Over 300 Baptized
The last week of May 2025 we left our hotel in the small town of Maswa for an hour drive to the small village of Mwanghonoli consisting of 30 to 40 mud homes. It was a rough drive on gravel, dirt roads and trails. We drove to a large open field in the village and met up with the rest of our team; Pastor Elibariki Nathaniel and an old friend and SELVD worker, Ruben Lanza. Ruben runs the mobile movie van called Sinema Leo which means movie today. This wonderful ministry goes into remote areas and sets up a screen made up of tarp and hangs from two metal poles. It is powered by a generator. They set up in the open areas and show a movie of the life of Jesus in Swahili. They had arrived the night before our visit and started showing the movie. They continued to show it during our ministry time there.
Our group formed into 4 teams, my wife, Susie, was with assistant Bishop Odolous Gyunda and a young doctor who was a member of the local church, Emmanuel Stephen. He knew the area and was our guide. I was teamed with Maswa District Pastor Damiano Makala and a local guide. The other teams were the Sinema Leo team and the last team was Pastor Wilson Francis from the Malapaca community congregation that was partnering to plant this congregation. For three days we went from boma to boma, home to home, in the village and the surrounding areas. We shared the good news wherever we went, on the trails, and in the public areas. At the end of 3 days in the village we had baptized 353 men, women and children. They were invited to join the local church being planted.
The small congregation of 10 to 15 families was so happy. They had begun working on a church building in the few months before our visit They cleared the land, dug and laid the foundation. They made mud bricks and build the walls themselves. It is important to have a place to worship during the rainy season. From donations we were able to help them purchase wood for the rafters and steel for the roof. A month after leaving them, I was sent picture showing their church building with a new roof. This church was built by the members of the new Lutheran Church in Mwanghonoli in partnership with the Mid-South District. Thank you for your support in planting this new church. We moved to another area village, Mwabulimbu, for the remainer of the week and worked with a small group of believers. They are hoping to find a location for a church building. Over 300 were baptized.
We are making plans for next years Mid-South District mission trip to Tanzania. Come join us! If you have questions contact Bob Allen at 270-535-7370.
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