A Typical Day in Tanzania :)

Most days of ministry in Africa are pretty obscure. Even if you have a daily schedule, times and commitments shift around quite often. Ministry titles such as “door-to-door evangelism”, “youth rallies”, and “prayer revival” are used regularly but can play out many different ways. So in order to help paint a picture of what I have done the past three months, here is what a day of ministry in Tanzania looks like…sometimes.
 
7:30ish Rise and Shine
 
8:30ish Team Devotion and Prayer
 
Every morning we meet and spend time together, resting in God’s presence and praying for the day. Especially when we do something like door-door, it changes everything when we start off the day remembering that the presence and power of God goes with us!
 
9:00 Breakfast
 
Bread, Butter, and Tea
 
9:30ish Door-to-Door Evangelism
 
Usually, we go around with a woman named Pinina and stop at almost every house to share and pray. But today was different from others as Pastor Nobert took us around the community to visit with church members. But God seemed to have other plans, at least for the first couple of hours. As we were walking, we met several people we had talked with and prayed for the week before. It was a sweet time to see the Lord’s faithfulness and visit with them again. Here are a few recaps of our visits:

• We revisited an older woman named Veronica who we prayed for last week because she was very sick. This week she is feeling much better except for a little chest pain! Praise Jesus for healing Veronica! We pray for her complete healing and thank Jesus for the healing HE has already done!
• Last week, a man we met asked for prayed for his wife and child who are in the hospital. He informs us that both are feeling better but still in the hospital. We pray that he would be free of stress, worry, and financial burdens and ask God for continued healing for his wife and child.
• As we are walking, several women shout-out at us from their front yard. We recognize an older lady from a previous meeting. I spend time talking with her granddaughter, Dina, who is 25. She is excellent at speaking English and super friendly. The grandmother wants us to come pray at her house, so she rushes us off. I hope to come back and visit Dina!
• We arrive at the grandmother’s house and find out that one of her sons is an alcoholic and her grandson has not passed his school exams for college. She asks for specific prayer for those two situations. She didn’t mention these before, but I guess upon meeting us again she feels more comfortable sharing and being vulnerable.
• We finally began to visit church members, one of which is a woman named Lena. So many children greet us at her home and as we walk in it is evident the Spirit of the Lord is in this place. Lena and her children have so much joy! We pray for and bless her home and I begin sharing with her about the peace I am feeling. I affirm her that her strength is in the joy of the Lord and that the presence of the living God is in her home. A team member asks about her husband and we find out that she is going through a divorce. I am so thankful for God’s sovereign goodness and joy even in broken situations!
• Walking to our last house, we meet a woman we talked with last week who was experiencing demonic attacks in her home. We find out the attacks have become less severe but are still taking place. We explain that as sons and daughters of the King, we carry our Father’s presence and have the power and authority to tell any evil spirit to flee. We also explain to her, that if she decides to follow Jesus, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will be inside of her, and she will carry the same power and authority! We pray once again for her family and home, and declare that anything that is not of Jesus has no place here!
• Our final stop was with a church member where we prayed for 10 minutes and then drank soda for almost an hour while Pastor and the woman talked in Kiswahili.

As we are walking back we find out that we will not be teaching Bible study in the afternoon like we thought, but will instead be attending a seminar at a sister church. There is a small chance we are leading the seminar, Pastor still does not know…it starts in 3 hours. Welcome to the World Race!
 
1:00ish Lunch Time
 
Rice, Beans, Kael, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, and Bananas (for the 20^th time this month…not complaining, just wanting you to get the big picture J)
 
2:00 Rest Time
 
I look over old sermon notes in case I have to speak at the seminar in 2 hours…still no definite information on that. Then I read a little “Knowledge of the Holy” and type some responses to emails and Facebook messages to be sent out the next time I get Internet.
 
3:28 Find out that we leaving for the seminar at 3:30
 
As we were walking to the church, we found out the seminar is on evangelism. We still had no clue if we were speaking or not.
 
4:00ish Evangelism Seminar
 
Thankfully, another speaker was leading the session and we were just guests of honor. The first hour and a half was all singing and performances in Kiswahili; it’s sweet to worship in the Spirit and make up your own songs to God when you have no idea what is being said! The speaker talked for another hour and a half…in Kiswahili as well. Luckily I had some pen and paper to keep me busy!
 
6:30ish Tea at the Pastor’s House
 
The Pastor of the sister church invited us to his home for tea after the service.
 
7:45ish Team Time
 
Recapping the day as a team, sharing how we are feeling, and what we saw Jesus do.
 
8:30ish Dinner
 
Pasta, Meatish Sauce, Cabbage, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, and Tea
 
10:00 Goodnight!