This upcoming July a short-term mission team from Emmanuel Baptist Church in Chatham, Ontario will be boarding a plane destined for Tanzania. East Africa River Mission will welcome this team into the Rufiji to work with and help open our newest village of focus, Ngorongo. As EastARM receives invitations to expand our work throughout the once unreached Rufiji, we are thankful for our existing church partnerships in Canada, to be able to involve them directly in the mission they have supported faithfully from a distance. The team will be building a parsonage for a pastor and his family in Ngorongo village, and helping to grow the current congregation (~8) through outreaches to the village including witnessing to the local workforce that will be involved in the build. Potentially the Chatham mission team will do ministry to kids in the village that will help form the early foundations of a Children’s Sunday School led by the church in Ngorongo – much the same as we did in Mloka village.
(above: newspaper clipping courtesy of ‘The Chatham Voice’ chathamvoice.com/2018/02/28)
JULY 24 – LEAVE CHATHAM
JULY 25 – ARRIVE LATE IN DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA (airport pickup, stay one night)
JULY 26 – TRAVEL TO RUFIJI (3 Landcruisers), WELCOME BAKER & SONS SAFARI CAMP
JULY 27 – ALL DAY SAFARI THROUGH THE SELOUS GAME RESERVE!
JULY 28 – OPEN DAY TO EXPLORE CAMP/VILLAGE, REST, ORIENTATION, SPECIAL TANZANIAN FEAST IN THE EVENING + MEET/GREET
SUNDAY JULY 29 – MLOKA CHURCH (speak am service, share special music, testimonies, lead children’s ministry)
MONDAY JULY 30 – FRIDAY AUGUST 3 – BUILDING MISSION (*Ngorongo)
SATURDAY AUGUST 4 – DAY OF REST, DO SOME POLE FISHING/HIKING AT THE CAMP, GO TO THE AFRICAN CARVING CURIO SHOP IN OUR VILLAGE FOR SOUVENIRS
SUNDAY AUGUST 5 – FELLOWSHIP AT NGORONGO CHURCH (speak/share/sing)
AUGUST 6 – 11 – BUILDING MISSION (Saturday 11th evening Rufiji River Boat Cruise)
SUNDAY AUGUST 12 – GOAT FEAST WITH MLOKA/NGORONGO CHURCHES COMBINED
AUGUST 13 – LEAVE RUFIJI, R&R BEACH RESORT INDIAN OCEAN (Dar es Salaam)
AUGUST 14 – AM BEACH RESORT + BREAKFAST, TRAVEL TO AIRPORT
AUGUST 15 – Return to Chatham, hearts full of stories of God at work in the Rufiji, a lost land He never forgot
The Chatham team have been hard at work, diligently raising their support to go and thinking up and executing some creative ideas to accomplish the fundraising task, all the while involving their local community for a greater fuller impact! The team call themselves ‘Team Tanzania 963’, after their theme Bible verse, Psalm 96:3 “Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples.”
They have raised a large portion of the funds necessary for building the pastor’s parsonage, and are chipping away at the balance needed to build a Sunday School meeting place for the village kids and a playground. Check the article below ‘NGORONGO SUNDAY SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION‘ to find details of the build and an opportunity to invest financially in it.