(Photo Above: Howell Ferguson at the Chosi A church of Christ building in the village where we went for Bible study Wednesday afternoon)
Our trip in Chimala continues to go well. The scope of the work is challenging and the potential is really unlimited. We have visited the primary and secondary schools, the Chimala School of Preaching, and the hospital. It has been great to meet Gage & Kelly and see the agricultural work that is planned and which (if followed as directed) will provide the means to arriving at self-sufficiency and sustainability of all phases of the Mission’s work. Howell & Mary will work great in the position they assume in January. Richard and Carol Rogers are also fulltime in the Mission’s work. They work in the School of Preaching and then on weekends take preacher students out into the area villages.
In one of the meetings on Wednesday we discussed the proposed changes and expected involvement with the heads of each department. As Gage was detailing the agricultural goals one remarked that this will put the Mission in even better standing with the Tanzania government because the government is very interested in developing agriculture as a viable means of life’s improvements in the country. The Mission already enjoys a good favor from the government because of the primary and secondary schools and the hospital and clinics but the agricultural impact holds possibly an even greater impact for which the Church will be highlighted.
Wednesday afternoon we went to a nearby village where Bible study was to be held. Mary brought teaching materials for the children and all four of us (Howell, Gif, Simba and me) were to speak. When we drove up only one was present but soon children learned of Mary’s class and they came running with big smiles to greet us. The preacher for this congregation is named “Ly.” He runs the printing shop at the Mission (The print shop produces tracts, songbooks, study materials and a long list of other materials that are used in the Lord’s work). He was very happy to see us.
Ly can speak some English and when he found out that he was to be the interpreter he said that he couldn’t do it. But there was no choice and I think all went well. During the lessons we frequently had to stop and discuss various synonyms so Ly would understand and thanks to Howell’s Swahili vocabulary we managed to get thru in good order.
After we arrived back at the Mission we went to look at a huge tree where the monkeys go at evening. The Monkeys are a big problem in the compound. They are pests that take and destroy the planted crops. We saw a large number of monkeys but never close enough to get a photo.
The evening closed with a meeting and discussion on the visit and the optimism of the future.
During the day work continued on cleaning out one of the Tilapia ponds. Gage has decided that there needs to be a better protected pond if the fish are to be profitable. At this point the monitor lizards (a 5 foot one was seen climbing a fence the other day) and the predator birds have no hindrances in feeding from the pond.
Thursday brings us to the last day of our stay here. It is scheduled with the School of Preaching devotional at 7:30 where Gif will speak. Following that we are to visit the hospital and then meetings are arranged.
Friday morning will find us packing and leaving at 11:30 a.m. We begin a 3-day trek to Berdyansk, Ukraine (staring in Chimala, then a 2-hour land rover drive to Mbeya for a 1-2 plane ride to DARR es Salaam for a 9.5-hour plane ride to Amsterdam then a 3-hour flight to Kyiv to a 14-hour train ride to Zaporozhye and then a 3 (?) hour vehicle (?) ride to Berdyansk (located on the shore of the Azov sea)!
There is a Photo Gallery of our Tanzania trip available! Go to the Missions web site and click on the top button that says “Tanzania” and scroll down to the photos. By clicking on the first photo you will begin a slideshow. Or click this link and then go to the first photo: https://www.kachelman.com/ukraine/blog/tanzania/
Continue to pray for us as we continue in this mission.
John L. Kachelman, Jr.
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