Tanzania Visit of Richard and Mervyn, Feb 25th. 2014

Visit Summary
Mervyn Thomas and Richard Green visited Tanzania from Feb 25th. to March 5th.

Day 1 Dar es Salaam.
Having been taken to LHR by David Coulton (thank you) then by Kenya Air to Dar, we were met at the airport by Phanuel Shekihio and his son Ezekiel who drove us through the Dar traffic to a haven of rest at a Carmelite Convent which is a retreat conference centre.  We relaxed from the journey and enjoyed the peaceful surroundings. Richard was particularly impressed by seeing a four foot Green Cobra snake which had got into the building. Panic ensued but the snake made a hasty exit after seeing another Green!
We then visited  a Boko Church plant in a new housing area N.E of Dar. This is now almost completed by the members, with the building commenced and resourced mainly from Boko. It has a  congregation of 70  drawn from the community. The pastor there is studying hard through a US correspondence course in conjunction with Tanzania Pentecostal Church Bible School.

Evening dinner with the Elders of Boko Church in the office, discussing all the different things that Church leaders discuss when together; how to build spiritual foundations, timekeeping, resourcing etc. Boko Church is being challenged by a compulsory takeover of the building by the water authorities which means they have to rebuild on a different axis and will take the opportunity to double the size!
Much impressed.  Meanwhile the Shekihios were becoming grandparents as we met!  Later some difficulty with  baby Bernice but all now doing well.

Day 2
4 am start and in Mbeya by Fastjet at 7.30 in the morning for a full day at Jonathan's house with his Elders and 10 Pastors from different Churches in different parts. Richard spoke on Values in the Kingdom of God and Mervyn spoke on Kingdom growth from various Parables of Jesus.

Day 3
Today at Bethel Church with the same group plus additional people from the Church. RG spoke about spiritual gifts and finished with a receiving time. After lunch MT spoke on planning God's way for growth. Had a great tug of war to demonstrate that teamwork can overcome the opposition.

Had a  meal with the Bethel Elders in the Church.

Day 4
Visit to Ndaga where we are building a new Day room  to replace the one that collapsed.  It looks as if there are more years of building development that is necessary before we can truly call this community  an "orphanage".   There are now 70 children in residence and a further 140 being fed by the Formans but sleeping elsewhere.

 A huge care responsibility.  Many basic needs evident, such as beds, mattresses and  mosquito nets .

This is a picture of the ring beam construction prior to pitching the roof of the Day Room.
Financed from the 2013 Christmas Offering

 Visited the school and warmly met by the head and the orphan children who go to the school. A sea of happy faces with great singing and speeches of welcome by selected children.  Head has difficulty teaching about computers when they have never seen one! We will try to help.

We walked through maize fields getting thoroughly disoriented locating the plots of land recently bought to extend the farm at Ndaga.    "Farm" is not really the right term.  Everything here is planted on the old strip field system and plots of land are being bought in different areas, apparently for good strategic purposes such as growing seed potatoes well away from the cropping fields. A chance meeting with a cape gooseberry plant gave pleasant refreshment.    Tropical fruits abound in this part of the country!


We visited the home of Nsubili in the evening.



Day 5

 We formally opened Mount Rungwe IT Centre in the morning. This is a project to provide income for Edward, Mercy and Promise and employment for others, as a "not for profit" business.  The centre has been set up to provide business services, stationary sales and an Internet Cafe. The shop looks great!  Now for the hard work!

The Centre employs a technician named "Sixmund"  who comes from a Catholic background.   Seems to be a bright and resourceful young man who has hooked up all the equipment, even wired out the place, and is a God Send.



Edward and Mercy, after many still births,  have now a baby named Promise.   Edward was a Marketing Manager  for a distribution company and recently heard that his job has ceased with his company relocating to another city.
God works in a mysterious way and as one door closes, another is opening!   They just need a little more working capital to aid the startup process as this was unexpected!




Then visited 4 Church plants at Ruiwa, Ilongo, Inyala and Uyole which are situated in a vast rice growing plain near Mbeya being overlooked by scenic mountains.


At the first one was a full service with some Tanzanian Gospel singing, the first time MT had felt positive about this style of worship! We both made attempts at joining in.




At Ilongo, got to know Richard Mkwawa who is taking the lead in these villages. Rightly named Bishop Richard by his people, a great man of God who pastors a large number of churches started by him.



Ended at Uyole church, recently planted  by Hosea, who was formerly Evangelist at Bethel.  They already gather 30  and looking for a bigger room

After a delay, as Nsubili set about getting his twins urgent medical attention (flu!), we then had a meal and were blessed by Edward and Mercy at their home.


Day 6 Sunday
A relaxed start and then to Bethel to join the Church  service which had commenced earlier.  The next session with translation  started at 11.00 and finished about 2.00.

 Some excellent vertical worship ably led by Edward and the new worship group.    Then the "Singers and dancers" telling stories in Tanzanian style.

Richard then preached about Kingdom growth and called for a response which was large.

I was overjoyed to see Sixmund who is the technician in the new IT Centre come forward.  I extracted him from the crowd and he prayed the prayer, was soundly converted, and I believe, filled with the Spirit. This meant so much to me, being the firstfruits of the relationships brought about by the IT Centre.



We enjoyed a meal provided for the whole Church, although ours was eaten in the church Office and may well have been different.  The rice container for the Church seemed to hold a whole sack of rice.







We visited Richard Venance and family at home. Richard is a Pastor at Bethel. He is desperately in need of new accommodation for his family, 6  in two rooms with no electricity. Bethel Church will find it difficult to resource this!

To Riziki's home for the evening.


Day 7
This was the last full day set aside for some serious planning and talking.   We prayed with individual pastors one at a time for several hours including Richard Venance who is part of the team to Church Plant at Ndaga.  A very moving experience as he fully shared all that God is doing in his ministry at Bethel and his willingness to go where God wishes.   Bethel Ndaga will be part of the Multi Site Bethel (wonder where they heard about that!) and will be served by teams of pastors and members drawn from many different churches.

Then with the JK team, which is JK, Nsubili, Riziki and Edward, we spent time reviewing all the projects.  JK shared that he  is going to spend much more time at Dar Es Salaam, re-establishing foundations of the two Church Plants he has there which are to be relaunched as one, with Emmanuel I and Emmanuel II leading.  Jonathan will establish a radio ministry at Dar similar to the one operating from Mbeya.   During his absences,  Nsubili  will be leading Bethel.

Day  8
We talked more and prayed together as a large group of Elders and visiting pastors  and then departed for the airport with a little detour to see Mbeya City built on many hills like Rome.
An uneventful but long journey home and were pleased to be met at LHR by Jon Walter who brought us to Bedford.   Praise the Lord!