Looking

I have not posted in a while and I want to keep you guys updated so although things are slow right now I decided to write about the past few weeks. Since it is not summer teams haven't been coming down so there has been nothing as far as teams or safaris go. The past several weeks I have been working on building a database and organizing all the music for The Ocean (the international church im involved with). This took a couple of weeks to get up-to-date and from here out won't be much work. I have also been working on putting together a picture directory for the church. This includes taking pictures and finding out to somehow make sure we have correct information for all the members and then finding the best program to use to do this (which i havent found yet). When get the information one of the things we plan on doing is putting together a map so we can find out where the church is spread out and more effectively organize small group things so we can avoid being just a Sunday gathering. Traffic in Dar is ridiculous and going anywhere in the evening is almost pointless so with small groups in each area we will be able to grow and be more effective throughout the week. That is one of the main struggles with the church right now. We are a Sunday gathering. However, people are wanting more and we are wanting more. In my spare time I have been working on Photoshop and photography. Doing different design things for the church and just learning as much as I can about it.
We have just recently had our second Prayer, Praise & Pilau which is on Thursdays and is a time for people to come eat Pilau (rice with ginger and various spices) and enter into the throne room of God. We pretty much just spend an hour seeking God and then hear a short message and fellowship with one another. God has really been moving at P3. We have three prayer meetings throughout the week. Sunday morning before the service and Tuesday and Thursday me, Steve, Joshua, Paul and Dan (the pastor and 3 of the leaders) get together and just seek God on behalf of The Ocean. It is always a powerful time and God shows up and moves during our time of prayer. Yesterday we began to pray for the church and then started praying for that those who aren't Spirit filled would have a hunger for it and get filled. We also began praying for the millions of unreached in Dar Es Salaam alone. As we prayed I really felt like God wanted us to hear that He is searching. I just kept hearing it over and over, "I am searching Paul. I'm looking. Just as in Isaiah I looked for someone to send and just as in Ezekiel I looked for someone to stand in the gap and build up the hedge. My eyes are going to and fro and I'm searching." So I feel led to take this time (as I sit in the office of our house/church and listen to the rain, that we so desperately need in Dar, pour down outside) to just simply remind you, whoever you may be reading this, of who is looking and searching for you as you carry on with work, school, your hobbies, your freetime, your sleep...whatever it is.
1. Satan is searching. Job 1:6,7; 1 Peter 5:8. These verses let us know that satan is going about like a lion seeking someone to devour. He is roaming around the earth, searching, looking for someone that he can destroy. Peter warns us, "Be of sober spirt, be on the alert."
2. God is searching. Ezekiel 22:30; Isaiah 6:8. These verses show us the God is searching. He is looking for someone to send. Someone to go. Someone to pray. Someone to get a heart for their nation and their people and pray for them like their lives depended on it.
3. People are searching. 2 Corinthians 3:2 lets us know that we are a letter read by all men. A letter of Christ, written by the Holy Spirit. So I just want to put out a reminder that your co-worker, your friend, your enemy, the person in the village who has never heard of God, the Muslim, the Buddhist, the backslider, the one running from his/her calling. They are watching you. They are searching. "Is this the one that's going to be different?" "Is this the one that's going to forget about everything for a minute and come talk to me? Even though I look like I want nothing to do with God?"
This is obviously nothing new but is in my heart and is definitely something we haven't perfected yet.

Prayer requests
-Prayer for the village of Mkoko that we went to a while back. Pray God would supernaturally get a hold of them through dreams and visions and would bring growth to the seeds we planted.
-Pray God would pour out His Spirit on The Ocean. We want more than just a Sunday gathering. We want God to radically change lives and use The Ocean to bring about a revival to the youth and business people of Tanzania.
-Pray God would use me on the campus of the university. School starts next week. Pray that I be bold and that I speak everything God would have me speak to everyone He would put in my path and that lives would be change.
-Pray for my friend Issa. He is a young Muslim guy we met on the campus. We have been ministering to him and let him watch the Passion. He now wants to read the bible. Pray we present Jesus to him in such a way that it grips his heart.
-Pray for your missionaries. Pray God would let us be hungrier and hungrier for Him and more and more dependent on Him.

Thanks. I love you all and miss you.
Paul