Another Jaron Update

Wednesday, July 18, we traveled from Moshi. It was almost an hour and a half drive up the mountain to Rombo. We left late in the afternoon, so it was dark by the time we arrived at Tanzania Assemblies of God: Rombo. The drive up however was not uneventful. At one point the truck blew a flat tire. But because there were two tires we still managed to make it to our destination safely. I was proud of the team because when it happened, their first reaction was to pray, even though no leader told them to do so. The place where we were staying in Rombo was a church, but consisted only of a roof, under which we set up the tents. The storage building for the church was where Hannah set up the kitchen, as well as her sleeping area. (The stove barely survived the trip.) After the tents were set up we had quick devotions, led by Sean, and we all settled in for the night. The next morning many of us were surprised at how cold it was on the mountain (and many of us were unprepared for the cold weather). We planned to go to four schools the first day, but were only able to make it to two, Shauritanga and Mashati. It was around 2km there and back- the entire team walked, carrying both the puppet trunk and two guitars. Friday we visited the Kilamacho (a distance of 4km there) and Kisale (a distance of 2km there). During those two days we saw close to 300 students raise their hands to accept Jesus as their Savior. For the presentations at each school we sang songs such as Every Move I Make, Your Love is Amazing, Shout to the Lord, Every Little Cell (In My Body Is Happy), God of Wonders, All in All, Yesu Ne Wangu and Ne We We Tu Bwana, among others. Also, we began each presentation with having the students sing the national anthem of Tanzania, to make them a part of what we were doing. Another part of the presentation is the puppet show, which all the kids love. Jaron, Katelyn and Michael do the puppets, while Amanda Konzal, Amanda Taylor, Zach, Jesse and Cady take turns dancing. The team continues to practice songs in the evenings to build the list of songs they can sing during presentations. Amanda Taylor, Caleb, Zach and Sydney all shared their testimonies at the schools. Caleb also gave the message of the Gospel one day. Caleb led Thursday’s evening devotions, and Zach led Friday’s. Saturday, we planned to do an outreach in the community, since it was market day. The team did their own presentation order and it went well. There were close to 50 people that raised their hands at the end of Peter’s message. After the presentation we were invited to a national dinner at the Pastor’s house. While still at the Pastor’s house, Richard led evening devotions. Sunday morning we cleaned up our tent site so the church service could be held under the shelter. Hannah did a Bible study for the first session, and the team did their presentation for the second session. Greg also shared his testimony, and Peter gave the sermon. After the service and thanking every one of the church members for their hospitality, we prepared for our hike to the next place- Tarakea. It was a 21km hike, and the Pastor didn’t think the team could do it. Because of that, we (Aimee and the team; Peter and Hannah had gone ahead with the truck and all the kitchen supplies) left ahead of the guides, ready to get going, and met up with them further down the road. Once we got started the team was energized and excited that they finally got to do some backpacking. Also, because it was Sunday, many did their verse review to keep their minds occupied during the long trek. We hiked 11.5km before Peter and the Pastor met us with the truck at dusk. The team wanted to finish, so they reluctantly got on the truck. We drove to the Tarakea Assemblies of God Church where we set up camp and had dinner before gathering for prayer as we headed to bed for the night, since the hike was exhausting.