Perter Ngwili Tanzania Ministry Update

I indeed praise God that the March – July 2024 period has been an epic season for the Transform Tanzania tripartite ministry approach of wells drilling, church& community empowerment trainings (CCMP) and the equipping of pastors and their wives through the Pastors conferences.  My wife Anitha and our four Children namely Violet (26), Charity (11) Johnmark (7) and Joshua (5) deeply praise God for the gift of one another and your continued support  which enabled the ministry to positively impact the lives of over 25,000 people (new beneficiaries) in varying ways including facilitating their access to  safe and clean drinking water, giving them a new sense of worth and an identity through the empowerment program or enhancing the effectiveness of their local pastor through the pastors conference .

The Wells Drilling Ministry 

Within this period, the ministry through the generosity of Gods people managed to drill and complete a total of ten new wells in 10 different water thirsty villages and communities namely Kabulabula, Kweru, Msozi, Nzagwa, Muungano, Muranda, Itira, Nafuba, Mkunu and Bukongo with an estimated beneficiary population of over 28,254 people. The drilling of these wells brought to 158, the total number of wells drilled since the start of this initiative in 2008. The drilling of these most recent 10 wells was so timely as it preceded the longest severe dry season every year which normally starts in June and ends in November every year(5Months). The season indiscriminately subjects’ women, girls, families, animals to difficulties of having to walk long distances on very hot and dusty roads to the nearest water point which may be a river or the lake 2- 10 kilometers away causing the children to miss school, women to experience physical & sexual abuse and on worst case scenarios leads to massive death of animals. These are nightmares that these 10 communities will not experience aagain following the drilling of the 10 wells now available  in their villages which has become such a blessing to them.

The pastors conference

8^th through 12^th of July brought together over 400 pastors and their wives from all the four corners of the Diocese for the 2024 Pastors equipping conference held at Bunda town in the Northern Tanzania. This year’s conference attracted a significant number of attendees compared to the other years and was graced with five phenomenal speakers among them being Legend Mike Malone, Robert Browning, Matt Kennedy, Elisha Kitula and Bishop Peter Phares. The speakers handled sessions ranging from Justification and Sanctification, the positive and negative impact of social media, dealing with Burn out as a Pastor among other topics. The pastors applauded the selection of the topics as they were very relevant and spoke to their specific contextual needs of ministry. Pastor Paul Kengele from Buhare Church in Musoma was quoted after the conference saying ‘’this year’s conference has been one of the most phenomenal and instrumental conference to our ministries as pastors. The topics that the speakers addressed are exactly the things that we experience as challenges or areas we feel insufficient about – for instance how to effectively teach on the impact of social media at church but also how to delegate and create boundaries as a pastor to avoid burn out’’.

Engaging and training churches on Holistic transformation (CCMP)

The Church and Community transformation program continued to scale up within the Diocese to cover more churches and communities. Within this period, the ministry started the CCMP in 10 new churches this time round using the already trained and graduated trainees of the Program as the facilitators. The graduated Pastor facilitators who have been assigned each one a church to facilitate while also mentoring a young trainee included Pastor Henry Kibiti, Paul Kengele, James Magash, Charles Kanayeleji, Rev. Hezron Shimba, Pauis Makasi, Fausta Mkaruka, Paul Magafu, David Bungulwa and Rev. Massaga. As a result of this initiative the now 40+ 10 newly engaged churches and communities continued to register individuals, families, self-help groups, churches, and communities experience the holistic transformation of their lives and situations using their own locally available resources…

Here is a story from Kono- one of the churches (communities) where we had facilitated the program in the last three years

Mr. Daudi Mwikwabe is 32 years old man living in Kono village of Serengeti District. He is married to Grace (26 years old) and in between them have 3 children ages 3, 5 and 7. Daudi shared with the us that prior to the CCMP intervention in his community, his life was headed on the wrong trajectory such that he had been reduced to a village beggar. He could hardly make ends meet for his family. This state of hopelessness had pushed him to find refuge in the local brewing bar where he would beg for local beer (gongo) from his friends. His life had become a waste and for years the wife had the heavy load of having to feed and raise their 3 children from their mad walled grass thatched house. The wife would work on other people’s farms especially during the rainy season to earn some income or if lucky wait for politicians during campaigns to be able to get some handouts.

When through the Local church we mobilizing this community towards a self-sustaining society as advocated by the philosophy in 2021, Daudi remembered being awakened to realise that  he had an inherent God given potential which if was well utilized would enable him turn his world upside down just by himself. The empowerment had made him discover lots of things including knowing/understanding the types of resources and opportunities he had in his village, the value of having a healthy relationship with God, family, and the community around him. He testified “ when this training started here three years ago, the Church treated me with such unconditional love as they regularly followed me up without giving up on me- I was truly lost in alcoholism , I had lost all hope and was ready to drink until God said -come!”

The church encouraged me to repent of my past which i did and prayed for me to accept Christ which marked a major turning point in my life. The church discipled me and begun empowering me to see the potential that God had given me. We learned many things that gradually began to transform my life. Having known from one of the trainings that time was money, I had realized that my life was valuable and therefore i needed to take every minute of my life seriously into doing things that gave life its meaning.

Under this new realization he started to lament over his wasted time in alcoholism and therefore resolved to stop wasting is God given life and time and thus begun gardening as way of income generation. There was a natural river on one side of his farm which he had never seen as having any other purpose apart from feeding his neighbours cows and providing his family with water for domestic use. The program under the resource mobilization section enabled him map out the river as a resource he could tap to generate income if utilized well to undertake small irrigation. He decided to take that opportunity straight away and therefore begun undertaking small gardening through simple irrigation using a watering can. The wife also proved very supportive in the process for she was now so proud of the transforming husband and wanted to do everything possible to ensure that the husband never went back to alcoholism.  They then started growing cabbages, tomatoes and other green vegetables and supplying them to the nearby local market in their Kono village while retailers would also come from the neighbouring Issenye town to buy vegetables on bulk from the family for sale. He added smilingly. ”This empowerment educational program called CCMP has totally changed me and my wife, it has become the main source of our livelihood. From our garden we earn an average of Tsh.300,000 per month and this has enabled us to live comfortably, educate our children and build a better house made of bricks and corrugated iron sheets roof. Our children can now have breakfast in the morning before going to school while we can also afford them some shoes and uniforms very much unlike before when they would go to school without breakfast and in tattered uniforms. The family was now able to eat three meals a day unlike before when they would only eat one meal a day (dinner). Asked what their future plans were, Daudi said “After harvesting and selling the current tomato produce, we plan to increase the size of the farm so that we could cultivate more land for both food for sale but also to enable us get some instal solar power in our house. We have also begun saving some money for the future education of our children when they go to secondary school in the next couple of years- Honestly this program has so much improved the relationship between me and my wife, and this has given me respect and dignity in my village very much unlike before when I was into alcoholism which was out to destroy me- I thank God for the church and this initiative called CCMP”.

Prayer Items for the August – December 2024 season

• Please pray with us that for resources to drill wells in over 40 churches and Villages in our waiting list and desiring to have safe and clean drinking water in their localities
• Please pray that the newly engaged 10 CCMP churches and communities will fully commit themselves to the holistic transformation journey of the CCMP in the next three years.
• Pray for the entire Diocesan Bishops office staff as they are involved in evangelism and church planting mission the whole of this week at Kakelenge in Nansio- Ukerewe Island.
• Please pray with us for sufficient rains in the coming season as people’s livelihoods are significantly dependent on rains here and when the rains fail its negative impact on livelihoods is severe.
• Please pray for the completion of the surgical theatre unit at the Bweri Health center at Musona so that it can start to operate and serve the many people within its coverage waiting for its completion and services
• Please pray for resources for the purchase of the church’s ambulance for the Bweri Health center at Musona as the small one they have been using is no longer effective.