Ministry in Bukumbi

The next several days were spent in Bukumbi. While there we dedicated a new church building, taught bible classes and did open air crusades. Several of the pastors we were working with determined that there were apoximately 4,000 people in attendance on our last night! This is a fairly small village and we heard stories of people walking for up to 10 hours to come hear us! One of the pastors' elderly grandfather, who was a witch doctor came to listen and ended up recieving salvation. We spent some time praying with another pastor and his wife over their young son with cerebral palsy. We also met their infant daughter that they had named after Debra as she had prayed over the mother and unborn baby for a safe and easy delivery the previous year. It was due to a dificult labor that their son has brain damage. I did children's ministry with George again and the children loved him. Debra pushed me out of my comfort zone a bit by having me pray with people one on one as well. The hotel was a smple poured concrete building full of spiders and roaches. I saw a spider the size of my palm on the wall of my room one night. I didn't sleep well that night at all. I watched out my "window"(really just a opening with a type of fencing stretched over it, no glass) one morning as a goat was butchered right there while young children were bathed less than 10 feet away. Showers in Bukumbi consisted of a 5 gallon pail of water warmed over a fire amd a cup to pour it over myself. It was hot there and with no electricity in the village to run a refrigerator, I had the exhilerating experience of Coke at 110 degrees give or take. The carbonation gives an interesting feel to the sinuses at that temperature. I loved it in the village and we saw over 900 people come to the Lord while we there. We left the pastors of the area with a lot of follow-up to keep them busy. I remember as we drove away in the Land Rover...I had George on my hand and held him in the back window to say goodbye to the children. They ran along behind us, shouting and waving until we were out of sight. I was so blessed to have been there. My memories of the people there are priceless.
We returned to Kahama for the night, then on to Shinyanga the next morning, this time by Land Rover, to catch our flight to Arusha, near Kilamanjaro, for our time of ministry there.