Try as they might, in 1 Kings 18 the prophets of Baal could not do enough to make their god burn their sacrifice, but when called upon by Elijah, the True God showed His sovereignty above all gods.

In September our continuing education for East Africa was on spiritism and animism. It was a blessing to have Dr. Kou and Mrs. Mei Kou Seying from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Dr. Kou reminded us how God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, creator of all things, is above all gods, and only He can bring true peace, freedom, forgiveness, eternal life and vocational purpose because of Christ's sacrifice on the cross for us, to defeat sin, death and the devil for us. He taught us about how many people who believe in spiritism or animism live in fear of consequences of all their actions. As missionaries, these are things we will run into regularly as we partner with the Lutheran Churches in Africa to share the peace giving Gospel of Christ crucified for all our sins.

Our training took place in the mountains north of Nairobi and we were greatly blessed and encouraged to meet with all the other missionaries in the East Africa Area Team. It was definitely a time of learning, but also of fellowship and friendship building. We even got to see a couple wild animals around the grounds.

Before returning to Tanzania to language training we were again blessed to be able to stay in our house—on the floor, but it was home for a couple nights! We even made pancakes on our not-completely-installed stove.

Upon our return to Tanzania, our teacher shared some of his observations about spiritism in this area. Tanzania has a very rich culture and history with quite the mix of Christians, Muslims and traditional religions. Many people, even those who proclaim Christ, will turn to witchdoctors to appease ancestral spirits. The work for the Church is great!

We are thankful for the teaching we are receiving here!

John Wolf is the Africa Region Project Manager for the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. He and his family, with the support of LCMS churches like Saint John’s, are serving in Kenya. Please keep them in your prayers! We encourage you to follow their family blog, www.hereiamsendmesendme.blogspot.com, which is also where you can sign up to their mailing list and make donations.