Philadelphia Baptist bonds with Tanzania

Philadelphia Baptist bonds with Tanzania

For the third year in a row, a group from Philadelphia Baptist Church in Birmingham recently traveled to Tanzania in Africa to continue what has become an ongoing ministry there. Two teams, comprised of 16 church members, spent 19 days from mid-July until early August doing construction work, conducting crusades and assisting with pastor training. One team worked in the capital city of Dar es Salaam; the other team was based in Arusha.

What was initially thought to be a limited missions endeavor has now, according to Pastor Barry Bruce, became what appears to be a long-term commitment. “ A lot of relationships are being built there for future ministry,” he said.

“The church we’re working with is very encouraged by our willingness to come there and teach them.”

The Dar es Salaam team was involved in the construction of the first building of an orphanage for which property was purchased last year. A large conference hall was completed except for the roof, which will be finished this fall.

Also in Dar es Salaam, Philadelphia Baptist’s youth pastor, Randy Sims, led a college and high school student conference on apologetics. An evangelistic service in Dar es Salaam resulted in 200 professions in faith. The Arusha team conducted a crusade and a pastors conference. According to Bruce, 48 charter members for a new church came out of the crusade and about 800 people, including pastors, their spouses and laymen attended the conference for interdenominational pastors. “We’re seeing a lot of unity among the churches there,” he said. “On the last day the pastors really seemed to come together. We really saw God work.”

A new aspect of the missions effort this year was an emphasis on a ladies ministry. “There’s a great need there for teaching about husband and wife relationships because the culture there has dictated a lot of those issues,” Bruce said. “That’s a big area we addressed this year and they were really receptive to it.”

The seed for Philadelphia Baptist’s involvement in the Tanzanian ministry began four years ago when a Holiness Pentecostal pastor from Tanzania, Rejoice Ndalima, came to Birmingham to further his education. Ndalima had already been a tremendous witness in his home country by planting more than 20 churches there.

Soon after his arrival in the United States, Ndalima began attending Philadelphia Baptist and found in the people there a desire to help him help his people.

But after three trips and other home-based efforts on the part of the congregation, the work still isn’t finished. Plans to continue are under way.

“We’ve got a lot invested there now, especially with the orphanage itself, and we need to complete this project,” said Bruce.