Conference in Moshi (July 6-7, 2015)
"But all things should be done decently and in order" (1 Corinthians 14:40).
This has been a very different trip from my ususal visitations. In the past few years I have been working primarily with the pastors of our districts putting on seminars and pastoral conferences. One of the only times I visit congregations is for the church services on Sunday mornings. Traveling with the Mission Helper Team has changed my role a little this year. The focus of the Mission Helper Team is to get out to congregations and do child evangelism in the communities. So we are visiting more congregations on this trip than I have in several years.
This year our team is using a series of lessons from a CLC VBS series titled "Who is like the LORD?" Raven has been teaching the account of Creation, Jess Schaller teaches a lesson on Redemption using the life and death of Jesus, Jessi Schreyer is teaching Sanctification using the account of Zaccheus, and Sam Naumann is teaching about Glorification. It covers the law and the Gospel, justification and sanctification very well.
The first two days in the Moshi district have been more like previous years. We are in the process of some important work that needed to be completed while I was here. The church body is working through a Constitution for the Tanzanian Church of the Lutheran Confession. This is a necessity before we can register with the government and be recognized as an official church in Tanzania. If you are not registered with the government it is illegal to post signs etc. announcing your congregation. So it is very important that the constitution is completed and the church officially registered.
On Monday, pastors of the districts of the TCLC met together to go over the first draft of the church constitution. There was a great deal of discussion, and it took most of the day, but the day went well and at the end all the pastors present voted to accept the constitution and to move forward with the registration with the government. We thank the Lord for His blessing on the work so far, and pray that He would give strength and endurance to complete the work before us!
On Tuesday I met with the pastors of the Moshi district for a one day pastoral conference. Ten pastors were in attendance and we continued our study of the articles of the Augsburg Confession. Sam presented a lesson on the person and work of Jesus, and I discussed the article on sin. This too was a very productive day and rewarding in many ways.
Tomorrow we will visit three different congregations in the Moshi district and presenting our condensed one-day VBS program and on Thursday we move south to Makanya.
May the Lord continue to bless the preaching of His Word of Truth throughout Africa!
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