Our month in Tanzania was absolutely amazing. We spent our month taking the gospel to the streets, the schools, the churchs and the villages. Here is a photo blog of our month's ministry…
This month we worked with a church in Morogoro, Tanzania. One of our primary ministries this month was preaching to the local church. We had four services a week (Wednesday night, Friday night, Sunday morning and the main Sunday service). Our whole team had many opportunities to preach and share our testimonies. Below is a picture of the outside of the church we were helping. The small building on the right is where we ate all our meals and spent time with the Pastor and his wonderful family.
The inside of the church.
Preaching on Friday evening
A second focus of our ministry was school evangelism. In Tanzania, religious groups are welcome in the schools to share the gospel with the children. We went to both primary and secondary schools several days a week. We were even given the opportunity to preach at the local medical school. The following picture is of Hannah giving her testimony to a local secondary school. The guy to her right is Elijah. He was the pastor's son and became our translator, friend and brother.
Children at one of the schools where we ministered.
Timothy telling the story of David and Goliath to a primary school.
In Morogoro, we also hit the streets to share the gospel with anybody that we met. Here, we are sitting with a group of wood carvers and telling them about Jesus. The people were generally very interested and had lots of questions. There is a strong Muslim presence in Morogoro and most people wanted us to explain the differences in Christianity and Islam.
While in Morogoro, we were also given the opportunity to spend a day with local orphans. We sang songs, played games and told them Bible stories. We acted out the stories of both David and Goliath and the story of Noah. It was a great time and the children were so happy that we were there. This picture is what we saw when we arrived to spend time with the children…
Timothy teaching the song, "I'm In The Lord's Army." If you are wondering, I am shooting the artillery.
Telling the children Bible stories.
One of the true highlights of our month was spending four days at a Maasai village. We stepped right into the pages of National Geographic. It was an experience unlike any other in our lives. We spent our time going "mud hut to mud hut" teaching the gospel. We also were given the opportunity to preach at two services a day. The rest of our time was spent with the Maasia women and warriors. It was very funny…but effective…to watch us try to communicate to each other through motions. Both sides laughed a lot! This picture is a young Maasai warrior that befriended our team and spent most of his days with us.
As I said above, we went "hut to hut" sharing the gospel and praying for the people.
We also got to dress up in traditional Maasai outfits. The people were so happy that we wanted to look Maasai. They took it as a sign that we loved them and their culture.
Hannah and I both got to preach to the Maasai. This is a picture of Hannah preaching. She did an amazing job. The elder of the village later told us that it was almost unheard of for the men to listen to a woman preach. However, they listed closely to what Hannah was saying and enjoyed the message very much.
A good view of our "church" with Hannah preaching.
Most of the people still practice body modification rituals such as stretching their earlobes and cutting markings into their skin. When asked, the people basically said it was just a style and does not have any deeper meaning. This picture is of a local woman listening carefully to Hannah. You can see her stretched earlobes in the picture.
While with the Maasai, we also went to the only school in the area to teach the children. This picture is of Timothy telling the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den to the children.
Hannah and Timothy with the school children from the village. You can tell from their expressions that they were not sure what we were doing with the camera. After they figured out they could see their picture, we had hundreds of requests for pictures.
Also at the Maasai village, there was a girl's choir that could sing beautiful African hymns. Our days were filled with the melodies, drums and dancing of these young women. We often tried to join them dancing. It was hilarious. We had half their rhythm and none of their moves. Needless to say, we stuck out a little bit in the dancing line.
Finally, a picture of us with the Pastor and his son. We could not have asked for better contacts and we hope to one day come back to Morogoro to see them again.
Our time in Morogoro was incredible. We saw many people come to Christ. We also saw many others have their faith restored. A piece of our heart was left in Morogoro and we will never forget our time there. We fell in love with the beauty of both the scenery and the people. Thank you!
