Tanzania Trip
Labour Day Monday, Pastor Aki and I went to Dar-es- Salaam where the start of the mission seminar awaited. The participants were 32 Tanzanian pastors who got a spark from the previous courses. They wanted to hear how the work is started in practice.
Pastor Jonathan from Finland and Pastor Shierley from Indonesia had already arrived there over the weekend. In addition to the seminar preparations, they were assigned a mission to a village of the Zaramo tribe.
Zaramo Mission
The rain is a blessing in Africa, but not warmly welcomed for outdoor events. Thankfully, during the afternoon we were able to spread the Good News in Dar-es-Salaam’s outskirts in Chanika. The rain was always put to a halt right before the event started.
The crowd, including Zaramo people, gathered in front of the opening of Pastor Mtenga’s church on three afternoons. We shared about Jesus through songs, prayers and preaching. We also taught two acts to the young adults of the church through which the Word and Jesus’ love and forgiveness was portrayed to the listeners.
The altar call was firstly received by the children who wanted to give their life to Jesus. Secondly, many women who were in bondage felt a deliverance, but sadly there were only a few number of men.
Zaramo tribe is one of the hardest people groups in Tanzania to evangelize to. Among 1.3 million of them, about 95% are muslims. We need a lot of prayers that they too will be touched by the Word.
Pastor Mtenga was one of them who participated in GNN’s mission training in 2019 and 2022. Since then, he has focused great efforts on his own area in reaching the Zaramo people. He rejoiced about this three-day campaign. The church got new members and even after our series of meetings, people approached him to stay connected. Pastors from surrounding areas also become interested in missions in the future, all glory to God!
Seminar about starting missions
In Dar-es-Salam’s Sending Seminar, we focused on equipping church leaders to start their own mission work. GNN’s culturally diverse team this time included Pastors Arto Sädeaho, Aki Miettinen and Jonathan Lemmetti as well as Pastor Shierley. This way we were able to shed light on different perspectives.
Pastors from previous courses already had basic knowledge about the work of unreached people groups. This continued seminar gave them a practical approach and tools to use for starting mission work in their home churches.
The Holy Spirit’s presence had made a big impact during the course especially during prayer. Frederick, former member of the parliament, expressed how he felt a great way of joy and peace as if something had uplifted him.
Pastor Demetrio already works with the Zaramo people. He came to the seminar with a handful of questions and had received answers during the week of the seminar!
Many felt greatly inspired hearing Pastor Shierley’s latest stories about the work with the Indo-pioneers amongst the unreached people groups.
This was the first seminar of its kind that GNN has organized. If the Lord permits, it will not be the last!
Pastor Shierley’s Impressions
The seminar week was a great learning opportunity for all of us! We had an enthusiastic and open-minded team. Inspiring lectures imparted practical knowledge from life experiences.
GNN – Good News Networking has great hope that the Gospel can be shared even to the most difficult people groups.
Along with Aki Miettinen, we represented the team in Uganda’s mission work. Pastor Aki reports below aboutthe nearly three- week long work in Uganda.We arrived in Entebbe around midnight of 12.4 where we had meetings that same morning. On Saturday, the police chief, Brian, picked us up from Kampala’s surrounding area in Nansala province. There we held a six- day vision casting and leadership seminar in the World Mission International center. The long period of blackout disrupted the program, although my speech continued even without the microphone.
On Thursday we distributed certificates to 25 participants at the Nansana seminar and the following day to the police barracks in Entebbe airport. There we had an interesting session where we heard how “men and women in uniforms” take the Gospel to Somaliaa among others.