As the work among the Rufiji grows, our prayers become more and more urgent for long-term people to join our team. Currently, we have Sean working full-time, as well as his two Swahili team-mates. We also have a new recruit, Charis, coming to us from Reach Global, serving with us part-time.

Our vision for the future of an EastARM team looks like families and singles, young people just launching onto the field, retired folks looking to invest well – two or three teams of people going out daily from our ministry base into the various villages of the Rufiji.

But we have known for some time that one step to seeing this come to fruition is to have proper housing for people who come to serve long-term. They need to be able to make a home for themselves in Rufiji. So far, the EastARM team has been making use of Baker & Sons’ Backpackers Lodge, but this is not a permanent solution.

This month, as we were dealing with some difficult meetings with village leaders, we received an email from long-time EastARM investor, Joey St.Aubin. It felt to us like the sun coming through the clouds on a dark day. It was a simple just “checking in” email to ask us how we were doing, if we had prayer requests and any big projects coming up. In response, Graydon shared about our hopes for the coming year and the years beyond: more people on the field; and to accommodate and retain a full-time team, housing that would allow people to make long-term commitments. Graydon mentioned a rough budget for the project that seemed to us far enough in the future that we hadn’t even drawn up plans.

But the Lord has other ideas and, as He always does, He is using His people to make it happen.

Joey and his young-adult children had been out to visit us in 2019 as we hosted a Rufiji-wide soccer tournament for the village teams. He has been a great friend to EastARM ever since.

Joey’s next email was also simple; his family would fund the project. We could have our building this year!

Baker & Sons Safari Co. will donate a piece of land on the safari lodge property, a location with easy access to the Rufiji Lighthouse (our ministry building) and to the road that goes into the villages. This would allow the ministry teams to take advantage of the security, power and water utilities of the camp while also having their own space apart from safari camp guests. The idea is to create a series of apartments under one roof so that families and individuals have the space they need.

There are many plans yet to be drawn up and work to be done but this is a huge step in the direction that we believe the Lord is taking EastARM.

Please join us in Thanksgiving for this divine development and all that it will mean for the future of EastARM and the people of Rufiji.