Prayer Strategies for Transformation

We sought the Lord together to ask Him what He would have us do to bring freedom and healing to these waters.

Strategy #1 – Prayer at the tree

Together with the pastors who came with us, we entered into identificational repentence for seeking after other gods, and not the One True and Living God. The Holy Spirit led us to repent as representatives on behalf of the people of the area for seeking “lesser alternatives” than the Lord Jesus Christ for the redemption of the land and the people.

With one heart we acknowledged that the earth is, indeed, the Lord's and the fulness thereof; the world and all those who dwell in it (Psalm 24:1). By giving the land and its people back to God, asking Him to bring revival to this place, we aligned with God and His purposes to bring life and light into and through this very site.

Strategy #2 – Prayer at the water source

Both Aisack and I were reminded of the story in Exodus 15, when Moses heeded to the Lord's instruction and threw a piece of wood into the water, and they were healed. When the Lord brought this passage to mind, we were compelled to obey the principle of this Biblical example. We prayed that the One True and Living God, the Lord Jesus Christ, would cleanse the waters and make them a source of life instead of a source of sickness and disease. In obedience, I tossed the branch into the water. (I must confess feeling a little silly; however, I pushed past my discomfort and chose to exercise faith and claim the sovereignty of God.)

Strategy #3 – Prayer at the pipes

Recognizing that these pipes now have the task of delivering this blessed water throughout the valley, the pastors each laid their hands on the pipes and prayed for God's abundant blessing to replace the enemy's curses.

Unusual Post-Conference Opportunities (Pt.1)

We awoke early and ran into our day! Having made previous arrangements, we circled the village in our Suzuki, picking up each pastor we had invited to join us. We then drove to the outskirts of the village, heading toward Mount Hanang.

Our car maneuvered as far along the dirt path as possible before we had to park and continue the trek on foot.

After a few minutes walking up the path, we arrived at the wooded area near the source of the village's water—a spring bubbling up at the base of a stately, old tree.

The gentle, bubbling water that emerges from deep within waters the village of Gendabi, but also flows into the valley below, reaching even to other villages nearly on the horizon.

Generations of local villagers have worshiped deities residing therein, holding ceremonies and making sacrifices to appease the spirits they believe are responsible for drought or flooding, famine or abundance. (The dark- and light-colored streaks on the tree's trunk testifies of a very recent sacrifice.)

Pastors and villagers readily testify that those who drink of the water that flows here suffer terrible physical, emotional, and spiritual problems. (More on that a bit later.)

Although Christians in the region have learned that they possess the ability and the authority to do something about this situation, they have lacked the hands-on experience.

The AIM team and 4 local pastors decided that we needed a spiritual strategy. So we decided to pray.

End of the conference day

There is nothing more beautiful than an African sunset! Thank God with us for this beautiful land and the wonderful people He has placed here.

Pray also that God continues to spread this pastoral training in larger and larger areas, pouring out His Spirit, so that His Kingdom will come and His will is done on the earth as in heaven. Join us in praying that we will have the privilege of returning to this area to witness with our eyes and testify of what He has done. For His honor and glory!

Unity in the Spirit

MORE UNITY present and very obvious as pastors turn to bless one another:

- praying for the empowerment of the Spirit and spiritual insight and increase in gifts

- praying for continued unity.

- praying for each church to grow and thrive

- praying for each pastor to become mighty in God, sensitive to the leading of His Spirit and able to stand against evil in every form

- praying for courage to step up in their communities, to become true servant-leaders who stand for truth so that a new culture of righteousness in covenant may begin.

Bayo (apostolic church planter among the Iraqw) and Aisack (Evangelist church planter among the Maasai) pray powerfully over one another as examples to all the other pastors. Prayers for strength and protection, for courage in the face of intense adversity, and prayers for Gods will to be done on earth as in heaven by empowering the message of the true Gospel in sweeping ways all over their land.

Women pastors/leaders now comprise about 1/3 of our audience. They are well accepted by the male leadership in attendance. They contribute strongly to the sense of unity and strength in this crowd. Praise the Lord for their participation and leadership.

This pastor, grateful for the teaching, hurried forward choosing to pray with Bob for

AIM. He fervently interceded for the ongoing mission of AIM in Tanzania and also the rest of the world.

A New Friend (especially for Susan!)

Flora is a beautiful, intelligent young woman with a sweet spirit. Nineteen years of age, she is a victim of spinal tuberculosis, and because of her deformities was rejected and forced from her home by her family who thought she was a curse to them. A few years ago she was confined to a wheelchair, but when she became a Christian, Bayo prayed for her healing and baptized her. She then “graduated” to arm brace crutches. However, through consistent and fervent prayer she can now walk independntly without the crutches, but her badly twisted back limits a lot of her movements.

At Bayo’s invitation, Flora attended our conference in Dawar, riding there on a piki-piki (Tanzanian motorcycle taxi). When we heard about her travel to get there, we made arrangements to drive her home in our car at the end of the conference, thus giving us the opportunity to get to know her and her life even more. She is presently in the home of a friend until it is time for her school to start. She invited us to her humble home the next morning where she prepared and served us chai and mandazi (African fried donut-like pastry), making deliberate moves to serve us herself. We felt so humbled by her spirit of generosity in the face of her challenges.

Our hearts are so blessed to know Flora, this beautiful and tender child of God. We will pray faithfully for her and we look forward to seeing her again when we return and check on her progress at school.

Note: Please pray for Flora’s continued schooling and finances. She is an excellent student, and she has the heart to continue her education so that someday she may become a teacher to other children with disabilities. In this culture, it is so common for disabled children to be unwanted and uncared for. (We have heard several times about the common practice among some tribes to simply take their “cursed” children out to the bush and leave them for the lions and hyenas. Others have been known to lock their child in a back room of their house, giving them no food or water until they die.) Flora dreams of giving disabled children the love and encouragement with which God has blessed her, as well as someone with whom they can “belong.”

Because she now has no family to care for her, the prospects of her continued education are slim. Bayo has said that if she can afford the next level of her schooling, he and his family want her to join their family, to open their home to her so that she could be near the school. Thus, she now faces the big challenge of school fees. . .all by herself. Only $350 per year would pay for her school fees, her supplies, the school uniform, etc. Please pray for her.

Another teaching day begins

In the shadow of Mt Hanang to the east we begin our days with gentle sunrises as the clouds rise above the mountain. We gather early to begin the teaching so that we are sure to cover all the material God has given us in clear and concise ways.

Compelling stories and deliberate application holds the attention of the participants who sit all day on hard benches in order to drink in the truths that God sent us there to deliver. The pastors become very excited and even animated as Christian and Bayo drill down in the Word to prove the ways of the Lord and how we can indeed live in and through the Spirit of God in us.

Everyone follows along in their Bibles, studying intently, as we pray that the Spirit of Truth will lead them into all truth in Jesus’ mighty name.

Aisack Laizer at Movie Night

As I wrote earlier, in the evenings, we assembled a simple projector and sound equipment powered through our car battery as the evening fell and darkness began to settle in. We showed some Christian evangelistic (Swahili language) music films on a white sheet tacked to the outside of the church building, where literally hundreds of residents from local villages came to watch.

At the end of the music films, we played a Christian movie in the light of the projector. Then Aisack used his evangelistic giftings as the crowd grew more and more numerous. He stepped forward to preach the Gospel message with clarity and power, while we prayed for a move of the Spirit of God.

And move He did, as evidenced by numerous hands held high throughout the crowd. Many people prayed to receive Christ for the first time, while others were moved to return to God with renewed commitment.

The pastors of the Dawari region will no doubt be very busy following up on these precious new believers and discipling them in their new-found faith in the One True and Living God.

A Special Choir

A specially assembled community choir performed songs for us in the tradition of the local tribes. Worshiping together we praised the King of Kings and proclaimed that His is the One true and living God. They demonstrated some of their traditional dance and dress.

The beauty of colorful beadwork and traditional costumes, and lovely African voices and harmony are quite a display. We were made very welcome as they showed their appreciation in public ways, to honor us.

Learning Together, Praying Together, Repenting Together

The pastors and church leaders were powerfully moved during the conference to intercede for their people and to repent. Their prayers are fervent and emotional as they recognize how God has made atonement for us through Jesus when He became the covenant for us.

They learn to recognize areas of their lives where compromise has allowed a stronghold of the kingdom of darkness, but that when they truly repent and align their lives with God they can see a change in their lives and often their circumstances as well. Anglican pastors alongside pentecostal, Baptists hand-in-hand with Lutherans, with like-heart and like-mind we all turn our hearts to know the heart of the Father for this land.

All together, we join as one, proclaiming the mighty name of Jesus and acknowledging that

He is indeed Lord of our lives,

Lord of our churches,

Lord of all we possess,

and indeed LORD WHO REIGNS OVER ALL!

Lots of Assistants

We had a lot of assistance this year with our conference teaching. In addition to our U.S. 3-person team, we were excited to include 3 Tanzanians!

Bayo was our fellow-teacher, as well as our main interpreter for the week. We love him dearly, and are so honored to have him as a part of our team.

Polycarp (pictured above, with Bob) was able to join us again this year for one of the days of teaching. He is very passionate about teaching pastors. Ever since he helped us train pastors last year about the Covenant we have with our God, he has continued to spread that message to his first-year ministry students at Agape Bible School.

Aisack, our long-time friend and Maasai pastor, also joined us for conference for the first time. He ministers with our friends at Key Connections Ministry, as they reach out to spread the Gospel among the Maasai tribe. He has been hearing rumors from the pastors in the Manyara Region that there is a movement amongst the churches in that region—a genuine unity, across denominational lines, as all agree to pursue the Lord Jesus Christ and to keep God’s Word as the authority of us all. God has been encouraging Aisack with the same message; so he asked if he could join us, to see this unity and how it is accepted among the Iraqw tribe.

Once again, the pastors who joined us for the conference were engaged and attentive. We see some of the same pastors each time. They like to come each and every time, but inevitably we have pastors who cannot travel or who must be working their farms. Nonetheless, we have new pastors each time as well, pastors who leave excited and energized. . .begging for another conference soon!

The church that hosted the conference is clearly the largest, most modern building for miles around.

From the church property, many walking paths wind between farms and seem to disappear into the “bush” landscape.

Simple Village of Dawari

Dawari is a village in the Manyara Region, bordering both the Iraqw tribe and the Barabaig tribe.

This community is full of family farms. Everyone has a part in working the farm, from hard-working adults to young children.

There were less than a dozen huts/homes in view at any given point during our drive into the village.

However, in the evenings when we invited the community to come for evangelistic movies which we projected onto the side of the church, people emerged from the bush to see this unusual sight.

As Bob began to set up the projector each evening, there would inevitably only be a few people gathered, mostly the pastors. However, with the anonymity that comes with nighttime’s darkness, we found that the crowd grew to hundreds of people, both from this village but also from neighboring villages miles away.

Leaving the paved road

The road narrows as we leave the tarmac to bump along on the way to Dawari, the site of our next pastors conference. Along the way, we passed pastors who were walking in from their villages, as well.

Even in the Dawari region, farmers are very busy responding to the rain and the warmer weather.

As we drew near to the Dareda Valley area, we were in awe of the vibrance of the red dirt, and the almost-neon green new growth.

Many people are out in the fields, plowing and preparing to plant even more seeds.

They are excited about the potential of a second harvest this season!

When a family is fortunate enough to own livestock and a plow, the back-breaking work of tilling the ground becomes significantly easier. But make no mistake, life is still very primitive in the bush, and working the ground is still heavy labor.

The power lines you can see in the distance are taking electricity to larger cities on the other side of the mountains. Very few villagers have the luxury of electricity, vehicles or farm machinery.

Construction Zone

As we travel the remote roads, we see the life of the people played out before us. Children playing around the yard even while improvements and expansion of their homes are underway. Tall-grown grass has recently been cut, in preparation for a new grass roof.

Even young children have heavy responsibility during harvest season, perhaps even selling produce to drivers passing through the area. This lady has a big job, a heavy load to carry! She took a brief break to set down her load and rest. Behind her you can see the ongoing road construction that promises better travel in this area in the future. (This 55-mile stretch of road took us a little over 2½ hours to travel; so we really look forward to improvements!)

The local “hot Spot.” In the middle of one of the small villages we passed through, we saw this funny little scene. A pool table under a little shelter with benches for onlookers, a satellite dish beside a mud and stick structure (we’re not really sure what that’s about!), and a bicycle- the more modern form of local transportation.

It's GREEN! Hallelujah!

We began our trip out to our next pastors conference in "the bush" with great joy as deep green fields and trees adorned the roadsides. Even the mountains were colored with life and growth. Occasional dark clouds overhead did nothing to “dampen” our mood. They merely held the promise of even more rain from our faithful Father. We turned up the volume of our praise music and sang our way into the mountains, giving glory to the Most High God, Creator and Sustainer of heaven and earth!

Rainfall softens the hard ground allowing them finally to plow, work the ground, and plant. What a wonderful backdrop for AIM's teaching about our covenant God Who responds to the prayers and repentance of His people, providing for their needs and directing them in His ways.

Even in the valleys, we saw evidence of the expected good crops due to sustaining rainfall. The village of Magugu is widely known throughout Tanzania for their good quality rice. The mood in the village has been very positive because this is an active time of year for the farmers.

Tarangire Day Safari (3)

We witnessed a family of giraffe, majestic and towering, grazing in the tops of the acacias. . .

and the abundant herds of impalas among the bushes and grass. . .

And, of course, the grumpy ones! (warthogs)

Baobabs made a beautiful silhouette as the sky gets dimmer, reminding us that we had just a few more minutes to enjoy our surroundings before the day's end.

Tarangire Day Safari (2)

We found a waterbuck eating at the river. . .

and the zebras, a bit nervous by our presence on the plains. . .

the vervet monkeys (with a baby clinging underneath) resting in the shade. . .

And, of course, we also saw the grumpy ones!

(buffalo)