September 2026 Update

Dear friends of Transforming Tanzania:

As we enter the last few months of 2026, I want you to know how grateful I am for the support and encouragement you have been and are to me personally.  And I want to thank you for your faithfulness to the partnership we have with our brothers and sisters in Tanzania.  While it is difficult to be brief, I’ll do my best to share with you a snapshot of the current ‘state of the partnership’.  I’ll do this under the three headings that summarize the emphases of Transforming Tanzania:  Word, Water, Wellness.

WATER                      

WATER PROJECT #200!  From the beginning, we have said that the Word of God and our emphasis on conferencing must remain at the center of our ministry partnership.  Everything we do must find its source in the Scriptures.  That commitment will continue.  However, I begin this update with a remarkable milestone achieved this month: Since 2009, 200 water well projects have been completed!  According to our good friend Peter Ngwili, these projects are benefiting over 600,000 people.  All of these projects continue to produce.  A local church manages each one for the benefit of its wider community.  In addition to all the relational and health benefits of these well projects, hundreds of people have become Christians, been baptized, and have been added to the membership of local churches.  This marriage of word and deed represents the ongoing ministry of Jesus the King as he extends the good news of the arrival of His kingdom throughout the world (Luke 24:19; Acts 2:44-45; 4:34-35).  As the diocese continues to plant churches, these new works will be in villages needing safe water.  Currently, we have funding for three more projects.  Each project costs $15,000.  However, the vendor has not raised prices in four years.  Costs are likely to increase. 

The need: $350,000.  More than ten churches in villages lack access to safe water.  In addition, the diocese will seek to plant 10 churches in 2027.  Ten more churches with wells need to be upgraded to solar power or connected to the power grid.  Each project costs $5,000.

A further note:  The success of the well program in these villages is due to the training provided by Peter Ngwili, Director of Community Development, and his team.  Another focus of Peter’s ministry is the 3-5 year Church and Community Mobilization Process, a comprehensive discipleship program that centers on relationship to God through Jesus Christ and leads to a dramatic shift in how these Christians see themselves, their world, and the resources they have.  This training has been completed in over 50 villages.  It is underway in another 20, and more than 20 trainers have been equipped to lead this program.  Having just returned from Tanzania, my head is filled with stories of the spiritual, material, and economic transformation that results from Peter’s work.  Peter’s ministry has been called by one mission pastor ‘the work of discipling people out of poverty and into productivity.’  Currently, fourteen churches are providing the funding needed to keep Peter in the work he loves.  We thank God that since 2025 Peter has been fully supported by these churches!

WORD

Conferencing, with a clear emphasis on teaching the Scriptures and addressing the specific needs of pastors and wives, remains the central focus of this partnership.  It is the hub of the wheel.  If we lose the center, we will lose everything.  From very modest beginnings, donors now make it possible to bring together 400 pastors and wives for a week of spiritual renewal, teaching, prayer, and fellowship.  Every July we hear the same expressions of gratitude.  Men and women tell us that this conference enables them to keep going.  They describe it as an oasis in the wilderness.

Following the annual conference in Mara-Ukerewe, and at the invitation of Bishop Zakayo Bugota, the Shinyanga Diocese held a second conference for pastors and wives.  This two-day ‘trial balloon’ brought together 200 pastors and wives.  Shinyanga is the largest diocese in the AIC-T with over 700 churches.  Our hope and prayer is to put together a second teaching team for a week-long conference in 2027 for Shinyanga.  Our goal is to raise funding to bring 400-500 pastors and wives to this conference.

In 2018, a conference for women leaders was begun.  The aim is to encourage women in the use of their gifts.  This year, generous donors made it possible to bring together 400 of these leaders for a week of teaching, fellowship, prayer, and worship.  In what is a highly patriarchal culture, empowering women for service in the life of the church is extremely important. 

The need:  $135,000 and a second teaching team.  Funding a conference for 400 people costs $45,000 (about $100 per person).  At present, we have $33,000 in our conference fund.  I have been told to expect a grant of approximately $55,000 in November. 

WELLNESS

In the town of Musoma, completing a two-theater surgical suite has greatly increased the diocese’s capacity to provide the best health care available for ‘the poorest of the poor’.  Robert Browning is working with two Memphis physicians (Dr. Mel Payne and Dr. Martin Fleming) to put together a surgical team to serve at the health center in July 2027.  Through a growing relationship with the University of Tennessee Medical School and its Global Surgical Initiative, we hope to see teams visit the health center regularly.

Recently, generous donors have made initial contributions for the construction of a radiology unit at the diocese health center.  The unit will provide sonogram, mammography, and X-ray capabilities.  This is the only facility of its kind in a region of 300,000 people.  This unit is a ‘dream come true’ for the physicians and staff. The estimated cost to build and fully furnish the radiology unit is $117,000-$120,000.  Of that, we have raised $100,000, enabling the construction to begin.

The need: $17,000-$20,000. Honestly…I feel that I am short-changing you!  There is so much to share.  There are so many individual stories…stories from pastors, wives, children, non-Christians who have come to Christ; stories of donors who have given generously, sacrificially.  I am well aware that there are ministries and organizations large and small doing tremendous work in service of the gospel of the kingdom.  I also know that you are tugged in multiple directions and that no one’s resources are unlimited.  Still, I want to ask you to consider this partnership.  God has blessed our friends in Tanzania.  The gospel is flourishing among them.  God has blessed so many of us here through this partnership.  Would you consider a gift?  It is true.  No gift is too small.

You can give online at www.transformingtanzania.org  You can also give by check to:  National Christian Fellowship-Memphis, 6070 Poplar Ave., Suite #150, Memphis, TN 38119 (Fund #3997622 Transforming Tanzania Fund).

Thank you for taking the time to read this ‘brief’ update!  I am grateful to you.

Mungu akubariki sana (May God bless you richly!) 

Neema na amani,

Mike