Hayden, John and Anne - Tanzania
Hayden main pagePrayer Letter March 2005
Dear Friends,
Greetings at this joyful Eastertide.
Recently I have concentrated on the Kiteto Christian College and I will give some up date news later First I want to ask for your prayers and stress the key matter of spiritual growth. Without this our work is in vain. Often it is not so tangible and harder to quantify and we sometimes only see the fruit arising from it in new churches and those volunteering for full time service but it is vital that all members of the church continue to grow in their faith.
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| Congregations at Chekanao |
Opening of Chekanao church |
Four key areas.
Sunday Schools Through the grant from Leicester Diocese Bishop’s Lent appeal we are gradually equipping all our Sunday Schools with a set of key books including a first rate colour Children’s Bible. We need to give the teachers more training and I am hoping that later this year we will have time and resources do to so, but at least we have started to establish and teach in a planned way. Up to now few teachers even had access to a bible and few own one of their own. Some of the teaching was ‘interesting’ to say the least. We need a lot of improvement here. As with so many things my time and energy is already exhausted.
SOMA groups. This is a four year study course written and supported by Holy Trinity Leicester. Alison Morgan with a SOMA team will be coming at the end of October. In the meantime Revd Michael Samuel continues his task of regularly visiting and encouraging the groups.
ETE - Theological education. Revd Peter Mkengi and his local tutors are doing a first rate job in training up future pastors and evangelists. They are supported by a grant from Crosslinks. This is a vital input and we are very grateful for their help. Over 200 are in training. We have put in a request for a grant from the USA to bring up to fifty of the best students into college for intensive tuition. We need to fast track that number if we will have the numbers needed for the new churches that are rapidly springing up. Please pray for this grant.
Worship. We are seeking to train those who lead but the major move forward this year will be the publication of the Masai Prayer book. The trial edition has been revised but at present it is in Moshi and we are trying to arrange for it to come here so I can prepare it for printing by mid April.
Other news.
New dining room/kitchen complex at KCC
Kiteto Christian College continues to grow in a remarkable way. It is a high cost time putting up the buildings but we rejoice that we have a grant from Germany for a dormitory and if other requests are accepted from the UK and USA the College will be completed this year. This will enable us to have around 150 students providing vital education for those training for ministry, children of pastors and others in the locality. We praise God for the provision of volunteer teachers. At present Helen is covering the term until June. For the second term, July-December, we have 3-4 volunteers throughout the time. We still need volunteers for 2006, some sponsorship for local teachers and some students but it is amazing how God provides. This morning I had a request for help towards fees for Neema and Marian. They came last year but have not come this last term. They are children of a mixed marriage, a Christian mother and Muslim father. The father will not help his children come to our school and is opposed to them becoming Christians but we know the girls are wanting to take a stand for Christ. At present we have about twelve Muslims in the college who are paid for by their parents and are taking an active part in the daily time of prayers and bible study.
While work progresses at the college we have not forgotten the needs in the parishes. At present we have many churches being built. Some are temporary at little or no cost until the church is well planted in the village. About twelve are being built using cement and roof sheeting and able to hold around 300 members. We help with a small grant towards these.
We are also helping to build around 12 pastors’ houses and have a similar number awaiting funding. It is important that the pastor and his family are well housed and have basic essentials otherwise so much of their time is spent on survival and that stops them working effectively.
There is much more happening and if you would like specific news and pictures then please do not hesitate to
e-mail me and I will do my best to provide. In the meantime I am attaching three photos a) the opening of Chekanao Church, the congregations at Chekanao, and the new dining room/kitchen complex at KCC that was built from starting to draw plans to painted in two months.
John Hayden