The Eads to Tanzania

Church Review

On May 24th, we shared the day with Southview Baptist Church in Richfield, MN. Jeremy Steffens, the pastor of the church, is a good friend from seminary, and so it was a blessing to see him and his family again. I ministered in teaching the adult Sunday School, preaching the morning service, and presenting in the evening service. One special highlight was the thoughtful gift of money that the women of the church collected to give Jana. They gave Jana specific instruction to not spend it on anything else but on herself, knowing that moms must so often sacrifice for the family. The group was a blessing to minister to, and we were so thankful to spend the time together.
On June 1st, we presented to First Baptist Church in Yarmouth, IA. It was a blessing to spend a few days with Paul and Heather Hooks, our good friends from Faith Baptist Bible College. Paul truly has a pastor’s heart that has grown over the last 5 years that they have been in Yarmouth; he loves his congregation. It’s been encouraging to watch he and his wife, Heather, as they have learned so much over these years that Dan has been in seminary. We really enjoyed our Sunday getting to know this church family and sharing about Tanzania with them.
On June 8th, we joined Eden Baptist Church in Savage, MN for their morning of worship. God has blessed this church with vibrant fellowship, reverent worship and an evident care and concern for the missionary task. This body was a real encouragement to us as I (Dan) had opportunity to preach the Word and present our ministry plans.

Tomorrow at First Baptist Church, Faribault

Tomorrow we will be spending the day with one of our supporting churches, First Baptist Church of Faribault. They have prepared a "Missionary Christmas in May," complete with a Christmas tree as I have heard. As an encouragement in our preparation for the field, First has invited us to come down to share in their generosity and hospitality. I will be providing them with an update during the Bible Study hour and then I will preach for the morning service. Afterwards, there will be a fellowship dinner and present unwrapping. Pray that my preaching will be a blessing and challenge to the congregation and that we would be able to communicate our gratitude for their interest in us and our ministry plans.

Catching Up. . .

I am going to finally break the silence!

Things have been moving at break-neck speed these last two weeks, but beginning today, I would like to get caught up on what has been going on: first, West River Road Baptist Church.

We enjoyed our time in Brooklyn Park March 26-30 at West River Road Baptist Church for their Wednesday through Sunday missions conference. We can tell that this church is excited about global missions! They were a fun group to preach to and to fellowship with.

The theme of the conference was "Africa." Eve a Douglas, who is raising support to serve in Zambia, was at the conference with us. The kids loved her- she definitely has a God-given gift with children!
We enjoyed our time spent with Pastor Floyd Lunde and his wife Becky. Until this past summer when Pastor Lunde stepped in as the pastor of WRRBC, they were serving with Baptist-Mid Missions in Ivybridge, England as church-planting missionaries. A neat connection with the Lundes is that seven years ago (spring of 2001) Jana spent a month in England with them on a short-term missions trip.

Thanks West River Road for your warm reception.

PBBC Missions Conference

March 5-7 we had the privilege of being a part of the annual spring missions conference at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College in Owatonna, MN. The theme was "That They May Worship Him". I taught a workshop called, "Missions Trips with a Lasting Impact: Considerations for Short-Term Missions". I did a Powerpoint presentation (actually it was in program called "Keynote" for all you Mac users), and I thought that I would make my handout available here in a PDF format.

Download pillsbury_presentation.pdf

We had a wonderful time. It was fun too, to see Ben and Betsy Eckman at the conference. Ben is the head of Student Global Impact (SGI), a ministry of Inter-City Baptist church. The purpose of SGI is to mobilize college students for global missions. Jana and I really met when we were a part of a group that attended the SGI conference in 2002. I met Rob Howell, my mentor/friend working in Tanzania, at another SGI function in 2003. Because of that, Ben and I tease that I owe my marriage and my future ministry to SGI! Praise the Lord for his work and for the many other students that are encouraged in the cause of Christ because of it.

You can learn more about SGI here.

Faith Baptist Church in Brainerd, MN

We got home this afternoon after an enjoyable weekend with Faith Baptist church in Brainerd!

Dan taught the Junior and Senior High and the College Christian Education hour. He preached the morning service, and presented the ministry in the evening.

One highlight of the weekend was seeing Brad Brough, a friend who has been a real influence in Dan's life. You can read more about Brad, his wife Jeanie, and their two girls-Ellie and Hannah-here. Brad grew up in the same church as Dan but was older. The Broughs have been ministering in Israel for the last 10+ years. When Brad took his first trip to Israel in college, he would record cassette tapes for his parents, talking (or "journaling") about his experiences in Israel. Dan was about in 5th grade when Brad was in college and remembers the Eads family borrowing these cassette tapes from Brad's parents. Dan and his brother Jon would listen to these tapes together, over and over-- one of the first things that sparked Dan's interest in cross-cultural ministry!

Some other highlights were enjoying the people we stayed with, sharing with a gracious and interested congregation, enjoying a delicious potluck on Sunday afternoon, and enjoying fellowship with this great group of people.

Nancy and Jim Sykes were our hosts this weekend, and we felt quite at home by the time we packed up this morning to come home! Grace was talking about "Grandma and Grandpa Sykes" the whole drive home.

Thanks, Faith Baptist, for our wonderful weekend with you!

We put a couple new pictures in the Family Album (in upper left corner).

Last Sunday with Calvary Baptist, Rochester

Jana said that I would be posting later in the week about our wonderful time with Calvary. I did not think that it would be this late in the week before I did, but here it is.

On Saturday afternoon we brought Grace and Silas from our house in the Twin Cities to my parents' house on our way to Rochester. The kids stayed the weekend with their grandpa and grandma and loved every bit of it. We continued down the snow-laden road and were assailed by strong winds and whiteout conditions. There were times that as we were driving on a two-lane road at highway speeds, there would be a complete whiteout and we could see nothing beyond the windshield. In a situation like that, the best thing to do is to continue through, praying. . . and keeping the wheel straight. God was gracious and we safely made it to our destination, Bill and Judy Wright's house.

Calvary Baptist was very warm and friendly. They had planned a continental breakfast before church began, as a time to get to meet Jana and I. We had a great time getting to know many new people and to see some old friends. I did a short testimony in the youth group Sunday School class. Then I did a short introduction during the morning service and then taught a junior church lesson. That night, I was able to preach, and present our opportunity in Tanzania. We ended up driving back that night to spend the night at my parents' place.

Thank God for his provision of safety, and thank you, Calvary Baptist, for your gracious hospitality.

(By the way, on Sunday morning, it was -11˚ F, and that was the real temp. The windchill was -40˚.)

Yesterday at Grace Baptist Church, Austin, MN

Saturday evening through this morning, we were with Grace Baptist in Austin, MN, a warm, encouraging church body that was a real blessing to be with. Our singing during the morning service went well. I also had a window of about ten minutes to speak before the sermon during the morning service. The evening service was our presentation, and I was so thankful for the thoughtful interaction from the congregation about our ministry plans. God bless you, Grace Baptist, for your hospitality and encouragement!

This morning, I began my first day of a one-week modular course on the Book of Acts. It runs from 8:00 am to 1:30 pm, Monday-Friday. Please pray that as I am partaking in and studying for this class that I am able to make good preparation for this coming weekend's ministry.

Today at Grace Baptist, Austin, MN

Today we are at Grace Baptist Church in Austin, MN. We will be singing special music for their service this morning, and I will be presenting our ministry opportunity tonight. Please pray that we may glorify God in our efforts to minister to this congregation.

SGI, New Hope, and Home

This last week has been a wonderful week of travel, fellowship, and encouragement. On 31 Dec, we left Minneapolis at 6:30 pm to begin our trek to Detroit, MI for a college missions conference called Student Global Impact hosted by Inter-City Baptist Church. We drove out on the 31st as far as Madison, WI. We drove the rest of the way on 1 Jan, and arrived in to Allen park in the evening. We stayed the next three days with our friends Pearson and Amy Johnson, who took wonderful care of us while we were out for the conference.

SGI is a college missions conference that sets out to promote and support college students participating in the work of the Great Commission. Jana and I have both benefited from Inter-City's SGI ministry over the last six years, and it was a blessing once again.

One of the main reasons for attending the conference was to get to see Rob Howell, our friend in Tanzania who we are planning on working with. Inter-City Baptist had flown Rob back to the States to be one of the workshop presenters during the conference, and since he was back for a short window of time, we went out to see him. It was good to get to have the time to catch up a little bit and make some further plans for our departure and preparation.

We spent the weekend with New Hope Bible Church, a wonderful congregation that is in the Columbus, OH area. This church is a faithful support to Rob and Kara Howell's ministry and warmly invited us down to become acquainted with them. We really enjoyed our time with the church and with Trainer family who let us stay with them while we were there. Thanks, New Hope, for your fellowship and encouragement. We look forward to getting to know you better as we work with Rob and Kara.

Yesterday, we made one long push to get back home. We left at 6:30 am EST, and, because of some bad weather in northern Illinois and throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota, we did not get home until 11:00 pm CST. Dense fog from the unusually warm temperatures made for some difficult driving. After nearly 17 hours of travel time (with a few breaks), we were certainly ready to be home. Needless to say, Daddy, Mommy, and the kids slept hard last night.

We thank the Lord for safety on the road, for getting to see some old friends, and for getting to make some new ones.

Sunday in Little Falls, MN

This past Sunday, the 16th, we spent the day with First Baptist Church of Little Falls, MN. The church had taken us on as their "Christmas Family" for 2007. The ladies' group was wonderfully thoughtful and had requested a "wish list" from us. We put on mostly practical items like paper goods for the kitchen and bathroom, some clothes, some books--things we can use in the next year and will not have to pack away when we leave. We had sent our wish list ahead, as requested, but we had not expected such a overflow of generosity. It was just a two-hour drive to Little Falls from where we live, so we started out at 7:30 am. We had the opportunity to present our plans during the Sunday School hour, and then I preached on "The Reaction to the Birth" (Luke 2:8-20) for the worship service. They followed the service with a traditional potluck, and then they showed us to a Christmas tree in the church foyer with an nearly overwhelming amount of presents. [The tree in the foyer is not the one previously pictured :).] Grace loved helping tear off the wrapping paper. When we were all done unwrapping, we could barely fit everything we received in the car for the trip back home. Thankfully, it all eventually did fit (with a little bit of work), and we are now amply supplied for the next six months (or longer). Thanks, First Baptist!

On another note, I finished my seminary classes this past week and have been able to devote more of my time to Tanzania study. I have been doing some research at some of the local university libraries about Julius Nyerere, Tanzania's first president, about his socialist program called Ujamaa, and about African Traditional Religions. I have been able to find a lot of valuable articles through the electronic access at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, and there are a few good resources that I have tracked down at Bethel University. One thing that I will miss when we get to Tanzania is the number of great library collections in the Minneapolis area, so I am trying my best to exploit them now. :)