John and Gwen go to Africa

09/05/2026

Our latest update

Apologies for the delay in getting this update to you. We have had internet issue the past two weeks, but all is fixed and now we can resume our normal work and activities. Rafiki TZ has been a village since 2007, and a lot of people have passed through and been blessed by the work here. We have a f...

08/08/2026

https://mailchi.mp/0326322029e9/milestones

Milestones were used by the Romans to help travelers moving from one place to another by showing how far you’d come and how far yet to go. In English we use this concept for life events. For us we will reach our 4-year anniversary of arriving in Tanzania next week on August 15th. We arrived excite...

07/25/2026

Bibles, Bibles Everywhere

One part of our ministry is outreach which includes Bible and Bible study distribution and associated training on how to use the Rafiki Bible study. (The Rafiki Bible Study has lessons for every book of the Bible for different age levels from preschool to adult.). This year Rafiki has an exciting op...

03/09/2026

https://mailchi.mp/e78cc97ca930/school-days-are-here

School days are here!

Our 2026 school year began on January 13 with 428 students in grades PP3 though 11. What a blessing as we are almost at capacity! We added a new class for 5th grade, so we have double classes from 1st to 5th grades. Our plan is to add another 6th grade class next year but then keep the secondary sch...

02/22/2026

https://mailchi.mp/bbc3da68924c/workin-for-the-weekend

80's band Loverboy fans, this one's for you.

For those who remember the 80’s band Loverboy, “Workin for the Weekend” was a big hit…for the past two weekends, we have been working ON the weekend, lol. This time of year is when we need to prepare the first quarter sponsor reports. With about 45 residents no longer living at the Rafiki Vi...

01/24/2026

https://mailchi.mp/57dd886a40ae/thankful-and-grateful

We are very thankful for the opportunity to spend Christmas back home with our families this year. It was our first time since arriving TZ in 2022 to spend the holidays in the US and it provided many opportunities to connect with our extended families and friends. On December 5th, we had left Tanzan...

12/13/2025

https://mailchi.mp/c54a59a6b8ba/prince-of-peace

This time of year in the US is very busy…Thanksgiving, shopping, Christmas programs, parties, etc. We are quite busy in Tanzania, but in different ways. November is the month of national exams, graduation, and winding down the school year. Our 9th and 11th graders took their national exams and wer...

10/26/2025

Old friends; New possibilities - https://mailchi.mp/4f16b970cc7b/old-friends-new-possibilities

09/21/2025

Lessons from bikes: - https://mailchi.mp/184d99348d3a/lessons-from-bikes

08/31/2025

https://mailchi.mp/1303c11194b3/a-tale-of-two-tanzanians

Our latest update.

We are blessed with 408 students in our school, 81 national workers, 23 orphan residents, and nine RICE students this year. When looking at numbers it is easy to forget that each one of these numbers has a name and a story. We’ll focus on two of our Tanzanian friends for this newsletter.