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Discover Your Mission

Opportunities abound in Tanzania for those wanting to go "on mission."  Church planting, evangelism, short-term trips, leadership training, and community initiatives await those looking to connect with life-changing outreaches.

Tanzania

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News from Tanzania

Tanzania News Blog
Road to Tabora by Thomas Keiffer, Sr

 

 

The road out of our mission location (a dusty city in central Tanzania) was paved and relatively smooth. We were 7 men crammed with all of our luggage and conference materials into a small van with no air-conditioning traveling near the equator. We eventually reached a fork in the road, and turning right we were on the road to Tabora.

 

 


We were told that the entire trip would take 3 to 4 hours, but that was in “Tanzania time.” It actually took about twice that. As my good friend and teammate, Paul McCarthy, quipped, “the only thing more unpredictable than Tanzania time is God time.”

The road to Tabora vacillated from a loose sandy surface to a concrete washboard. If we weren't at risk of skidding and flipping, we were being pounded enough to loosen our fillings. We actually busted a rear shock on the way. We also stalled out at one point after making a detour. No tow service would come to the rescue.
It was hot and we were drinking lots of water to avoid dehydration. We had to make several pit stops. Picture everything parched and nothing green. No animals in sight, but watch out for the highly poisonous black mambas. Did I mention the dust clouds?

Whenever a vehicle approached us on the narrow road from the opposite direction, a person in the front seat would warn us in the back to close the windows ─ “dust cloud!” As it passed, our vision would be momentarily obscured and we would be covered with a film of fine reddish dust coming up through the floorboards, permeating everything.
At one point we asked the driver, a Christian named Christian, how much longer? “15 kilometers.” But when we asked again 45 minutes later, he said, “20 kilometers.” Tanzania distance is like Tanzania time.
We saw people walking or pushing bicycles loaded down with bushels, bags or chickens in the middle of nowhere. Where do these people live? How do they live? There's nothing out here! How would they hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ if nobody came to them?

We eventually transitioned back to pavement, a sure sign that we were approaching our destination. The city of Tabora is comprised of many homes, buildings and shops. We squeezed out of the van in front of a bank, and were greeted by a local pastor who was hosting the Leadership Development Conference at a Lutheran Church. The conference was to be attended by 60 pastors of various denominations, all of whom were coming to learn principles of church planting. These conferences serve as a springboard to an intensive 12-month condensed seminary training of local believers who want to plant more churches. Here's the sequence: conference (2 days); intensive study (12 months); and mission team work (5 days). The mission team component serves as a catalyst for the church-planting movement.

As I reflected on the road to Tabora, I came to see the spiritual metaphor. Psalms 78:41 warns, “Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.” We could have turned back. We were hot, tired and thirsty. The road was long, bumpy and unpredictable. God will accomplish his work one way or the other, but we would have missed out if we had not stayed on the road to Tabora.

We reached our destination, because we stayed on the road we were on and kept moving forward. The men at the Leadership Development Conference were to be trained to work with mission teams that will arrive next year, just as men at a conference last year were prepared for mission teams that arrived this year (such as our team).
Our mission team consisted of 23 Americans and 5 Venezuelans, who joined together with 98 Tanzanians. In late September, we shared the Gospel in Kahama and Ushirombo. There were over 10,000 professions of faith at 98 mission points. That means 98 potential new church plants having an average congregation of approximately 100 people at each location. The fishing is good in Tanzania!

As I continue with the transition from the law profession to full-time ministry, God uses experiences like this one to teach me. For example, it's not easy. The road is long. It started out relatively smooth, but has been rough at times. The big bumps make us turn to God! We encounter fear, fatigue and frustration. Sometimes our vision and thinking gets blurred. Sometimes we get discouraged. But God (my two favorite words in the Bible) is with us! We must not miss out on the Ephesians 2:10 work that he has prepared for us. Therefore, we dare not turn back. We do not want to limit God in our lives.

Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your encouragement. Thank you for your support. I'm so glad that we get to travel together, remembering that the paths of Christians don't cross ─ they merge.
Tanzania 2008 by Beth Holt
Someone asked me recently, “Is Africa really like what you see on TV or in magazines?” My response was, “Yes. It really is.” But there is so much more that I had never seen. I guess I had my own idea about what Africa was like. Pictures of elephants, giraffes, mud huts, and “The Lion King” were basically what came to mind. Now that I’ve been there, when I think about Africa, I see something completely different.

While on mission to Musoma, Tanzania, in a little village called Maneke, a pastor wanted us to share the gospel at the village school. As we began the two-mile walk, we stopped to share the gospel with people on the road. We could only go a few feet before more villagers approached us. Each time we shared the gospel, people were saved. The pastor’s wife pointed up the road to the hillside and said, “We need to get up there today too.” As the morning quickly passed, the pastor said we couldn’t stop any more. We needed to get to the school. As we walked, people called to us from their little mud huts. We couldn’t understand what they were saying since they were speaking in Swahili … but in our hearts, we knew what they were saying. A translator told us, “They want us to come over there.” Hearing the pastor assure them that we would come back, I just thought, “Lord, we can’t get to all these people today. They need to hear the gospel … and they are pleading for us to come.” Then I heard my translator, who is also an African pastor, whisper quietly to himself, “The laborers are so few.”

Matthew 9:35-38 is a familiar passage to most of us. For me, maybe it had become too familiar. It says that Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching, preaching, and healing. When He saw the multitudes, He felt compassion for them. They moved the heart of God. The people were lost. They were weary. They were scattered. They were without a shepherd. Then Jesus told His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into this harvest.” On that dusty road, God opened my eyes.

Now, when I think of Africa, I no longer envision scenes from movies or magazines…
I see faces. I see Moses, a young Muslim man, realizing that Jesus is the only Way. I see the witch doctor vowing to “follow Jesus the rest of my days.” I see Pude and Sato, young people working at the hotel, giving their hearts to Jesus and eagerly beginning discipleship. I see students bowing their heads and asking Jesus to be their Savior. I see village teachers accepting Christ and teaching their students with a new vision for the future. I see a harvest of souls, waiting for laborers to come before it’s too late. I see … the multitudes.

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, “Here am I. Send me.” (Isaiah 6:8)


Magu 2008 by Tiffiny Gettert
One our third day in the mission field we were finishing up discipleship in the afternoon when the pastor of the church we were planting approached our team to see if we could stop by and see one lady before we left for the day. It was our last day in this village and we were very tired from a day in the field, but God had work prepared for us. We happily agreed to visit this woman. The pastor explained that he had witnessed to her and her family and they were waiting to meet the Americans. It was not far of walk to her hut. As we approached we saw this woman laying on a blanket in front of her hut with family all around her. The woman was lame. Her legs and hands were severely disfigured. As we approached, I held back the tears. This woman was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. She had God's love and spirit just radiating off of her. I have never seen God's presence physically on someone. The Holy Spirit was all around her, He was all around us. The family had chairs waiting for us. We sat down and had a short conversation with her and her family, then pastor asked my team member to pray for her. As he began to pray, I started to cry. I felt the love that God had for this woman and that she was His child. She was the child of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. The prayer continued and I just let the tears fall. I felt so much love for this woman, this beautiful woman who lay there as her body was physically deteriorating and she loved the Lord. She was the ultimate appearance of God. When the prayer was over I sat down on the blanket next to her and just kept hugging her and told her how beautiful she was and the love that God has for her. I don't know how my words were received, but I do know that God is going to take care of her and her family. I know that that moment changed my life and my love of God forever. I have a new understanding of the love that is described in the bible. When that miraculous days comes and I see the pearly gates and I get to meet God, I hope to find this woman and meet her again. That moment changed my view on this life and also the life to come. It gave me a glimpse of the beauty of God's love and what awaits for us when we surrender to the cross.

There is a portion of my trip, Mike. I hope you enjoyed it! :) It was great to see you at the airport the other night. I hope the missionaries received a big warm welcome! I wish i could have stayed to see them come in. Let me know if you need a crowd at the next missions arrival. I think there is one in January, right? I know that Steve and Herve are both coming in for that. I will be good to see them again and reunite the team! We might have to have a Magu dinner night. Get our e3 gang together to praise the Lord!


Magu 2008 by Amy Albin
I specifically remember one family we ministered. As we approached one of the huts we saw a lady, her two adult daughters, and her grandchildren sitting under a tree. We visited with them for a while and then presented the gospel. The lady and her two daughters prayed to accept Christ. One of the daughters began to tell us that her mother recently found out she had cancer but couldn’t afford to travel in order to get the medical help she needed. They asked us to pray over her. A few days later we returned to the same village. We went back to check on the mother & to visit with the family. The mother said she had been feeling much better the last few days. She also told us that she and her daughters attended church that Sunday. One of the daughters expressed her gratitude for our message of hope. She gathered two of her friends and asked that we share the same message with them. Both ladies came to know Christ as well. It was an amazing experience!

There was a police station across the street from our hotel. My translator & I saw some men sitting on the wall in front of the police station & decided to go share the gospel with them. There were about five men there that all had business to tend to with the police. As we began to share the gospel one of the officers came out to see what we were discussing. He listened to the gospel presentation as well. When we had completed our presentation I noticed another man that had been walking down the street and joined the group only in time to see the very end of the evangecube story. We asked who wanted to pray to accept Christ and the five men raised their hands. The man that joined us later on was eager to hear the story in its entirety and asked if I could share it with him. He too prayed to receive Christ. The police man then said that we could have a group go into the police station to share the message with some of the prisoners. Everywhere we went in Tanzania people were hungry to hear God’s word.


This feed has 5 articles on 2 pages << < 1 2 > >>
  • Tanzania is in the bottom ten percent of the world's economies
  • Dodoma is planned as the new national capital
  • The first language of most people is one of the local languages
  • Kiswahili (Swahili) is the mother tongue of the Bantu people
  • Zanzibar is more than 99% Muslim
  • Lake Victoria is the world's second-largest freshwater lake
  • Kilimanjaro is highest point in Africa
  • Tanzania is slightly larger than twice the size of California
  • Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form the nation of Tanzania in 1964.

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About Tanzania

Rwanda NationalLocated in Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian Ocean, Tanzania and its 41 million people live in one of the poorest countries in the world. Tanzania is a volatile arena in which Islam and Christianity battle for souls.  
 
Fewer than ten percent of its population are born again. The vast majority of people have never even heard a clear presentation of the gospel. Thousands of villages and communities have no church. Including the island of Zanzibar, which is 99 percent Muslim, about one third of the nation professes Islam. Millions of dollars pour into Tanzania to build mosques and promote the spread of a more radical Islam.  But the Lord is working in a powerful way.  There is a great hunger for the gospel and the evangelical church in Tanzania is quickly catching the Lord's vision to reach people with the gospel, make disciples and plant new churches.

 

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