Kome Island, Tanzania - Adult Ministry and Crusade
The remaining three of us were also told that we had to leave the island on Sunday so that we can join all other people who would be leaving Tanzania at Mwanza by boat for Uganda.  Because of this restriction, we could only participate two days of crusade instead of all three days of crusade.  The last day of crusade were done all by local pastors.
 
      The second day of the crusade started at 4 PM also.  I delivered the message that we should love one another to lead a victorious living.  I explained to them different kinds of love, the importance of communication in loving relationship, and above all the importance of forgiving others.  I told them that love and truth can make them winners at all situations.  I ended my preaching by telling how Cori Ten Boom was able to forgive her previous Nazi prosecutor who killed her parents and her siblings in the concentration camp, but came to attend her crusade after the Second World War was over, and came to the back stage to meet her and asked her for her forgiveness.  It was all because God loved us and forgave us first while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8).  I asked to come out those who want to confirm their salvation, or want to rededicate their lives to the Lord.  About 15 people came out, and I along with the local pastors prayed for them.  Then I asked to come out  those need healing.  Again about 100 people came out again, and many of them were healed after we prayed. 
Because we were leaving the island at dawn next day, we had a dinner together with many local people.  Also many young people came to where we sleep, and talked to us.  

       There was a young man sitting besides me quietly.  As the most of the people were leaving, only two of us were left and he handed me a small crumpled bunch of papers.  It was all dark except the kerosene lamp at a far away in the big yard.  I thought that he was giving me a list of people who wants to have a copy of the Bible.  But when I tried to see what it was, it was money.  I told him that I did not come for money but because I love the Lord.  He did not speak English, but he held up both of his hands together and kept saying, Mungu.  In Kswahili, Mungu means God.  I kept refusing the money several times.  He became more desperate calling Mungu as I was not accepting the money.  I finally felt that it would be better to accept the money, and I accepted it.  As soon as I accept the money, he left also leaving me alone.  I examined the money I received and it was 5000 Tanzanian schillings which is about US $ 5.00.  This is a large donation because the average donation in Tanzania is about 1000 schillings on Sunday and the average salary of the high school teacher is about  150,000 schillings.  I had many people asking me to donate money for their projects, but this was the first time some one donated money for us.  Also this was done willingly for God.  I thanked the Lord for leaving the remnants of faith for His purpose and for our encouragement.  I remembered what God told Elijah in 1 King 19:18, ¡°I reserve seven thousand in Israel  all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal ¡¦¡± and also Paul commented in Romans 11:5, So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.¡±
 he people gathered again after 10 PM, and continued the crusade until 1 AM next morning, but we could not participate because we had to wake up at 5:30 AM to leave the island at 6 AM the next morning by a rented Land Rover.

       All three seminars and crusade were enthusiastically received by the people on Kome Island, and our team did something we could never dreamed we could do  even to the extent that some people on the island compared our mission to that of Livingstone or Dr. Schweitzer.

Communigy leaders Seminar Komelsland, Tanzania
 I  used the material prepared by Christian Life World Mission Frontier to lead this seminar.  This material is based on Saemaul (New Village) Campaign that was used in South Korea to break away from the repeating cycles of poverty and to achieve a long term modernization of the country.  I was wondering whether I should do Church Leaders Seminar or Community Leaders Seminar, but finally I decided to cover this seminar because the people of Tanzania and specifically the people of Kome Island need material development as much as spiritual development.  I had the experience of visiting remote villages for a period of about two weeks each time when I was in high school as part of so called ¡°rural area  enlightenment movement.¡±  I was hoping that my high school experience would be helpful.  Even though I did this more than forty years ago, it stayed in my heart as a valuable experience.

      From Monday afternoon to Tuesday afternoon, I had covered the history and background of the Saemaul campaign and how to start a project involving the whole community.
 Three basic elements for initiating a project were taught: business plan, people, and fund or seed money.  Much of these ideas appeared to be from the concept of starting a new business except in this case the village people are involved in stead of entrepreneurs.  I have given many examples how housewives or farmers started a new project, formed a co-op, or started a new credit union or company.  On Wednesday morning, I asked them to present their own ideas as to how they could apply these principles to develop something useful economically in the community.  Many ideas were presented: some related to growing cash crop vegetables, forming a water company that could provide potable water harvesting trees, etc.  There was one man who originally came from Congo and was interested in starting a University.  His presentation was all about education  having a better education can solve all the problems.  I presented many difficult concepts to them in short time, and I could see that they were really groping when they were pressed to present their  own ideas on how to make money using the tools and environment they have.

     During this presentation period, one lady asked how the people on the island could obtain a source of drinkable water because many people become sick or even die by drinking the water from Lake Victoria.  When this question was raised, the whole class became quiet and several men provided additional explanations.  Later I  learned that Pastor Patrick, the World Mission Frontier coordinator on  the island, also lost his first wife because she drank the water from Lake Victoria without boiling it without realizing that it was not boiled.