Tanzania is truly an amazing country, incredibly diverse in people, climate, topography, and culture. I just returned from another amazing experience in their beautiful country. When I step out of the airport terminal in Dar es Salaam and am met by the blast of hot, humid air, I instantly feel like I’m home in Africa. Dear friends in Dar are happy to meet me, and we spend delightful time together getting caught up on the latest news in each other’s lives. Greyson, Ikongo, and Michael are some longtime close friends.
For this trip, I quickly turned around and took off for the city of Iringa to do training for a brand new group of pastors connected with a missionary friend I know named Lyle Hall. While we normally limit the group of pastors we train to 16 so that we can have healthy interaction, in this case about 60 ministry leaders showed up for the first day of training. After two days, we had whittled the group down to a manageable number, but I still questioned some of the selections the coordinator Pastor Tumaini had made for program participants. For example, one girl named Rebekah looked and sounded very young, was shy and reserved, and I told Tumaini I had concerns if she would be able to train other preachers.
During one exercise, she volunteered to preach on a certain passage following a few others in the class. The other pastors had struggled to preach through the text, so I listened carefully to see how Rebekah would do. While holding her Bible six inches from her face completely concealing her face is not standard homiletical practice, she proceeded to blow everyone (including me) away by systematically and powerfully preaching verse by verse through the passage, giving clear understanding and application. As she finished, the entire class (including me) jumped to our feet and began cheering and clapping. I was reminded that “you can’t judge a book by its cover!”
One unusual experience I had was being invited to play rugby with a group of expats, mostly South Africans. I’ve never played nor even watched rugby, so I was completely clueless how the game is played. But well-intentioned players tossed me the ball expecting I knew what to do. It quickly became apparent that was a mistake, and while the game was continuing, they tried to explain the basics. However, I never quite got it, and the though occurred to me that this is probably a good illustration for some sermon, or maybe for Pathways Bible Training. We toss the Bible into the hands of global preachers who have never heard an expository message before, explain some basic principles of hermeneutics and ask them to get busy doing it. They are just as clueless as I was in that rugby match, and so gracious and patient colleagues and coaches are essential to help them (and us) from fumbling the ball.
Following the Iringa training, I returned to Dar and immediately made my way to the central bus station and commenced a seven hour bus ride to Muheza in the north. Here I stayed with a local pastor, preached in a church service, and launched a new network of 16 master trainers. A memorable experience happened in both Iringa and Muheza as I gave a devotional on Exodus 34:6-8 as God reveals His glory, His name, His goodness in this clear proclamation of who He is. The group worked through the passage, and at the end, as Moses got down on the ground and worshipped God, I did the same, and both groups did likewise. It was a precious, powerful moment of repentance, thanksgiving, and praise as tears poured, and prayers ascended to the God who is gracious, loving, and forgiving, but also who is also holy, righteous, and just.
God graciously sustained me through a very full two-week trip where I was training all day every day, in many meetings with pastors, and doing it all solo. The reunion with the family was sweet, and now I’m prepping to preach in my church this Sunday, and leave a few days afterward for Malawi. God is good, and I am blessed.
