An email update from Charles and Tahnya Porter, serving Jesus in Africa and you in Christ’s Great Commission.

Twenty one is too young to die.

Learning that our reward in heaven has a face and a name: Tuti.

Praying for Tuti before we left Tanzania.

Twenty One is not a long life. Certainly, too young to die. Yet as Tuti Anania and her friend Pendo made their way home from a home group, that is just what happened. Tahnya and I were deeply saddened to hear that a public transport vehicle missed a turn, lost control, and plowed into our beautiful young friend. Three people lost their lives, 2 of them from our church, The Ocean International Community Church in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

We often have told people that in the life of following Christ, our reward would be in heaven, your reward would be in heaven. And vaguely, if we examine the logic, we know that that reward is not material goods. Who needs stuff when the streets are made of gold, right? Our reward is the lives of those who go with us to eternity. The lives that together we invested in. The funny part is that we expect them not to precede but to follow us.

We were reminded once again of how frail life is, and the difference our choices make. Tuti was a devoted follower of Jesus. She was concerned about her generation, about the young people of Tanzania. We were privileged, because of your prayer and financial support, to be able to invest in her life for a few short years. Now, when I say “your reward is in heaven,” to me that reward has a name and a face. Tuti Anania.

Thanks for investing, praying and believing in the work of Jesus in Africa, through ministries like the Ocean, so that young people like Tuti get a chance to hear of Jesus, grow in their faith, or like Tuti, serve the Kingdom with a beautiful heart.

So that more of our reward in heaven might be faces we know.

News, and Prayer: A nerve, a trip and a truck.

I, (Charles) have jumped in to my new role working with communications for the whole continent of Africa. Though it is not the same type of ministry as before, we are privileged to be able to serve the whole continent now. Most of the projects I’m working on are just getting traction, so we are in a seed planting phase. As they begin to come to light, be assured I’ll be sharing them with you.

I will be traveling back to Tanzania in July to celebrate with the church the 75^th anniversary of the birth of our movement there.

Alana, after 3 months of eager expectation and daily reminders, turned 6 on May 24^th. Joshua was able to attend Muscular Dystrophy Camp. Riley is just Riley, a strong minded, sweet spirited, very tall 4 year old.

Please pray for Tahnya, she has a radial nerve in her arm that is causing lots of pain and one of the side effects is insomnia. Pray for relief and healing, would you?

Would you pray and ask God that he might send us new supporters. It has been 4 years now since we have done a fundraising cycle and we are in need adding new people who would believe in our ministry. The reality is that travel and ministry take money. We don’t focus on it, but we do need your help.

Finally, I know it’s a small thing, but would you pray with us? Our van was getting high miles on it, so we sold it and are now needed to replace it. Would you pray for something affordable that would meet the needs of our family? We’ve discovered that working with just one vehicle in the US is almost impossible.

The other thing we often get asked about is

“How is Joshua?”

These days Joshua spends a lot of time at physical therapy. Please connect with him on FB, and see the video we did about his condition if you want to keep up. Thanks for Alana that pray for him.