June 2022

Kliemtpost June 2022

Dear friends, family and prayers!


Six months have passed and a lot has happened. Overall we are doing really well and feeling protected and blessed. After a lot of changes in recent years, it is like balm for the soul to be able to live in a house for 1 ½ years at a time. Some ask us when we will come to Germany again. We are not planning a stay in Germany before the end of 2023, as it is helpful for relationships around us as well as for school and work to stay longer at a time.

"I will not let you down, I will never turn away from you!"

(God; Joshua 1:5)

The American family, who are close friends of ours, decided at the end of last year to stay here for another two years. We had always done a lot with them and the children were close friends. Relief was followed by shock in mid-February when they sadly informed us that they would be leaving the country for good in March to prepare their oldest daughter for college. With heavy hearts we said goodbye to each other and are now the last SIL family here. Despite the sadness, God encouraged us with new thoughts of hope and Bible verses. During this time, two prophetically gifted Christians visited Mbeya shortly after each other. We did not know each other before. They told us things about our lives that they could not know and gave us much courage not to give up, but to keep going and keep going. It was very impressive how God touched and strengthened our hearts through these people and His Spirit. God heard our prayers and we can say with certainty that HE will not abandon us. On the contrary, after the friends left, we had even more visitors and contacts than before.

Rebekka with her friend Sophia, not here anymore.

Happy with our church community here

We are happy with our church and feel at home there. I preach there from time to time and we also do the children's program sometimes. Unfortunately, we can't be there as regularly as we would like because the church is not around the corner and I am sometimes on the road on the weekends. Since the American family left the country and our SIL colleague Katherine was in her home country, our cell group has also taken a break. Something is missing here and we are putting out feelers and praying for new beginnings, new house group members and friendships. 


Our thirteen-year-old Samuel has discovered new hobbies for himself. He enjoys making electronic music; He recently introduced us to his remix of a Bavarian yodeling song, or he underscores the flat-rhythmic instructions of a gymnastics teacher with music. He enjoys basketball training at the nearby Catholic youth center. Rebekka, now 10 years old, maintains her friendships in Germany, the USA and also here in the country. She and Elia, 6 years old, bought two rabbits and two guinea pigs, saving them from the frying pan. They now provide them with mountains of food every day. It's so cute how the two of them sing songs, play games and are very active at school together.


Things are going well in the home school. Rukia, our domestic help, now always comes in the morning with her sweet, soon to be one-year-old daughter...Action!!! Damaris successfully keeps everything together. Sophie, our learning assistant, returned to Germany at the end of May. Other learning helpers want to support us this year. Thank you for praying and promoting it. We had a three week break from school in June. We have completely renovated and swapped the children's rooms, laid tiles in the children's rooms, kitchen and hallway and soon new kitchen furniture will be installed. That was necessary, we had mold in the small kitchen and needed more cupboards.

Baptism

Rebekah was baptized in March with the children of our American friends in Lake Malawi. We had done a baptism course with the children as preparation and we are happy about this gift of faith that is growing in the hearts of our children.

Wonderful awakenings among the Sangu

The Sangu's 12-Village-Josef-Musical-Tour is now in the hot preparation phase. In January we were able to  the texts for the Josef play

Completely check the correctness of content and language. After all, we have processed the entire second half of Genesis plus the additional connecting theater scenes. This was a lot more text work than I originally thought. Andy, a translation consultant from Wycliff Switzerland, even helped us with this. We recorded all the text in the studio as an audio version and finished editing practice videos of all scenes. At the end of January we got all the actors together for two days and practiced with them how to use the theater script in conjunction with the audio version of the script and the memorization videos.

The play is framed by a storyteller who tells the story of Joseph in front of children, while the adult actors and musicians implement the actual story. The children ask questions about understanding and application of the story. So we talked intensively about the application in the life and culture of the Sangu and tried to really touch people's lives with the children's questions and the storyteller's explanations. That took several weeks.

Watch and read more videos? Click here!

"The earth belongs to the LORD and what fills it, the world and its inhabitants." (Psalm 24:1)

5000 euros for a Sangu village

Despite the crises and higher prices, we want to write openly about money. We would very much like to reach the 12 villages with the Joseph performance in combination with Bible sales, family calendars and invitations to small Bible listening groups. We are still missing more than 30,000 euros. Many small amounts and special donations help to achieve the goal.

Songs for Freedom
An addiction recovery program 
for the Ndali people

The initial situation

The Ndali live in a very mountainous region in southwestern Tanzania. It takes about four hours by car from Mbeya to the south almost as far as Malawi on many winding dirt roads to get to the center of their region. Their area has frequent rains and relatively large amounts of water, it is always green on the steep hills where corn, sweet potatoes, pineapples, bananas and beans grow. In between the beautiful red earth, from which the red mud brick houses are built, in which the Ndali live with their families. Many people identify with Christianity, which reached Ndali territory about 120 years ago. People go to the churches, from which loud music echoes through the valleys. In addition to Lutheran and Pentecostal communities, there are many churches founded by the Moravian Mission.
After our research and conversations with the Ndali people in 2021, we realized that not everything is as green as it looks, especially in families. The Ndali are quite poor. Despite the fertile soil, they can hardly sell their goods to get money to pay for their children's schooling. Poverty leads to frustration, frustration to drinking, drinking to family problems, family problems to drinking.
The Christian faith seems to have been grafted on, there is a religious approach, rules are preached, but there seems to be a lot of work to do for a deep understanding of the biblical content that would transform Ndali culture from within.
Read more and see a video of a song workshop

Thanks and requests for prayer

- Thanks for strength and health, success in the home school and the ministries


- Please that we get help for a youth group-like group of children, so that our children also get spiritual input from other adults. That our children can deepen their friendships and that Elia in particular finds good friends his age.


- For the Sangu people:


o That God is actively supporting the 28 small groups in 17 villages that started in May and June, that the leaders enjoy the ministry and wisdom, that God's peace governs the groups and that people come to faith and grow in faith.

or 8th-15th July: Musician's camp for the Sangu Josef project; Most participants are not affiliated with churches or congregations. Pray that they will discover God's good ideas for their lives and that the Spirit of God will touch them.

or 15.-21. August: Last free time for the actors to fine-tune the play. Pray that they will diligently listen/read and study their texts until then.

o Pray that we can find a bus company to transport the 70 artists involved in the tour from A to B.

o Thank you that we have been able to implement everything for the Josef project so far. Ask the Lord, who owns everything, that the donations come together for the big expenses from July to October.


Thank you from the bottom of your heart for your interest, your cooperation in prayer, everything you give and for what you give up so that people can experience the love and blessings of God. We pray for you and you that God will also richly bless you and give you joy, trust, love, knowledge of God and everything you need to live.


Yours, Daniel and Damaris, Samuel, Rebekah and Elijah





We look forward to hearing from you too :-)
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