“Habari yako” and “mambo vipi” (greetings in Swahili) from rural western Tanzania. This has been quite an eventful trip, with ups and downs, which it seems is rather common when traveling around the world.

After leaving a week ago from Seattle, I flew for the next 30 hours to reach Dar es Salaam. I arrived at midnight, was met by my good friend pastor Greyson, and went to a guesthouse for a few hours.

Then at 4am (by this time, I’ve had a whopping 2.5 hours sleep for last three days) he met me and we traveled across town to Ubungo bus terminal, a crazy place at any time of the day, but in the blurry 5am pre-dawn chaos it was out there.

We were able to find the bus I needed out of the hundreds honking and waiting for passengers, and I embarked on the 7.5 hour ride to Tanga, NE Tanzania. Speed bumps every half mile (or less), swerving to pass cars, trucks and other buses, being inundated with vendors wandering up and down the aisleways, etc. all were part of the experience. When I finally reached Tanga, I couldn’t get a hold of the pastor I was trying to meet, so didn’t know which stop I should get off at, and so I just rode the bus till the end. When I got off the bus, taxi drivers, bejaji drivers and porters were pulling my backpack off my back to get me to come to their vehicle while others grabbed my arm or yelled in my face. That didn’t go over so well. Finally I reached my contact by phone, and he told me I should have exited the bus an hour earlier, so I jumped on another bus and headed back to Muheza.

Thankfully, Pastor James was there to meet me, and we dropped off my bag at his place. Then he told me we needed to meet a few bishops. Six hours later, having met in the homes of five separate bishops and denominational leaders, being loaded with many cups of chai, we finally got back to James’ house where I’d be spending the next couple nights. The fact that there was no running water and the ground was dirt didn’t bother me at all cause there was a bed and that’s all I cared about.

The next day, I trained a group of about 50 pastors all day, and was thoroughly encouraged by their excitement for launching a Pathways network.

But the highlight was on Sunday when I preached in Pastor James’ church. I learned later that there had been a crusade a week before, so many people came to visit the church that had not previously attended. I preached a Gospel message from Mark 2, and when I invited any who had never placed their faith in Christ before but who wanted forgiveness of sins and to trust in Christ instead of their own works for salvation, over 25 people came to the front of the sanctuary! Praise God… Bwana Yesu asifiwe!

I prayed with them, and after the service prayed for several others, and was struck with how insignificant any discomforts I might have experienced were in the light of the overwhelming victory Christ won in the lives of those new believers.

I’m now on the other side of Tanzania, training a group of pastors in Mbeya, and rejoicing in the opportunity to open God’s Word with dear brothers and sisters and equip them in how to study, understand and teach the Bible. Pressing on, Eric