"Purchase" of the land in Tanzania

I just wanted to share the latest news we have from Tanzania.

As you may remember, the governor of the Mwanza district gifted 30 acres of land to End Time Glory Ministries last fall. It is a law in Tanzania that when taking ownership of property, if there are any squatters they must be paid off. In the Tanzanian culture there are very few people who actually own land. Most people find a place they like and they build their home. It is typical in the culture to be living on land you do not own. Tanzanian law states that squatters must be paid at the rate of $1000US per acre. Several months ago, Pastor Richard, a native Tanzanian, was able to convince the government to accept $500 per acre. As of last week, the money was over in Mwanza and Pastor Richard was in process of paying the people on the land. The plan was to have that done last week and to have the surveying done this week.

Engineering Ministries International has agreed to work with End Time Glory to engineer and develop the property. This is great news! They will travel to the property in either February or June of next year to help design the buildings and projects to best fit the property and the culture. We are all very excited about EMI's willingness to join with us in our efforts to help the widows and orphans of the Mwanza area.

What does this mean for our family? Well, End Time Glory Ministries would like our family in Tanzania when the building starts. Depending on when EMI visits the land and then their time frame of finishing the plans we would likely try to be over there in late 2009 or early 2010. Realistically, Shannon and I know that the whole process may take longer, especially when we still need to raise our monthly support. Shannon will likely be traveling to the land at the same time that EMI is over there as well-so likely in Feb or June.

Please keep this process in your prayers. We all want God's will for this entire project and His timing.

One more tornado photo

I just got this one in my email box. This photo was taken by a friend at our church. The photo was taken as he stood right by the church basement doors and aimed the camera to the southwest as the tornado came in. The line across the corner is the corner of our main church building.

As I stated in my earlier post, the tornado passed within about 200 yards of our church. The photo was shown on our sanctuary screen last Sunday and makes us all very thankful we have a church building.

We are OK after the tornado

I have had a couple of people ask if we are ok. We are.

Last Friday evening an F3 tornado passed along the southern edge of Willmar, continuing east until it finally retreated back into the clouds. The closest it was ever on the ground to our home was about 5-6 miles away however there were also straight line winds that took out a lot of trees and buildings just south of us about a mile. This photo was taken by someone in the area and shows the twister in its early stages as it bears down on a farmsite.


As the tornado was on the ground we stood in the parking lot of a restaurant in Willmar watching it pass along the edge of town. It went within about 200 yards of our church. Here is a photo taken by a friend from the front door of our church, looking to the southeast. The big white building is the church's youth building just built a couple of years ago.

This tornado left an 8 mile path of destruction, completely destroying three homes, damaging several more, completely demolishing two turkey barns and damaging two others. It also went though a farm implement dealership and a mobile home dealership bending trailer home frames in half and throwing implements across fields. There was no loss of lives and no serious injuries.

We all experience tornadoes in our lives. Sometimes they are physical but more often they are emotional or spiritual. It is in these times we need to lean on God even more than we usually do. We have a church friend who lives right along the tornado's path. It took out his two neighbors homes leaving his mostly untouched. His home was covered in mud and debris but had no permanent damage. As our family joined a couple of others to help him with clean up on Saturday I thought of how, after the storm we were all in better shape than before. We worked together to get an unpleasant task done, building relationships, laughing and loving together. We all walked away from the experience better appreciating family, friends and the blessings God has given us.