Another Update

Approximately 240 Came To Know The Lord ( 2007-07-25)

Because of the previous day’s hike, the team was allowed to sleep in until 7am Monday morning. Just the little bit of extra time helped everyone feel refreshed. Tarakea, however, is much higher than Rombo, and therefore much colder as well. We had library time before breakfast, and then the team had an hour of free time to do some laundry/ bathing. During bath/laundry time we hear questions like, “So I get my bucket, then the water, and then my clothes to wash them?” Similar questions come about how to bathe. But the team still manages to stay clean. Since it’s cold and the roads are so dusty, bathing is mandatory. If a team member doesn’t bathe, they don’t go on the EV trips, and all of them want to go. Around 11:30 we left to go on another EV trip. We visited two schools in Tarakea. Our presentation included songs such as Shout to the Lord, Every Move I Make, All in All, and a team favorite, Yesu Ne Wangu. Elizabeth and Sean shared their testimonies, while Zach gave the message of the gospel. At one of the schools it was neat to see one Muslim girl raise her hand and say the prayer of salvation. In between the two schools, Peter surprised the team with a trip over the border into Kenya. We were only allowed in a few kilometers, to the village of Illiasit. Once there we walked around the streets, and the team was allowed to buy a Coke. It was a short visit, but it was fun to be able to say that we’ve all been to Kenya now. After returning to the church, we held a practice quiz-off. Katelynn was the only team member to quiz out, although Michael and Caleb came close. For evening devotions we practiced the song, You are Holy, for which the girls are still trying to memorize all the words for their part. Elizabeth led evening devotions and Hannah made a special snack, popcorn. Tuesday, we began the morning with Bible marking, the topic being the Word of God. Hannah prepared cinnamon toast and fruit bread for breakfast. After breakfast the team again had some free time, and some tried to finish their verse reviews. Around noon we left again for an EV trip. Again, we visited two schools in the community. Our program was similar to the day before, but this time Rachael and Chris shared their testimonies and Greg presented the Gospel. For both days in Tarakea, we estimate that about 240 students accepted Christ as their Savior. It’s really been a blessing to see so many come to know the Lord. Pray for the team members though that they keep their focus on telling others about Christ, as opposed to just taking pictures (they love to take pictures) and exchanging addresses. Chris has been our lead guitarist for all our presentations, which he really enjoys. For the song Yesu Ne Wangu there is a chorus where he uses his guitar more as a drum, unfortunately he hit it too hard during one of the presentations and cracked the body. Needless to say, he was pretty upset but thankfully we have three other guitars that other team members have allowed him to use to practice on. We had planned to travel back to Moshi, but because of time we were delayed until Wednesday morning. Unfortunately though, during the EV trip Hannah packed up the entire kitchen in preparation to leave. While waiting for purified water and dinner, the team had library time. Then we had another quiz off. The teams were the five shortest versus the five tallest- the shortest won that round. Then the teams were count off numbers one and eleven versus two and twelve versus three and thirteen and so on. Amanda Taylor and Cady (six and sixteen) won the second round. We awoke early the next morning to get ready for the drive back to Moshi. We had most of the kitchen supplies on the truck before the team even woke up. Then they took down their tents, packed their backpacks and loaded everything onto the truck. Because it was so early in the morning, and we were up in the mountains, it was very cold- especially for the team sitting on the back of the truck in the wind. When we arrived in Moshi, we stopped at a grocery and bought the team some doughnuts, bananas, and nutella for breakfast. They ate on the back of the truck. Thank you for your prayers!