John Rowse’s Great Opportunities – December 2022

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Hi everyone,

Scammed!

This is John. It’s been quieter going for me, just 4 hours north of the Zambia border, here in Tanzania. I have just been with Moses, although very briefly. It was wonderful. I’m now in Mbeya, and am recovered after two setbacks. I fell for a serious scam that cost me $10,000 supposedly buying me another LandRover via eBay. Shortly after that, I was hit with a really heavy cold but I’m now over that, thankfully. I have now had to get major work done on our old LandRover, which has set me back a bit, but it should do me well now for the next round of seminars next Easter and the following months.

Troubles

Because of car trouble, I had to spend the night in a small town on my way south from Iringa, where, because of that lurgy I got, I could not do anything in Iringa. I found a local auto-electrician who’d trained in Mbeya, and he got me mobile again. Before that, I was in Dodoma, where the Lutherans took a couple of hundred copies of our TEE workbook for their TEE program. And before that, I was in Babati, well to the south of Arusha. It went really well, as was the case in the other two centres—or ‘deaneries’—of the Diocese of Mt Kilimanjaro—Moshi and Arusha. The current bishop—Bp Hotay—was a marked improvement on a couple of the earlier bishops I’d encountered there. He was very clear on the gospel. Everywhere I taught his pastors though, they needed a lot of work, but they were all teachable.

Anglicans

A highlight for me was the Anglican Bible College of Munguishi. Some excellent work had been done by Mike Taylor, there with his wife, Katie and kids from NSW. Pray for them—a delightful family. But there were some tough customers. Mike had clearly had a great influence on some of the other teaching staff, but, to my utter surprise, a past enemy of the gospel presented himself to me. He was none other than the former Moravian bishop in Mbeya whose opposition had caused me no little grief in years gone by. Here he was, as large as life, happily teaching in an Anglican college when he had been barred, on moral grounds, from any ministry with the Mbeya Moravians. He was still firmly opposed to the truth, but it was good to have the opportunity to teach him. Please pray for him to truly turn and pray that he will not be allowed to continue teaching there and that he won’t have a bad influence on the students.

Moravians

With him gone, the Moravian Church in Mbeya is now a brand new scene—very welcoming. I’m right in the middle of teaching them now—in their Mbeya Central zone. Then, tomorrow afternoon I leave them and head south to Kyela, to meet Pastor Mwambola and Bp Mwaikali of the new Lutheran denomination that has risen out of the troubles I wrote about in an earlier letter. I also had seminars with their pastors from all over Arusha and Kilimanjaro, and with the students at their Bible school, St Peters in Himo, just after being with the students from the other Lutheran church in the northern Pare Hills which I mentioned in the last letter. I expect to be with the other Lutherans again fairly soon. This last Sunday I was with the Mbeya Tertiary Students’ Christian Fellowship preaching to them at their end-of-year get-together. And before that I had a really great day at the Baptist Bible School in Tukuyu, a couple of hours south of here.

More Moravians

Next week I am with Moravian pastors and evangelists from another two zones, outside of Mbeya. Then the week following, yet another zone. They are very confused but very open. They’ve also given me five sessions on their radio, Radio Baraka. Sadly, one dear brother I had among them, Willey, was killed in a horrific accident involving a petrol tanker that caught fire. Please pray for his family.

More Prayer

Please be praying for all these people I’ve been with, and for those I’ll be with between now and Christmas when I fly to Dar and then arrive in Melbourne in early January.  Thank you all for your praying. Every group I’ve been with so far has been so needy, and yet so teachable. It has been wonderful.

Please be praying for Kay, who is recovering from COVID, Asha who was caring for her, and Becka and Timothy, but especially, Philip, who is facing huge trials.

Thanks for being with us.

John—with love from Kay.