Ha...Boy, you know it's been a long time since you blogged when you can't remember how to navigate back to find your blog site. Yikes! Nonetheless, it's good to be "back" and blogging again. This is still a new thing for me as I'm used to writing specific people and having their faces in mind. Writing to "cyber space" is a bit...well...impersonal for me. I just have to keep all "your" lovely faces in mind when I write this and that helps me not be so "businessy" and more personal. :-)
It's been a crazy two weeks or so since I last wrote. Actually, crazy is too benign. Truly..it's been demonic. We have been attacked on nearly every front. I can say that now...on the other end looking back. During it all however was a different story. The oppression was so great it was hard to see or discern clearly. Praise be to our God and Father, who has leads us in triumph for we have come out of it victoriously but not without battle wounds. The wounds serve as reminders..."Ebeneezers" of how God has helped us overcome those oppressive times.
One of the challenges we've been dealing with is in regards to the staff here. We have several people from the community employed here at the mission center. It's two fold really. We need workers but also want to give back to the community by employing their people. This has proven to be a good thing but not without its backlash at times. If we have to fire one for whatever reason it makes us vulnerable to that person's slander of us in the community. This has happened on more than one occasion. We rest in the knowledge that God is indeed our Defender and He will vindicate us in His time. However, in a culture where relationships are held at the highest level...whew...it takes time to develop trust among the people if we are being slandered. The pinnacle for me was when one of our disgruntled employees here poisoned our manager for reporting him. The employee was reprimanded for his negligence by our manager. So, to get him back, the employee offered him poisoned meat. I know that sounds so strange and beyond our western realm of thinking. Unfortunately it is a grim reality here. These two men are of the same tribe here so it never occurred to our manager that the employee would do such a thing. He gratefully received the meat and ate it. He did notice it being a strange color but again, never thot for one minute that this guy would do such a thing to him. Almost instantly our manager got sick. He took some local medicine to induce vomiting and we believe that's what helped him from it not being fatal. However, that was almost a month ago and our manager is still quite sick. There is nothing we can do now for him but pray and take medicine to help rebuild the lining in his stomach. Please be in prayer for him. This has not only affected his physical health but he lives in fear now of this employee .
This brings me to the next thing....that employee is still her. Because of labor laws and the fact that you can't "prove" a poisoning like that....he's still here. We can't officially firing him without him running to the labor dept and taking us to court. That has happened before by a disgruntled employee and nearly took us "to the cleaners." Interestingly, this present employee and that past one are connected. We recently found this out. So, we are treading this one lightly. His job will be terminated, we just need to go about it carefully and in a way that won't bring harm to any more employees here. Now they all live in fear of this man. Fear is Satan's number one tactic here. Many people are superstitious and live in great fear of curses and hexes. Let me say tho to all my western thinking friends...curses and hexes are real and damaging. The Truth tho is...Jesus Christ became the curse for us...and those whom the Son has set free are free indeed! We walk in the protection of the finished work of the cross of Christ! We are not bound by fear for God has not given us a spirit of fear but of POWER, and LOVE and SELF DISCIPLINE! Blessed be our Rock for there is NO god like our GOD!!! And this is the message we came to share with these people. This is why the enemy does not like us here and why he works over time to slander us and to thwart the advancement of the saving knowledge of Christ. But...Greater is HE that is in us than he that is in the world. The gates of hell WILL NOT prevail against God's church!!!
Please be in prayer for us for our protection but also for God to equip us with all spiritual wisdom and discernment to know and recognize the enemy's tactics and fight back.
At our most recent prayer meeting as a team I felt the Holy Spirit say to my heart.."I have sounded the battle cry. This is a time to not only protect your borders but it is a time to fight. Take up your Sword and go to battle. If the Kingdom of God is to advance in this area you have to fight for it..." God has already spoken to us as a team that "It is time to cross over and possess the land.." As we were praying on Monday the Lord helped me to see that great faith is required in possessing the land. If you remember in the story of the Israelites when they were to cross over and possess Canaan, the promise land, they had to first cross over the River Jordan at harvest time. As I understand it, this meant crossing a mile-wide stretch raging at flood level. The priests were to first put their feet into the river before the Lord would part the waters and lead them safely onto dry ground. That required immense faith. God has given us that same faith...water parting faith and we walk in it. I believe He has helped us as well to "cross over" to the other side. However, once the Israelites reached the other side their job wasn't finished. They had to go to battle against the enemies of God to obtain the land. That is where we are now as CMF here. We are in a land that God wants to redeem for Himself. We are surrounded by the enemy. God is telling us, "I will go before you to possess this land and claim these people for my own but, you must go in fighting...not with weapons as the world fights. No, the weapons I give you are divine and have the power to tear down EVERY demonic stronghold that sets itself up against the Truth...and that Truth will set them free!" Paul says "we are not of the kind that shrink back.." So, we walk in that calling...no...we RUN i that calling, wielding high the Sword of the Spirit...taking out the enemy and his legions and calling back those people whom God is pursuing to redeem as His own. Please, again, be in prayer for us. It's exciting to be enlisted into God's great redemptive battle for the lost souls of Tanzania!
On the homefront...the house is near completion, praise the Lord!!! Living the past 5 months in someone else's house is starting to show on all of us. We have been so blessed to use our teammate's house while they furlough...Thank you Scott and Annelle!! However, the lack of routine, not being able to find our stuff in the storage containers, and an eagerness to be in our own house is all adding up to a very excited Carter family! Lord willing, we hope to be in our house by the end of this month. No joke...talk about battles...it has been a battle at every stage. I pray we never have to build again. :-) We have had to fight against corruption and dishonesty on nearly every thing that is in that house. It's exhausting at times. I joked about how I wish we could have just run to a "Lowes" or "Home Depot" but man! There is a lot of truth in that! Living in a 3rd world country has been a challenge. Building here....yikes! God has been soooooooo gracious tho.
Prices on things continue to climb and our funds for the house have continued to dwindle. What's really wonderful tho is I just asked God for a Zarephath supply. Meaning, like the widow of Zarephath, every time she dipped into her jar of oil it was there...always enough till the drought ended. Everytime we need to dip into our funds to purchase something for building, I just pray and trust God it will be there. YOu know what's really cool?? So far, it's been there..even when truthfully...according to logic..it shouldn't be! Isn't it wonderful that our God isn't confined to the rules of logic! We still have some major things to finish..the floors being one of them. But, we are trusting in the Zarephath supply from God!
On the "workfront" we are gearing up for the next round of training to begin Jan 6th. Yeah! God is bringing us 6 committed families from unreached villages who are eager to plant CMF churches among their own people. It's so amazing. We are working to expand our training to include more hands on things that will not only equip them spiritually but help them with a sustainable lifestyle as well. One is a chicken project. We are going to have a working model of raising chickens on campus here that the students will care for while here. This will not only help us with food costs for the students but they will learn how to care for chickens..hands on..while here. Our hope then is to equip each one of the families with a "starter kit" of a couple chickens that they will take back with them after graduation. Another idea is "Farming God's Way." We hope to show our students a new, practical way of farming in drought inclined areas that will yield a more thriving, productive harvest. Again, they will learn by doing while at our training. Like the chickens, we hope to offer them a "starter kit" of seeds to accompany the knowledge they will receive.
So, big things are happening here and we thank God for it! We are tired with all the happenings but at the same time we're energized by God's vision for us all! We'd love to hear from you all. Since I left my "personal" weekly emails and gone to this format I don't hear from you all as much. We'd love to hear from you tho! We furlough in spring of '09...end of April! We would love to know how we can visit you all and be a blessing to you. Plug us in!!! God is doing amazing things here and we'd love the opportunity to visit with you all personally and share with you face to face!! So, drop us line at tzcarters@gmail.com and fill us in on your lives.
Blessings abundant!
Tami
It's been a crazy two weeks or so since I last wrote. Actually, crazy is too benign. Truly..it's been demonic. We have been attacked on nearly every front. I can say that now...on the other end looking back. During it all however was a different story. The oppression was so great it was hard to see or discern clearly. Praise be to our God and Father, who has leads us in triumph for we have come out of it victoriously but not without battle wounds. The wounds serve as reminders..."Ebeneezers" of how God has helped us overcome those oppressive times.
One of the challenges we've been dealing with is in regards to the staff here. We have several people from the community employed here at the mission center. It's two fold really. We need workers but also want to give back to the community by employing their people. This has proven to be a good thing but not without its backlash at times. If we have to fire one for whatever reason it makes us vulnerable to that person's slander of us in the community. This has happened on more than one occasion. We rest in the knowledge that God is indeed our Defender and He will vindicate us in His time. However, in a culture where relationships are held at the highest level...whew...it takes time to develop trust among the people if we are being slandered. The pinnacle for me was when one of our disgruntled employees here poisoned our manager for reporting him. The employee was reprimanded for his negligence by our manager. So, to get him back, the employee offered him poisoned meat. I know that sounds so strange and beyond our western realm of thinking. Unfortunately it is a grim reality here. These two men are of the same tribe here so it never occurred to our manager that the employee would do such a thing. He gratefully received the meat and ate it. He did notice it being a strange color but again, never thot for one minute that this guy would do such a thing to him. Almost instantly our manager got sick. He took some local medicine to induce vomiting and we believe that's what helped him from it not being fatal. However, that was almost a month ago and our manager is still quite sick. There is nothing we can do now for him but pray and take medicine to help rebuild the lining in his stomach. Please be in prayer for him. This has not only affected his physical health but he lives in fear now of this employee .
This brings me to the next thing....that employee is still her. Because of labor laws and the fact that you can't "prove" a poisoning like that....he's still here. We can't officially firing him without him running to the labor dept and taking us to court. That has happened before by a disgruntled employee and nearly took us "to the cleaners." Interestingly, this present employee and that past one are connected. We recently found this out. So, we are treading this one lightly. His job will be terminated, we just need to go about it carefully and in a way that won't bring harm to any more employees here. Now they all live in fear of this man. Fear is Satan's number one tactic here. Many people are superstitious and live in great fear of curses and hexes. Let me say tho to all my western thinking friends...curses and hexes are real and damaging. The Truth tho is...Jesus Christ became the curse for us...and those whom the Son has set free are free indeed! We walk in the protection of the finished work of the cross of Christ! We are not bound by fear for God has not given us a spirit of fear but of POWER, and LOVE and SELF DISCIPLINE! Blessed be our Rock for there is NO god like our GOD!!! And this is the message we came to share with these people. This is why the enemy does not like us here and why he works over time to slander us and to thwart the advancement of the saving knowledge of Christ. But...Greater is HE that is in us than he that is in the world. The gates of hell WILL NOT prevail against God's church!!!
Please be in prayer for us for our protection but also for God to equip us with all spiritual wisdom and discernment to know and recognize the enemy's tactics and fight back.
At our most recent prayer meeting as a team I felt the Holy Spirit say to my heart.."I have sounded the battle cry. This is a time to not only protect your borders but it is a time to fight. Take up your Sword and go to battle. If the Kingdom of God is to advance in this area you have to fight for it..." God has already spoken to us as a team that "It is time to cross over and possess the land.." As we were praying on Monday the Lord helped me to see that great faith is required in possessing the land. If you remember in the story of the Israelites when they were to cross over and possess Canaan, the promise land, they had to first cross over the River Jordan at harvest time. As I understand it, this meant crossing a mile-wide stretch raging at flood level. The priests were to first put their feet into the river before the Lord would part the waters and lead them safely onto dry ground. That required immense faith. God has given us that same faith...water parting faith and we walk in it. I believe He has helped us as well to "cross over" to the other side. However, once the Israelites reached the other side their job wasn't finished. They had to go to battle against the enemies of God to obtain the land. That is where we are now as CMF here. We are in a land that God wants to redeem for Himself. We are surrounded by the enemy. God is telling us, "I will go before you to possess this land and claim these people for my own but, you must go in fighting...not with weapons as the world fights. No, the weapons I give you are divine and have the power to tear down EVERY demonic stronghold that sets itself up against the Truth...and that Truth will set them free!" Paul says "we are not of the kind that shrink back.." So, we walk in that calling...no...we RUN i that calling, wielding high the Sword of the Spirit...taking out the enemy and his legions and calling back those people whom God is pursuing to redeem as His own. Please, again, be in prayer for us. It's exciting to be enlisted into God's great redemptive battle for the lost souls of Tanzania!
On the homefront...the house is near completion, praise the Lord!!! Living the past 5 months in someone else's house is starting to show on all of us. We have been so blessed to use our teammate's house while they furlough...Thank you Scott and Annelle!! However, the lack of routine, not being able to find our stuff in the storage containers, and an eagerness to be in our own house is all adding up to a very excited Carter family! Lord willing, we hope to be in our house by the end of this month. No joke...talk about battles...it has been a battle at every stage. I pray we never have to build again. :-) We have had to fight against corruption and dishonesty on nearly every thing that is in that house. It's exhausting at times. I joked about how I wish we could have just run to a "Lowes" or "Home Depot" but man! There is a lot of truth in that! Living in a 3rd world country has been a challenge. Building here....yikes! God has been soooooooo gracious tho.
Prices on things continue to climb and our funds for the house have continued to dwindle. What's really wonderful tho is I just asked God for a Zarephath supply. Meaning, like the widow of Zarephath, every time she dipped into her jar of oil it was there...always enough till the drought ended. Everytime we need to dip into our funds to purchase something for building, I just pray and trust God it will be there. YOu know what's really cool?? So far, it's been there..even when truthfully...according to logic..it shouldn't be! Isn't it wonderful that our God isn't confined to the rules of logic! We still have some major things to finish..the floors being one of them. But, we are trusting in the Zarephath supply from God!
On the "workfront" we are gearing up for the next round of training to begin Jan 6th. Yeah! God is bringing us 6 committed families from unreached villages who are eager to plant CMF churches among their own people. It's so amazing. We are working to expand our training to include more hands on things that will not only equip them spiritually but help them with a sustainable lifestyle as well. One is a chicken project. We are going to have a working model of raising chickens on campus here that the students will care for while here. This will not only help us with food costs for the students but they will learn how to care for chickens..hands on..while here. Our hope then is to equip each one of the families with a "starter kit" of a couple chickens that they will take back with them after graduation. Another idea is "Farming God's Way." We hope to show our students a new, practical way of farming in drought inclined areas that will yield a more thriving, productive harvest. Again, they will learn by doing while at our training. Like the chickens, we hope to offer them a "starter kit" of seeds to accompany the knowledge they will receive.
So, big things are happening here and we thank God for it! We are tired with all the happenings but at the same time we're energized by God's vision for us all! We'd love to hear from you all. Since I left my "personal" weekly emails and gone to this format I don't hear from you all as much. We'd love to hear from you tho! We furlough in spring of '09...end of April! We would love to know how we can visit you all and be a blessing to you. Plug us in!!! God is doing amazing things here and we'd love the opportunity to visit with you all personally and share with you face to face!! So, drop us line at tzcarters@gmail.com and fill us in on your lives.
Blessings abundant!
Tami
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