Dear friends, Praise the Lord with me as we celebrate God’s moving in people’s lives!! Let me tell you a story. This week, I went out each day to do a training of pastors and church leaders in Kigomboni, a community that is only an hour from Dar, but due to bad traffic it oftentimes takes 2-3 hours. The second day, I taught on God’s character, how He has all power, and next to Him, Satan is nothing. Apparently that made me a target, because after that, over the next several hours, a number of things happened to truly discourage and “attack” me, including a minor car accident and feeling like I was not connecting well with the people. By the end of the day, I was exhausted and discouraged, feeling like I was wasting my time.

Late that evening I got this text message from Pastor Adam, the pastor of the church I’d been working with: “So sorry for you, Eric. The devil uses discouragement, stress and hopelessness as tools against us. When you teach people, the devil will not be happy. Don’t lose hope. We are conquerers!” Through that message, my eyes turned off myself and onto Christ, and I was filled with hope. The next day I returned and continued the teaching, feeling refreshed and like I was connecting much better. At the end of our time I the pastors and members to place their faith in Christ and not in their own works for their salvation. Out of the class of 20, 11 men and women came forward and prayed to receive Christ!! Praise our great God!! Pastor Adam assured me that he would be following up with each of these, and I also plan to return every few months to continue with the trainings.

These are the people who placed faith in Christ. Please pray for them.

As I celebrated with the group, I was reminded that we must not give up in the battle against the enemy. Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Pressing on by God’s grace, Eric