Monday Morning Staff Devotions

Joann (teammate) has added a tremendous amount of TLC and Encouragement to our National Staff since their move from Katesh post language study. This has been a needed role of someone with her gifting and time to devote to the personal cares of staff. She faithfully attends the staff devotions every Monday morning. Here is a clip of a moving morning between the previous weeks gift from a church planter, a heart of a sharing missionary, and a grateful recipient in need who is our assistant teacher in Kids Training.

From Mike and Joann Noel, CMF missionaries in Tanzania:

1 Timothy 6 tell us to be rich in good deeds and share with one another.

As it happened, Mike and I were given a 50-pound sack of sugar by friends in Katesh. These friends run a wholesale bulk distributing business. They are successful. They give God the glory. Mike and I had already determined that we would like to share the sugar with all the workers at the training center. Hot tea called ‘chai’ with sugar is an important part of daily life in Tanzania. So we kept some for ourselves then divided the rest of the sugar into about 21 2-pound bags. As I measured the sugar, I commented to Mike, “This doesn’t seem like much.” But I knew it would be appreciated.

When I handed out the sugar after devotions at the training center this morning, everyone was so happy and thanked me. One woman started to cry. She is a young widow trying to raise a daughter and a son. She is one of our teachers for the church planters' children. Although she is not always at the center for Monday devotions, she was today! And it just so happened that she had run out of sugar. She did not have the money to buy more. And she had prayed. Through tears she thanked God for providing for her need. One of the other workers decided to give up his bag of sugar. It was a very moving experience. Many eyes were moist. God wants to use us to bless each other!