Sunday: The Love Church

Sunday morning began really early at 5 AM leaving Mtemba Beach for Mbeya in order to make it in time to speak and preach at Upendo Baptist Church.

The first picture is the lights of the fisherman on the lake. They go out at night fishing and the lights reflect on the late. This was a beautiful sight as we woke and began our journey.

Along the way, we bought mangoes, avocados, and bananas. Here is Neema loading bananas on the Nissan. Along with our purchases, we visited Mpeli's cousin. We ended our journey with a hot bowl of beef soup and chapati at a local "restaurant".

Sunday morning we worshipped at the Upendo Baptist Church, Mbeya. Mpeli and Neema planted the church sponsored by his father's church, Calvary Baptist Church. The pastor has a great name, John Bunyan. He was given this name before he ever was called to be a pastor. Pastor John is a great evangelistic and preacher with an outreach ministry that works in the Congo (not the safe part either).

Bonnie taught church Sunday School using the song of Mary in Luke 1. After teaching, she answered questions from the congregation. This was a great time.

Floyd preached during the morning service. What was interesting was an offering was taken up to help the church women attend a women's conference in Dar Es Salaam. The initial offering was short of what was needed. The pastor said, "we need 50,000 TSH (Tanzanian Shillings)more. We don't want our ladies going without water. Mbeya to Dar Es Salaam is at least a 12 hour bus ride.

After the morning worship we had a common meal with the pastor, first time visitors, and other guests.

In the afternoon, we had a great meal with the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church and his family. He is a bivocational pastor doing business as a butcher. His wife is great cook and tremendous care giver.