Michelle Ko: Tanzania Update

Greetings from HOT AND HUMID Tanzania!

Life in Mtwara 

For the last two months it has been, and still is, very challenging. Living conditions in Tanzania are much tougher than Kenya and it has really stretched me mentally and physically. With the daily extreme heat, I sweat all day and night! I shower with ice cubes and sleep with wet towels to cool me down. My house temperature is around 34C/93.3F daily. The electricity does not come on regularly, and is often blocked out. I also have a lot of God's wonderful creatures called "bugs" hanging around me all day long!! :-)

I have to change the way I do things around here according to the weather. I need to slow down and take breaks in such an environment or it will be much easier to suffer from exhaustion and tiredness with this extreme temperature.

One morning, while I was riding my bicycle on very bumpy road (most of the roads are bumpy and muddy when it rains), I was carrying some soup in a container sealed with plastic, or so I thought. It spilled and somehow some of it got onto the phone which was next to it. Now my phone is not working and cannot be fixed in Tanzania. I am using an old phone with a dying battery and I pray the battery will last ‘till God provides a solution.

Life in Mtwara is tough and you could easily get malaria. I am starting to understand why there are very few missionaries over years in this area (presently, I know we have 4 missionaries, 3 from SIM). By the grace of God, I am able to cope with these difficulties day by day. In the midst of challenges I surrender all to Jesus who loves and saved me, so I can be the vessel for Him.

“The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Praises and Prayers

• Thank God for a refreshing and encouraging retreat in Dar es Salaam with other SIM Tanzania missionaries.

• Thank God for His protection traveling around by bike and long road trips back and forth to Dar.

• Thank God for a good rainy season in April and cooler weather in May

• Pray I am committed to study and to speak Swahili diligently.

• Pray for God’s provision for a car. It is tough to ride a bike under such extreme heat.

Tanzania SIM Team

Thank you for your prayers, encouragements, and financial support and I am asking you to continue to journey with me in mission.

In His time,

Michelle Ko

FB: MichelleKoInAfrica What’s App: +255 628 039 983(new) Line ID: 61 488 029 218

5 Questions with...Sarah Zimmerman

1. How did you first get involved with Friendship Presbyterian? 2017 was a big year for me. I married, left the business I'd started in Washington, D.C., and moved across the world for my new husband's new job. After the recommendations of many friends in our D.C. church community, we visited Friendship on our first Sunday in Taiwan. We ultimately chose to join up with a church closer to our home in Tianmu, but in the fall of 2018, we returned to FPC and became members.

2. What do you do Monday through Saturday? My days are varied, but full. I work at Taipei American School as a substitute and proctor, and I teach piano at our home piano studio in Tianmu. Adjusting to life in a foreign country can sometimes feel like a job in and of itself!

3. What is something people might be surprised to know about you? Before I started my piano teaching business in D.C., I worked for seven years in the event industry. During that time, one of my big events was on the field of the [American football team] the St. Louis Rams.

4. What do you find most challenging about being a Christian today? Christianity as a religious label encompasses many theological views in the current cultural climate. Because of this, there are many around the globe who claim to be Christian but do not live according to God's word or the truth of the gospel. Some do not even know what the gospel is! With identity at the forefront of the western debate, I think one of the biggest challenges is to help friends and family understand the difference between a gospel-centered worldview and any pre-conceived notions they have about Christianity as a religion. 

5. What is one of your favorite books of the Bible? The Gospel of Luke is one of my favorites. It clearly and methodically tells us who Jesus is, what he came to do, and how all of the Old Testament had been pointing to this point in history. My home church in Washington, D.C. had a year-long sermon series on Luke the year after a particularly wayward season in my life. It was the weekly meditation on who Jesus really was that helped bring me from darkness into light; it exposed my sinful ways and helped me to see the deep grace of a loving Father who sent his one and only Son to die the death I deserved so that I could live a life that was reconciled to my creator. 

New Members

We always rejoice to welcome new members into the FPC family. Jesus said that his true family was not made up of those he shared blood with, but those who do the will of God (Mark 3:31-35). Please seek out and greet your new brothers and sisters!