{"id":355,"date":"2012-07-07T21:27:53","date_gmt":"2012-07-07T18:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rob-ellis\/?p=355"},"modified":"2012-07-07T21:27:53","modified_gmt":"2012-07-07T18:27:53","slug":"building-a-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rob-ellis\/2012\/07\/07\/building-a-ministry\/","title":{"rendered":"Building A Ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have to remind myself every day to be intentional about our ministry here and find ways to minister to anyone that we possibly can. \u00a0Since we are still in the process of learning Swahili, we are still limited in what we are able to communicate. \u00a0However, we learn more about how to minister to people in culturally appropriate ways each time we are exposed to real-life here in Tanzania and how locals respond to it. \u00a0We know that there is great need here, and not just spiritually but physically too. \u00a0Answering people’s physical needs is one area that we feel we know a little about and we try to help in any way that we can when people approach us with physical needs.<\/p>\n

We also know that our ministry here begins with our household. \u00a0If we can’t manage our household as followers of Christ, then how will we be able to minister to anyone else? \u00a0This line of thinking is what has helped us to realize that we must be good ’employers’ for our workers. We have one guy that is our guard 24 hours a day, 6 days a week. \u00a0He also does all the outside work and helps me locate things around town (supplies, propane, tools, plumbers…). \u00a0In order to provide him with an environment that is not only livable, but one that we feel ministers to his physical needs, we decided to add a ‘workers utility room’ which includes a kitchenette, shower stall, and toilet room. \u00a0This part of the renovation is complete.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
3 rooms: a kitchenette, shower, and toilet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The kitchen has a little sink, counter, light, and electric socket.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Here are the shower and toilet rooms<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n

Next we need to renovate our garage stall into livable staff quarters. Currently, there is no way for our guard to monitor the gate and walls since there are no windows in the room. \u00a0Plus, it is not as secure as we would all like it to be. Most importantly, providing a nice livable room is a big way we can minister to the folks that we work with and show them that we care about their needs.<\/p>\n

\"Our
Our staff quarters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We are also in the process of building a hutch with rabbit cages in order to raise rabbits outside. \u00a0We have planted a garden which is doing pretty well right now. \u00a0We hired a gardener that comes once or twice a week to help it along. \u00a0We decided to use him because he is really good and he needs the funds in order to support his family in Malawi. \u00a0We don’t pay him much at all, but every little bit helps him. We enjoy being able to help him in this small way. \u00a0We will use the produce from the garden for ourselves and to feed the rabbits, so it will be very cheap to feed the rabbits. \u00a0The rabbits will be raised for their meat in order to supplement our diet, since meat is pretty expensive here. \u00a0We have the space and it will allow us to do more with our finances here. \u00a0I think most importantly, the rabbits will be a really big way to bless people around us. \u00a0Our workers, our language helpers, our friends from church, and our neighbors, will be very surprised when we are able to bless them with a small gift of a fully-grown rabbit that they can use to start their own rabbit ranch, or they can use it immediately for the meat. \u00a0It will be a part of the ministry that we will enjoy here. \u00a0The left side of the hutch will have 6 small cages to house all the kits we plan on having.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
We hung the three cages with wooden rods and put corrugated aluminum under each cage to collect the manure which we'll put in our garden!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meeting people’s needs opens some BIG doors here. \u00a0At this point in our time here, we are becoming more free and knowledgeable to minister in more ways than before. \u00a0Thanks to all of our partners, families, friends, and churches for working together with us for the ministry here in Tanzania.<\/p>\n

Next Blog will be taking a look at our church here and all that is happening in that aspect of ministry.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have to remind myself every day to be intentional about our ministry here and find ways to minister to anyone that we possibly can. \u00a0Since we are still in the process of learning Swahili, we are still limited in what we are able to communicate. \u00a0However, we learn more about how to minister to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":467,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-355","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rob-ellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rob-ellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rob-ellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rob-ellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/467"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rob-ellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rob-ellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rob-ellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rob-ellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/rob-ellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}