FBCE Singles Minister, John Harris and I joined a team from North America and traveled to Tanzania in October to conduct five leadership development conferences (LDC) in partnership with e3 Partners. These conferences were conducted in five cities throughout Tanzania. Attendees of the conferences were pastors and lay leaders of local congregations who desire to plant churches in their area. The two-day conferences concentrated on teaching the leaders to use the Evangecube to share the Gospel in their community. At the end of each conference the newly-trained leaders would go out into the community and share the Gospel using the Evangecube. A total of 680 people made professions of faith in the five areas. Not only were the leaders grateful to God for what He did in Tanzania, but also they caught the vision of Matthew 28 "to go and make disciples..." after such a encouraging number of believers were added to the kingdom. Their mission now is to go back to their respective churches to train their teams to coordinate with First Baptist Euless teams in church planting campaigns in the Summer of 2008.
My first conference stop was Shinyanga. I visited Shinyanga in April of 2007 on an e3 church planting campaign so this was a return trip for me. We stayed in the same hotel on this trip. The employees remembered us and came out to welcome us with embraces. During our first trip we had made friends with a local carpenter. In the picture above I am standing in front of his shop. The shirt that I am wearing was custom made for me in one day by a local tailor.
On Sunday morning in Shinyanga, Israel and Rachel were the worship leaders at a service where I preached. Their style of worship was lively and antiphonal. A performance style in which an ensemble is divided into two groups, performing alternately.
Below the leaders are working together in small group, coming up with a strategy for evangelizing their area. They are also practicing with the Evangecube. There were 20-30 leaders at each conference. I lead this group in Bariadi. They are a very open and warm village.
From Bariadi we went to a mountain where divination of every kind was practiced many years ago. One of the pastors, Marco, has started a church in that village. He is building on these former high places for the Lord Jesus now. We had a prayer meeting on the place where the actual church building will go. Marco and his congregation have been praying for a "man of peace" who God can use to open the community to receiving the Gospel. Emmanuel, a man of influence in the village, came forward and accepted Jesus as his Savior. He expressed a desire to help Marco spread the Good News to the village. God is always working and it is always wonderful when we get to see Him work.
Downtown Bariadi doesn't have paved streets or sidewalks. It doesn't have stop signs or street lights. But it does have people that are hungry to learn about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. FBCE will be going to Tanzania twice in 2008. On this trip six people came to lead the churches to witness for Christ and 680 people were saved. Imagine if we had 60 people go to Tanzania. Think of what God could do! Think of what God could do through you!
