In Christ We are Partners

1
In Christ We are Partners

• The author of Hebrews, the Mid-South District,
  and everyone confesses Christ is the same
  yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 138). God
  is not on a timeline.
• Is God still the same beyond the USA? How does
  God intervene for the salvation of the people in
  Tanzania, especially the Sukuma Tribe?

2
Glimpses of Tanzania

• It is known as United Republic of Tanzania,
  formed after 1964 when Zanzibar and Tanganyika
  were united.
• It is situated south of the Equator and borders
  he Indian Ocean on the east and other eight
  countries Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo
  (Kinshasa), Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique.
• The whole area is about 364,017 square miles and
  Zanzibar occupies 1 of the total area with full
  rights as part of union

3
Glimpses of Tanzania

• Tanzanian population is about 32-37 million, its
  50 are under 15 years, and life expectancy is
  decreasing by 8 due to HIV/AIDS.
• Generally it has been peaceful country and
  democracy and communication are improving.
• Most of the people are bilingual or trilingual.
  Mother tongues are 120. Swahili and English are
  business languages for instruction and
  communication.
• 120 African tribes - Asians, Arabs, Europeans and
  Americans.

• It is an equatorial climate with variations in
  elevation cool weather (north, south and west),
  dry and arid (central) and hot and humid (coast).
  
• Average of about 30 mm of rain per year that
  enables people to grow a enough food.

4
A myth about Christianity in Tanzania

• There are different views about Christianity in
  Tanzania
• 60 Christian, 40 non-Christians
• 1/3 Christian, 1/3 Muslims, and 1/3 animists
• Christianity is larger so no felt mission need
• Muslims are majority - many go for Islamic law
• I would think that Christian is 1/3 and
  non-Christians 1/3. Why ?

• There are people who adhere to animism and at the
  same time, Christianity
• There are people who use Christian names but are
  not Christians at all
• Christians are not the only ones doing mission.
  Islam targets Christians.
• Postmodernism also affects Christianity in Africa
  and Western worlds altogether
• The biggest tribe (Sukuma 16-20) is not
  Christian. There are other tribes who are not
  Christians.
• 99 of people in Zanzibar and Pemba are Muslims.
  Islamic influence is so big on the coast and in
  all cities.

What does this mean in Tanzania? Where everyone
is allowed to believe, missionaries are permitted
to work, pastors are allowed to preach in
public, and all believers can reach the
unreached without fear?
5
What does this mean?

• This is the right time to go
• To reach out to 8 million people
• To preach the Gospel in its purity
• To awaken tired souls
• To challenge pastors to take the role of a
  missionary
• To equip lay leaders to plant churches

6
The East Lake Victoria Diocese

• One of 20 units of the Evangelical Lutheran
  Church in Tanzania
• It covers 85,952 sq. km in Mwanza and Shinyanga
  regions
• Begun in 1989 with 7 parishes now 40,000
  members
• 33 parishes
• 130 satellite churches
• 100 evangelists

the Mid-South District partner
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East Lake Victoria DiocesePartner of the
Mid-South District

• People are living in Sukuma south and west of
  Lake Victoria whose lives depend largely on
  agriculture.

• Few people work in companies, business, or civil
  offices. Others work as witchdoctors and
  traditional doctors (herbalists).

8
East Lake Victoria Diocese
the Mid-South District partners

• Though they have a long period of dry season,
  when it rains they have enough food with for the
  year.

Mother and children work hard to support the
families Grinding corn and cassava, walking
miles and miles to the market, or to get water
even though are not safe per se,
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East of Lake Victoria Diocese Mid-Souths
Partner in the Gospel

• The city is covered by iceberg stones, one of the
  wonders in Tanzania.
• Mwanza is the fastest growing city with people
  from east central Africa due to emerging economic
  industries. They will soon need urban church
  planting.

10

• Is Christ the same?
• Missionaries did not pay much attention to this
  area.
• People regarded Christianity as a foreign
  religion, for other tribes not for Sukuma because
  the diocese that was responsible for this mission
  area did not prepare the native leaders.
• Failure to understand the family set up (a
  village has 12-100 homesteads).

Status of Christianity in Sukuma

• The history of Sukuma goes beyond 16 century.
• The first European to contact with the Sukuma
  was John Hanning Speke (1857), Henry Livingstone
  (1870s), French Catholic missionaries.
• The Arabs were the first.
• Yet Christianity does not have a great
  influence.

Now

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Status of Christianity in Sukuma
Womens eyes turn red because they spend too much
time over the kitchen fire cooking for their
family

• 94 of this largest tribe (20 Tanzanian
  population) practices traditional religion
• Witchcraft is high in the mind of the people.
  Amnesty International reports 50 women with red
  eyes are killed each year because they are
  suspected to be witches.
• The Gospel has power to prevent this behavior and
  these attitudes, not the power of government

A man is not justified by observing the law, but
by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put
our faith in Christ Jesus that we may justified
by faith in Christ and not by observing the law,
because by observing the law no one will be
justified (Galatians 216).
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The Sukuma want to say Jesus is the same

• Summer 2002, we visited 100 houses and found
  1000 people. All want to be baptized including
  the traditional doctor.

Summer 2003, six missionaries from Memphis led by
Rev. Terry Tieman are overwhelmed with joy when
178 children and adults are baptized during the
day of Pentecost.
13
The Sukuma want to hear the Gospel

• How, then, can they call on the one they have
  not believed in? And how can they believe in the
  one of whom they have not heard? And how can they
  hear without someone preaching to them? And how
  they preach unless they are sent...How beautiful
  are the feet of those who bring the good news ...
  consequently, faith comes from hearing the
  message, and the message is heard through the
  word of Christ (Romans 1014-17).

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What does this partnership mean?

• East Lake Victoria Diocese and Mid-South District
  intend to reach out to 8 million people through
  Mission Teaching Centers.
• Lay leaders train one week in the center, and
  three weeks in the field under a Lutheran pastor.
  
• They are mentored, assisted, observed and sent to
  plant churches.
• The lay leaders are equipped with the Lutheran
  Biblical teachings and other practical skills.
• At the moment there are 2 centers, 30 lay leaders
  trained, 33 new churches, and 2000 new Christians
  baptized.

Bishop Bomani who is also a Sukuma said We
tried before to evangelize the Sukuma but with
less response. It seems that Mission Training
Centers are effective tools to reach many in
Sukuma. Even other churches in Tanzania want to
adopt this model
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By 2007 ELVD and Mid-South
What does this partnership mean?

• 5 centers
• 120 native leaders trained
• 100 new churches planted
• Reach 1 million Sukuma

• Introduce multiple approaches house-to-house
  visitation, movie van, cell group within the
  family set up. SG2 is being introduced by Pastors
  Terry, Jake and Cliff Herd recently.

16
Some realities that challenge our partnership in
the Gospel

• Mission
• Compassionate work
• HIV/AIDS
• Women
• Plan for future

17
Mission

• Lay leaders walk 20-40 miles to the centers and
  to the villages as they open and maintain
  churches. Bicycles are needed (_at_ 100).
• Pastors walk about 100 miles to mentor local
  leaders and administer both the old and new
  churches. Motorcycles are needed
• (_at_ 2000).

• Local leaders do not want a pay-check but to be
  self-supporting.
• 25 pastors are not enough. More pastors trained
  with a theology which is biblically sound are
  needed (_at_ 1500 a year to train one pastor).

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Mission
Moving from a Christmas tree church to a
corrugated church building, only a roof is needed

• Train a child in the way he should go, and when
  he is old he will not turn from it (Proverb
  2213).

• Children are coming more and more to church.
  Christian history in Africa tells us that
  children are the greatest missionaries.

19
Nothing attacks Christianity But HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS

• Out of 360,000 orphans estimated to be in diocese
  area, only 580 reached.
• 10 (of the 8 million) or 800,000 are HIV pos.
  (3.2 million nationwide)
• Labor force will decline from 33 to 29 years
• 10 decrease in life expectancy in 8 years
• 20 of children under 5 will die of AIDS and
  150,000 people die yearly
• 50,000 are born with HIV
• 13.3 of mothers delivering at institutions are
  HIV Pos.
• Greatest risk is between 24 29 years of age

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The tribes that were subject to Christianity
missionary (especially in the north, south and
south) are majority in the government sectors,
though in Tanzania there is no politically or
culturally dominant. When you visit those two
places you can tell that when Christianity has
been for a long time, the area is well developed
than the areas that Christianity has not been.
It changes the worldviews, beliefs systems, and
sin and save the human being from the sin. The
church penetrates to the life of the people and
you can not separate the two.
The tribes that were subject to Christianity
missionary (especially in the north, south and
south) are majority in the government sectors,
though in Tanzania there is no politically or
culturally dominant. When you visit those two
places you can tell that when Christianity has
been for a long time, the area is well developed
than the areas that Christianity has not been.
It changes the worldviews, beliefs systems, and
sin and save the human being from the sin. The
church penetrates to the life of the people and
you can not separate the two.
Christianity and Compassionate never in Dichotmy
Compassionate

• .

The compassionate work is not starting today. It
was a nature and part and parcel with
Christianity since the first day of Christianity
in Africa. Christianity stopped slavery Zanzibar
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The tribes that were subject to Christian
missionaries (especially in the north and south)
are mostly in the government sectors, though in
Tanzania there is no political group or cultural
dominant. When you visit those two places you
can tell that when Christianity has been around
for a long time, the area is more developed than
the areas where Christianity has not been. It
changes the world view, belief system, and sin
and save the human being from the sin. The church
penetrates to the life of the people and you can
not separate the two.
Christianity and Compassion never in Dichotomy
Compassionate

• .

• The tribes that were subject to Christian
  missionaries (especially in the north, south and
  east) are mostly in the government sectors,
  though in Tanzania there is no political group or
  cultural dominant.
• When you visit those two places you can tell a
  difference. Where Christianity has been for a
  long time, the area is more developed.
• Christianity changes the world view, belief
  system, and saves the human being from sin.

22
Compassionate
It is hard to say God bless you at Bukumbi

• A Pastor of that area expressed his feeling when
  asked about his ministry at Bukumbi.
• If the gift of prophecy and can fathom all
  mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith
  that can move mountains, but have no love, I am
  nothing. Love always protects, always trusts,
  always hopes, always perseveres (1 Co. 13 2,
  7).

Bukumbi is the center for 455 disabled, elderly
and orphaned Some of people who visited Tanzania
last June visited the area called Bukumbi
Disabled and Elderly Center. They concluded
People damned to die here. The situation is
disgusting. We have to do something as
Christians. The center has unreliable food
supply and health care delivery, inadequate
shelter, unreliable water and electric supply, no
education plan for the children, no church
building, etc.
23
Compassionate
The Church Advocates Spiritual and Physical Needs

• There are no hospitals available in the area.
• There are malaria and other diseases related to
  poor sanitation, nutrition, maternal child
  health, and family planning that can be cured.

In the government hospitals, it is hard to get
medicine. The medicine is very expensive for
the people in the community. A friend of mine who
is a pharmacist told me that most of people never
buy a full dose of malaria medicine. Mothers
deliver by roadside as they are walking to the
hospitals.
24
The Church Advocates Spiritual and Physical Needs

• The church has begun primary health care or
  community based health care where they assist
  people with basic health problems, agriculture
  and nutritious food because they cannot get it
  otherwise. The advocacy role helps the church to
  reach out with the Gospel to people who have
  healthy bodies and full stomachs.

25
Women are the majority in the church

• A Womens Association has decided to reach women,
  equip them with God and empower them with
  economic small projects such as sewing,
  agriculture, fruit and vegetable processing and
  canning, and also handicrafts.
• The goal is to involve women in small groups to
  enable them to help themselves and eradicate
  several constraints that affect them in their
  daily and spiritual life.
• There are a growing number of widows, children,
  and families.
• Women also need other women for prayer and moral
  support.

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Plan for the FutureWithout a vision people
perish

• How can the church have effective local leaders,
  mentors, and pastors if they do not know how to
  read and write, and haven't internalized
  Christian values and standards and ethics?
• Nationalized schools have lost both educational
  and spiritual qualities
• The church established the school in the middle
  of the mission area

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Plan for the FutureWithout a vision people
perish
Mwadui Secondary School

• Despite inadequate facilities, congested due to
  increased numbers of students, lack of clean
  water, poor infrastructure, a ratio of one
  computer to 50 students, shortage of teachers
  with English, science and computer skills
  parents still send their children for both
  spiritual and educational standards.
• This is a center for mission. Besides general
  education, the school equips students with the
  Gospel. The students are trained in the Christian
  environment, which is not available in the public
  schools.
• The school reaches out to unreached students who
  join the school from other religions.

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Plan for the FutureWithout a vision people perish

• Bishop Bomani told Mid-South missionaries that
  the Mid-South District is a partner in mission.
  Mission is not an overnight job. Therefore, we
  need to plan now how we will hand over the work
  to the next generation. Learning from other
  places, mission in most cases fails to look for
  local opportunities that can be utilized to
  support the mission work.

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Plan for the FutureUsing Local Resources

• Opportunities
• Lake Victoria
• National Parks
• Locality in the city
• Fertile land
• That can be invested to support the work of the
  church -- lake, fertile soil, and its locality
  being in the city and close to national reserves.

• They have such a plan already fishing,
  agriculture, English Medium Schools and
  tourismwhich can utilize the local resources to
  support mission work.

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The harvest is obvious

• It is right for the Mid-South District to cross
  the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and help to reach
  unreached people with the Gospel.
• The work is too big for one entity to handle. No
  one can do it alone. The East Lake Victoria
  Diocese needs partners as the Mid-South District
  needs partners, as well.
• In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray
  with joy because of your partnership in the
  Gospel from the first day until now, being
  confident of this, that he who begun a good work
  in you will carry it on to completion until the
  day of Christ Philippians 13-5.

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The harvest is obvious

• Tanzania Mission Travelers Contact Information
• Rev. Lonnie Jacobsen (Arlington, TN)
• Wk [phone], Home [phone]
• Email PastJake_at_bellsouth.net
• Joseph Ertl (Bowling Green, KY)
• Wk [phone] x335, Home [phone]
• Email joee_at_bandousa.com
• Rev. Clifford Herd (Chattanooga, TN)
• Wk [phone],Home [phone]
• Email pastor_at_gslc-chatt.org
• Rev. Dr. Terry Tieman (Cordova, TN)
• Wk [phone], Home [phone]
• Email terry_at_mid-southlcms.com
• James Joesel (Arlington, TN)
• Hm [phone], Pager [phone]

• Let your congregations know of the Mid-Souths
  mission to Tanzania.
• Please contact one of the following if you wish
  your congregation to hear live from Tanzania.

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The harvest is obvious

• You may also want to experience the African
  world next summer for yourself.