Pastor’s Roundtable Day-Saturday (From Mitch)

Today was an incredibly impactful day.  It started off with our normal morning routine at the Mt. Meru hotel-buffet breakfast with the Kennedy’s.  I’m becoming all too familiar with buffets-which is a serious problem that will be remedied immediately when I get home at the gym.  However, it’s a treat to start the morning with my lovely bride and the Kennedy’s.  After good food and fellowship, we released our wives for a day of relaxing and hanging out at the hotel (or so we thought…to be continued).

The first thing on our morning agenda was a Pastor’s roundtable at the Hotel with Pastor James Kesanta (World Vision Director for Tanzania), Pastor William Msuya (District Overseer, PAG-Arusha and Pastor-Unga Limited Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church) and Pastor Stephen Gobrey (Pastor-Njiro Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church).  These are the two Pastors and Churches that we attended (and I preached) last Sunday. Also, the Njiro Church is where we held the all-day leadership training.  Unfortunately, after greeting one another in the hotel lobby, Pastor Msuya politely asked to excuse himself to tend to some personal family needs with his ‘mama.’  She is 81 years old and suffering from congestive heart failure (please join us in praying for Mama Msuya!!).  Pastor Msuya was kind enough to invite his Associate Wasforn (aka “William”) to join us in his absence.  Wasforn turned out to be a delightful addition.

We found a private area off the main lobby to sit on some couches for our discussion.  Lee told me later that the hotel wanted to offer us a “meeting room.”  One catch:  the cost would be $400.00 for the day!!  Lee kindly told them that our “couch conference room” would suffice.  We spent a couple of hours exploring what we’ve experienced together in our time in Arusha AND what the possibilities of a future partnership could look like.  Lee and I listened as the Pastors discussed some of the unique challenges in their churches.  The challenges include:

·         Most started rural, simple with limited leadership, now they are city churches that are growing and needed stronger, trained leadership.

·         These church-plants started with great zeal, but lacked the trained leadership to sustain and grow these churches over the long-haul.  Many of churches did not see or understand the necessity to send their Pastors and/or leaders for additional biblical training.  Also, formal training for Pastors is very limited and expensive (far beyond the financial capacity of these church members).

·         The constituency of many of these churches consists of very poor families with limited education and part-time employment or unemployed.  My observation is what they lack in resources is overcome by their incredible zeal and passion for the Lord! (Evidenced by their vibrant and lively worship-we could feel the presence of the Lord in both of these churches.)

·         Fact:  Tanzania has approximately 45 million people.  80% live in one of the 13,000 villages.  There are 12 Pentecostal Assemblies of God Churches in Arusha-5 in the city and 12 rural.  There is a tremendous need to plant more rural churches.

We concluded our time discussing a first-draft proposal that Pastor James brought entitled “Proposed partnership between Pentecostal Assemblies of God Arusha and New Harvest Church, Clovis, California, June 2013.”  They include:

1.      Mutual trust, prayer, communication and sharing of transformational testimonies and stories.

2.      Annual leadership development training/conferences, possibly June-July season.  Have trainers come from NHC.

3.      Support Church-Planting efforts(experiences, moral, financial and material support)

4.      Scholarship support to pastors with a calling but with financial constraints.

5.      Short-term mission trips aiming at visiting, working with and supporting needy communities.

We concluded just before noon.  Stage 2 of our day included visiting two church-plants.  So we all loaded up in the van and headed to our first destination-Ngusero Pentecostal Assembly of God Church.  We drove for quite some time toward the outskirts of town.  The roads were mostly congested, rough dirt with many obstacles and “road repair” everywhere.  The Pastors explained that this area of town was tougher (high crime and alcoholism).  The deeper into the bowels of this neighborhood we went, the more difficult the terrain became).  Then it happened…our van driver got stuck in a muddy pothole!  This required an unloaded of all passengers, collecting rocks to put under the wheels for traction and getting behind the van and pushing.  Lee and I only got a little mud on our shirts…some were not quite as fortunate!  We loaded back in the van and continued on to our destination. 

 

When we arrived, the church was a sight to behold.  Pastor Peter Ara was so proud of this little church and his congregation.  This church is a church-plant of Unga Limited.  It was planted about one year ago and has about 20 adults (5-6 families).  Did I mention that the Church building is more like an assembled shed.  It was windy and I was concerned one of the side walls was about to blow over.  The land belongs to one of the church members of the Mother Church and it provides a temporary meeting place.  The whole experience was very humbling.  We prayed over Pastor Peter and this sacred ground.  We headed off to our next church (or so we thought). 

 

On our way out, a LARGE Pepsi delivery truck was stuck around the same area we got stuck.  This required many people from the neighborhood to pitch in and help.  This took about 45 minutes and a ton of digging, additional gravel and rocks for traction and rearranging the load in the truck.  We took a bunch of pictures of the local kids and pitched in a few rocks.

We picked up Anne and Jami at the hotel (much to their surprise and ours) and they jumped in the van and joined us for a late lunch at Kensanta’s home.  James’ wife Phoebe served us a beautiful meal-she is a delightful woman.  They were very proud of their new home (still not completely finished…but beautiful). 

After lunch we headed for our 2^nd Church-plant-the Moshono Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church.  This church wasn’t far from James & Phoebe’s home.  It is the church they attend and serve.  WOW…what an experience.  Winding back into this neighborhood/village, down some side alleys and POOF…a beautiful, partially constructed church building with a temporary building INSIDE the partially constructed building!  This church was planted by the Njiro PAG Church in 2002. 

Pastor Mateo Lohay greeted us.  He has been pastoring the church since 2004.  This church plant is strong with about 40 adults.  The church body is vibrant and committed.  The BIG Church phase I project cost 5 million shillings ($3,125 US).  It’s amazing and humbling that this simple, small congregation has tithed and given so sacrificially to a Phase I campaign…with a FULL commitment to finish what they have begun. 

It is…and will be a beautiful place of worship.  One thing that was most impressive was the sense of pride and ownership that the CHURCH MEMBERS have in the construction of the church.  Lee and I inquired about the cost of Phase II in this 3 phase building plan.  Yes…we are already thinking about appropriate ways we COULD partner without diminishing the appropriate pride of ownership of the people.  This church is going to continue to grow!!!  And I truly hope and pray WE (NHC) will be a partner in this Kingdom work!!

 

 

 

We prayed together and discussed the next two phases of construction.  The future is very bright for this church-plant.

We headed back to hotel after a long, exhausting and exhilarating day.  The evening concluded with an invitation to the Kesanta family to join us at the hotel for dinner.  We enjoyed a lovely meal and fellowship with James, Phoebe and Josiah.  Dinner concluded around 9:00 PM and we were all tired and ready for bed.  What a special day…a meaningful day…a day SEEING the work that God is doing in Arusha…with dedicated Pastors and Church Members…all for God’s glory!

Tomorrow we head to the Tanzanian Christian Clinic to meet Dr. Danny and Nancy Smelser for church and to drop off medical supplies (3 bags…150 pounds of medicine!)