Thursday, December 17, 2009

Youth Camp 2009







Each December the churches from the Baptist Bible Mission of Tanzania join together for a youth camp. This year we had 29 students from Katesh and the new Basotu church go to camp this year. Out of the 100 campers there, 9 students accepted Christ as their personal Savior. It was another fun year! Please join us in prayer for these teenagers that their passion for the Lord will not "fizzle" after the excitement of camp wears off.

Truth Learning Center Graduation




Another ministry of the TRUTH Center is Truth Learning Center. The Truth Learning Center is a English medium school started by our missionary partners, the Burkholders. The school currently has up to 2nd grade and it is our vision to add a grade each year until grade 7. Natalie oversees the daily running of the school and has recently trained Tricia to manage the school while she is away on furlough. Each year we have a big graduation day for the kindergarden students entering into the first grade. It is held on a Sunday morning for all the church members to witness. Also it gives a great opportunity to preach the Gospel to many unsaved parents. We praise the Lord for a great school year!

Bible School Graduation



One of the ministries of the TRUTH Center is Truth Bible Institute. We join with other missionaries and their churches to train future pastors, teachers and those who are faithful church members. Each year several students from each church graduate from class one and class two. We had the honor of graduating 4 class one students from the ministry here in Tanzania. Brad was even given the opportunity to teach some classes that weekend for the Bible students.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Siku ya Vijana- Youth Day!








On October 3, we had a day of activities for the youth of Katesh. We had various sports tournaments, games, a movie, food. We had over 100 teenagers! Five accepted Christ as their personal Savior. The youth of the church were so encouraged and saw the fruits of their labor.

The TRUTH Learning Center




The TRUTH Learning Center was started by our ministry partners, Steve and Natalie Burkholder in 2007. The original intent was to have a nursery and Kindergarden to give the local children a good start to their education and a to introduce them to Christ at an early age. However, after a year, the parents and local government requested that we add more grade to have a complete primary school up to grade seven. We now have over 50 students up to 1st grade. We will add 2nd grade in December and one grade each year to follow. We praise the Lord for the opportunity to give these children the only Christian education in our whole district. Here are a few pictures of the the building process that we are in right now to add more classrooms.

Monday, August 17, 2009






While in Tanzania, we are serving with several other families of like faith. There are missionaries in several different parts of the country that are starting churches, schools, orphanages, and medical clinics. Lazaro is a faithful church member and Bible student in one of those churches located in the city of Arusha (about 4 hours from our town) He is part of the Maasai tribe. The Maasai is the largest tribe in Northern Tanzania and southern Kenya. He asked us to visit the village where he is originally from and where all his family still live. We made our first trip to visit the Masaai this weekend. It was quite and adventure and was filled with many new experiences! As we entered the area of the homes, we were greeted by his father, mother (plus his father's second wife) his grandmother and all the children from each one of the wives and grandchildren! The children greeted us with bowing down in order for us to touch the top of their head. We were then ushered into the hut of the Bibi (or grandmother) for a delicious bowl of old curdled milk mixed with corn. Then after we got our fill of that, we then went to the father's hut to eat rice and beans with a cup of hot tea. After our visit, Brad was able to pray for the family in Kiswahili as Lazaro translated it into Kimaasai. We then traveled down into the center of the village for an open market where we passed a portion of God's Word to hundreds of the the Maasai people. It was such a great experience to see Lazaro reaching out to his own people. When Lazaro first became a Christian, his whole village looked at him as being crazy. Through his testimony, Lazaro is now a respected man in his village and many people have accepted Christ. It is Lazaro's desire to move back to his village and start a church so they can hear the Word of God every week.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Worlds Apart


We have now been in Tanzania for almost 8 months. We are adjusting to the many changes in our daily life; the food, weather, bugs, landscape, the people and the language (just to mention a few!) We praise the Lord for a smooth "ride" so far. He has meet our every need! Recently we needed some bricks delivered to our house to build a small shed. I looked out the window to find some cows outside the dining room window hauling a large wooden cart. This method was used many years ago in the US, but it still works here in Tanzania. As mentioned we are getting used to many new things! This picture is a good illustration how we can be worlds apart, but yet we can accomplish the same tasks. Just at very different speeds!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

A Trip to Civilization for Baby Sarah




My brother, Steve and his wife, Natalie had their third child June 4th, 2009. Her name is Sarah Elisabeth Burkholder. Both Natalie and Sarah are happy and healthy. My (Tricia) mom was able to spend two weeks in Nairobi, Kenya to help take care of the kids while Natalie recovered from her surgery. Brad and I took advantage to meet Sarah and to visit my mom. An additional bonus was to visit Nairobi, Kenya to enjoy some civilization and good restaurants! While we were there, we went to a giraffe park. We learned that the giraffe has a very clean mouth and its saliva is actually a great antiseptic. That little fact may explain why Brad actually fed one from his lips!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Some Thirsty Guests


About 2 weeks ago we noticed a strange smell when we turned the water on. We prepared ourselves for the worst and thought we would be cleaning out a clog in our septic system. We soon discovered that was not the problem. We were never so relieved and the problem that we were about to discover was nothing! Brad climbed up to our water tank to find hundred's if not over 1,000 bees inside our tank! With the help of Kingu, he and Brad managed to kill them all with a little smoke and several cans of insect killer. What a sight to see Kingu with Brad's motorcylce helmet on his head, running around the yard with a can of "Doom" in each hand chasing the bees! Here is a picture of Kingu scooping out the left over bees out of the tank. This is our new life in Tanzania!

The Birth in Basotu

We wrote in our last prayer update about the first church plant out of Truth Baptist Church in Katesh. Fellow missionary, Nate Wolf and Tananian church member, Christopher are pastoring the new church. They had their first Sunday service the first weekend in May. That weekend, church members from the Truth Baptist Church spent the weekend in Basotu preparing for the first service. A team of Bible students volunteered their time to play games, sing songs, hand out invitations, and preach to crowds of people. Four people trusted Christ as their Savior! We also were able to show some Christian films on Friday and Saturday in front of the church. Seeing a "movie" in their small village sure drew a crowd! Here are a few pictures of the events that weekend.
Ladies from Katesh (Mama Emma, Mama Hidijah, Mama Joshua, and Mama Frankie) enjoy some free time before the service

The crowd gathers before the service begins on Saturday

The mass "Exodus" of children to hear a Bible lesson

The Goat Cup

During Easter weekend, the TRUTH Center hosted a volleyball tournament. Four teams of young men from Katesh competed for the grand prize.......a goat! Never did we think that we would travel to the market to buy a goat as a trophy. During the tournament, the participants and the gathering crowd were able to hear the Gospel.

Friday, March 13, 2009

As many as you know, Tricia's brother, Steve and his family have been in Tanzania for over 7 years. Two weeks ago, their parents and oldest brother, Mark came for a visit. Before they headed back to America, we took them on a safari. Here are some highlights of our trip.


To give you a perspective on how close we REALLY were!


Taking their afternoon "Cat Nap" getting ready for the big kill!

This male lion was about 30 yards from our car, what a great sight to see!



The meanest and ugliest animal in Tanzania; The Hyena
This guy was right outside our car window











Thursday, March 12, 2009

Our Vicious Guard Dogs

We officially introduce to you Mocha and Max. We recently got them from a missionary friend. They are German Shepard and Doberman mix. We have always thought that having a puppy was torturous, let alone TWO! But these little brothers love each other and play and sleep together all day. They just want us for the food! Here they are before their 4 hour car ride into the "bush." They did not know what they were in for!

Our Home in Katesh

As of two weeks ago, we are offically moved into our first Tanzania home! It is still a work in progress, but we praise the LORD for providing us with a home that will comfortable accomodate our visitors and it is in a great location! Here are a few pictures........




Our backyard with a great view of Mt. Hanang

The back of the house

Monday, February 2, 2009

Our the Town of Katesh

Here are some picutures of around town. This is our hardware store! "Katesh Depot"




The view from our front yard