Tanzania 2011 - Brief Update of Conference

I know many of you have been waiting for our blogs about Tanzania – 2011. Some of you may be willing to read more than others, so during the next couple of days, we’ll post several blogs. You can choose what you want to read. But we greatly encourage you to read the testimonies of the Congolese pastors and the afternoon evangelisms. For now, here’s the first blog with a brief overview of the Conference.


Pastors with their new Iris Ministries T-shirts

 The "Love, Honor and Glory Seminar" in Tanzania was powerful, wonderful and full of the presence of God and fun. 39 Iris pastors/leaders came including 21 pastors/leaders who fled the war devastation in the Congo and currently live in heart-wrenching and impoverished conditions in a refugee camp in Tanzania. Some non-Iris pastors and visitors also attended. In a few days, we’ll post a blog with testimonies from the Congolese pastors (you’ll definitely want to read those stories). The Iris pastors had 3 meals a day, but I know that some days during the conference (May 9 -15) we fed at least 60 -70 people for lunch, most likely more. We fed a lot of neighbors, mostly children, whom I was told didn’t have enough food to eat (how could I say no to them?). They even had ice cream on Saturday.  We had rice, ground corn made like mashed potatoes (or made of flour from dried cassava), cabbage, beans, other vegetables, fish, and a few days we had beef.

May 10 - 13, I taught twice a day besides special meetings with some pastors. Friday afternoon was a special teaching and ministry time for the Congolese pastors. The pastors also acted very well in our 21st century drama of the parable of the Good Samaritan. Each day before the teaching sessions, we spent time in worship, hosting the presence of God as He refreshed us and filled us with love, joy, peace, vision, and brought physical and emotional healing to the pastors and visitors. During these times the pastors were encouraged to minister to one another, and the Lord gave prophetic words and visions about many things including the work He wanted to complete in Tanzania. Once again, after the teaching sessions the Holy Spirit would fill us with His love and presence. The last two days of the conference, Saturday and Sunday, we showed the "Jesus" film and then "The Passion of the Christ".
For two afternoons, I sent the pastors out into the dusty streets to carry the love of God to everyday people. The pastors carried the love of God in such a tangible way that muslims, other unbelievers and religious people could receive the love of Jesus. For two afternoons, the pastors brought back amazing stories of salvations, hardened hearts opening, healings and demons being cast out of people. These testimonies I will also share in a separate blog.



Raise your hand if this is your first time tasting ice cream!



Smiles and joy eating ice cream and chocolate





Special Pastor’s Day/Gifts

Saturday was a special day for the pastors to meet with the Director of Iris Tanzania, Pastor Deus Elias, to talk, eat and have fun. Saturday, the pastors were served their 3 meals including the highly prized tender beef (beef is widely available in Mwanza and is cheaper than chicken), pineapples, cookies and soda. Of course, all the pastors had their share of 20 liters of ice cream (vanilla, chocolate and strawberry/vanilla mixed) and each had their own Cadbury chocolate candy bar. For most of the pastors, this was the first time they had tasted ice cream. The pastors were very excited to also receive T-shirts with the Iris logo that were especially donated by Iris Ministries. Each one then received an 8x12 group photo of all the pastors who had attended the conference.


Receiving Bibles on the 2nd day of the Conference

 Receiving a "Blank Check"
While I was in Tanzania, someone contacted my wife and told her to tell me that whatever I felt like doing for the pastors to go ahead and do it, and she’d pay for it. “Blank checks” are good, really good gifts to place at the feet of Jesus. So, I was able to do what Jesus put on my heart - purchase 35 Bibles and covers for pastors who needed one. Shouts, smiles, dancing and praise to God filled the room as we handed out the Bibles. After receiving a Bible, one pastor shared a dream he had beforehand about receiving a Bible at a conference where "someone was teaching a mighty word of God". He was elated when he received his Bible seeing that the things the Lord shared with him in the dream had come to pass.

We thank you once again for all of your prayers and financial support for Tanzania 2011. It was a mighty work that involved the love of so many people, like you, who willingly poured out their own hearts to support the Iris pastors in Tanzania. So many pastors voiced their excitement of returning back to their villages to share all that they experienced with renewed vision and strength.

Thank you again, and be looking forward to our other blogs - testimonies of Tanzania 2011 – love, honor and glory.

Love and blessings,
Tyren and Tiffany Haynes