Mwanza Medical Mission and Beyond!

(I took this from some of Pat’s notes, and letters, because she doesn’t feel comfortable writing on this blog. We were blessed to be a part of the teaching, in the different countries, and I was especially blessed when the women expressed their gratitude for the teaching that Pat did with them. God bless, John)

We have been here at our home in Arusha, Tanzania only 3 days from June 9th until July 17th. For two weeks we were in Mwanza Tanzania on a Medical mission trip. The mission was awesome, yet full of opposition from the enemy. We slept in tents for a week and then stayed in a lodge and went on a safari to see the animals. Then we went to a newplace and stayed in tents again for another week We had a group of Doctors from Alabama and a church group come todo the mission trip. The doctors and nurses saw many sick people every day and gave them medicine. John and I were in charge of going hut to hut to tell people about Jesus. We took 2 interpreters to help talk for us. Many people prayed and asked Jesus to come into their lives each day. Every night of the mission trip, seven Jesus Film Teams (From the Here's Live Africa Ministry) showed the film in different areas. At the end of the two weeks many people had seen the Jesus film and over 23,000 people prayed to receive Jesus. I have one funny story I must tell. When we were driving to Mwanza, for the Medical Mission, we drove 15 hours and we had to stop and pay to drive thru the Ngorongoro/Serengeti areas. While we were stopped at the guard station we watched a huge baboon climb onto a big truck, climb into the window and quickly jump back out of the window with a box in his hands. He started tearing open the box and began eating the eggs that were inside. Then other baboons came to join him. It was so funny because the driver of the truck finally saw what was going on and he ran over to the scene yelling and waving his arms and chasing the baboons away. We laughed so hard. That was a great memory to record. Sadly, our camera is not working properly. It shut down on our trip. It will take videos but no more still pictures. We prayed over it and felt blessed to at least have the videos. Being in Africa with no camera is a bummer! Well, just wanted to thank you for all your prayers. We felt them during our trips as we were well, safe, energized, and spirit-filled. That was all God's glory, for sure. Your prayers are powerful! Please don't stop praying. Love each other good for us. But so be it and to God be the glory! I thank God that Steve and SL encouraged us to lead the hut to hut ministry last year. We did that again this year. I was scared to death last year. That has truly touched my heart and brought conviction. Anyway, this yr., in Mwnaza, I was looking forward to hut to hut. We had such a blessed experience. I thank God, also, that He put me here to practice this because the Africans don't have a clue about our fears or inadequacies. They don't even know our language as we depend on an interpreter. These team-leaders and interpreters are so seasoned. We learn so much from them. Whenever we go to the office for the devotional time in the mornings, it blows my mind how they all take turns giving the devotional and teaching. They just flat preach, I'm telling you. It's amazing. Where do they learn how to do that? They just open up to a scripture passage and read it and then they just get after it. And their praise time and prayer is life changing.

Our 3 weeks of traveling to 3 other countries was challenging but very rewarding. Over the last several weeks, we have traveled to the countries of Zambia, Malawi, and Uganda to do conferences. Those are not as exciting as the mission trip but they are important because we planted new Jesus Film Teams in those areas. The conferences are for the pastors, of all denominations, in those areas and we shared information that will help them teach and disciple all the new Christians that receive Jesus after seeing the Jesus Films. It is to equip the area pastors to disciple these new Christians. It also teaches the pastors how important it is to work together and to bring down the division between the denominations. In Heaven we will all be one and not divided like we are here on earth. We teach them how we all have the same goal -- to teach Jesus to the lost. We also teach them how to witness in the town before a Jesus film showing. We showed the film the last night of each conference and many people came to Jesus. The pastors were so happy to be a part of helping the New Jesus Film Teams in their area.

We have flown many miles and driven many miles on very rough roads. We have stayed in many different hotels, lodges, and guest houses. Most of them had little or no hot water and the electricity was off much of the time. Many times I could not use my hairdryer so I had to sit in front of the fan. And sometimes we had to just use wipes, that we brought back from the U.S., when we wanted to bathe. In all of our travels we ate rice almost every meal, along with chicken most of the time. We ate Spanish omelets mornings for breakfast. So, the food was not too bad. Sometimes we really miss Mexican food the most. That's our favorite back home.

We finally got to meet Dick and Charlotte Day, who have been missionaries in Malawi for many years, and even visited one of the schools they work with. We got to show the "Jesus Film for Children" in a Government school for children of police personnel; sure is different from what we are allowed to do in the public schools in the US.

We are home and resting up but I am beginning to get antsy! I have to get busy! No problem finding things to do. We are talking about doing some teaching in some of the churches on evangelism and then at the end of a few days teaching we will go out, door to door, putting it into practice.

Tuesday, July 29th, was John's birthday, and Mary and Julius, from St. Paul’s church, invited us to their home for lunch. What beautiful people. We had a beautiful meal and then we walked over the 5 acres of their "family" property. AMAZING!!!! They live close to St. Paul’s church. The area is so beautiful and green. We walked a ways and Mary pointed out her cow to me. I told her she looked so nice and healthy. I asked her if she had a name. Mary said she never thought about giving her a name; so she asked me to give her one. I said okay, her name is now Daisy. She was tickled and so was her daughter (7). We turned and walked down a gorgeous lane with tall, tall trees down both sides. Then we turned off into a huge meadow. Wow, then we walked until we came to the side of the mt. looking down at the running river. We climbed down and took a video (our camera is on the blink now). Then we climbed up the side following a path that passed some wild raspberry bushes and we ate a few! John and I kept commenting on how that area looked like something in a movie. It looked like somewhere in the Amazon. Julius said sometimes you will see monkeys there. Anyway, the sun shinning down thru the foliage was breathtaking. We were blessed. But, even more than that, spending time with Mary and Julius and their 2 children (7 and 3) was so sweet. They prayed a precious prayer over John for his birthday. I feel so FULL! God is good! It is a glorious thing how God can use any of us to bless this ministry in spite of all our weaknesses and humanness. Mungu Awabariki!
Pat