bolivia for Christmas, new year, and Christopher Mattix’s wedding in January. We will begin our travels back to Tanzania at the end of January.

Fourteen of the youth from the town church are taking a short missions trip to Burundi. Please pray for unity and love among the group, effectiveness in their ministry, and safety in their travels.

Please pray for us:

- In all the busyness that we would make time each day to draw near to God through His Word and prayer

- For strength to finish strong

- For the graduates that they would serve the Lord with all their hearts

- For the youth group trip to Burundi

- For safety and patience in our travels

In this season may we remember to bless our gracious God for sending His indescribable gift to us, through Whom we enjoy eternal life and ALL blessings!

Merry Christmas to you and your families,

Luke, Gina, Esther, Emily, Aaron and Michael Johnson

What a trip!

Just wanted to let you know that we arrived safely in Kigoma. What a trip!

The train pulled in at 7:20 pm on Friday. That was way earlier than we thought and a nice bonus to be able to be in our house before 8 pm and sitting down for a supper (that was all prepared in advance by our house helper, Grace). We were all bathed or showered and in our beds shortly after that. Boy, did it feel good to sleep in our own beds. Of course we were all up around 2 am. Emily walked right past me in the hallway with her Bible and into the living room at one point, while I put the boys down for the 16th time. She matter-of-factly tells me that she’s going to read her bible now. Well, I reminded her of the time and that she had to wait for the sun to come up first if she wanted to be out of bed!

It’s just amazing to think that everything went as planned, the car trip, with meeting up with Larry at SeaTac to get our two suitcases and giving him the car, and then onto 3 long flights, the luggage all arriving in Dar, and then our train tickets waiting for us at the motel where we stayed before getting on the train. We had no idea how it would all turn out. We prayed that God would just make things happen because a lot of things were out of our control.

While in Newark, we decided to use the smartphone one last time to check for any new e-mails. So we found a place to sit and charge it for a bit and then we fired it up. The first e-mail that caught our attention was from the man in Dar who had purchased our train tickets… well he said that something urgent had just come up so he was not able to meet us at the train station as planned. So where should he have the tickets sent? Wow, we hadn’t thought of that sudden change. And we had to think fast. So that is how the train tickets ended up at our motel. We had already made reservations at this hotel for one night so we figured it was the safest place to have something like tickets be dropped off.

God protected and guided every step of the way. I had prayed that the luggage wouldn’t arrive. You see I had visions of us arriving at a very crowded Dar Es Salaam train station with 6 pieces of checked luggage, all of our carry on back packs and our 4 kids, ... in the pouring rain. I figured it’d be simpler to have the airline figure out how to get our luggage to Kigoma if they misplaced it and all we had to deal with was our carry ons and the kids. But our luggage did arrive, and the moment of checking into the train station wasn’t as chaotic as it could have been. And it did rain very hard, but not until we were settled into our cabin!

All of our checked bags fit under the bunks, and the two carry ons were used by the boys to stand on and look out the window. So it wasn’t too crowded on the train after all.

So today we are busy unpacking and organizing. It rained in the night and it has stayed overcast all day so it’s nice to have cooler weather. And the cooler weather meant that our beach day was cancelled, and just as well as we have so much to do to get this place ship-shape.

Luke begins teaching on Monday. Tomorrow we will see everyone at the local church. The kids have had a chance to pick guavas and eat fresh mangoes, now they are catching up with the neighbor kids.

And I need to prepare supper.
Bye for now.
Gina for the family

Getting comfortable for a night at SeaTac, or uncomfortable.

The calm train station... maybe it's because we were more than an hour early!

Back on the train, feels so familiar...  it's only our 4th time this year!

First african meal on the train. Dig in!

Lake Tanganyika, at last!

October News

Family News

 As a family we have been in the US since August. We have had a chance to visit family and friends on the west coast. Luke has been able to share numerous times about the ministries in Tanzania to a few churches as well. In all of this the Lord has blessed us immensely by providing for our needs and protecting us on the many travels. You can pray for Harry and Ruth Johnson as they carry the burden alone back in Kigoma. We look forward to our return in November. Luke will begin teaching our first Monday back and the girls will begin the full load of 2nd and 5th grade. 

Discipleship School

The school hasn't skipped a beat in our absence and is under the capable supervision of brother Japhet. Harry Johnson is currently teaching on the End Times.

Pray for the students to be diligent in this last trimester of classes and to finish strong. We hope to have some 10 men and women graduating the middle of December, Lord willing.

Special Prayer

We ask that you pray for us as we continue to seek the Lord in regards to a property that was purchased for the use of the Discipleship School. After 2 years of visiting the local land office, we have not made any headway so we are weary and discouraged. However, we want to trust God and ask that He work a miracle in all this if He so wills.

Blessings in Christ,

  Luke and Gina Johnson

August and September in Photos

Highlights from our time in the States --

Ice skating for the first time!

Enjoying a few days at a retreat center in northern Washington.

Spending time with family.

Picking a whole lot of blueberries

Playing in the snow on Mt. Baker.

Seeing family after many years.

Spending a day with Daniel and Lisa Epp and their 3 kids.

Visiting the Lewis and Clark Caverns in Montana.

Visiting "Kigoma friends" while in Montana.

Spending a day at Yellowstone National Park.

Visiting the Sonodas in Boise.

The Solar Eclipse!

Going to the Oregon Coast.

Seeing family on Shearer Hill.

Bajaji

Our main mode of transportation while in the big city is a Bajaji. They are 3 wheeled motorbike taxis, with a canopy for the passengers. A typical bajaji has a 200 cc engine, so it isn't built for speed, but it sure is convenient for zipping around town past the long lines of traffic.
Now can a family of 6 fit into one Bajaji?

Esther and Emily on the sidewalk side.

Gina and Aaron in the middle.

Luke and Michael on the street side.

Yes, we can! And our backpacks get dumped behind us where the engine sits, there's a place for everything. Safari njema!

June and July Update

Dear praying friends and family,

As our family gets ready to board our international flight this afternoon, we are reminded of the goodness of our Lord and are thankful for His protection and provision during these last couple of months.
Luke taught three weeks on the doctrine of Salvation at the Disciples of Jesus school in June. He has also taken the students on three different ministry trips to village churches where they taught the children and preached the Word.

Francoise teaching the Sunday School children in Kinazi.

The young men of the Disciples of Jesus school practiced for weeks in preparation for a friendly soccer match with the nearby church of Nkungwe. Pray for the students as they finish up their second term. Pray for Japhet as he's the only remaining full-time teacher there.

Soccer players from Kigoma.

In July we had a wonderful visit with some of Luke's siblings and their families. We enjoyed a hike to nearby waterfalls, outings to the beach, campfires with lots of singing and even an anniversary celebration for Harry and Ruth Johnson.

Waterfall hike with family.

Our kids especially enjoyed the visit from our friend Nicola, who lives in the DR Congo and came with her two young children to Kigoma. She is currently caring for a baby boy, whose mother died while giving birth and the family was unable to care for the infant. Baby Benjamin has since doubled his weight and our girls loved playing mommy with him!

Esther feeding baby Benjamin.

Our travels began last weekend by taking the train for two days to the big city of Dar on the east coast.

Aaron eating chicken on the train ride. It was really tough.

Pretty countryside along the train tracks as we near the east coast.

While in Dar we took the opportunity to visit our good friend Peter who is studying at a missions college in preparation to go to an unreached tribe in Tanzania. Please pray for him as he studies and is apart from his family during these months.

Peter (in blue) with his roommate Abson and their dorm room.

We look forward to seeing some of you while we are in the Northwest for the next 3 months.
Please pray for us as we continue our trip.
Blessings in Christ.

Luke and Gina Johnson

May Update

Dear praying friends and family,

Earlier this month, Luke went on a week-long ministry boat trip with his parents, Harry and Ruth Johnson. They were able to visit and encourage 3 village churches along the lake south of Kigoma. In all they showed evangelistic films 5 nights, had special church meetings, Ruth taught the children and met with the women. We are thankful to the Lord for his protection during the long sail. Please pray for Shakira, a young woman who was prayed for and delivered from demons. (See the previous blog posts for more on the boat trip.)
Those with google accounts can view an album of Luke's photos of the ministry boat trip.

The crew sailing home.

Harry, all ready to show films.

A guest teacher just finished teaching Angels and Demons to the remaining 10 faithful students. Luke will teach the next course, beginning Monday, on the study of salvation. They have begun their ministry trips to the villages every other Sunday. Today they visited the village church in Ilagala. Pray for the students as they continue to learn in the classroom and then minister in these churches by preaching the Word of God.

Students with Ahadi (in the back, in purple), the guest teacher.

This weekend begins the fasting month of Ramadan for our muslim neighbors and friends. Pray that many would be drawn to Christ during this time of seeking. The local church continues with the weekly door-to-door visitation in their area. Luke meets weekly with an old muslim man named Nyamweru and is nearing the end of the book King of Glory. He is showing a lot more interest in the stories. Pray that the Lord would open his eyes to his sinful condition and his need of a Savior.

Pray for an evangelistic conference in the town of Kibondo, northeast of Kigoma at the beginning of June.

Luke with Nyamweru.

We are planning to visit the Northwest in the late summer from August to October of this year, Lord willing. The kids are excited about the upcoming plane ride and the many new things to do and see in the US. We look forward to seeing many of you.

Blessings in Christ,

Luke and Gina Johnson