October 2007

“On August 15, Rev. Makala and I, along with our driver Robert, traveled to Sengerema and met with Rev. Yohana Nzelu and student pastor Daniel Mona.   (Pastor Yohana was one of the four men supported by the LCMS through seminary. We reported on their ordination in Tanzania in September 2005.) We met to discuss the Mission Training Center (MTC) outreach in this area, and for the next four days we visited several villages. In each of these locations we preached, prayed for the sick, and baptized. Everywhere we went, the people were waiting for us, along with MTC students who serve these areas. In all, we baptized 307 people. On Sunday, we dedicated two bicycles for use by evangelists in outreach areas. I also left funds to purchase some Swahili hymnals. This small effort was graciously received by the church, although many more bicycles and hymnals are needed.  

 “We had some very dramatic experiences in these few days. In one location, new believers burned their charms, or talismans, after being baptized as an indication of their reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ and their rejection of former ways. At a new secondary school, the headmaster gave us time to address the entire school. Students at this school had been receiving Christian instruction from Luther's Small Catechism led by one of our MTC students. We shared the Gospel with the students and 16 came forward in front of their peers to be baptized. As we prepared to leave, a woman with her four children who had heard we were there came to ask if they could also be baptized. The woman had received instruction earlier and had been waiting to be baptized. We spoke with her about her responsibility to raise her children in the faith and then baptized them there in the school yard. On the road to another preaching point, we gave a ride to an elderly man named Lucas, and the evangelist sitting next to him shared the Gospel with him as we traveled. At our next stop, Lucas asked if he could also be baptized—it was like a modern day Acts 8! At another village, one woman, Modesta, giggled with joy as I poured the water over her and baptized her in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As we were leaving, she said to us in the Sukuma language, 'Thank you for bringing us from the darkness to the light!' The experience we shared in the Sengerema region of the East of Lake Victoria District was both exhilarating and exhausting. It was also very humbling as we realized that what is happening in the Sukuma region through our MTCs is nothing less than a movement of God's Spirit to bring His blood-bought sons and daughters into the Kingdom. To God be all the glory!”