PASTOR MWITA AND THE WORK AT MALAMBA MAWILI

(This is the work I am most closely associated with at this time.) Malamba Mawili is an area or town on the outskirts of Dar Es Salaam. How did this work start and my association with it? There is Christian called Fortunatus in Dar Es Salaam who had been corresponding with me after coming across my website. On a visit in 2018 he told me that his pastor - Ayubu Mwita - was inviting me to speak at his church if I had the time. Yes, I had one day free. I went to where the church met. Basically, it was a tiny narrow space between two shops covered in part with tin sheets and in part with plastic sheeting and with a dirt floor. There were about eight people there. Outwardly, it was the most inauspicious setting I had ever been to, but such things have never mattered to me - it's people that matter and I preach the same whether it is to 5 people or 500. Afterwards, pastor Mwita said they rarely heard such teaching and invited me to speak to about 200 young people at midnight during one of their prayer nights. Pastor Mwita was supervisor of the youth work in that area of Dar Es Salaam. It was a wonderful opportunity and I also soon found that pastor Mwita was a humble devoted worker for the Lord. We have become good, close friends. 

The following year, apart from speaking at his church, which had moved location by then, he invited me to speak at a 5-day youth conference to about 300 young people. It was a very blessed time. But there were various pastors and bishops at this youth conference as well, and following this conference, pastor Mwita got inundated with calls from these various leaders to come and speak at their churches. Pastor Mwita is a pastor of the Evangelical Assemblies of God churches Tanzania (EAGT), which has about 5000 churches in the country. News of my speaking engagements within this denomination reached the Archbishop, and pastor Mwita had to go to Dodoma (the political capital city of Tanzania) where he was quizzed about me by the Archbishop. This led to an invitation to Archbishop Mwakipesile's church itself in Dodoma last year (2019). I was well received with and left with an invitation to come again. This was a significant event in that it has paved the way for me to be invited to any EAGT church without let or hindrance. At the moment much of my preaching is within the EAGT, as I believe this is a door that the Lord has opened up at this time. I had been praying for some time that God would open 'effectual' doors in Dar Es Salaam. I thank God that I have been able to build relationships with leaders and churches and have had opportunity for some consistent input rather than just one-off visits to individual churches. 

So from very 'humble' beginnings, this contact has flourished beyond what one could have imagined.

The reason why there were 'only' 8 people at that first meeting I went to, is because the church always met in a rented property. There had been about 40 believers in pastor Mwita's church, but they twice had to change venue because in each case the landlord decided he wanted the premises for something else. So each time they had to locate at some distance from the former church, resulting in pastor Mwita almost having to start from scratch again! But it was in 2018 that a Christian donated some land at Malamba Mawili to the church - this was an opportunity they couldn't let pass - although it meant relocating far away to the edge of Dar Es Salaam and starting again with just a handful of people and no building! They started with a make-shift structure and have grown to about 40 members now. Pastor Mwita has also now moved to accommodation at Malamba Mawili from where he previously lived. Pastor Mwita has a big heart for evangelism and they regularly hold evangelistic meetings at Malamba Mawili, which is bearing fruit. It is great that the church now has its own property! 

Pastor Mwita is the person I mostly work with at this time although I have quite a few other contacts in Tanzania.

Please pray for pastor Mwita, his wife and four children and the church at Malamba Mawili.

Pastor Mwita and his wife Suzana.

The house pastor Mwita previously lived in with his wife, four children and a niece, before moving to Malamba Mawili. It consisted of three rooms of about 7 foot by 7 foot.

Below: A basic structure they have built at Malamba Mawili on the land donated to them. Part is corrugated tin sheets, but mostly covered in plastic sheeting or simply exposed to the elements. (Pastor Mwita and Suzana are on the left and I am on the extreme right.)

Below: Pastor Mwita wasted no time in holding a week-long evangelistic mission at Malamba Mawili. He has held several over the last 18 months and they have seen the church grow.

Below: Funds were sent to completely cover the roof and sides with corrugated metal sheets to make the structure weatherproof. Here work is underway to cover the whole building. As can be seen from photos above, it was impossible to meet in windy, wet conditions.

The church at Malamba Mawili. Due to the evangelistic efforts the church is growing. However, because the situation with the corona virus, some member are not coming so regularly at the moment. The president has not closed churches. On the contrary, he has encouraged people to keep going and to pray. So most churches continue to meet in the normal way.