Tanzania Team Member Shares..

As we begin our journey towards Tanzania I will give different team members an opportunity to share with you how God worked in her life to encourage her to travel with us to Tanzania. This week we will be hearing from Rona, one of our ladies from Clarksville, AR.

I first heard about Pure Joy International going to Tanzania at a Bible study on Nehemiah at the home of my pastor’s wife, Debbie Goodman. We were studying the very first chapter where Nehemiah had just learned of the tragic conditions in Jerusalem. Nehemiah could have ignored the situation but he wanted to know what was happening in Jerusalem and once he knew, he felt obligated to do something. That evening, we were asked to pray that God would develop in us the heart that Jesus has for others. So I began praying and each time I prayed, the people and work being done in the country of Tanzania became a burden upon my heart. Nehemiah prayed for about four months. I wasn’t that patient; the following week at Bible study, I informed Debbie that I thought God was calling me to go to Tanzania. She suggested that I contact Vickie. I emailed Vickie the following week and in the note I included the words from Isaiah 6:8 that say “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then said I, ‘Here am I; send me’.”

In order for you to understand what happened next, I have to explain two things.

First, my husband and I travel a lot and when we travel separately on business trips we have a tradition of bringing back a refrigerator magnet  from the places that we go so that the other person can remember the experience each time he/she looks at the magnet. We only display magnets of places that we have actually visited.

 

Secondly, a few years ago after visiting a foreign mission field and seeing the need for additional funds for the building of facilities such as churches and camps on the mission field, my husband started a project called “Can Do” at our local church, Stillwell Bible Baptist in Clarksville, AR. The idea was to collect cans (later it turned into collecting all kinds of metal objects), separate the metal and then sell it. The money that was collected was sent to the mission’s office to be used to build churches and church facilities in conjunction with missionaries worldwide. He often collects some interesting or unusual items and will sometimes ask me to try to guess what he had found that day. He usually does this when he has found “dryer change.” This is loose change that has been lost in the dryer which he finds when he is disassembling the dryer parts.

On this particular occasion, he came into the house with a smile on his face and said, “You’ll never guess what I found today.” My first guess was a large amount of dryer change but my guess was wrong. After guessing several other times to no avail he finally pulled out of his pocket a refrigerator magnet. The magnet displayed a beautiful sunset, the shadowy figure of a giraffe and to my surprise the word Tanzania on it! It must be a sign! I am now 100% sure that I must go to Tanzania not only because I already have a magnet from there but because like Nehemiah, I have a God-inspired heart that has no choice but to do something! 

Thank you, Donna Rona (the team nicknamed her that so we wouldn't pronounce it wrong). Please continue to pray for Tanzania and our missionary women there.  

His,

Vickie