Living Well in Tanzania

The power of one conference to change lives is shown through the testimonies of pastors who attended our conference in June, 20009, in Bagamayo, Tanzania.

Included are stories of how one pastor taught the material at his church and was called to teach at other churches, one pastor counseled many others and saw three couples reconcile after being separated for as much as 10 years, and how one pastors is teaching on oneness - addressing culture issues that divide the couples.

Because of the people who support our ministry, we are able to continue to go to east Africa and train many churches.

Pastor Fabian, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

The best part of our trips to Africa are the relationships we build. Last year, Pastor Fabian and his wife attended our conference in Bagamoyo and then our workshop in Dar es Salaam. Then, we were fortunate enough to meet at their church with them and some of their church members.

At that time, Pastor Fabian was already planning a marriage conference after receiving our training. He is a very sharp guy and very creative.

After his conference, he was asked by other churches to teach there. A bishop asked him to meet with his son and his fiance to counsel them before marriage. The bishop expressed that he wish he could have the same teaching, even after years of marriage.

Pastor Fabian's wife testified, “I thank God so much for the last seminar in Bagamoyo. I thought that these teachings have come specifically for me and my husband, to fulfill our passion and desire for marriage ministry!

Traditionally pastors and their wives do not teach or minister together, but separately. But now we have crossed that barrier very freely. We are ministering together and are getting good feedback from people saying that we are ministering together well.”
 
At our follow-up session this year, Pastor Fabian came with his wife and brought a special gift which he made for us.

He made this himself, a man who doesn't even have electricity. He cut the letters from leaves and varnished them to the wood.

In Nairobi

We are now in Nairobi.

Our follow up meeting in Dar es Salaam went well. We had several people from Bagamoyo and Dar es Salaam there (people who had been to our conference and workshops last year). We were so excited to see them again. We were very encouraged to hear their testimonies of what God has done since last year.

Our only woman pastor from last year said that she had 3 woman she had counseled on marriage (since learning from us last year) who had reconciled their marriages. One woman had now been separated 10 years from her husband and they were not united again. The other couples she had counseled had similar stories. Some pastors shared about doing sermons and seminars on marriage since last year. They had also performed some premarital counseling. Soon after they started marriage ministry, other pastors have invited them to speak to their churches about marriage. We told the that they are now "marriage missionaries."

We taught a brief session to them about the first wedding and the last wedding in the Bible, and about the marriage covenant, the old covenant, and the New Covenant - what we call a "higher view" of marriage. One pastor told me that it was the first time he realized that marriage is a picture of Christ and the church.

Rhett and Megan spoke about how marriage ministry had impacted their marriage. We told the groups that Rhett and Megan were our visual aids for marriage ministry.

We are now taking a few days of vacation before we start the long flight home on Sunday night.

Sunday worshipping in Dar es Salaam

We had quite a day today. It is about 6:00 pm here right now. We left at 9:00 this morning to go to a church where our translator is the pastor. We went by taxi and it took about an hour to get there. Last year there was nothing but a piece of land and some bamboo poles where the church is. They were meeting in a school. They now have a roof and some partial walls. This approach is quite common for churches here. Then they will pour a concrete floor when they get enough money.

It was a little windy so we felt right at home. Except there were palm trees blowing in the wind.

They had about an hour of singing after we arrived. The kids did special songs and dancing for us. Then we had time to speak.

Ed and I spoke some about why we are in Tanzania and the ministry we had in Morogoro. We also shared about our marriage and children, our Living Well ministry, and the ministry at church. Megan and Rhett shared about their background and how our marriage ministry has strengthened their marriage.

Ed preached and taught on forgiveness. This lesson is always very meaningful to the people here. One African man in ministry here told us that they are very relational people but they don't communication well. They aren't good at resolving conflict. He affirmed that teaching on marriage ministry is needed very much here.

Then the pastor spoke some more. We finished about 1:00, then we went to the pastors home, by the church and had lunch. The congregation had their lunch outside. After lunch we went back into the church and talked with the adults of the church about their marriages and our testimonies of our marriages.

They were asking for materials, which we have already given to their pastor. Their hunger to learn more about Biblical marriage is growning. They were also requesting us to return to their church for a couple of days to teach if we return to Tanzania. We always enjoy the dialogue with them. The same problems and questions are raised everywhere we go. It is encouraging to know that we have Biblical answers for them. We left there around 5:00 and got back here about 5:30 minutes ago. It was a long day but very enjoyable.

We are all maintaining our health. We rest well most of the time.

Tomorrow we have a long day in a follow-up meeting with the some of the churches we met last year. Fortunately, we will be meeting at the center here where we are staying. We are anxious to see them and hear from them.

We appreciate your continued prayers for us.

MOROGORO Tanzania 2010 Mission Trip

LIVING WELL Monthly Letter, April, 2010

Spring-like weather lured us into thinking about warm and pleasant days. But when Spring officially arrived, winter howled back to remind us of an unbelievable year. Hopefully, we have ended our relationship with the 2010 winter season.

Spring signals time to plan for our summer mission to Africa. We are returning to Tanzania. We will teach in a new location, Morogoro. We will also meet with pastors and wives whom we taught last year in Dar es Salaam. Joining us on the Living Well team this year are Megan and Rhett O’Briant who taught with us in Zambia two years ago. June 9-21 are the dates of our 6th trip to east Africa.

We felt compelled to return to the same country as last year. After teaching and training there for a month, we built a closer bond with the people than ever before. Our desire is to teach a new group of pastors/wives in Morogoro and to bring additional training and encouragement to those we taught last year. Tanzania stays heavy on our hearts for many reasons but at the forefront is their spiritual battle with the dominate Muslim faith. They risk their security and faith to plant churches in predominately Muslim neighborhoods. 

Our mission is to teach pastors/wives in the area of Biblical marriage/family and train them in building marriage ministries in their churches. 

Why do we teach/train instead of evangelizing, digging wells, or doing a medical mission? All of these kind of missions and others are noble and have merit. But we have found that:

• Africa has been highly evangelized now and the Christian church is established in all east African countries. “World wide Christianity has become increasingly African....There are now more practicing Christians in Africa than on any other continent, and by the second decade of the new millennium, Africa will overtake Europe as the continent with the greatest number of people who identify themselves as Christians, whether or not they practice their faith.” (Neil Lettinga, PhD) We believe that it is up to the Africans to reach their own people; our role now is to train them.
• Clean, accessible drinking water is one of the foremost physical needs of Africans. Clean water will satisfy one of their physical needs, but will not meet their spiritual and eternal needs. We know that people with abundant supplies of water can still live decadent, empty lives. As Jesus said “but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
  
• Physical diseases and disabilities abound in Africa; they have great needs for treatment. However, their treatment is temporary. They will still have the same difficulties next year.

We are not trying to say these missions are not good or needed but we believe that God has called us to a different work, one which will equip the African church to thrive and reach their culture. The African pastors that we train do not have the opportunity for a formal education. We partner with an African ministry, Africa Leadership and Reconciliation Ministry (ALARM) who is permanently located in the area and have an ongoing relationship with the pastors and training in different aspects of ministry.

Why do we train on marriage and family? Why not discipleship, the spiritual disciplines, etc.? Our experience and expertise is in marriage ministry, having worked in that area over 20 years. We have found a great disconnect between an African pastor’s role in ministry and his role in the family. His family is usually treated as unimportant compared to his ministry in the church. We believe that a truly transformed life will be most evident to the culture in their family life. That factor is why God said that marriage is a picture of Christ and the church.

Thank you for your love, support, and prayers.
Our love in Christ,
Donna and Ed Edwards

Ed and Donna Edward meeting with churches

We had two very good meetings today with churches. The church this morning was a good size and very active. We had to ride down this very narrow "street" to get to the church. It is in the middle of a residential area and has reached very many people. The pastor of the church was very touched and excited by the weeklong conference and by the workshop. He has offered to pay for the "photocopies" of the lessons from the conference (about 90 pages) for the other churches who did not attend the conference but attended the one-day workshop on building a marriage ministry. He spent most of the day going to get the copies made.

Our meeting this afternoon was in the home of the pastor rather than in their church. We always like going to their homes and see more about how they live. One of the people in the meeting was a woman, who is the female leader of the elders there. She was very expressive and had some very good questions. She wanted to know more about our own testimony about why we were coming to Africa and how we got involved in marriage ministry. I told her that, if I could speak Swahili, she was the kind of person that I would like to have as a friend.

She also asked our interpreter a couple of questions about America and didn't want him to translate it to us. So, he spoke to her first, knowing a lot about us and our views before he told us about the conversation. She wanted to know if it was true that Obama supported abortion legislation. She also wanted to know if we supported that view or supported him. She also asked about divorce in America and the condition of the family. She said that Africa is learning from America. She communicated that what Africans see Americans doing, then they think it is right for them also. We were very clear about our support of Obama, because he is our president, but that he has some views that we do not agree with. It seemed to help them a lot to get a bigger picture of the culture of America.

Thanks for your continued prayers for us.

Workshop in Dar es Salaam

We had our workshop on Building a Comprehensive Marriage Ministry in Dar es Salaam today. We did one last Tuesday in Bagamoyo for half the group from our seminar. Today was for the half that live in this area. However, word got out about our teaching. Instead of having 40 people, we had about 95! Many came who had not attended our weeklong teaching conference, but heard about it and were urged to attend today. We taught for 3 hours straight, without a break, and they were all sitting on hard wooden benches. No one left and no one complained. The people in this area are much better educated and many of them have professional jobs.

We had many churches represented, I am not sure right now how many different churches were there. In our follow up time this week, priority was given to the churches who had also attended the week long conference. So, we will be meeting every morning and every afternoon this week with different churches. I think one of the times, we are meeting with three churches who are close together. We will also go to the church of our interpreter on Sunday and meet with some of from his church also.

The people here are so receptive and so appreciative of our teaching and our time with them.

We are very tired tonight. Please pray that we sleep well. Neither of us slept well last night.

Also, we stopped by a supermarket on our way back to the center this evening and bought some strawberry jam and some chocolate. The people here don't eat dessert very often, just fruit, and they don't eat chocolate. I brought some M&M's but Ed decided I needed something more substantial! Also, the breakfasts here at this center are very basic - a porridge that we won't eat, sliced bread or cold toast, and boiled eggs. So, the strawberry jam will add a wonderful treat to our breakfast - simple pleasures.

Thanks for your continued prayers.

Living Well and Dar es Salaam workshop

Building a Comprehensive Marriage Ministry Workshop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

About 95 attended this workshop.

This man is giving a testimony about what he learned at our weeklong conference. He is an evangelist and pastor. He talked about how much he had learned, that he had always put ministry before his wife. He now is spending more time with his wife. He also testified how important the lesson on money was and how he and his wife are now establishing a budget and they are much closer in their relationship.

This woman is giving a testimony about the conference and how the session on parenting had meant so much to her. She has 3 children and she learned that she is treat each one as individuals and not try to make them all the same, that she is to recognize their individual personalities and gifts.

Notice the name of the supermarket that Ed is entering.

sunday worship

We had a great morning of worship! At an Assembly of God church! The music is always good in Africa, they worship with their whole bodies, like they really mean it. There were 150-200 there, packed into a small space, sitting on hard benches. The service lasted at least 2 1/2 hours (the time we were there)

Ed spoke about forgiveness. The pastor had been at our conference. After the message, the pastor had all the married people stand at the front, even if the spouse was not there. He had the couples stand together (they don't sit together in church). He had Ed pray for them. There was lots of hugging and crying, both unusual for public display in church. The pastor had learned well at our conference. He said that the message of forgiveness was just what they needed. We told him that everyone needs it. Ed clearly presents the gospel but also talks about how we are to forgive each other in the same way.

They gave us all the paper money in an envelope from their offering, 49,500Ts. We were very humbled. That's about $38. We will find somewhere to give it away before we leave.

Thanks for all of your prayers. Will send more info later,

Ed Edwards
Donna Edwards
"Giving Life to Marriages"
Livng Well

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania Mission

We made it back safely to Dar es Salaam. We will miss the cool weather and hot water in Kenya. The place we are staying is very clean though, it's a Catholic center. We take our meals here as well. They have a canteen that is outdoors with a cover where we can sit and have a cold soft drink. We went down after we arrived and heard a Catholic mass playing on a TV nearby.

We will be here without our hosts tonight and tomorrow. But there are enough English speakers that it is not a problem. And they have the internet. Costs us less than a dollar for an hour. Of course, the keyboard is so bad that it takes twice as long to type.

We need the time tomorrow to work on our materials for our workshop that we will do on Tuesday. We knew that we would need to make adjustments based on what we learned from the people after we arrived. We have a laptop that we brought, thanks to the Gillogly's. So, we will have all that we need to prepare.

We will go to a different church on Sunday. Then leave for Bagamoyo on Monday morning. The workshop will be Tuesday morning, starting at 10 am (2 am OK time). We appreciate your prayers.

We are looking forward to getting back to Bagamoyo, we really enjoyed being in that community and the people there. It is small enough that we can get out and walk some. It is right on the beach of the Indian Ocean, the water is beautiful and blue. And we praying for hot and cold water at the place where we will stay. I think they are going to put us in a different place. We will have either our host couple with us or our interpreter while we are there.

So far, we are feeling pretty good. We have each had times that we weren't quite up to par but that is normal here. I had to take one afternoon this week and just stay in and rest.

The Bates are leaving Nairobi tonight for home. We already miss them. They were great travelling companions and fellow laborers in ministry. Pray for their travel and recovery.

Thanks for all your prayers.

--
Ed Edwards
Donna Edwards
"Giving Life to Marriages"

Nairobi, Kenya

We are now in Nairobi. We are staying a nice place here with hot water and a cool breeze! I think I took my longest shower ever! And they have a great internet connection.

Our conference finished well. It is by far the best conference we have ever had in Africa. The people were very responsive and very thankful for our teaching. We wish we could have had longer with them. We had many good discussions. It is amazing our similar the problems are, no matter where in the world you go.

When they gave testimonies, several pastors confessed that they had thought of their wives the same as household goods. And that they ignored their children. Women are treatly very badly here. The women were especially excited about the teaching. We were amazed how much the pastors would share about their failings.

They continued to comment about how biblical our teaching is and how deep. When we talked about Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. They admitted that one of the reasons that they treated women poorly was because of the failure of Eve. They were amazed at the silence of Adam and his accountability to God. It changed their perspective greatly.

They also commented about how we bring biblical teaching not American teaching. And how we would sit and eat with them, not having separate food or separate places to sit. On the first day, we invited them to sit with us if they could speak English or could bring someone with them that spoke English. We had an opportunity to speak personally with several people.

Several of the pastors go out into the smaller villages to plant churches and to preach. You can see such a passionate heart to reach people with the gospel and teach them.

We will take a few days in Kenya to rest and talk to the ALARM staff and then we will return to Dar es Salaam on Thursday. We will go to Bagamoyo on Sunday afternoon or Monday morning. We will do a workshop on Tuesday (23rd) about building a marriage ministry. Then follow up all week with individual churches. We will return to Dar the next weekend, then meet with pastors in that area and do a workshop there on that Tuesday (30th).

I think we will be staying in a different place when we return to Bagamoyo. I think they are putting us somewhere with a more consistent water supply, including hot water, I hope. The place we are staying in Dar is very basic but very clean and the food is good. We will have a/c there but no hot water. They are not even plumbed for hot water, doesn't seem to be an issue for them.

We are having a dining experience tonight, not just dinner!

More later.
--
Ed Edwards
Donna Edwards
"Giving Life to Marriages"

In Dar es Salaam

We made it to Dar es Salaam, and have all of our luggage!
It's Sunday morning now. We are waiting for everyone in our group to assemble, then we will go to church. Ed is preaching and we will each give our testimony this morning. We are going to a church that our host, Justin, started in a Muslim community. It is still a small church but in a very important area.

It is warm and humid here. We just rested yesterday morning. After lunch, we went to the market. It was the only chance that Bates would have to shop here for local crafts. Dar is a big city and the traffic matches it. In the evening we went to a nice restaurant right on the Indian Ocean. Dar has the busiest port in east Africa, we could see the big ships out in the bay. We had some great, grilled red snapper for dinner. African food is always fresh. We also saw a big wedding reception they were having outdoors where we were eating. It was fun to see their customs and decorations, etc.

We are all doing well. Ed and I both woke up at 1:00 am this morning and couldn't go back to sleep. We will sleep better tonight. After church we will go to Bagamoyo where we will spend the rest of the week. We are excited about seeing that historic community and meeting the people at the conference. Appreciate all your prayers! Keep praying!