Christians for Israel Visits Tanzania
“Your teaching about Israel felt like healing.”
That comment was made by one of the participants in the team which prepared our Christians for Israel conference in Tanzania. She was describing the impact of our teachings on her. In April, our team in Tanzania organised a two-day conference about Israel in the city of Mwanza in the Tanzanian Lake Zone.
Pastor Mark Manumbu, team member, pastor and teacher at the Pentecostal Seminary in Mwanza, allowed us to use his church for this conference. Over 120 pastors, teachers and church members attended the conference. A teacher and representative of Mwanza’s university also attended. She was excited about our biblical and historical teachings and invited us to meet her students during our next stay in Tanzania.
Jos van Westing, our speaker for African countries, taught about the history of Israel, the Holocaust and the suffering of the Jewish people over the centuries, the establishment of the State of Israel and the anti-Israel sentiment in the present-day world. Projected pictures supported his teachings. I taught about the everlasting significance of Israel in our Christian faith, in accordance with the Old and New Testament, the relationship between Christians and Jews from a Biblical perspective, and the role of Jesus as Messiah in the promised return of the Jewish people to their homeland Israel. We are always impressed by how deeply the message about Israel touches people. The impact goes much deeper than only adding knowledge. Biblical teaching about Israel and God’s incredible plan for Israel often comes across as a revelation. The woman mentioned earlier expressed her feelings by using the term ‘healing’. Becoming aware of the significance of Israel and the Jewish people in God’s redemptive plan is so inspiring and refreshing for one’s personal faith.
Also, four pastors from Kenya attended the conference. One from the Nairobi area and three others from the western part of Kenya. They had contacted us recently to talk about cooperation in the future. So I first invited them to attend our conference in Tanzania in order to get to know our message. They were touched by the teachings and showed great eagerness to spread the message in Kenya as well. We had good conversations with them and gave them some guidelines regarding proper preparations for a conference. The next Sunday, the conference was finished by a church service in two different churches in Mwanza.
Last year Pastor David Mbago, our team leader of Christians for Israel in Tanzania, translated the Why Israel Abridged Edition into Swahili. After a check by a translation agency, we printed it and gave it to all the attendants. Now they can reread the Bible verses at home. During our stay in Tanzania, we also visited a pastor in the neighbouring city Shinyanga who wants to organise a pastor’s conference in his city.
Pastor David Mbago invested in the establishment of teams of ‘friends of Israel’ in various cities in Tanzania over the last few years. Their focus is mainly on prayer for Israel and the global work of Christians for Israel. These teams meet for a week of prayer several times a year. David also teaches about Israel during these weeks of prayer. In 2019 Pastor David organised a speaking tour, where we visited ten churches and schools and were able to reach well over 1000 people with our biblical message. Since the Covid pandemic, the emphasis is more on prayer. Our team in Tanzania needs our support and prayer.
The team that prepared the conference in Tanzania. | Photo: C4I
