Bikes + Roofs = Evangelism

One of the primary areas of ministry in our partnership is supporting evangelism. Sometimes the families and friends of SOTV travelers assume that means that when we travel to Tanzania, we are going to be doing some door to door evangelism visits. No--because our partners in Tanzania do that work very effectively themselves.

Instead, SOTV supports evangelism in Tungamalenga Parish by providing bicycles for the evangelists and by paying for roofs for newly built chapels.

Tungamalenga Parish is comprised of 20 village congregations scattered across an area with a 25-30 mile radius. There are just two pastors serving all those congregations which are also served by lay evangelists. The pastors and evangelists often spend hours of their day walking from one village to another in order to visit the sick, teach confirmation classes, conduct worship, or hold meetings.

$100 buys a bicycle in Iringa. The bikes are built for the rugged dirt roads, and come equipped with lights. They support evangelism in the parish because they enable the evangelists and pastors to do their work more efficiently.

So how do chapel roofs support evangelism? The Tanzanian church is growing rapidly; many mission congregations meet outside beneath a tree, other established congregations have outgrown their small worship spaces. The members of the congregations volunteer their labor and resources to make bricks, gather stones for foundations, and construct the walls. Some congregations work and save for several years in order to purchase metal sheeting for the roof--but sometimes, the walls deteriorate before the roof is added. Our partners tell us that their members are encouraged when we supply the funding for the roofing materials; our participation gives them the momentum to keep the project moving toward completion.