Pitman UMC is connected with other United Methodists around the globe. One of the ways we support that “connection” and the ministry that’s being done by other churches is through our “shared giving.”
We’re helping to spread the Gospel of Christ to people all over the world. Recently we received an update from the church in Tanzania…
FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF TANZANIA
Rev. Mutwale Ntambo Wa Mushidi
Rev. Mutwale Ntambo Wa Mushidi
One of the global missions that PUMC Missions and UMC Shared Ministries help to support is the First United Methodist Church in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
In 1992,along with other missionary teams, Rev. Mutwale, his wife Kabaka, and their six young children were sent by the UMC North Katanga Conference from their home in the Democratic Republic of Congo to serve the fledgling United Methodist Church in Tanzania.
“It was hard for us, a sacrifice for our families” Rev. Mutwale recalls; “The church was young. What to do?” “I knew that God was moving through our ministry as the church began to grow. God was encouraging us”
Today there are sixty-six thriving United Methodist Churches in Tanzania, with plans for many more. Rev. Mutwale serves as the the Bishop’s Legal Representative, the district superintendent, and pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Dar es Salaam. His duties include supervision of all UMC activities in the region, planting churches, and working with ordained and local pastors in the Kilimanjaro region.
One of their current goals is to purchase additional land for an adequate church infrastructure in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s busiest port city. Church members have begun making bricks in the hope that others will join them in this challenge.
Kabaka is Coordinator of Women’s Activities and Training for the Tanzania UMC, and she serves as Director of the UMC Preschool in Dar es Salaam. She also preaches at women’s events. As part of her work, she has organized the Women’s Sewing Project. Her vision is to enlarge this work, given increasing demand, and, along with livelihood education, to provide health education, especially about malaria and HIV/AIDs; guidance and spiritual nurture.
Many United Methodist Volunteer In Mission groups have found that serving in God’s mission in Tanzania to be life changing. UMVIM (United Methodist Volunteers In Mission) teams have helped build churches, raised funds to purchase goats and cows for families, and conduct health seminars.
Since 1994, Tanzania has hosted multiethnic refugee camps, necessitated by the violence in Africa’s Great Lakes Region. Refugees from Burundi, Rwanda, and the D.R. Congo reside in different camps. The UMC is growing in the camps, where thousands are church members. Five ordained pastors in five churches serve in the camp for Congolese refugees; and eleven ordained pastors serve in five churches in the camp for Burundian refugees.
The Tanzanian church has been in ministry with orphaned children and provides widows with assistance, food and clothing. Kabaka, a trained midwife, has assisted with births at the camps. Care for these refugees weighs heavy on the hearts of the missionaries. The need is acute, and the resources few.
By it’s very nature, the gospel compels those who know it to share the message of God’s love and saving grace, grounded in the cross. The significance of God’s work of reconciliation is relayed in the care of vulnerable groups of refugees, women in distress, orphans, street children,and other disadvantaged people. Many respond to spiritual care and an opportunity to improve their lives through training, life skills, and health awareness programs.
The United Methodist Church in Tanzania thirsts for God’s life giving spirit, just as, in the dry season, they long for a thunder storm to break the drought. As long as their hope is confirmed, with our prayers and support, they will continue to thrive.
How much to you remember about our ministry in Tanzania???
Try our Tanzanian Test…
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