Much has been accomplished this past summer. There is not enough room in this note to share it all, but over the coming weeks and months we’ll do our best to disseminate the stories and unpackage the footage for the intended purpose of giving due reverence to our LORD, letting our light shine to inspire others to good work and to further the mission. Much has been done, and much remains to do.
Briefly, we built a house for a pastor and his family – EastARM hosted its second visiting mission team in opening its second Rufiji village of favour – we were given the invitation to serve in the village government primary school with strict instructions not to mention the name of Jesus. We honoured the instruction and served over 400 children in the pastor’s village, as a result the village officials approved a request of ours to show the Jesus Film one evening.
An outdoor screen was setup and as the sun set the whole of the village was invited under the stars to the film, words broadcast from the Gospel of Luke dubbed over in Kiswahili. An unprecedented event in the deep history of this area. In total we showed the film three times; in a secondary school on the edge of the Rufiji, in the pastor’s village, and while testing the equipment in our original village a group of children gathered, so we hosted an impromptu third showing.
The beginnings of a Children’s Sunday School ministry were sowed in the pastor’s village. In the near future the EastARM plan is to build a permanent house for this ministry, next to the church building, which was also fixed and restored with the construction of the pastor’s home.
The Rufiji Lighthouse was opened for a week of English classes in our original village at our base of operations. In the mornings Maasai warriors, coming off their night-guarding shifts from the neighbouring bush safari camps attended our beginner classes. The afternoons saw The Rufiji Lighthouse packed with young children fresh from their regular classes at the government school to attend an intermediate English class. The evenings were reserved for our advanced class mostly populated by young adults from the village. It is EastARM’s plan to recruit a regular stream of volunteer teachers from among our North American partners so that the doors of The Rufiji Lighthouse will never close.
We hosted an event focused on mothers in the Rufiji and education in nutrition for their families. Many women, adorned in the radiant fabrics of Tanzania, arrived to our event on foot, and the rest piled out of vans we sent to collect those who responded to invitations we’d sent ahead 60kms up the Rufiji bush road. We used the event to correct bad information and local tradition that caused malnutrition in the village children and to assist in preventing starvation among the poverty-stricken families of our area. Every mother who attended with her children was fed a warm meal to fill their stomachs and sent home with a care package of groceries to their families. We thank The Pier Church of Brockville, ON, for their generous investment in making this event possible. There are plans in the work to begin a sustainable cooperative for women of the Rufiji, established first at The Rufiji Lighthouse to the village, that would provide an ongoing opportunity for income, a renewable gift to our area and to East Africa River Mission.
In every plan listed and with what has already been accomplished, much infrastructure has been laid and must be laid for this work to come to fruition. EastARM works tirelessly both in Tanzania, the destination of the work, and from Canada, our sending ground, to see these plans executed well.
Consider our plans, our work and mission, and think on where you fit into all of this.
RG Baker, director@eastarm.net
Comments(8)
Lischa MacCallum says:
September 14, 2018 at 2:36 pmWhat an exciting time! Its so lovely to see how God is at work through this mission, and now spreading further in the Rufiji! SO many mothers gathered for the nutrition event, how wonderful! Praying for you guys!
East Africa River Mission says:
September 14, 2018 at 4:57 pmWe’re praying for you too Lischa. Have a great trip back, may God go before you!
Judi Peet says:
September 13, 2018 at 11:28 pmThanks so much for posting this video to give us a glimpse of such a special celebration and demonstration of the unity of Christ’s body, reaching out to one another from such diverse places to bless one another all thanks to Christ for what he is doing in lives to make us more of what we should be.
East Africa River Mission says:
September 14, 2018 at 4:55 pmOur pleasure Judi. See you this weekend in Chatham.
Harry Toews says:
September 13, 2018 at 6:12 pmIt’s so exciting to see and hear what God is doing in Tanzania through you! We are looking forward to many more wonderful stories yet to be told!
East Africa River Mission says:
September 14, 2018 at 4:53 pmPastor Harry, I’m looking forward to telling some more of them the 23rd evening in Madoc. Graydon
Sarah St. Pierre says:
September 13, 2018 at 2:20 pmThanks so much for sharing Graydon. I loved watching the video of the presentation of bikes to those boys! Such a beautiful story!
East Africa River Mission says:
September 13, 2018 at 2:40 pmSarah you are most welcome! Thank you for being a part of this story and following this mission with your family so closely as you have for so long. This is our story, it’s God’s story, and He continues to write it as we move forward by faith. It’s exciting when sight catches up with faith.