Heading out they hit a cow. Coming back they hit a car. For those in Land Cruiser number 4 the trip to, through and from Ngorongoro Conservation Area was particularly eventful.

For everyone else the trip was wonderful, if a little less exciting.

After the medical team’s great successes at the clinic and the tech team’s  efforts with the HUB training everyone was in need of a break and Ngorongoro was just the thing.

Our land cruisers left at 7:15 a.m. for the safari and we arrived at the park at 10:45 a.m. The landscape on the journey to the park was beautiful, but once we made in onto the rim of the crater that fences in Ngorongoro, we could remember nothing else.

The website calls this place the “Eden of Africa” and I think we would all agree with it on that point.

The tour lasted six hours and took us up the side of the crater to the rim, around the rim through the thick brush and foliage, down into the crater and then back up and out of the park.We saw so many incredible animals while on the safari, including a pair of happy newlyweds (see above).

One pair was particularly amusing. Two juvenile male lions loitering beside the road decided to take advantage of the shade of our Land Cruisers and plopped themselves down beside the ill fated truck number 4. No one was injured, but those lions certainly put in some face time for our cameras.

We saw elephants, gazelle, rhinocerous, ostriches, and rich Serengeti ringed all around by beautiful mountains. That place is an enchanted paradise of  trees, crystal clear air and incredible views.

We had a great day and it was a great way to wrap up the very first, message-sponsored medical missions trip. We are so grateful to have had the privilege of serving the people of Tanzania.

Tomorrow we will have service with the believers at the Evening Light Tabernacle and head for the airport at 6 p.m. please pray for our flights and please never stop praying for the people of Tanzania.

God Bless you all.

A medical mission can be incredibly satisfying for medical professionals. It presents the opportunity for doctors and nurses to be truly useful; they are able use their skills to improve the quality of life for hundreds of people who may never have seen a doctor before.

The opposite can also be true. Having patients come in with chronic diseases and ailments like arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure can be disheartening because there is simply no way to treat these ailments long term. A month’s supply is sometimes all they could do.

But even in that month’s supply, there is still a measure of satisfaction. Even if all each person ever gets is one month without pain and relief from other symptoms, at least they got that month. The motto for the week is “Be flexible and patient” and the medical team has certainly been both.

It is truly astonishing how many people our PA’s and nurses, as well as the local doctors, have seen in the past three days. Approximately 300 people have been seen and treated.

Many of the people came to the clinic with ailments such as extremely high blood pressure, asthma, vision problems and diabetes among other things. At one point, the patients were asked to only list two conditions or problems.

Most listed five or more serious problems.

Since this was the last day of the clinic, the team opted to work an extra hour. God will bless them for that. The heat (while not as bad as yesterday) was brutal and everyone was showing the strain. Nevertheless, they continued working.

Once we made it to lunch, Bill Childers, PA (affectionately known to the Tanzanian’s as “Doctor Bill,” told how he had expressed some frustration to his translator. He and his wife Jen and the nurses and dentists and pharmacy workers did everything that was in their powers to help people, and yet it still felt like they had not done enough.

In response to Bill’s frustration, his translator said “Words cannot express how much good you have done. Not even so much the pills, but simply having traveled so far just to be here gives the people so much hope and reason to carry on.”

Now for a feeble attempt at balanced coverage.

Bro. Barry hosted a ministers’ meeting this morning. Bro. Eugene spoke for about 15 minutes and then Bro. Barry conducted a 45 minute bible study on the God head. Then Bro. Barry gave out cloths that had been prayed for by Bro. Branham.

Bro. Eugene will speak to the ministers again tomorrow.

The tech team continued their training of the HUB equipment and also distributed all their computers, laptops, printers and other equipment to the librarians and translators who attended the training sessions yesterday. The light in those brothers’ eyes was something to behold as they received the tools they need to translate the Message and get it into the hands of the people more efficiently.

The effect of the work done here, both physically and spiritually, is quite honestly immeasurable, and the whole group feels so blessed to have been a part of this mission to Tanzania.

Tomorrow, everyone except Bro. Eugene will head out to Ngorongoro for an all day safari. Look out wild, here we come!

After a good night’s rest, another day with the wonderful people of Tanzania began. The medical team arrived at the clinic at approximately eight-thirty in the morning.  Set- up of the clinic was expedited and triage of patients began immediately.  In the tent used for triage, every chair was full. Each person was eager to be examined but everyone was extremely patient. Some waited from the opening of the clinic at 8:30 in the morning til 1:00 in the afternoon when the team had to close the clinic in order to reassemble the church for the upcoming service.

A few changes in the operation of the clinic yielded outstanding results; in the course of the day, over one-hundred and twenty patients were treated.  That’s one- hundred more than were seen on Wednesday. The Tanzanian people were very happy to not only see one of the four doctors on staff, but to visit a dentist as well.

While patients were being treated at the clinic, the technical team was busy at the hotel training fourteen translators and librarians. Each will receive a computer capable of printing messages from the Message Hub. With the extra printing toner that was brought on the trip, the translators have the capacity to print approximately 250,000 Message books before needing additional toner.

Before the bus came to a stop in front of the Church compound at four o’clock in the afternoon, the worship of the Tanzanian Saints could be heard. The singing had started about an hour prior and was still going strong! Pastor Dixon, and a group of believers from his church in Malawi,  sang a truly outstanding special that was thoroughly enjoyed by the entire congregation; especially by our mission group. The song service was followed by a dynamic sermon from Eugene Braun that drew shouts of appreciation from the congregation.

Truly, we can say we were blessed because we came.

Flexibility and Patience. These two words epitomize the spirit of this trip and proved to be the anthem of the day for both the medical and technical teams.

The medical team ready for the first day

The medical team arrived at the Evening Light Tabernacle at around 8:30 a.m. and immediately began the work to create the clinic on the church grounds. After a tour of the various rooms at the church and the large awning on the grounds used for the clinic, the team met in the sanctuary to delegate roles and establish how to process patients.

Led by Bill and Jen Childers, the medical team came together beautifully and by 10:30 a.m. had the first patient in triage.

Sis. Judy Dilling taking temperatures at the clinic

The weather was beautiful when we arrived, but quickly turned hot and muggy and then took a turn towards down-right tropical. For everyone working, this proved to be a challenge, but not something 1.5 liter bottles of water couldn’t help.

The patient response was phenomenal for the first day. Charity Jenkins said she handed out 120 number cards and many more waited outside the waiting area. Unfortunately, only 26 patients were seen. This might seem like an insignificant number, but Bill spoke a wise word when he told the group that they were not here to save the world, they could only help as many as was possible in the time.

Tomorrow the medical team will begin bright and early at 8 a.m. in order to see as many patients as possible. The people here are so grateful for the assistance and the smiles tell all that the language barrier disallows.

Computers and equipment for the translators and libraries

Back in the hotel, the tech team worked very hard to get 14 of the 17 computers and monitors, and HUB printers set up, primed and ready to train the translators and librarians who translate the Message to Swahili.

The tech team setting up

After lunch and a brief nap for some, Bro. Barry Coffey spoke to a packed house on the different types of faith required for healing and for salvation.

Service with the saints

Tomorrow, Bro. Barry will teach on the ministry of translators in a morning session at the church. The tech team has established an intranet to connect the seven Message libraries in Tanzania, and the translators and librarians will also receive training on that intranet and on how to use the HUB printers.

We continue to ask for your prayers for this trip and we look forward to tomorrow’s challenges and blessings.

Tutuonana (See you tomorrow)

Thank you to all who prayed for traveling mercies: everyone arrived safely and well within time to make the final connection to Mt. Kilamanjaro Airport!

We were greeted at the airport in Tanzania by Bro. Zephaniah and around 20 believers, who made us feel very much welcome and at home. It was a joy to be able to immediately meet and connect with the believers here.

The believers were really sweet and did not let us lift a single bag. They loaded our small mountain of luggage into a truck and onto the top of the bus and then followed along behind us on the 45 minute drive from the airport to our hotel. The hotel provided us with tea and coffee when we arrived.

Part of the group on the bus

Then we all gathered our luggage and headed to bed for some much needed sleep.

Tomorrow the medical team will head to the church to set up the clinic and the technical team will prepare the Hub equipment for training.

Look for a video of the tomorrow’s work in the next post.

God bless and please continue to pray that our work tomorrow with go smoothly and as planned.

Lord willing we will arrive in Arusha at night their time, which should be when you are waking up(Time changes are confusing).

Videos and photoes of the mission will be starting as soon as we can.

Thanks everybody! Stay tuned!

Welcome to all those who are going to follow along with us as we travel across the world to Africa! This page will be where our PR team for the trip will be keeping you up to date on how the trip is going and what’s happening. You can also join us on Facebook and Twitter.

Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/HBTMissions.
On Facebook: http://bit.ly/8vPfke

You will be able to find photos on our flickr stream (at right). Also, our tweets will appear on the blog, so check often.

Keep us in your prayers as we make the final preparations!

God bless!

In an email from Bro. Elias Pallangyo, our lead translator, and coordinator in Arusha, he described the anticipation of the Tanzanian believers:

“People are so much excited all over the country. They are calling now and enquiring about the meetings. They are coming from the jungles from all over Tanzania. This will be the greatest meeting we have ever had in our country.”

Ahead of our arrival in Arusha, a second shipment of supplies has just arrived in Tanzania and was unloaded with great joy. The shipments were considerably larger

than we had previously expected as God blessed us with over 2,700 pounds of medicines, medical equipment, free computers, HUB printers and many other items.

We now have 30 people going on our trip from all over North America. We have two doctors, and eight nurses and technicians with six medical assistants.

They need the support of the saints around the world right now as they attempt to pick up the shattered pieces and restart their lives.

Bro Andre Petit and the church in Quebec are raising funds to assist the believers in Haiti. If you wish to make a donation to-ward this effort, you may do so by visiting the church’s website: www.eveninglight.ca or by emailing Bro. Andre at: andre.petit@videotron.ca

We are also looking forward to the meetings that will be held every evening beginning on Wednesday the 27th. Bro. Pallangyo and the other brothers have made arrangements to bring Believers from each of the churches. Some of them will be coming from the most remote parts of Tanzania as well as the drought-stricken areas.

“We decided that we will only bring about 2 to 3 people from each church depending on the distance because of the traveling costs. They are very high. We will try to make sure that at least half of the ministers attend the meet-ings. It is not possible to bring them all.”

With only 10 days left before we arrive in Arusha, our anticipation is growing just as quickly and vibrantly as our brothers and sisters in Africa. Believers are also coming from other neighboring nations as well.

In the drought stricken areas of western Tanzania, food aid is finally reaching the villages. Some of the Believers used donkeys to transport the sacks of grain, flour and meal to the villages and settlements far away from roadways.

The team of missionaries that work out of Bro. Zephaniah’s church have been busy delivering supplies and evaluating the situation in the region.

While we are in Tanzania, we will have continuous updates of our activities with photos and video clips. These can all be accessed 24 hours each day, and may be found site.