Aug 2023 Update from Abel and Sarah

Good afternoon. We trust you are doing well. We praise God for His lovingkindness and thank Him we get to serve Him. It's a privilege to be able to serve the King of King and Lord of lords.  

Like we wrote about in our last update, God is building His kingdom here in Tanzania (and all over the world). He is moving in the hearts of people. People are understanding who God is and their need to be reconciled to Him through Jesus Christ. They are understanding that it's by grace through faith that we are saved, not because of our good works, so that no one can boast. (Eph 2: 8-9) Be encouraged and praise God that through all that is happening, God is building His Church, people's eyes are being opened to the truth. Keep praying for laborers because the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. (Matt 9: 37-38)

Abel was apart of a week long missions training here. It was held to help us as a team to continue training and becoming more equipped in the work that we do. Since we were already going to have the training, we invited others to come and join it as well. There were probably around 10 people (held in Swahili). They had nine tests and had to read over 140 pages in the class book on top of the nine hours of class every day. It was really challenging for him. 

The following week he went with our teammates to a Bible Translation Summit. The meetings went really well. There were leaders from different churches in attendance; Bishops, General Secretaries from several different denominations, as well as leaders from most of the Bible translation Societies and companies working in Tanzania and throughout East Africa. There is a lot of history with the translation groups...some have stepped on each other's toes, accidentally entering into tribes where Bible translation work has already begun, and unfortunately some that have not been on accident. Abel was very encouraged to hear the testimony of a General Secretary of a certain denomination, who is also working in translation, who had handed off a translation project after realizing that someone else was already working on it. We are hopeful of more cooperation like this in this work moving forward. A committee was elected who will go through all of the Bible translation works that are current and historical before calling in the groups that are doubling their efforts in certain tribes. Hopefully in these meetings an agreement can be made, and they can be more streamlined in their efforts to see every people group in Tanzania have access to scripture in their language before 2033! 

The day after the summit ended, Abel went with our teammates to kick off another class of Milele Hata Milele (The chronological Bible teaching that goes through the whole of scripture). This one was unique because they taught two different groups at the same time in different buildings. In one building was the regular class, where the attendees were made up of a mixture of denominations. Their pastors, who brought them to the class and who had all already gone through this class, were in the other building asking questions about the teaching, and hearing what our expectations of them are as future teachers of the curriculum. It went really well, and Abel and our teammates arrived home very late and tired, but safe. 

We enjoyed having some guests come and visit us at the end of May/early June. We were so blessed and encouraged by their visit. Heidi and Pacey are babysitting/teaching english to three kids from Poland two days a week. We have been able to help a couple of families move. Andrew and Heidi are enjoying being able to workout at a friends house several days a week. Pacey is working at getting better at ukulele and Andrew and Heidi are working on piano. They all have been working on cooking, baking, cleaning, folding clothes, washing dishes...you get the point. :) God has provided things/work for our kids to be involved with and that is an answer to prayer. We want them to have a "summer" break, but at the same time, we've wanted them to be able to work and use their bodies and minds for good and with purpose. 

We are so thankful for your prayers. Please continue to pray for us. We praise God that He is faithful to work in us. Please let us know if you want more specific ways to pray for us personally. And please share your prayer requests with us.