Alan Stephenson
The topic of unreached people groups has been a hot one in the church, especially in missions, for many years and rightly so. Our mission as believers in Jesus Christ is to reach every people group with the good news. Somewhat to our surprise, the Lord has led us to an unreached people group in a very unexpected way. Right under our noses in the city of Arusha there is a significant group of Tanzanian citizens who are ethnically from the Indian sub-continent but have resided in Tanzania for generations. These Tanzanians are either Hindu, Sikh, or Muslim by faith, but they live in tightly knit communities as a distinct sub-culture.
Hiral and Tanveer who have recently given their lives to Jesus
When the Lord led us to start up a house church, we had no idea that we would come to meet and minister to Tanzanian Indians who had no exposure to the gospel. We are discovering that while those of our generation can be quite devout in their faith, there is a whole generation of young people who are not interested in temples or mosques. (Except for the parties on celebration days!) They still identify with their family faith but find no life or reality in it. These young people know little or nothing about Jesus and the Christian faith. They are into parties, alcohol, making money and living the good life. But when problems hit hard who can they turn to? – Jesus!!!
Nandini, a new believer, sharing her faith story before getting baptizeda sought-after speaker too
This month we baptized 3 more young ones who are choosing to follow hard after Jesus. What a delight it was to hear them testifying of their newly found life in Him. As they were baptized, we gathered around them one by one to pray and share words of encouragement from the Holy Spirit. Then we all shared lunch together as a church family. One of the girls brought her Muslim mother along to watch her being baptized. A 60+ year old, she had never been in a church or Christian gathering in her whole life. We prayed for her and saw God banish a spirit of depression and fear of death from off her that had been oppressing her. We are praying that this will be just the beginning of her contact with Jesus as well!
Hiral being baptized. Hiral is a 3-month-old believer in Jesus
This people group is a difficult one to penetrate, but we are believing that God has given us a crack in the defenses. Our prayer is for on-going impact as the Holy Spirit moves among these delightful people and brings them into His family. Our challenge is to provide a community that replaces and supersedes that of their current faith. In Eastern religions community life is the backbone of their faith. New believers of Jesus are so often rejected and cut off from these communities of close-knit relationships that have been part of their lives since they were born. The body of Christ must meet that need and become their new family. Please pray with us that this door that has cracked open will be opened wide to us and many will come to join the family of God through faith in Jesus
Welcome to the church family!
