The Ways of God

 After meeting with George and Sayuni in Africafe yesterday, we were walking back to the hotel when we ran into some of their friends. They introduced me to Joseph and his wife (whose name I didn't get) who is a pastor and on staff with World Vision Tanzania in charge of "Faith and Development" for the whole country. As we talked, I asked him if he knew Daniel, the World Vision Staff person from Tanzania who sponsored the first pilot Marriage Workshop in 2015. Daniel moved to work at World Vision Kenya in Nairobi and I haven't seen him since about 2017. I discovered that not only does he know him, they are good friends and Daniel is in charge of "Faith and Development" for all of East Africa. Joseph told me that Daniel had just spent time in Arusha but had just left the day before. He called him on the spot and gave the phone to me and I was able to say "hi" and have a brief conversation with him. Sayuni then talked with him (in Swahili of course) and after we had said our good-byes to Joseph and his wife she told me that Daniel really wants us to come to Nairobi to do a pastors and wives marriage workshop--he is willing to set everything up. From what Sayuni reported, he sounded highly motivated for this to happen. It also turns out that Joseph is passionate about supporting marriages and in fact held a marriage workshop with some pastors from Florida in August, and was very interested to learn about what George, Sayuni, and I are doing. He lives in Dar es Salaam and wants us to come to Dar to offer some marriage workshops there. 

What is so amazing about this is that we have been trying to get some traction and support for our work here but so far it has been just us doing this ministry. World Vision Tanzania sponsored the first pilot workshop as I mentioned, but World Vision's funding decreased the next year and they decided not to support financially the workshops. But in a chance encounter--George and Sayuni didn't know they were in Arusha and hadn't seem them for a while--it suddently looks as though a door is opening for us to expand these workshops. The three of us were pretty excited about this! I would appreciate your prayers that God would guide us in these potentially new opportunities.

These are two pictures from the pilot marriage workshop we gave in Arusha in 2015. This is where I met George who worked for World Vision Tanzania at the time and was my translator.