Recently thirteen teams representing twelve denominations were certified by World Impact and TUMI to train and equip church plant teams from and for the urban poor. A team from Bangladesh and Tanzania joined the other teams from the US. The vision that was stirred at the four-day conference was remarkable.
The following week we hosted Bishop Charles Sekelwa and Pastor Joel. They live and work in the cities of Tanzania with a special focus in the rural areas where witchcraft dominates. Their vision is to reach into these communities with the Gospel and then train leaders to pastor the churches that are birthed.
Bishop Charles oversees one-third of Africa with the Charismatic Episcopal Churches that have been planted. In addition to this significant work he gives oversite to an association of five hundred pastors in his city of two million.
The strategy is to train pastor leaders as quickly as possible. He already has 50 that have been trained. Three years ago he established the TUMI seminary of Tanzania. Their facility houses and trains the leaders for one year at a time. There is no kitchen, so they cook outside. But the Word of God is powerful and is preparing these leaders for the great challenges and opportunities ahead. The church planters are sent out to the villages for evangelistic efforts and then the churches are birthed.
The next year’s focus will be sending these leaders to the islands of Lake Victoria, which happens to be the second largest lake in the world. There are close to twenty islands and most of them have not had a Gospel witness. Each year, five thousand people die on the waters of Lake Victoria because of the storms and conditions of their boats. Most are fisherman. And yet the Bishop has those ready to go (by row boat) to see the churches planted.
Trained church planters that are sound in biblical training with godly vision under the leadership of a church planting movement is a strong combination. Thank you for your prayers and support that make these efforts possible.
