Christmas 2006 Newsletter

New Life Band Ministries

P.O. Box 2378

Arusha, Tanzania

East Africa

Tel: 255 27 2500930

e-mail: newlifeband@habari.co.tz

Vol. 5, No. 1, Christmas, 2006

The Mission to Youth and Students (New Life Band) from Tanzania, East Africa, is an inter-denominational ministry that serves as an instrument to transform the lives of youth and students within Tanzania through the gospel of Jesus Christ by giving them hope and opportunity by knowing that they are loved.

VERY SUCCESSFUL USA TOUR

As of this writing, we are just completing our 3-1/2 month tour of the USA, visiting churches and friends in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin for the first 5 weeks, and spending the rest of our time in California. We deeply regret that we were unable to visit Arizona this year, but the shortened schedule was necessary so that we could return earlier to our very busy ministry in Africa. We were really on a "whirlwind" the whole time, visiting some 70 churches, rotary clubs and other organizations. We performed at 17 schools, and had numerous informal evenings, dinners, classes, and events with you. It has been so good to share our ministry with you, along with our hopes and dreams for the future of our ministries in Africa. We particularly enjoyed being in the Midwest during the beautiful Fall season of September and October and in California during your Thanksgiving holiday.

One of our highlights this year was our return to the Midwest for a short period in early November as special guests at a major conference for STEMM (Siouxland Tanzania Educational and Medical Ministries) in Sioux City, Iowa for the celebration of their 10th anniversary. They flew all 7 of us from San Jose, California back to Sioux City for the celebration. They visited us 10 years ago in Tanzania when they first started their ministry.

Our entire 3 month trip had so many exciting and meaningful experiences that it would be impossible to describe them all. But here are a few that illustrate your wonderful response and our deep friendship with you:

• Hosting some or all of us in more than 100 homes throughout the tour
• The loan of vans for our transportation throughout the tour
• The beginning of a "Buy a Brick - Build a School" program, at various schools
• A high school music program where they donated the entire proceeds to our school
• Singing and sharing our faith with a total of more than 10,000 people through our concerts, meetings, programs, and discussions with you.
• The many meetings with adult groups and youth organizations and the sharing of ideas and perspectives.

Thank you so much for your generosity! With fond memories of our Tour, we look forward to our return home to our Families on December 17, and to all of our very active youth programs in the new year.

OUR SECONDARY SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION

As you can see from the picture, we have made great progress on our school construction this year. Funds were available to build two more classrooms, in addition to the original four. We decided to build a multi-story school building to eventually be 3 stories, to allow better use of our land and our master plan, and to accommodate some difficult soil conditions with a more substantial building and foundation.

Our water problem looks like it may be solved! A political solution has been reached that will have public water in this area by next year. Meanwhile, for construction, we are using trucked water and two underground plastic tanks at the school site. We have been able to share some of this water with local Maasai women who currently walk miles carrying buckets of water on their heads.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!

We wish you God's richest blessings at this time when we celebrate the birth of Lord Jesus. Thank you again for your prayers, your friendship, and your support.

Asante sana na Mungu awabariki! (means thank you so much and God bless you).

GOSPEL CONCERTS AND OPEN AIR CRUSADES

We had two big concerts in Arusha and Moshi in May and July where we invited people from different denominations to come together to worship and praise our Lord Jesus Christ. They turned out in big numbers of more than 5,000 people to worship and pray together. The Holy Ghost was very present and ministered to all of us. Those who were sick went home praising Jesus for the miracle of healing and a refreshed spirit.

We also sang at two Crusades, one in July and one in August, with well-known teachers and preachers that ministered to approximately 200,000 people. We were pleased to be a part of these powerful programs.

OUR WEB SITE NEWS

www.newlifeband.net

With better web connections in our office, we will be able to make regular revisions to our website. This will allow us to regularly communicate with our many friends and supporters worldwide at no cost to our Ministry. Our web site offers a wealth of information about our Mission to Youth and Students in Tanzania along with the latest information about our school and our current activities. We hope in the future to be able to use more emails along with the website to regularly take advantage of the instant communications that this whole new technology offers. Please note that our web site is (.net) not (.com) or (.org). We feel very fortunate to have secured the (.net ) address several years ago to make it easy for our friends to remember the site's name and access the site. We wish to thank John Salter for all of his initial work and continuing support of this website.

A PROPOSED FINANCIAL SUPPORT PROGRAM

Several of our supporters have suggested that we begin an effort to develop a more consistent financial support base of regular yearly "pledges" to our normal operating program. This yearly support concept would involve churches and individuals being willing to "pledge" or "commit" to a regular support level to be used for our current office space rental, school visits all over Tanzania, youth camps, one-on-one counseling, concert and rally participation, and, of course, salaries for our Band members and support of their families and staff.

The total for our normal operations is currently running at about $40,000 US per year. The British pound and the US Dollar are very strong in Tanzania, so your support goes a "long way" to keep our ministry going. We hope that you, as churches (through your Mission Program) or as individuals will prayerfully consider playing a role in this kind of ongoing support base. We will appreciate your prayers, thoughts, and suggestions about this proposed program. We will be given more information about this proposed program in the near future. Your continuing financial support in every way is extremely important to us!

CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR MINISTRY

Even though we have just recently visited many of you and received your generous contributions to our ministry, those of you that we didn't see may wish to make a year end gift to our ministries in Tanzania. We are enclosing an addressed envelope for your convenience if you wish to make such a gift. The envelope is addressed to the New Life Band, c/o Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Lafayette, California, who will, at our request, forward the funds by bank transfer to our bank account in Arusha. Please make checks out to "Our Savior's Lutheran Church" with "New Life Band" on the memo line. Your cancelled check will be your receipt. In this way, the money can be transferred to us safely and at minimum costs for the bank transfer fees, and with minimal risks of currency fluctuations.

OPPORTUNITIES TO SERVE WITH US IN AFRICA

Once again, we strongly encourage you to visit us in Tanzania. If you are planning to visit Tanzania as a tourist in the future and want to spend a few days doing volunteer work at our Secondary School, we would really appreciate your help. Families, church youth groups, or individuals who wish to travel to Africa and who are willing to support this project by participating directly in the cost of materials and doing some of the work are encouraged and welcome. It will surely be a memorable event in your lives to be a part of something that will change many lives through education – which is so desperately needed in our country. Feel free to communicate with us to make the necessary arrangements and plans.

DONATIONS TO THE NEW LIFE BAND MAY BE MADE BY:

Wiring funds directly to their bank account:

Mission to Students (New Life Band)

National Bank of Commerce Ltd.

Uhuru Road Branch

P.O. Box 3004

Arusha, Tanzania

Account No. 0141 05 006176

Swift Code No. NLCBTZTXAO74

Additional fee (up to $50) may apply.

Or, send a check made out to Our Saviors Lutheran Church with "New Life Band" on the "memo" line. Send to:

Our Savior's Lutheran Church

1035 Carol Lane

Lafayette, CA, 94549

Funds sent through Our Saviors Lutheran Church will be combined with other donations and wired to the New Life Band on a regular basis, and a receipt will be returned to the donor.

Contributions in England and Scotland may be sent to:

Emmanuel Church DCC (New Life Band)

87A Rowan Field Road

Cheltenham, GLOS GL51 8AF, England

This newsletter is based on information transmitted to us by the New Life Band in Tanzania and has been assembled by volunteers from Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Lafayette, California. Our Savior's Lutheran Church has no direct affiliation with the New Life Band. However, Our Savior's Lutheran Church has been a supporter of this fine ministry for the past ten years, and individuals from Our Savior's have personally visited and observed the work in Tanzania.