Survey: v, 3 : to view or consider comprehensively.
In Swahili, ‘tuaua’ means, “we survey.”
February 21, 2011
Greetings from a somewhat damp Seattle, but where the crocuses are coming up (as Stephanie likes to remind me). We have just returned from a week’s team leader training in Kansas City, Missouri. It was a great training session that resembled drinking from a fire hose- as some of the leaders would say. I wanted to send out an update on where we are at with the Traveler people church work process.
I have been working over the past couple of months on a number of things. One of them is a survey trip to the western region of Tanzania with a group of church leadership from Highlands Community Church (HCC). March 15 through March 24 I will be leading a group of six people: Jim- our senior pastor, Derek- our student ministry pastor, Scott- our teaching pastor for the satellite campus, John- our Africa Region Director and Mark- Avant’s Church Planting Director to this region with several things in mind.
We hope to primarily accomplish four things on this trip and they are as follows: First, this will largely be a relationship building trip where three possibly four different organizations will be coming together for the purpose of taking the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to the Traveler people in the western Region. It is our desire to build the framework and establish a network of partners that we can work with in country to accomplish this church plant.
Secondly, we want to go into the villages to meet the Traveler people as well as see what some of their needs are. During this time we are hoping to prayer walk around some of the villages as well as be seeking our heavenly Father for specific locations or villages to work with that will be strategic in church work.
Thirdly, as part of Highlands’ year end giving, we raised money for a “Living Water Well.” These will be a gift for the community from HCC (our team) that will follow at a later date. The church had established a faith goal for drilling a well, but the Lord miraculously more than doubled what we were hoping to raise. As a result, we will now drill two wells instead of one!
Fourthly, we will be meeting with Lance W. of Living Water International who spends six months a year drilling water wells in Tanzania. He will be our contracted well driller. We will be meeting with him at the end of our stay in
Arusha before coming back to the States to strategize about a time and place for drilling the two wells.
As a bonus, we also plan on touring the language school that the team will be using to acquire Kiswahili once the team is located in Arusha. Following this the team plans to return to the States, minus Mark and myself as we will stay for three more days to work on legal matters and continue working out details with leadership from the other organizations. This is the work of the Lord and we cannot go forward without His help- please join us in prayer both prior to this trip and during this trip. I have included a prayer request list to give you specific prayer requests as well as praying as the Lord leads.
In a closing note I would like to ask you to partner with me financially as well. The church is covering a portion of the teams’ transport and each team member has been asked to raise a portion of the team leaders’ travel funds as it is specified in Highlands’ short term mission guidelines. As team leader all of my funds have been covered with the exception of $500.00. I am placing this before the Lord and before each of you, simply asking you to pray and seek the Lord about your involvement outside of prayer. If you would like to make a donation, please include a separate note with my name (not on a check line) and send to: Highlands Community Church, 3031 NE 10th St, Renton, WA 98056.
Thank you and many blessings to you.
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