Hi Everybody! Hope you are doing well. Our most exciting personal news is that we cut Zeke’s hair! :) Kelly cut it with scissors. He did great and looks so grown up now! It was sad to lose the beautiful curls, but was very difficult to manage!
4:12 Ministry
Our Tanzanian staff has seen God do some incredible things as they’ve been teaching. One incredible incident was among the Sukuma tribe of Northwest Tanzania. Many of the Sukuma are churchgoers, but they still hold firmly to witchcraft, as we would soon find out. While our team was teaching a conference there, they kept feeling uneasy and like they were not breaking through with any of the people. They fasted and prayed for a whole night, asking God to move. Someone informed them the next morning about the whole region being deeply involved in witchcraft. The community did not trust God’s ability to actually help them in their lives. They finally realized why it had been so hard to teach! They continued praying and fasting. Finally, at the end of the conference, God brought a breakthrough. The entire conference of 400 people came forward and repenting, confessing sins (sometimes embarrassing ones) out loud to God. Pastors and church elders came forward. Almost everyone there came to Christ completely.
4:12 Administrator:
Matt mentioned in our previous newsletter that our 4:12 teaching ministry has grown from 8 members to 15 members since Ezekiel was born (20 months ago). This massive growth in our staff has been incredible. But with the growth of the ministry, there must be growth in administration. Matt, together with the leaders of the 4:12 team, decided to lift Sammy to become the full-time administrator of the ministry. Sammy has already been handling a lot of administrative responsibilities, but it was made official. After announcing the rest of the 4:12 team, they commissioned Sammy by laying hands on him in prayer. This delegation of administrative responsibilities has been a burden lifted off of Matt’s shoulders, allowing him to focus more on the growing Kuza ministry.
Kuza Office Launch:
We officially opened our Kuza offices at the end of July this year, but had not made this opening public to our friends and ministry partners in Kenya. So, we held an official launch of our Kuza office and showed our partners some new Kuza developments on September 26th. We had snacks, tea, and a presentation. They were all very impressed and recommitted themselves to continue partnering with us moving forward.
Kuza:
Since we started the four-member Kuza team in July, we have been able to expand Kuza beyond just an app to a more full-fledged digital ministry. We currently have videos called “Soma,” which means “to read” or “to study” in Swahili. We also have a podcast that we record in our office, as well as continuing with our blogs. The Soma videos are very similar to the “Look at the Book” videos by DesiringGod.com, but we use local examples and Swahili to present it. DesiringGod.com graciously permitted adapt their concepts to a Kenyan context and create videos like this. The goal of these videos is for Kenyan youth to focus on the scriptures and learn how to interpret them. Check out a video and podcast. below.
Massive Opportunity:
Please continue praying for us as we, together with our ministry partner Spread Truth, have officially signed an agreement with the government of Kenya to minister amongst the National Youth Service (NYS). NYS has 23 stations and 60,000 young adults between the ages of 18-25 involved in the program. The plan is to do a survey of all 23 stations and then create a plan of action for 2020. Please pray with us to find staff, and prayerfully consider supporting this fantastic ministry opportunity.
Prayer Request:
1. Pray for Matt to gain wisdom in administration, especially with the growth of the ministry.
2. Pray for the people that have made a profession of faith this year through our ministry.
3. Pray for the Kuza office to generate lots of biblical, meaningful, and relevant content, and for more partners to help promote Kuza.
4. Pray for a new opportunity for Kuza involving a partner ministry and the government of Kenya!
5. Pray for funds to keep pace with our new ministry and staff growth.
6. Pray for Zeke to continue to develop and grow well, especially for his speech (it’s coming!)
7. Pray for Kelly as she begins this new school year working part-time, and tries to balance work and homelife.
8. Pray for us to find a quality English to Swahili translator for our blogs and website.