Greetings from Tanzania!

We arrived in Tanzania late on Tuesday evening (7/8/25) and are grateful for our safe arrival, thanks to God’s protection. We enjoyed our first day getting acclimated to the time difference and the local culture.

Today we began training key leaders from Tanzania and Uganda, where Here’s Life Africa (the mission agency we are working with) has a heart to see both countries, in total, come to Christ. Their God-given strategy is to have one Paul, one Barnabas, and one Timothy overseeing each region of the country. The men pictured below are those leaders. Their influence is great. They include: seminary professors including the head of two universities, the chairman and co-chairman of a well-known organization that works with 20 million people, a bishop who oversees 800 churches, a pastor who oversees 1200 churches, church planters who have planted many, many churches, and some with great influence in the local government. These men are humble servants of God, and we are honored to be in their presence. Connecting spirit to spirit has been a beautiful experience.

One of these men also carries the message and ministry of forgiveness and reconciliation. His name is Alfred. As a 7-year-old child, his home was invaded by the regime of Idi Amin in Uganda, who was looking for his father to kill him. His father was a tribal leader. To get information out of young Alfred, they poured hot oil on his legs and left him scared for life. Alfred now carries the message of reconciliation. Last year, with a group of people, he traveled to meet with Idi Amin’s brother to ask him for forgiveness for the bitterness he carried for many years toward the Amin family. Incredible! As you might expect, Alfred and Bruce are having great conversations.

The day continued with traveling around Arusha to see what God has done through our host, Bishop Stanley. We toured the Mungu Ishi Bible College, where they are adding to their facilities with a lecture hall. The concrete is mixed by hand; in fact, the whole building is built by hand.

We worshipped in the room where the Bishop and Andy Blakeslee of Here’s Life Africa heard from God and launched the Seminary of Life, using the Paul, Barnabas, and Timothy strategy.

We visited Bishop Stanley’s very first church, worshipped, prayed, and spontaneously took an offering up to help them with their building project that will take years to complete.

What a mighty God we serve, who in all His grandeur bends down and hears our prayers.

Day Three began with more teaching of the Seminary of Life students. We will never know the impact the message of Gospel-centric forgiveness has had on the lives of these pastors and leaders who oversee thousands of people. One man forgave the man who stole his wife. The next morning, this man, after years of no connection, reached out to him. He was shocked! We gave each student a book and free access to our Video Course. It was a blessing to teach such influential people and an answer to our prayer from the beginning of the year. God made it clear to us that this year we were to “equip and empower others to spread Gospel-centric forgiveness.

On Day Four, we went to a small village about two hours from where we are based. After breaking down along the way and driving over difficult terrain, we arrived in the village that evening. A team was already there, setting up a screen and projector to show the Jesus film in the village’s language. There are over 120 languages/tribes in Tanzania. This village spoke Iraqw (correct spelling). Earlier that day, the team, using a megaphone, announced the coming of the movie that night throughout the village. This was the first time Here’s Life Africa had gone to this village. About 100 people showed up at dark. The movie was shown, and afterwards the pastor shared the Gospel, giving the people an opportunity to accept Jesus. Many raised their hands and prayed to receive Christ. It was a beautiful thing to experience.

Children were the first to come to the Jesus film.

Days Five and Six were days off between conferences. We chose to go on a safari. We enjoyed the Ngorongoro Crater, an extinct volcano that imploded on itself, and many animal species. Our guide, Timothy, was incredible. His spirit was so full of Jesus. He was raised in the Maasai tribe, living in a mud hut for his entire childhood. The stories he told us were riveting. He took us to a Maasai center to learn about his people and their way of life. Timothy was so full of gratitude after being raised with absolutely nothing.

We had multiple God encounters along the way. We met the #1 Tanzanite dealer in the country. Tanzanite is a precious stone that is only found at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro near Arusha, where we were located. He shared with us his story of meeting Jesus in his dream, and he experienced Jesus healing his good friend who was on his deathbed. “I am saved!” He then told us that Jane Goodall was coming to his store and he offered for us to meet her. How fun!

Day Seven began with the Here’s Life Africa staff from Malawi, Uganda, and Tanzania meeting for a four-day conference. Bruce will be speaking for four days, among other speakers. Their worship was powerful. The sacrifice they have made to get to this conference is great. One couple buried their child the day before! He died suddenly in a car accident. As Americans, we cannot fathom living the way most of these people do. We are honored to be here, and God is moving on our hearts as we experience the people of Tanzania. We will have more to share about what God accomplishes in the conference as the week goes on.

Day One of Here's Life Africa Staff Conference

We are constantly amazed at how God takes us to places we would have never dreamed He would take us to. We are grateful to Him and to all of you who have prayed for us and invested in us to be able to do what He has called us to do.

As we wrap up our time in Tanzania, we would like to share with you some of the stories of the people of Tanzania. As we continued to minister to the people, they ministered to our needs in return. Their smiles, hospitality, and kindness, even in the face of poverty, are humbling to experience.

Every day during the conference, we are served morning tea (breakfast), lunch, and afternoon tea (aka mini-meal). The kitchen help, with smiles on their faces, are preparing our food in a makeshift kitchen all day long at the back of the church property.

Before we enter the room where we gather to eat, a lady is mopping the outside tile to keep it clean. She mops repeatedly, almost nonstop, as each person enters. Others were assigned to the bathroom to do the same. Their smiles and servant hearts are an example to us all.

During one of our tea breaks, we met “Innocent.” Yes, that is his name. Innocent is from Rwanda. He works for Here’s Life Africa just over the Rwandan border in Tanzania, but he has lived in Rwanda his whole life. In 1994, he experienced what we know as the Rwandan Genocide. Over 500,000 people (some reports say 1,000,000) died in a span of 12 days. Neighbors killed neighbors. Innocent was moved by the message of forgiveness that he heard. “Our country needs this message. When we are taught to forgive by Christians in our country, it is taught in a surface way that makes no impact.” We gave Innocent our book and encouraged him to take the message of forgiveness he heard, make it his own, and share it with his people. He intends to do just that. Praise God! “Forgiving Forward, Rwanda.”

At the end of the conference, Charles and Teddy were married in a wedding ceremony with all of their pastoral friends cheering them on. The most amazing thing happened. Charles’ parents were Muslim during the ceremony (Muslim is the dominant religion in Tanzania), but at the reception, BOTH his father and his mother accepted Christ. Wow! What a wedding gift! They previously thought their son was lost when he left the Islamic faith. But when they saw the joy and love of the Here’s Life Africa family, they realized that they were the ones who were lost. Hallelujah!

Emanuel took us to the airport. He doesn’t speak English, but we were told that he has personally shown the Jesus Film in over 1000 villages. What a faithful servant he is. As an added bonus, on the way to the airport, the cloud cover lifted and we were able to see the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, which we were told is a rare occurrence—just another “God Kiss” as we were leaving.

Here’s Life Africa has shown the film to over 70 million people in the last 35 years and has witnessed over 37 million people accept Christ. What a privilege to serve alongside them, training 180 key pastoral leaders to take the message of Gospel-centric forgiveness to their villages.