Inward and onward...

After spending 4 days working in Zanzibar, it was time for us to return to the mainland. We hopped another quick flight back to Dar Es Salaam and checked back into our hotel for the night. The next morning, we departed for Ikwiriri Village- a three hour drive south of Dar.

Along the way we stopped at the Rufiji River Restaurant for a bathroom break and sodas. We stopped at this particular establishment for one very specific reason involving my husband, J, and JB- another member of the CHaRA team.

The restaurant exterior

In 2001 both J and JB were team members on our church's first mission trip to Tanzania where they were doing a building project in Kibiti. Since there was no place to eat there, they ate each day at this restaurant in nearby Rufiji River. At the end of their stay, Pastor G asked the restaurant owner if the team could pray for him before they left. The Muslim owner agreed and the team prayed for him and for his business to prosper. The team then moved on to their next project in another village several hours away.

The restaurants menu- tea, bread, beef soup, rice, potatoes, egg, soda, and chicken soup...

A couple of years later, R and C McD (the missionaries with whom the original team had worked, who have since gone on to found CHaRA), were passing through Rufiji River. They stopped at this same restaurant. When they went inside they discovered that the owner had made quite a few improvements and expanded his establishment. They asked the owner about the changes and he told them about how he had prospered financially since they had last seen him...

(L to R) JB, the restaurant owner, J

He related that shortly after that team had prayed for him, an outbreak of cholera had swept through the village. Every restaurant in the vicinity was closed due to health concerns except this restaurant. Needless to say, business boomed! The owner immediately recognized that this new found prosperity could only be attributed to the team's prayer for him, and he made sure that R and C prayed for him again before they left that day and each time that they have seen him since. We were privileged to pray for him before we left that day as well...

Next installment- a malaria clinic in Ikwiriri Village

-LeeAnn