Population: 47.8 million
Size: 365,000 miles2, that's almost
the size of Texas & Arizona
combined /4x the size of UK
Capital: Dodoma (official) /
Dar es Salaam (de facto)
Religion: Estimates* 1/3rd Christian,
1/3rd Muslim, 1/3rd Other
Language: about 10%
speak Swahili as
speak Swahili as
a first language, up to 90%
speak it as a second language.
Most speak both Swahili and
a local language; many educated
also speak English* Literacy rate:
68%. In the capital I found about
½ speak basic to fluent English
*Stats vary; these estimates are taken
from Operation World, Wikipedia etc
Situation: East coast of Africa,
bordering Kenya, Uganda,
Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Zambia,
Malawi, Mozambique, and the
Indian Ocean, it is 2hrs by ferry
to the Island of Zanzibar
We lift up our eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest1.
God has graciously brought us into this unique, precise, special message -the biblical, pure gospel of grace2 based on Christ who has finished the work3 for us! What a privilege we have, as David did, to serve his generation4, for such a time as this!5
How exciting it is, that He has places for us to reap, where we have not sown.6 He goes before us and has prepared beforehand that we should walk in7 His works..
The places we go to are like gold mines, with open doors. There are still places where people have not heard, but are waiting for us, and for the Word of His grace.8 We have received such a high quality of sound doctrine.9 It works in America, in Europe, South America, in Africa, in the 1st century, in the 21st century, in the 1st world and in the uttermost parts of the earth.10
LOCKED
DOOR OPEN DOOR
DAR
ES SALAAM means “City of Peace” - it is a huge city, the biggest
in Tanzania. I have been there several times. It is busy, diverse,
and very hot!
Located
on the east coast of Africa, one of the cool refreshments available
are the fresh, sweet (and very cheap) coconuts!
They
are brought in daily from the country side on wheel barrows. The
vendors will cut and prepare them for you, right there on the street.
One
afternoon, during a mission trip to the city, I left the hotel room
just to find one of those delicatessen (which do not exist in
the landlocked country of Zambia, where I had been ministering for
the past 10 years).
Each
day I would stock up on cold waters, Azam “Pinacolada”
juice (the best tasting juice ever) fresh mangoes, oranges, and the
legendary fresh coconuts.. to keep myself from withering away
physically in the hot and humid Dar Salaam weather.
I
remember returning with my stash of refreshments, and climbing
up the stairs to the 4th floor of the Durban Hotel.
I
knocked on the door to our room, and there was no response! I
thought, Maybe I'm at the wrong room again?
My
room mate (who shall remain nameless) had decided to leave too.. with
the keys! Well, I thought, I'll just have to go and fellowship with
God on the roof.. There I found a beautiful panoramic view of the
whole city.
All
around was the sound of Mosques, chanting the call to prayer.
Below was the hustle and bustle of people, markets and traffic. On
the horizon, were the sights of construction cranes and many tall
buildings. An expanding metropolis...
While
fellowshipping with the Lord and looking out at the city, I thought
of the verse: Ask of Me and I
will give thee the nations
for an inheritance.11 It struck me that we could have
a real amazing church and Bible college in this city.. Imagine God
using us to bring the finished work message, grace, the word, the
daily body life fellowship, and question and answer times with
disciples... in Dar Salaam!
Let's
pray, knock, visit, go and believe God for this place!
Since
that day, the vision has been burning stronger in our hearts. God is
stirring in Tanzania, and I believe we have before us an open door,
which I'd like to walk through by faith, with great purpose, without
striving, for God performs all things for me! 12
CLEAR
PURPOSE
Some
“spiritual stats” that make the vision pretty simple...
1.
Connecting the work: Tanzania is strategically situated
between East and Southern Africa. East Africa -Uganda, Kenya etc-
is where our ministry began operating in the 90's, and Southern
Africa -South Africa, Zambia, Malawi etc- is where we started in
2000.
2.
Muslim world: With 1.1billion Muslims in the world, I
would like to be looking for open doors to reach them with the
gospel.
Tanzania
has a good sized, yet minority, Muslim population which is not
evangelized. They are not staunch, but many are the secular type of
“backslidden Muslim” that are not so serious nor religious. They
feel like they don't measure up (who does?!). Because of that, and
the fact that they've never heard grace in a mosque, I have
found they are very interested in the gospel!!!!
We
had many such opportunities to share the gospel with Muslims. We saw
one get saved, and met another who had recently received Christ and
found us on the internet.
3.
Zanzibar:
is a 99.9% Muslim Island, easily reachable from Dar es Salaam by a 2
hour ferry boat. Because Zanzibar is part of the country of Tanzania,
which is not majority Muslim, you are still free to travel there
(it's actually very tourist friendly), and you can evangelize.
4.
New territory: Our outreach to Tanzania began with trips
by Pastor Scibelli in the 90's, when he was living in Uganda. One man
in Ngara, a fairly rural, northern part of the country, heard the
message and in time affiliated with our ministry.
He
has faithfully been serving the Lord and has a number of village
pastors with works in the surrounding rural areas near the border of
Burundi. Recently he received his first trained helper, a Ugandan
trained Rwandan, moved to his town. In addition to Ngara, a good
contact was made in Zanzibar, and evangelism took place in the
capital, Dar Salaam.
We
have no church in the capital. He Who began it, will perform it!13
5.
Openness: People are very friendly, and open to talk about
the gospel. This applies to Muslims and non-muslims. Most non-Muslims
have some sort of a background in Christianity, whether they are born
again or not. From the perspective of the English language, it is
easy to evangelize. Based on my experience, it seemed about 1/3 spoke
English, 1/3 broken English, and 1/3 only Swahili.
6.
Religious Freedom: Tanzania allows freedom of religion,
freedom to worship, to register a church/ bible college. This makes
it an easily accessible country, with the freedom to openly
evangelize.
7.
Contacts: We have a growing number of contacts including
the GG pastor in the north, a contact in Zanzibar, contacts who meet
us each time we visit the capital, a bible college student who did a
semester in Zambia, and a number of “Tanzanites” scattered around
the ministry in places such as Finland, Kenya, and America.
PRAYING
IT THROUGH
1.
PLEASE LIFT UP our upcoming
trip in October/
November
2.
PLEASE COVER IN PRAYER the details
of that trip including travel
arrangements, church registration &
practical preparatory details, those we travel
with, those we will meet with, soul winning
times, Zanzibar etc
3.
PRAY FOR the team.. members hand picked by God
- PRAYERFULLY support this vision in any and every way that God leads you, most importantly, we covet your prayers for wisdom.
KITWE
GREATER GRACE (KITWE, ZAMBIA) UPDATE
It has been such a
joy to watch God use faithful disciples in Kitwe.. Benson and the
team have truly received the message. Our trust in God for them is
great.
RADIO
- Praise God for someone's kind gift which we just received, enabling
The Grace Hour radio in Kitwe & the Copperbelt, to continue for
another entire year. It airs twice a week.
CONSTRUCTION
- God has blessed the church in Kitwe with a really nice
piece of land. In addition to the dorm and the classroom, which is
used for Christian school and English classes, we have been desiring
to get out of the tent by building a 120 seater chapel. We have
completed the foundation/ footers, the concrete slab (floor), and
have also purchased the sheets for the entire 88m2 roof, some of the
blocks for the walls. Putting it together should be under way
shortly, thanks to the generosity of friends and family around the
world.
DORM - There are now 5 young men living
in the dorm. Daily, they eat together, pray together, study together
and stay together. They are an integral part of the work. Please keep
them in your prayers.
LEADERS - Pray for the Leadership
Seminar in Kitwe (October). A bus load of leaders from Lusaka will
meet with Pastor Scibelli, Pastor Renaldo, Pastor Chris & myself.
Pray for my upcoming trip to the region including Zambia and
Tanzania. Also pray for Pastor Renaldo who is planning to have 10
leaders spend some time with him in Zimbabwe later this month.
Verses used..
1 Jn4.35 6 Jn4.37-38 10 Ac1.8
2 Ac20.24 7 Ep2.10 11 Ps2.8
3 Jn19.30 8 Ac20.32 12 Ps57.2
4 Ac13.36 9 Ti1.9,2:1 13 Php1.6