Maynard's Farm

Evangelism

We are excited to share with all of you what has been going on for the month of June. We apologize for only sending out one report this month but with everything going on here the date to send out a report slipped by us.

This month the campaign “Safari for Souls” continued in the Kisongo area. The Hoover church of Christ from Alabama and the Son Valley church of Christ from Arizona both sent groups. Within these groups there were individuals from several other congregations.

With all of the evangelism over the last month 68 souls have been added to the Lord’s church. We are unbelievably grateful for this.

Now the Kisongo church is working to encourage and teach these new souls. 3 members from the Hoover church stayed behind and helped us and locals conduct new convert studies. A husband and wife, Jeff and Shawna Wiant, from the Bear Valley church of Christ have also come in and helped continue evangelism and encourage and teach our new converts.

We ask for your prayers for the Kisongo church of Christ. This is a lot of new members and a lot of work spread among very few people. Please pray we can work hard to retain these new converts!

The Kisongo church of Christ also continues to work on their new building. Keep this effort in your prayers as they desperately need a larger building (great problem to have).

We are also grateful to the Norman’s and Brad Whinery and the work their group from Oklahoma have come in and done on the other side of town. They have held evangelism, VBS, and seminars for the last week in the Maji ya Chai area. Many souls have come to be added to the church and we pray for their steadfastness in what they have learned.

This month we also held a children’s seminar at the Arusha church of Christ. 120 kids showed up and were taught by Anna, Shawna Wiant and Kendyll Covington. Leah Covington and Tiffany Roberts taught the women of the church and some visitors wanting to hear the gospel. Jeff and I went and shared the gospel with some people near the church. Keep these efforts in your prayers.

Anna and I will, Lord willing, be traveling to conduct a leadership/eldership seminar at a church in Dar es Salem in July. Please keep this effort in your prayers as well as safety in our travels.

Thank you to everyone who reached out to us about our house flooding. We are happy to report that we incurred very very minimal damage. We are grateful to the Hoover and Son Valley groups for lending a huge hand in the cleanup.

Farming

Thank you to Rossville Church of Christ for donating the money for the farm to purchase two chainsaws. We hate we did not video the farm guys’ reactions to seeing a chainsaw for the first time. One of the men, Jemsi, spent the entire day saying “thank you, thank you” because he was overwhelmed with gratefulness by this gift that makes everyone’s work easier.

Because of this new gift we were able to cut more than $1500 in firewood in four days. This firewood will be used for the school’s cooking and for the Kisongo church’s campaign cooking this year. Thank you all for this great and much needed gift.

Thank you also to Mason Hinote from Central Church of Christ in Augusta, Georgia. Mason is ten years old and worked to raise the money for his plane ticket to Tanzania to work with Safari for Souls. But, he did not stop at the plane ticket. Mason worked until he had raised enough money to buy the farm a new bull. We are all so grateful and the farm guys were so impressed that he had worked and thought of them and their needs. Mason named the bull “Big Joe” after his friend and mine and Anna’s brother-in-law Joe Burns.

Evangelism

Safari for Souls began this week at Kisongo church of Christ. The week before the Kisongo congregation went out and set-up 75 studies. Central church of Christ in Augusta, Georgia came to kick-off this campaign. They worked together with the members of Kisongo and the work has been received so well by both the church and the community. In the morning everyone went out into the community and conducted evangelism and in the afternoons an elder from the Central church, Ben Lambright, conducted a seminar for the members on elders. While the seminar was going on, Jeremy Hinote and Bobby Pace alternated teaching a new convert class every afternoon.

In five days the 9 members of Central church, the Kisongo church, the Storks family, the Norman family, and Anna and I helped lead 32 souls to Christ! This morning 17 of those new converts came to class and church services. Some of the new converts work at A-Z factory and work on Sunday’s. The others we are visiting this week to encourage. We are grateful to everyone who has been involved in this campaign. The church has grown, it has been encouraged, and all the glory goes to God. Thank you all for your hard work and prayers.

Next week we, along with Kisongo, will set-up more studies and go back to encourage our new bothers and sisters. Please pray for all of the people coming to continue the campaign and that many souls are reached and God is glorified in the efforts.

Farming

On the farm the last few weeks we have been able to finally start some cleaning. We have had a few dry days and that has enabled us to start cleaning up all the weeds and plants that have died from to much water.

Evangelism

We have had the privilege of hosting Garry Hill and Mike Greene. Mike came and taught the book of Hebrews to the second year English students at ACSOP.

Garry came and taught a preaching seminar at ACSOP every morning. In the afternoons he and I had the opportunity to share the Gospel. As a result, Dorcas put on the Lord in baptism. We spent the rest of our time doing follow-up studies with her trying to help set a good foundation, and encourage our sister in Christ.  Please pray for her spiritual growth, and steadfastness as she strives to follow what she now knows is the Truth.

Anna continues to teach at the local school and daycare every week. I had the privilege to fill in for the teacher of the older kids at the local school. The class went really well and I enjoyed being able to teach the kids about God’s promise to Abraham and how that relates to Jesus.

We asked for your prayers for the twin mama. Anna and Agustine were able to get her in a program to help for a few weeks. Anna and I went to visit yesterday and she and the twins are doing really well. A pediatrician from America has been checking on the every day and they are gaining weight. We are thankful for our friends at Neema Village and their help. In a few weeks we will transition the mama and her twins back to Kisongo and we ask for your prayers as the church tries to find her a home and begins caring for her again until the twins are old enough for the mother to find a job.

We also ask you to keep the Kisongo Church in your prayers as they continue the study of Elders/Leadership in the Church. I will finish my series of lessons this Sunday, and that will be followed by a week long seminar from an elder at the Central Church of Christ in Augusta Georgia. Please pray as they strive to follow the example found in the Bible for how a Church is suppose to be structured.

We are only a few days away from the start of Safari for Souls. Please be praying for the upcoming campaign and the wonderful Americans coming to serve here.

Farming

This month we have had several setbacks. The rains have continued to be heavier than normal for the month of April. We received a large amount of flooding rains a week ago and because of a new road built on our property the heavy rains flooded our fields with no where to escape to. Our beans, corn, and even the raised beds flooded. The pictures attached are after the waters had gone down a few feet. We spent the next few days trenching and pumping water out. We were relieved to get the water to a much lower level when more heavy rains came and continue to come.

So, what does this mean? There is a good chance our beans are lost. With the water receded our raised beds can be used again. The corn we are not sure about but we are praying it still does well though it may be stunted in growth.

The good news is that last year we stored more than enough corn for the school for three years. We continue to pray that we will have a good harvest.

We have also spent the last week reconstructing our broiler chicken house. We have made it into four rooms so that we can grow out more chickens. The plan is to grow 200, wait a week and do 200 more, wait a week and 200 more, then continue this process so we have chickens to sell every week. This way we can be a constant supplier at a smaller level making it easier for us to sell.

We have also had our first calf of the season born! It is a bull that will be raised for meat.

Evangelism

I am continuing the Sunday morning leadership classes at Kisongo church of Christ. We have discusses why the church needs elders, what a biblical leader looks like, and how we are not looking for a perfect man but a man with a heart for Christ.

Anna has added a new class to her weekly schedule. As we have said, our focus is on building up the church in our area. There is a new daycare, opened by friends, less than five minutes from our house. Every Wednesday morning she is going to teach their 3-5 year olds. She has around 20 children in her class. This is a another way, like the local school on Fridays, for the community to learn about the church.

We are also continuing to invite two Kisongo families to our home every month for dinner. This month we hosted the families of Ahimidiwe and Daudi. We have learned that the Tanzanians love pizza and chips (french fries) and so far no one has went home unhappy. Tanzanians have a tendency to be wary of American food (it is an unknown) but pizza and chips have won everyone over two months in a row. We are enjoying getting to know our brethren here better.

Keep the upcoming campaigns in your prayers. The first guests will begin to arrive in three weeks and we, along with local preachers, will begin setting up Bible studies in our community. We are looking forward to this opportunity to be able to reach our community by such a large number of people.

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Maynard Mission Report

Farming

The rainy season began at the beginning of March. Toward the middle of March Agustine and I went to John Deere to discuss planting beans. Here, the rains will stop for a week or two and everything will dry up before the rains begin again. In this dry time farmers plant beans. While we were talking with the farmers at John Deere they received a report that fall army worms had been found in their own fields. These worms devastated the crops in South Africa and we were not aware they were in Tanzania. In order to kill them you must catch them in the egg or larvae stage because there are no chemicals here to kill them in the third stage. We were fortunate in timing to learn all of this and went straight back to our farm to look for the worms. We found the eggs and immediately went to town to buy chemicals. It took three days of spraying because we could only do 16 liters at a time. We are keeping an eye on this situation. Please pray for the farmers in Tanzania. Yesterday, I received pictures from a preacher a few hours away from us. He asked why his corn crop had died. After seeing the pictures I had to tell him the fall worms had destroyed his crop. We are afraid this is only the beginning and are trying to spread the word to other farmers to be looking and spraying their crops.

We have also been taking this dry time to plant three acres in beans. We had almost gotten three acres planted last week when a large rain came. It muddied everything and we were not able to finish planting. Hopefully, the rain will hold off another day or so and we can finish planting.

Evangelism

Anna continues to go every week to our local church members and study with them, their neighbors, and visit all of the new babies born in our church (there have been five in just the last month). The local school has been out for the last two weeks on Easter holiday. Anna will resume classes with them next week.   

I have begun a series on leadership at the Kisongo church of Christ on Sundays. This topic was requested by the men of the church and will be a precursor for a guest coming from Central church of Christ in Augusta, Georgia. We will be discussing in depth what biblical leadership looks like vs. cultural leadership.

Part of our goal for 2018 has been to strengthen and mature our local church (Kisongo church of Christ). One of those ways is through Anna’s visiting and Bible studies with the women every week. Another way is through inviting two families to our home every month for dinner. We want these Christians to know that we love them and see them as part of our family. In March we invited the families of Agustine and Bomoa. It was an uplifting and encouraging night for all of us and we are thankful to have the resources to share with our friends.

One last thing we would like to share with y’all is the maturity Kisongo Church of Christ continues to show. This year they are preparing to host the campaigns in their area. This is the first time it will be here. Last Sunday, after services, the church met to discuss preparations. The local preacher, Abraham Mrutu, said, “when guests come to our home our culture provides for them…. We want to do the same for the American guests”. We were blown away by this statement and what happened next. The church began to pledge food, money, and animals to be used or sold to help feed the American guests during the campaign. Anna and I watched as members handed over hard earned money, pledged 50 lbs of rice, and even pledged their livestock. We pray that the hearts of these members never change but only grow closer to God.

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Farming

We are happy to report we are back in our home of Tanzania. Thank you for all of your love, support, and encouragement on our furlough. We truly enjoyed getting to see all of you and get to know you all better.

The long rains are approaching and so we have spent the last two weeks preparing the land for planting. Agustine, our farm manager, broke his arm in December. As a result, I had to finish the ripping and tilling this year because his right arm is still very weak. Please keep him in your prayers as he gains strength and mobility back.

After Agustine and I met with the farmers up the road who do large scale crops here we decided to plant only 3 acres in beans this year and the rest to plant in more corn. If the rains flood like usual the bean crop may not do as well. We are praying that is not the case but are preparing incase we need to sell corn in exchange for beans for the school.

While we were gone the fruit trees planted in November have really grown, especially the banana trees. A greenhouse was also added and I will begin showing our farm workers how to use the greenhouse to grow tomatoes and other vegetables that are getting eaten by bugs. Also, the lemongrass that was planted in the fall is now large and plentiful. The school can now use this at morning tea time every day.

Evangelism

Our first Friday back Anna was able to go back to the local school in Kisongo with Paulina. It is a new school year and they are beginning again with new and old students. Last year they were able to go through Genesis to Judges and this year they hope to go just as far or further. We are thrilled to be able to continue this ministry in our local school.

Anna has begun encouragement studies for our local members at Kisongo. She is focusing on one family for a few months (she will still be doing other studies as well) whose wife cannot read and who are also caring for there elderly parents along with six children of their own and in the extreme poverty this is a difficult situation. Pray as they increase in knowledge and pray for wisdom in the choices made for the future.

I have also been meeting with the men of the Kisongo church (where we attend). They are preparing for the 2018 campaigns in our area and are looking forward to this time. The church is also planning to begin the foundation work on their new building. We are encouraged by their handwork and commitment to the Lord and ask that you remember the Kisongo church in your prayers.

 

 

Farming

We are sorry you are receiving this report late. Due to power issues (and a dead computer battery) we are just now getting to send out our mid-November report. We have a lot to be thankful for this month and a lot to share.

The Mt. Juliet COC in Tennessee and the Central COC in Augusta, Georgia have been working in the Arusha area this month. While their main focus is evangelism the Central church took a few days to help us on the farm. Many of you know Anna’s sister, Samantha, what you may not know is that Samantha’s husband, Joe, owns a nursery in Augusta. We were able to use him and his talents this month. As a result of hard work and extreme generosity 200 fruit trees were planted on the farm this month! The trees include: mango, papaya, fig, apple custard, cooking bananas, small sweet bananas, and red bananas! Our hearts are overflowing with gratitude to everyone who made this possible.

Evangelism

Mt. Juliet and Central came to work with the Arusha COC here in Arusha, Tanzania. The locals have been setting up bible studies for weeks prior to their arrival. In two weeks time hundreds of Bible studies were conducted. As a result we have 52 new brothers and sisters in Christ. We were grateful to be able to work with these two churches from America. Anna and I conducted follow-up studies with the new converts throughout the last two weeks to try and encourage our new brothers and sisters. This is only the beginning for these new Christians so please keep them in your prayers.

We have two new women at our home congregation of Kisongo who have stepped up and asked to help teach the children. This is a huge step for spiritual growth. We currently have two wonderful teachers but one is pregnant and the other hasn’t had a break from teaching in a year! We are so excited that these women are stepping out of their comfort zone to help their local church.

The men at the Kisongo church met recently about their goals for 2018. We are so proud of them for their love and faithfulness to God and His word and for looking for more ways to serve God better. Please be praying for them as they try and live out the biblical model.

We have more guests arriving soon. We are praying for their safe arrival and that the Kingdom of God is glorified.

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Horton Chapel Church of Christ

Mid September Maynard Mission Report

Farming

This month we have started 17 new beds. Eight of these beds have been planted with potatoes. If you remember when we first moved here potatoes did not do well. We are hoping with better soil after two years of composting we will have a better crop. Nine of these new beds have been planted with onions, carrots, peppers, and eggplant. On top of the 17 beds we have planted 5 beds of mchaichai (lemongrass) which will provide the school with free tea for tea time every day.

Thanks to all of you and your donations we were able to purchase a small machine to chop up the leftover corn stalks. The machine is working well and we have more than enough food stored to feed our cows through the dry season. The chopped corn stalks will be mixed with molasses and water. This year, because we can chop the stalks, there will be much less waste and we are grateful.

Evangelism

Anna continues to work at the local school on Friday’s and to show the kind of impact this could have we wanted to share with all of you what happened this month. Anna teaches the younger children (think 5-6 grade) and a good friend, Kashumba, teaches the upper levels (7-8 grade). Two of the kids from Kashumba’s upper level class asked to be baptized this month! This was an unexpected surprise for all of us and reinforces why we are working in our local school.

While Anna has continued her women’s class at Kisongo and weekly Bible studies I have had to take a break. At the end of last month I had a seizure while driving the tractor. It is thanks to Agustine that the situation was not worse but I was beat up after falling on concrete. This was my third seizure this year. Anna and I have spent a lot of time having tests run this month and seeing a good European Neurologist two hours away. I have been diagnosed with epilepsy. I am now on medicine, and while it has many side effects, thanks to friends who suggested some essential oils, I am now managing the side effects easily. This has changed our daily life drastically. I cannot drive for the next 3-6 months, I am having to stay stress free, and rest a lot. We ask that you keep my health and both of our sanity in your prayers. We are thankful for good doctors and to be doing so well given the circumstances.

Furlough

We are planning our furlough now and would like to share the dates with you. We plan to fly out of Tanzania on December 17th and spend the holidays with our family. Our plan is to report throughout the month of January. Please contact us if you would like us to come to you and report. These are the dates we will be available:

Wednesday January 3rd

Sunday AM January 7th

Sunday PM January 7th

Wednesday January 10th

Sunday AM January 14th

Sunday PM January 14th

Wednesday January 17th

Sunday AM January 21st

Sunday PM January 21st

Wednesday January 24th

Sunday AM January 28th

Sunday PM January 28th

Wednesday January 31st

If you could contact us with a couple of dates we will make sure we come and visit and report to all of you. Thank you all for your continued support.