UPDATE FROM KIGOMA TANZANIA
July 18, 2025
We have finished the API Evangelism Training in Kigoma Tanzania. We had 382 people present. This evangelism training is called God’s Heart for the Church.
Three years ago when I was talking with the Archbishop of the Tanzania Assemblies of God, we began to discuss how the denomination could experience revival. Through the discussion we decided one of the biggest needs was that the leadership and the pastors should bring back a focus on evangelism. In 2024 we finished the spiritual renewal course we had been conducting in all seven zones in Tanzania and it was time to launch something new. He told us in August of last year that we were to start training all 10,000+ pastors of the denomination in evangelism.
After I recovered from the shock of the magnitude of the project we began to talk about strategy.
Over the next 7 years we will be conducting four to five 4-day evangelism conferences each year throughout the different regions of Tanzania. This is an overwhelming project as we know that we will have between 400-1000 pastors and leaders in each training. The cost will be great in both finances and time. However, we believe that God will provide and that our other training programs will not be neglected. The need is so great for the Gospel of Christ to be brought back to the church – truly all over the world! “Come get your miracle, your healing, your prosperity,” has replaced the Gospel of salvation everywhere we go. In some places animals are being sacrificed because somehow Jesus alone is not enough to break ancestral curses. Pastors and church members go to witch doctors when God does not do what they want. All of this is taking place in the already-reached people groups. And then there is the need for church plants throughout the unreached people groups. How do they keep the Gospel pure? It is all so very overwhelming. What you must know is that most people do what they do because they have never heard the true Gospel and they have never been discipled. So, they make up what they don’t understand. Some do so for power and money, others do so because it is all they know. Over and over we find that when people hear the truth they are deeply grieved at what they have done to God’s reputation and their lives are forever changed. Not all for sure, but over and over we hear “We just didn’t know.”
Now back to Kigoma. This is a very dark place with much witchcraft and animism mixed into the church. It is very hard to describe what God did in this place. The mirror of the Truth of our God was held up to the hearts of the people and God moved. The Archbishop was present and confirmed all that we taught and discussed. Almost all were on their faces weeping at what they had done to the Gospel and to God’s reputation by the end. We then taught them the elements of the Gospel of Salvation and how to share it one-on-one and in large meetings. Our team members here in Tanzania as well as our team member from India are all amazing and made it real as they are all deeply focused on evangelism in their daily lives. They live it and could speak to the issues far better than I could. I am so deeply grateful for the people God has given to the ministry.
We begin our final phase of this trip tomorrow. We welcome Amy Gorden and Pastor Curt Pearson to the team. We are in Tabora to conduct a training that includes Free Pentecostal, Anglican, and Assemblies of God. We will teach how to do a topical study and prepare a topical sermon, teach a course on prayer, and end with a spiritual renewal course. We expect around 60 students.
Continue to pray for us as we see God move in His people.
-Robbie