Fantastic Plans from Tanzania

God blessed us with good meetings here at the Highlands Camp. The pastors meeting, as well as the youth leaders meeting, went well and men left with a vision for youth ministry and camp ministry that can have an impact on our churches and our nation. Twenty-one were in attendance at the Pastors and Missionaries meeting and 27 in the Youth Leaders meeting.
The Vision Casting meetings were Step One of our strategy for launching the youth camp ministry. Those of you in attendance at the annual BBMT meeting may remember we outlined 4 Strategical Steps.
Step One: Vision Casting (July 2009)
Step Two: Teaching and Training (December 2009)
Step Three: Preparing and Promoting (January-June 2010)
Step Four: Launching (June 2010)
Tentative dates were set for Step Two, the Teaching and Training camp, to be held here at the Highlands December 14th - 17th. This camp will be a training camp for leaders and youth who will serve in our first evangelistic camps. Only faithful leaders and young people from our churches will be invited to this training camp. There is a list of qualifications which must be met by all in attendance December. The qualifications are currently as follows:
1. Must be a saved, baptized member of the church
2. Must have a good testimony in the church and in the community
3. Must have a heart to do ministry in the church (either actively doing a ministry or eager to volunteer and do ministry when asked)
4. Must have a learning spirit and willing to receive instruction (either a Bible institute student or pursuing enrollment, etc)
5. Must be faithful in church services and youth meetings as well
6. Must be willing to pay the fee for the training camp (to be determined)
7. Must fulfill other qualifications (memorization verses to be issued as well as a book reading assignment)
8. Must be 15 years of age or older (unless a secondary school student of 14 years old)
Strategically, we are on schedule and on track for launching our first evangelistic camps in June of 2010. The concern is the construction and equipping of the camp. It is very unlikely that the camp will be fully ready to receive the leaders and youth for training in December. It is probable that we will have to make do with the facilities available and supplement with outside cooking, etc. I will be asking Bob to assist us by pushing for the following by December:
1. Two dorms operational with adequate running water and useable toilets and showers.
2. Enough beds and mattresses for sleeping 50 - 100 leaders and student leaders
3. Tables and chairs for meal times with the above
We will likely have to use one side of a dorm for our meetings and training, and hire cooking from outside.
All of the men were particularly excited about the development of the sports field across the ravine from the camp. This is on the original property purchased before the Rawlings came on board. It is a beautiful property and ideal location for our playing fields. It helps to expand the camp and allow breathing room for when we have hundreds of campers on the property for game times. Knowing the fanaticism of Tanzanian youth when it comes to soccer, they have ideas of using that area for sports related camps, etc. after the evangelistic camps are launched.
I will send several emails with some scaled down photos of our meeting. If you do not want to download them, delete those coming with "Photos" in the subject line. If you would like some full scale photos for printing, contact me with your request.
All for now. Thank you for praying,

Dave and Bonnie Jones
P.O. Box 986
Morogoro
Tanzania

For pictures and additional information about the Highlands Tanzania ministry, go to http://www.impactyouthww.com/