Great Day of Praising God

The sun was bright, a cool breeze came through the mountains, the pineapple juice was fresh, and the coffee was local ground coffee. This morning the Mwaisumbe family began a new era in coffee at their house. All I have to say is, “Starbucks has nothing on the Mwaisumbe family.” A departing missionary had sold them an automatic drip coffee maker. My task was an easy one—demonstrate its use. However, grinding the beans was a new experience for me to observe—I stress observe. I have to say my appreciation for my morning coffee was much greater.


We saw the children off to their worship time. Now that they have the bus, they visit local churches for worship. They loaded the bus in their official church going shirts and took off. Happy and excited to go to worship is an understatement. A growing number of the churches of the Iringa area are very supportive of the children’s home. The children love to go and worship. They usually get to sing and share with the church.


Mpeli, Neema, Berta, Maka, Sam, Onesmo, Elias, and myself left for my home church in the Iringa area, Kidetete Baptist Church. The worship service was especially meaningful for me. The church is growing and now has a choir and a children’s choir (led by one of the young people). Kidetete worship has a lot of singing and praying. One part of the worship was a time of thanksgiving to God for his goodness (no this is not an annual event but an every week time of sharing). My message was on Jesus Changing Lives. We had a special time of prayer for one older gentleman who had some problems with his thinking. The great celebration was that two young women made decision to follow Jesus Christ. One was the teacher of the Kidetete nursery school and for this we praise the Lord. Berta made a commitment to follow Jesus with all of her life. She is the daughter of Mpeli and Neema. Everyone in the Mwaisumbe family was celebrating. As a note, she is awaiting education test results to see if she can enter high school. Please pray for her in this. After worship the Kidetete church leaves singing. A line is formed outside the church and everyone leaving goes through the line greeting each person. This is one of the most beautiful and meaningful expressions of fellowship—I really like this.

Afterward worship we laughed and talked. Then, we celebrated with a chicken dinner at a local restaurant. Mpeli and Neema had guest from the Human Rights Commission for Children. They are an official government agency. They asked a lot of technical questions of Mpeli and Neema. After a period of time, the stopped asking questions those questions and began asking a different kind of question. They were embarrassed not to have something to give to the children. It seems they had never seen a children’s home like this one in Tanzania. They ended up singing and dancing with the children. The group was very positive about the children’s home. They came expecting to find problems and left with praise.

Mpeli, Neema, Pawdre Scout and I spent the rest of the afternoon talking about their vision for the future, the priorities for the children’s home, and the next way to impact the lives of children in Jesus’ name. A part of that discussion was the development of a secondary school which is desparately needed in the area.

The evening concluded by worshipping with the children. Even though the day had been long, they sang with joy and their prayers are always a blessing. This was truly a great day of praise and worship of the Lord.