In Sumbawanga

The new Mennonite church being built, and already in use.
The former church is to the right, and is now used for the
church sponsored nursery school.

We have heard that Sumbawanga is a town in the Harry Potter series, but we did not go to that one. The real Sumbawanga is an energetic town in western Tanzania, but cut off from the rest of Tanzania by poor roads. Even the electric supply comes from neighboring Zambia, about 50 miles away.

The Mennonite church has been there since the early 1980’s, when a group of youth read church history and were impressed with the Mennonite story. They sent 2 of their group to Musoma, the central office of Tanzania Mennonite Church for more information. They returned with an endorsement from Bishop Hezekiah Sarya and organized themselves with an evangelist, treasurer, and secretary.

Founding Pastor John Sikazwe (left), Doris Sikazwe,
Pastor Gabriel Magwega, Tabora

 The evangelist, John Sikazwe, was later ordained pastor and provided leadership until his recent retirement. The Sumbawanga churches are part of Tabora Diocese, but Tabora is 365 miles away and visits are difficult because of the cost of travel.
We were in Sumbawanga nearly a week to provide training for holding their own leadership training program. They expressed a lot of interest in the insights gained from reading the gospels to learn what the Bible says about being disciples of Jesus, not just Christians in name. The other subject which was greatly appreciated was Mennonite history and faith, which they knew very little about.

Gloria meeting with the women.

Seminar participants getting practical experience in
group Bible study.

 We were enriched by their warm hospitality. Our visit was especially meaningful to them, since we were only the second visit by Mennonite missionaries in their 30 years, and there have been few visits by local Mennonite leaders. The earlier visit was by Harold and Christine Wenger in the 1990’s. We are also challenged by their commitment to learn and teach and to bring the gospel to villages that have no church.

Sumbawanga faces economic and educational challenges. There are few persons with leadership skills and training, but they do not lack vision. Our challenge is how to empower them and develop the capacity to meet the needs around them.

At the end of the seminar, the ladies presented us with a piece
of African cloth, to be used to make a shirt and dress .