Update It has been a busy month and as a result we haven’t gotten a report out. We are so excited to share with you the things that have been happening in Kisongo. First, the new Kisongo church building is almost complete. This week they are working on the windows, doors, and plastering the inside. This is an answered prayer and we are so grateful to Huntington church of Christ and Central church of Christ as well as our incredible…
Farming I wrote this report Monday (4/29) trying to be on top of things and have this sent out on time. The irony of that is that in the middle of the night a huge storm came and changed many of the things I was reporting about. As you all know it has not been raining and as a result our corn crop has died. What you may not know is that a cyclone hit Mozambique and with it we…
Farming The rainy season has not come this year as usual. Some districts around us are getting occasional showers that we hope will sustain their crops but Kisongo is not getting even that. We request your prayers for the farmers whose crops still have a chance. Even if it started raining now the majority of our crop, if not all, would be lost but we hope that is not the case for the other farmers. While this news sounds terrible…
Farming Now that government regulations are more stable we have our broiler project back up and running. We currently have 800 and hope to be able to maintain this project again. Each 200 batch are about one weeks apart to hopefully get back on a good rotation. We had to spray for fall worms in our corn again this year. However, if we don’t begin receiving rain soon (even just small showers) then we are going to lose this crop….
Farming The first week of March we were blessed to have Don Hendricks and his son, Corey, with us. They climbed Kilimanjaro and then came to us to help on the farm. We are grateful to them for their hard work. Sometimes farm work isn’t glamorous, just hard, and they didn’t complain as we dug ditches for several more days. We finally have trenches that run the length of the farm. We have also redone all of the raised beds…
Farming The last two weeks of February have been slam-packed. Samantha and Joe Burns, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law, came back to Tanzania with us to help us with some final projects. Joe is a horticulturist who owns a nursery in Grovetown, Georgia. In November of 2017 he came, and along with members of the Central Church of Christ in Augusta, helped us start our grove of fruit trees. Only one year later many of these trees are doing well. He…
We hope this letter finds you all well. We wanted to update all of you on our future plans in both Tanzania and elsewhere. First, we want to start by thanking all of you. From day 1 of us joining the TZ missions team in Tanzania all of you have been 100% on board. We had heard horror stories of raising and living on support ,and it just wasn’t any of that for us. The Church stepped up and showed…
Farming We have reached the point of trying to make every aspect of our farm sustainable in itself. This year we have reassessed each project and improved it. I have also turned over the managing position to Agustine. I am here, of course, to help when he needs advice but I am thrilled to say that this is going well. The last two weeks have been spent harvesting this years crop. We had to harvest a month later than usual…
Farming The farm is doing well and we give thanks to God. We currently have two rooms of broiler chicks growing out at different stages and are preparing to add a third room of baby chicks soon. The school and Anna and I are grateful as chicken is hard to come by lately due to supplier and boarder issues. We have spent the last few weeks cleaning and preparing and replanting the raised beds. Next week the students return from…
Trip to Dar es Salaam Anna and I had the opportunity to travel to Dar es Salaam this month. Word of the leadership/eldership classes I had conducted at Kisongo church of Christ reached a church in Dar, the Temeke COC, and I was asked to come and conduct classes for them. Anna and I left our home, with Agustine, in Kisongo Thursday morning around 5:15 am. After traveling by bus more than 12 hours we reached Dar es Salaam that…