Coni’s 411 Training on evangelism began after breakfast on Wednesday. Basically, as ambassadors we are told to go and pray. We would be reaching a village in Tanzania with a mix of Muslims, Roman Catholics, and Christians. We were sent out 2x2, as Jesus did with his disciples, with a translator and a list of 5 questions to ask based on spiritual beliefs, if they know who Jesus is, their belief in heaven/hell, where they go when they die. Additional questions are about sin, forgiveness of sin, belief in Jesus dying on the cross and resurrecting. 8 passages we asked them to read out of a bible in Swahili or our translator would read the passages to them. One accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, some asked questions and many seeds were sown. We also spread the word about our VBS camp being held at the newly planted church from a Hope of The Nations graduate. Coni said there are 1.2 billion in the world who have never heard about Jesus. This means we have a lot of work to do until “every knee will bow and every tongue confess” and we are told to go and make disciples of all nations. One of our Team members observed at our nightly debriefing that it felt like people in Tanzania are much more open to door-to-door evangelism than our neighbors in the states because they are open to hear what we have to say, many in Kigoma are born into many spiritual beliefs, but most not knowing the one and only God.
After a long day in the heat and dust, the team went for their first dip in the cooling, fresh water of Lake Tanganyika.
Then back home to dinner, Jack shared his testimony, a nightly addition to the debriefing meeting. We then made over 100 Peanut Butter and jelly sandwiches for our first day of VBS on Thursday and the action packers were prepped with arts/crafts and game supplies.
Susan Mister, Team blogger
