Researching

“For You have been my help, and in the shadow of Your wings I will sing for joy.  My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.”  Ps. 63:7-8

Today as I read these verses I thought – Kwele! (indeed) God is our help – He has been, He is, and He will be.  We sing for joy as we rest and are protected in the shadow of His wings, and with His right hand up He upholds us and gives us strength.

This week finds us researching people groups in the far southwest area of Tanzania.

Pray that God would give us strength – we are finding our aging bodies and these rough roads are opposed to one another!  Pray for endurance and the willingness to get in the car for one more day and one more day.





Pray for God’s direction and leadership to ask good questions to the right people, the people He has ordained to speak to us.  We are firm believers that God puts people in our path to help us obtain correct information.

Pray for protection for us, for our vehicle – yesterday found us off to the side of the road pumping air in our tires with a hand pump.  Praise the Lord they were just low from the bad roads and praise the Lord we noticed it before they were too low.

God is good – we don’t take His watch care over our lives for granted and we covet your prayers on our behalf.

Going Segeju

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.  To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.”  Revelation 21:6

The final group we will visit on our logistical pre-vision trip is the Segeju.  If you remember from our previous post about them, this people group is almost totally Muslim.  There are no churches in Segeju villages – what an opportunity for an engaging church to bring the Good News to those who have never heard.

Making a point of visiting different villages from our previous trip, we turn off the main road down sandy pathways toward the ocean because Segeju fishing villages are situated along the coast.

Welcoming us heartily, as we walk through Segeju villages, we gather a crowd everywhere we go.

People are very hospitable.

They are happy that we are interested in their lives, where they live, what they do and they are eager to help us learn Swahili as well.  Being a life-long learner helps us in many ways!

Good water is a problem for Coastal Segeju. We heard that in our previous visit and we continue to hear it from folks today.

Mundaro village has three wells.  Two dry up when the rains stop and the water table drops. The third, while it seemingly never runs dry, has a vast opening and it appears everything imaginable blows into it.  Showing our concern for the situation, we agree to taste the water in each of the wells.

While this is a bit risky -- (we filter water before drinking it) usually water from a borehole type well is fairly safe.

Our willingness to drink the water that they must drink is a very important exercise.

It will be the first block of relationship building when engagement happens.

Pray for those who will carry the gospel story to the coastal Segeju. Biblical illustrations abound bridging the gap between Segeju lives and the gift of salvation through Christ. Pray that God’s messengers will be prepared with appropriate stories from the Bible to share with them.

Pray for God to send dreams and visions to the Segeju preparing the soil of their hearts for the seeds of the truth in God’s Word.

Pray that these Segeju fishermen will become fishers of men!

Kutu revisited

Continuing to sort out details of the vision trip for churches from the U.S., once again we find ourselves in the area where the Kutu people live.  This time our plan is to spend the night in a Kutu village enabling us to check out the local guesthouse.

Finding this small guesthouse way out in the middle of a Kutu village is a surprise.

While it is not the Ritz – actually, very far from it – it could enable an engaging church to stay among the Kutu people, eliminating four hours of travel per day.







In the evening, after the day’s work is finished, people come together for fellowship and some times entertainment;  staying in the village affords a wonderful opportunity to share the Jesus film or have discussions around a fire with a cup of chai (tea).

After we “check in” – which consists of Obama, (the young man pictured above) opening the room door and handing us the key – we set out to walk around the little village.




People are welcoming and friendly. We visited this village on a previous trip and as we meander down the dusty village paths we meet up with those who remember us from our previous visit and we are introduced to new folks.

With darkness approaching, we decide to check out the local eating establishment. Chips mayai is the menu. Chips mayai (mah-ya-ee) consists of french fries reheated with a scrambled egg (that’s the mayai part) poured into it and cooked through. It is served with toothpicks for eating and tomato sauce (not really in the category of ketchup)

The cook/owner of this outdoor establishment brings out a wooden table and confiscating chairs from some young men nearby; he sets up a place for us to eat.  It appears either he doesn't have many customers at one time, or they usually stand while they eat.
After buying a bottle of water from a nearby duka (stall/store), we settle down to dinner.
Taking our time over dinner, we talk with the cook who continues frying his chips in a large pot over an open fire. (I wonder how many times he has burned himself.)

We ask if he would cook breakfast were we to come with other visitors.  Although he usually opens around 3:00 p.m. and only cooks chips mayai, he tells us he could if we made arrangements with him.

This is a good plan, economically helping a small community by sleeping and eating in the location is an added bonus for the people of the village.

Pray for the vision trip to the Kutu.  An engaging church, open to spending a few days in the African bush, living very simply, sharing the gospel story and discipling new believers would make a great impact in Kutu villages like this.  It will be a sacrifice, but the rewards would be innumerable.

Up the mountain -- the Vidunda of Tanzania

Visiting the Vidunda today will be a challenge – but we are up for it!  Last year we talked with people from the Vidunda people group at the market, but were not able to go up the mountain to the village – well, today is the day.

Trying to fill a trench with rock so the car can progress further up the mountain, we quickly realize we need to continue on foot.

While inconvenient, this experience  helps us understand the hardship the Vidunda face every day as they travel up and down the mountain to buy and sell goods or to reach the main road for any reason.

Reaching the first of three villages after a 1 ½ hour climb, we step into a lush, tranquil oasis.  These people are truly isolated and probably would not hear much news from other parts of Tanzania were it not for the foot traffic and the motorcycles which trek up and down the mountain.

Standing over the village as a sentinel is the Catholic cathedral, the first visible structure upon entering Vidunda village.

We spend most of the day walking around the village talking with people.

Unfortunately, we won’t make it to Chonwe, the second village, another 7 kilometers beyond Vidunda village.





We've had a good day, it is getting dark as we reach the bottom of the mountain and climb into the car.
Now we better comprehend the difficulties the Vidunda people face and we grasp the challenge it will be to engage them.

Pray for the softening of Vidunda hearts toward the grace and mercy of God through Christ.

Pray for obedient messengers to follow God’s call to reach the Vidunda with the truth of salvation given freely to all who believe.

Pray for cooperation in the Kingdom to reach Vidunda hearts.