Moshi Church of Christ Newsletter

Moshi Church of Christ, Tanzania
AUGUST O7 NEWSLETTER
ANY HOPE FOR THE OMARIS OF MOSHI, TANZANIA?
Omari just turned 19 this last month. He knows the month but not the exact date. Omari has been a Muslim. He couldn’t understand what they preach in the Arabic language. And so he started to read the Bible by himself. He read the story of Joseph the son of Jacob. He tells the story with ease. His cousin, Deogratius who had to sneak from a catholic church sponsored vocational school to be baptized, encouraged Omari to give himself to the Lord. So he hooked us up and I studied with him about Christ and that He is Lord over Mohamed. Of the people I have studied with this year, Omari is the easiest to teach. He is a fast learner and he has some very thoughtful questions. Omari is my buddy. He lives 15 miles from Moshi Town. One Monday morning Omari got his small bag and came to Moshi. He had been promised a job at a construction site but when he reached, there wasn’t any job for him. He borrowed 500 shillings to come to town and that was all he had. Since there was not a job for him, he had to get back home. But he did not know how he would do that. The previous night he went to bed on an empty stomach. On Monday he left before he had any breakfast. He did not have any energy to go back home. So he came to church. By good luck, yes, I had a meeting with Samuel, Dhudha and Phil and so I went to church to pick up some writing material and that is when I met Omari -stranded at the church. We sat and talked and I sympathized. Gave him enough money to take him back home and pay the debt and enough to bring him to church the following Sunday. Then I said, ‘Omari you are now free to go back home, I have a meeting that I must rush to; and may God bless you…’ And he answered, ‘Amen.’ Then he added, ‘I am looking for a job, any job, if you have any I would be glad to take it.’ ‘I do not have any job’ but I said to him, ‘my ears will be out should I hear anything, I will let you know.’ With that he left the office. Ten minutes later, I stormed out of the office as I was at the knick of being late… and Omari was still on the stairs. There was a problem. And so I asked him, ‘Omari come we pray.’ And we moved to the auditorium where we both knelt down and I prayed for him. He knelt first, and so I had to kneel too as this prayer was for me as well. Just like people have different spiritual gifts so does the church. Some congregations will have strengths in different fields of ministry. Our congregation is a tool God has chosen to reach people like Omari. The urban-poor. A people with very little education. We can’t run away from them, they need Christ the most. Every day I have heart breaking encounter with my kith and kin who have to fight intoxicating hardship bravely and still cling on to Jesus thanking him of his generosity. This relationship with Jesus has always improved the lives of those who believe in Him. Their hope is in Christ in whom grace and mercy abound over and above ‘justice’. Justice will condemn them to the abyss of despair and hopelessness. It is now three years since we restored this promising congregation. We are still dependent on the Ankeny Church of Christ - Iowa, for rent for the theatre hall that is now housing us as a church. The Ankeny church has also pressing needs at home and would be glad if we got off their back and became self reliant. It is our desire to be self-reliant, it is honorable. And yet we do not have enough money to be able to do anything substantial. We need our own building. Currently we are paying 336 dollars a month on rent. The rent has a tendency of going up often. The only lasting solution is for us to be on our own. Would you please help us be on our own and help us break this circle of dependence on America? We seek for mercy. We have 10,000 dollars. We have an expert doing for us estimations and since we will have to purchase a plot and build a building on it, it will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 dollars. Yes, I need help for this church. Will you help us? Will help me? Any amount will do. A Swahili proverb goes, ‘haba na haba hujaza kibaba’ meaning little by little fills the measure. And that is our approach, little by little by faith and we’ll be there. On how to help from the USA, please contact Royce Hammit: rhammit@juno.com or reach him by phone: 515-964-1885 OR 515-577-0703. Royce Hammit is our US contact person and he is one of the elders of the Ankeny Church of Christ that oversees this work. All donations are tax deductible. Please contact Royce and we’ll keep you posted as we progress with this. Special regards and love to you from the Church here –at the foot of ‘Kilimanjaro’

I remain yours sincerely,
Charles Ngoje

Good Works

There is a lot of good work going on all around Moshi so here are more details about what our team will be doing.

Orphanage - Recently, Africa Now Ministries has begun working with an orphanage in Moshi that currently houses 19 children between the ages of 4 and 13. These children live in a old house that needs a lot of work plus they currently sleep on the floor along with the mice and other assorted African bugs. Our team will be helping to remodel the orphanage by building interior walls, painting, updating electrical and plumbing, buying beds, bedding and mosquito nets. Phil, with Africa Now Ministries tells me this can all be done for about $14,000. Can you imagine all that work for that little amount? I look forward to being able to make a difference for the children of Moshi for years to come but mostly I look forward to simply playing with the kids.

Haruma Christian Academy - The photo of the brick building with the cross in the previous post is a photo of Haruma Christian Academy; a preschool that is almost complete in Neja Penda, a bush village outside of Moshi. The children are already attending school but the cement floor needs to be completed, they need a bathroom and they need supplies. Phil tells me about $1000 is needed for the finishing touches. Previous visitors from the US poured the first half of the floor and built desks for the school. Phil describes the bathroom as a "two hole toilet room" and tells me the children currently run into the forest when nature calls. I know we will be visiting the school and doing what is needed but I am hoping we do not have to dig the toilet holes.

Moshi Church of Christ - This is the main reason that Phil and Amy Carter are living in Moshi. They were asked by the founders of the church to come help with growth and training of local leadership. There are about 130 people who worship weekly at the church and their main preacher is a man, Charles Ngoje, from Kenya. Charles studied at The Nairobi Great Commission, a preaching school in Nairobi, Kenya run by the Churches of Christ. Currently the Moshi church is worshiping in an old movie theater but they are looking for land to purchase in order to build a permanent home for the church. Training local leadership is the first step to building a self-sustaining congregation but having a permanent home is the next most important step. They currently have raised about $500 for the building fund and are hoping to raise a total of $20,000 by the end of the year. I look forward to worshiping with the Moshi church and getting to know many of the members.

Introduction

This blog has been created in order to share this wonderful opportunity with friends and family. For 5 weeks beginning October 1, 2007 I will be living and working with a missionary and his family in Moshi, Tanzania. I will be traveling with 5 other people and we will be helping to remodel an orphanage, working with a preschool class in a local bush village, teaching Sunday School and getting to know the local people and their culture. We will also be taking a short safari. Moshi is a city of about 200,000 people located at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. It is surrounded by agriculture and is the coffee growing capital of Tanzania.

We will be hosted by Phil and Amy Carter who started Africa Now Ministries back in 2001. You can read all about their work in Kenya and Tanzania at http://www.africanowministries.org/.

Photos: Store in Moshi, Mount Kilimanjaro, Moshi School Chidren, Baptism, New Preschool Building