Wednesday, November 25, 2015

ACT AMANI FM Radio Project

For this year the various seminars we have been carrying out have finished and at the moment our main focus is on the development of our project to establish an Anglican Church of Tanzania radio station ACT AMANI FM. At present ACT does not have any sort of media platform through which to broadcast news and information about the church and its events. It would be of huge benefit to the church.





A radio station would also be a great resource for broadcasting education in a wide range of different issues to help local communities. 
As people will be attracted by such community education programmes there is also the potential for evangelism through programmes teaching the Word and through entertainment programmes from Christian choirs.
In August/September we carried out a feasibility study which primarily involved consultation in local communities. These pictures show the team carrying out this study. We are very grateful to FEBA UK who funded this study and have been very supportive. During the community consultation there was great excitement at the prospect of a new church radio station.

It was also clear that radio is by far the most widely used form of media here in Tanzania, nearly everyone saying they listen to the radio, and large numbers saying they listen every day. People are eager to receive education programmes of high quality and from a Christian perspective as well as news and information and Christian entertainment.


We are now in the process of writing a project proposal for funding for this project as well as applying for a broadcasting and construction license.
Both these processes have many challenges and we appreciate your prayers as we search for potential funders and try to obtain our license. God willing we hope to get ACT AMANI FM up and running in 2016.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Training of Evangelists in the Southern Zone of ACT


We praise God for the success of our recent training seminar for lay evangelists of the Southern Zone of the Anglican Church of Tanzania. This is the second in a series of seminars following the training we did in the Western Zone last year. 

The 4 day seminar took place in the diocese of Masasi in the town of Tunduru and over 100 evangelists attended from 5 different dioceses. Tunduru is a key area for evangelism in the diocese of Masasi and so was chosen as a focus for the seminar which involved practical evangelistic work as well as training.
 
Rev Can David Haj
Rt. Rev James Almasi
We had 2 amazing teachers, Rev Canon David Haji of AEA (Anglican Evangelical Association) and Rt. Rev James Almasi, the Bishop of Masasi.

Each morning involved teaching in the classroom together with prayer and worship. The first 2 evenings evangelists divided into groups to carry out door to door evangelism, which was a very encouraging time of meeting with people of other faiths and sharing the good news of the Gospel. They were generally well received and many people responded positively to the Gospel.
 










The following 2 evenings we held an open air mission, preaching the Gospel and Worshipping God amongst the local community. Large numbers of people came to hear the word and receive prayer ministry. Many gave their lives to Christ and others were delivered of evil spirits. Following the mission we also showed the Jesus film on a large screen outdoors to which more people came. The local church is now following up those who responded during this mission, meeting with them and discipling them regularly. Please pray for this ongoing work and those individuals.

 

Sunday Morning Service
On the Saturday morning one of our evangelists was made a deacon of the Anglican Church in a wonderful service of the high church tradition which is dominant in the South of Tanzania. On the Sunday morning, a group of us went to minister at a small church plant, which is very new and has no building but meets under a Mango tree. It was a wonderful service and during prayer ministry around half the congregation came forward to make a renewed commitment to Christ. We praise God for this and pray that he continues to build and encourage this congregation 

We ask that you join us to pray for all those evangelists who attended the course. It was a huge blessing to all involved and we pray that they will now be equipped and fired up to return to their dioceses and work for the Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit.

We thank you for your prayers and for your support without which we would not be able to do this work. We ask for your continued prayers as we make plans to continue training like this in the remaining 3 zones of the Anglican Church. Our greatest challenge is funding and resources and we ask that if you feel able to support this work you consider making a donation on our just giving page using the link at the top of this blog. The seminars are not expensive, particularly considering the impact that they have. We need only around £3000 for one seminar.

God bless you.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Music School and Crosslinks Biblical Training Seminar

 
 

 

Music Class 2015
We praise God that our annual one month music school was once again a huge success this year. The school, which gathers those involved in music ministry from all over the country, aims to teach music skills and also encourage and build up students spiritually so they are better equipped to serve God effectively in the ministry to which he has called them.

This year 31 students attended representing 17 dioceses of the Anglican Church of Tanzania, together with representatives of the Lutheran Church and Pentecostal Churches.

Students were taught piano, guitar and singing skills, music theory, composition of songs, and many aspects of music ministry. They were also given the challenge of writing songs in groups based on challenging passages from scripture. Some of these songs can be seen in the videos below. This year songs were based on passages from Song of Songs and Hosea.


Former Student, Leonard, teaching piano
Piano class with teacher Douglas
The teachers this year were myself, evangelist Musa Njagamba, a gifted musician and evangelist who has been with us since we began this project 5 years ago and Douglas Mdimu, who was teaching for the first time this year but proved to be a valuable member of the team as a gifted teacher and a humble servant of God. We were also joined by Leonard Kassembe and Godlove Mpandiko, two former students of this course who were now able to teach in some areas and did extremely well. It is wonderful to see the fruits of our previous work.


Former student Godlove, teaching guitar
The course was a huge blessing to all involved, teachers and students alike. Please pray that all who attended will be equipped to enhance the musical worship of their churches and pass on their knowledge and experiences to others.


Crosslinks School of Biblical Training




Also in August we were privileged to receive guests from Crosslinks UK who came to facilitate a seminar entitled "School of Biblical Training", training pastors, preachers, church leaders and evangelists in preaching skills. The seminar took place in Morogoro and representaives from the 6 dioceses of the North and Eastern Zone of Tanzania participated. This seminar too was a great blessing to all involved and we pray that Crosslinks may be able to develop this work further in Tanzania to encourage and equip our preachers and evangelists in their ministry.
  
Next week we will be holding the second of our training seminars for lay evangelists, which will take place in the Southern zone of the Anglican Church, based in the diocese of Masasi. We hope that around 100 evangelists will attend this seminar and we pray again that they will be encouraged and equipped in their ministry. As well as the training aspect of the meeting, participants will also carry out door to door evangelism and a 2 day open air mission. Please pray that lives will be touched and people will come to know Christ.

As always we continue to struggle to find the funding necessary for all of these projects and we are very grateful to all those who have contributed financially and with musical instruments etc. Without these donations much of our work would not be possible. If you feel able to contribute please donate on our just giving page on the link above.

Please enjoy these videos from the music school....



 

 

 



 

 

 

 



 





 


Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Mission and Evangelism Co-ordinators Conference 2015

 
We praise God for our annual mission and evangelism co-ordinators conference which this year took place from the 19th - 23rd May 2015 in Mtumba, near Dodoma. 
Representatives from 19 dioceses from all across Tanzania attended, together with representatives of the Anglican Church of Tanzania Mission and evangelism Committee. Particpants included pastors and evangelists, all of whom are involved in the work of mission and evangelism in their dioceses. The conference was a great blessing and encouragement to all involved, inspiring each one of us in our work to proclaim the Gospel across Tanzania and bring people into God's Kingdom.

The conference was a 3 day event, the first day being a day of sharing our work and our plans in each diocese with opportunites to learn from each other and encourage each other in God's work.

Day 2 was a day of learning. We were very blessed to received Rev Canon Elias Peter Cherra of Mount Meru University in Arusha who taught about our calling in mission, how to carry out evangelism in the church today facing the many challenges of today's culture, and how to encourage church growth. His teaching gave us all much to think about and challenged us to think of new ways to approach our ministry.

Day 3 was a day of planning and considering the different programmes which are continuing and being developed at the provincial level such as various training courses and a week of prayer and evangelism which will take place in June this year.

The conference was opened by the General Secretary of ACT, Rev Canon johnson Chinyong'ole who also joined us to close the event on the final day and to lead us in a short service of Holy Communion.

We ask for your continued prayers as mission and evangelism co-ordinators and their teams in all the dioceses continue faithfully in the work to which God has called them, and strive to make our plans and visions a reality. We ask particularly for your prayers for the week of prayer and evangelism June 15-21, that this will be a powerful time of joining together in prayer for our church, our communities and our country, and a time when many people will be touched by the Word of God.








Wednesday, March 4, 2015

What's Happening in 2015?


Bwana Yesu Asifiwe! (Praise the Lord!)

I have been back in Tanzania since mid January and have been putting together plans for 2015. The Anglican Church of Tanzania now has a new General Secretary, Rev. Dr. Johnson Chinyon'gole. We also now have a new Mission and Evangelism Committee led by Chairman Bishop James Almas from the diocese of Masasi and we are working together to put into pratice our new departmental strategic plan which we hope will help us to focus and co-ordinate our work more effectively. We value your prayers for all the activities that we have planned for the year. With God's blessing and in His strength we believe that we will be able to carry out His work that He has planned for us. We also ask that you prayerfully consider supporting us in this work and if you are able to do this please make a donation on the just giving link above. If you would like your donation to go towards a specific project just let us know.

Some of the work we have planned for the year is as follows:

19th - 23rd May:  Conference of Diocesan Mission and Evangelism Co-ordinators, meeting together for sharing, learning, planning for the future and mutual encouragement

15th - 21st June: Week of Prayer and Evangelism. This week the whole of the Anglican Church of Tanzania will join together in prayer for our church, our communities, our country and our world. There will also be a focus on evangelism and teaching during this week.

9th August - 4th September:  School of Music and Worship, training Christian musicians to develop their skills and their ministry.

24th - 28th August:  We will be joining together with Crosslinks from the UK to deliver a seminar entitled "School of biblical Training" to train church leaders and teachers.

15th - 21st September: Training of Lay Evangelists of the Southern Zone. This follows on from the training which we delivered last year in Western Tanzania. this year the seminar will take place in Masasi and involve dioceses of the Southern zone.

We are also continuing to develop our bible distribution project to enable people to obtain bibles at low cost in areas where it is difficult for them to access them. We are also trying to develop plans for the establishment of an Anglican Church Radio Station.

Many thanks for your prayers, support and encouragement. God Bless you.