My name is Sean Henry.

Six years ago in March 2018, God brought me to my now home church, Christ Almighty Baptist Church (CABC) in Toronto. I didn’t know the Lord then, but God was already working to place the Rufiji people of Tanzania in my heart. During that month, Graydon Baker and his family came to speak at CABC during our mission’s emphasis month. The Bakers own a safari lodge in Tanzania along the Rufiji River and they’re the founders of East Africa River Mission, reaching out to the local villages surrounding the lodge. I was blown away by their mission. I immediately wanted to financially support this work. I didn’t understand why I was so fascinated with these remote people, or even what was to come, but God had placed the desire for Tanzania long before I knew I would ever go there.

Shortly after Graydon and his family visited CABC, the Lord Jesus Christ came into my life and nothing has been the same since. Life wasn’t just about me anymore. I wanted to serve. I was given a desire to help the fatherless, the widows, the orphans, and the poor. With this, my desire to go to the people of the Rufiji continued to grow. Then in 2021, God gave me that opportunity. God was going to bring me completely outside of my comfort zone. God was bringing me to a place where I had no other option but to completely trust in him. On June 24^th, 2021, I finally arrived in Tanzania.

During our trip, I was blessed to serve alongside the Bakers and the lovely married couple of Captain Dale and Mrs. Karen Elliot. I witnessed how God could bring the unlikeliest of people from different places together and use them for his glory. God created a tight bond between us. What I didn’t expect, is the tight bond that was created between myself and some of the locals. My heart broke the day I left and still hurts to this day. I grew to love the Bakers and the people of the Rufiji in ways I didn’t expect. Although I was dealing with a broken heart, I knew one hundred percent that God would bring me back.

In the summer of 2022 on a car ride on the way to CABC’s youth camp, God started to put the pieces together for my next visit to Tanzania. I didn’t know Wally and the Damian family at the time, but I offered to go up with Wally earlier in the day to help pick up some things and prepare for when the youth would arrive later that day. Just him and myself for three hours. Put me in a small space with anyone long enough, and I will talk their ear off about Tanzania. That’s exactly what I did. What I didn’t expect was that God had been placing on Wally and Grace’s hearts to go and serve God on a trip. They were planning to go in 2024, I was planning to go in 2024. They knew the Bakers; I knew the Bakers. Tanzania was one of the places they were praying for, Tanzania was the only place I was praying for. The rest from here is history.

Two years later, we are what seems like only moments away from landing in Tanzania. Moments away from the five-hour drive through the hills. Moments away from reuniting with the Bakers and the people of the Rufiji that I’ve longed to see since I left them on July 31^st, 2021. I cannot truly express the joy or happiness that I feel that this is finally coming to fruition. A three-year-old dream coming true. My heart still hurts for I know some of the people I grew to love aren’t there anymore, but I know God is taking care of them. I can’t wait to see the faces of those who still are there.

What makes this upcoming trip that much more special? This time, I will get to experience every moment of it with the Damian family that God has placed so heavily on my heart. I can’t wait to see how God will use each of them to bless the Rufiji people. I have seen a glimpse in these two short years how much they have blessed more people than I can count (including myself). I’ve seen their love for the Lord in so many ways and how they’ve allowed God to humble them as they serve faithfully. There is no doubt in my mind that this family has been called to serve him this summer.

I don’t know what to expect this time around, but I know what better place for us to be than within the will of God.