Three Weddings and a Funeral

  My life sounds like a movie title or something these days! 

We had a great retreat with all the GMI missionaries at Lake Malawi.  We are thankful for Bible teachers from the States that came to give us spiritual refreshment.  We also had great meetings and planning sessions.

 

You can’t beat this beautiful view and the great warm water!

You can imagine that it was hard to get 60 people to sit still for a picture! 

    I returned from the Retreat and had just one day to do laundry, unpack and repack.  Then I headed to the Rukwa Valley for Vocational School’s graduation party and Thanksgiving with my fellow Americans.

  Back home for one day and then off to the village for a wedding send off. The groom was a friend from Dar and his fiancé was being sent off by her village to get married later in Dar.  It was funny to see these guys from the ‘big city’ trying to learn the village traditions of a wedding.  They had many questions that I was able to answer because I attend tons of village weddings. Funny because I’m the foreigner here! The hardest thing for Charles was not smiling. He kept looking down so that he could keep a straight face in front of his in-laws. 

Not too long later we celebrated two different weddings for some local boys.  They attend my home church and have been campers and graduated from the vocational school a couple years ago.  It’s always fun to celebrate with kids that you know!

Congratulations to Jumanne and Agnes!

Congrats to Ayubu and Happiness.  It was fun for the first couple to be their witnesses only 4 days later!

The next morning the task changed. We left early to attend the funeral of a godly man.  Immanueli Kanyoro was my Youth Department Secretary for 4 years before moving on to other ministries. He faithfully served in many ways for years.  He battled stomach cancer this past year and passed away on Monday at the age of 57. 

  What a great testimony he had. Before he was saved, Kanyoro was an elementary school teacher. After salvation he made some dramatic life changes.  He separated from his second wife so as not to live a polygamous lifestyle.  Not long later he retired from teaching so that he could be free to minister wherever and however needed.  He was constantly attending seminars and conferences to learn more about the Lord.  He was an excellent teacher and will be greatly missed. This is an older picture of my Youth leaders. He is sitting in front of me.

  Please pray for his family.  I don’t know all the kids and grandkids but I know that this young man at the gravesite is his youngest child.

   That sums up my past couple weeks.  I’m glad most of the trips are over because the rains have come back and roads are about to get really messy.