September | 2021 | Rooted in Jesus

Rooted in Jesus was originally commissioned, written and piloted for use in Tanzania, nearly twenty years ago now. Today it is overseen throughout the country by Bishop Stanley Hotay of the Diocese of Mount Kilimanjaro, working with a growing team of diocesan coordinators and national facilitators.

Although some areas of the country are experiencing difficulty due to the number of Covid cases, in others life is continuing much as usual. There are restrictions on international travel into and out of the country, but no restrictions within it. Bishop Stanley has therefore been able to accept two new invitations to run Rooted in Jesus training conferences: one in the Diocese of Biharamulo, and one in the Diocese of Victoria Nyanza.

The Diocese of Biharamulo

Biharumulo is the youngest of Tanzania’s 28 dioceses. Founded just four years ago, it now has 27 parishes, 93 local churches, 30 pastors and 105 lay evangelists. Bishop Vithalis Yusuph explained that many of the evangelists have received little or no training, and the pastors have not so far had access to tools to help them lead others into discipleship; and so over the last 18 months they have been making careful preparations for the introduction of Rooted in Jesus across the diocese. He writes: “My passion is to see our people and churches growing in faith. It’s my hope that the Rooted in Jesus program will make the difference in our diocese.”

Bihamarulo then and now: from 2017 to 2021

The team was led by Canon Abel Obura of the Diocese of Mara, working with colleagues from the Dioceses of Mara, Mount Kilimanjaro and Victoria Nyanza, and using the new Tanzanian edition of the Team Manual which he has recently translated into Swahili.

Abel reports that the reception was very good, with high expectations of what the team had brought. 184 people were present at the conference, including Bishop Vithalis, the diocesan staff, all the pastors and all of the 105 evangelists. Every evangelists was commissioned to lead groups, and will be supported by their pastors and by Canon Zachariah Kaigarula who has been appointed as the Diocesan Coordinator.

The Diocese of Victoria Nyanza

The second conference took place just two weeks later, in the Diocese of Victoria Nyanza (DVN). This was not their first conference; teams with members from both the UK and Tanzania had worked here in both 2014 and 2015. But things can go wrong, and in recent years the diocese has been through a very difficult period. Coordinator Leonard Giligwa has remained faithful to his calling, and has taken part in conferences elsewhere; and now a newly elected bishop, Zephaniah Ntunza, is leading the diocese into new life.

The team was led by Revd Clement Manyatta, who is using Rooted in Jesus to support discipleship among the Masai people in his home diocese of Mount Kilimanjaro; he was accompanied by Bishop Hotay and Revd Charles Unjiro from Mount Kilimanjaro and Canon Abel Obura from Mara.

Clement reports :

“The conference was attended by 56 participants; all were pastors from the 56 parishes in the diocese. The RinJ conference was the first time for Bishop Zephaniah to meet with his pastors since he was elected in May of this year. It was his initiative to reintroduce RinJ to his diocese; he believes this is the only tool DVN needs for evangelism for now. It is good for them to start a new life with a new Bishop after such a long time without a diocesan bishop.”

Our faith encourages us to remember that in the Lord there is always room for a fresh start. It was not their first time, Clement observed, but for most it was like they were hearing for first time. Bishop Stanley Hotay offered this encouragement: “When you plant a field and it does not produce crops, you do not leave the field; you go back to plant again. In DVN we planted before but we are back to planting again. It is our hope this time we will get crops in a short time.”

The conference was held at the Bible College in Mwanza

Taking the long view

Rooted in Jesus has now been introduced to 22 of Tanzania’s 28 dioceses. It has been a huge privilege to watch the growth in discipleship and ministry over the last twenty years; we have cried together and rejoiced together, and we continue to support one another both in prayer and in practical ways. We are immensely thankful for the many blessings that have flowed between us, and we pray for many more in the years to come.

In the meantime we continue to live and work under what are often challenging circumstances. Leonard Giligwa offers us this encouragement:

Rooted in Jesus is published and supported by the Mathetes Trust.
Posted 28th September 2021.

In August we were delighted to be able to run the first Rooted in Jesus introductory conference since the Covid19 pandemic began. A team from Tanzania and Burundi travelled to DR Congo to help build the spiritual foundations for the new missionary diocese of Lake Tanganyika which will be formed from within the existing Diocese of Bukavu.

The conference took place at the initiative of Bishop Elisha Tendwa, a missionary bishop who has already used Rooted in Jesus to help plant the Diocese of Kalemie in eastern DRC. The conference was held in Uvira, where it was opened by the Archbishop of DR Congo, Zacharia Masimango Katanga. It was attended by 110 participants – pastors, Mothers Union leaders, Youth leaders, representatives from neighbouring denominations, and the Diocesan Secretary and other central staff members from the parent Diocese of Bukavu.

Bishop Elisha Tendwa writes:

“We thank God that the first address to the conference came from the Archbishop of Congo, The Most Revd Zachariah Masimango Katanda with his wife Naomi. They opened the conference and he said: ‘In our provincial Synod held at the end of July this year we reflected that the Church of Congo was planted about 125 years ago, but that it has not grown; it is stuck like a child who has mulnutrition, because our Christians don’t have roots in Jesus.’ He said we must make sure this Rooted in Jesus course spreads to all dioceses because it provides foundational teaching to the church.”

The team was led by Canon Jacob Robert of the Diocese of Lake Rukwa, Tanzania, with Revd Clement Manyatta of the Diocese of Mt Kilimanjaro, and Revd Elisha Nkeza from the Diocese of Muyinga, Burundi, along with Bishop Tendwa himself.

Team leader Jacob Robert reports:

“The conference took place at Uvira town in the eastern part of the country. Uvira is in the mission area according to Bukavu Diocesan synod plan for next two years. Uvira mission area is covered by four Archdeaconries: Uvira, Fizi, Lake Tanganyika and Itombwe. Each Archdeaconry has five to seven Parishes. In the last Synod they agreed to use RinJ as a tool for reaching out with the Gospel in the area of Uvira so that after a few years they may be able to start a new Diocese which will be called Lake Tanganyika Diocese.

“Facilitators were very keen with the programme timetable and Rev. Elisha, Bishop Tendwa, Rev. Clement and Jacob played carefully their roles of introducing RinJ to participants. I would like to give thanks to the Lord who protected us from the COVID 19. We were afraid that it could attack some of our participants and facilitators, but through God’s grace we completed all we have planned safely.”

A prayerful response

The conference went well. Bishop Tendwa writes, “It was a wonderful conference because some pastors repented and surrendered their life to Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit shows their lives how they are living, so they cried and received to be born again in their lives. They agreed and announced that from now the conference has changed their direction to be disciples of Jesus Christ by having their roots in Jesus. One Pastor said ‘this teaching from Rooted in Jesus is a light to the Church of Congo, it comes to open our eyes that are blind’. We thank God.”

Jacob reports that Marie, Mother’s Union representative, declared that “We are going to form groups in the Mothers Union when we return home, so that we find many new leaders as soon as the Lord will enable us. From this we are going to fulfill the great commission as Jesus commanded.”

A Mothers Union representative gives her response to the conference (click on image to play video, which is in French)

The reality of life in DR Congo

It is not easy to minister in DR Congo, one of the most troubled countries of Africa. Team member Elisha Nkeza comments:

“A problem came before we even arrived in the country: when I saw different soldiers from different countries I recognized that this is not a peaceful country. But I was warmly welcomed by the local people, and was encouraged. DRC has a problem of differences more than other countries I knew. I was so pleased and proud to meet different people who speak more than 400 languages. But they are open to sharing their problems, pointing to the endless wars. I chatted and prayed with them; they are tired with wars. With their differences they testified forgiveness and reconciliation. We cried much on this when time came in giving testimony in groups. How wonderful it was!”

Afterwards, the Diocesan General Secretary concluded “The seminar is ended. It has left us with a new saving spirit and reminded us that we must walk in the footstep of Jesus if our desire is be true Christians.”

Bishop Tendwa and the team are keen to express their thanks, both to the participants for their open-hearted response to the conference and to those who supported the conference each day in prayer. “I am looking for the fire of God in Uvira; I will be going there for the very first time so I will need your prayers,” Clement Manyatta had written beforehand. “All this became possible since we know people were praying for us,” he concluded afterwards.