Please join me in praying for missionaries Victor and Dorcas Mushimbami and their ministry in Tanzania (they are from Zambia). Their current newsletter is below and you can read more about them and their ministry in this previous post. Feel free to email them words of encouragement: vmushimbami47@gmail.com . Let them know you are praying!

Victor and Dorcas Newsletter!

13/05/2021

Dear mission friends and families,

Greetings in the wonderful name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

My wife and I never stopped lifting you in prayers for the great work you are doing. We wouldn’t be where we are without your love, care and support. God bless the works of your hands!

We would love to once again share what the Lord is still doing since February. You all know we are working in Tanga, Tanzania. It has got the Muslim population of 96%.

English lesson with a Muslim

This is Ramadhani or Ramadan. He is a Muslim Quran teacher. He was reading a Quran in a picture and allowed me to take a video and photo. I went at his shop to buy bread. I deliberately used English. Tanzania is a Swahili speaking nation. When I asked what the bread price was, he couldn’t get what I was saying. That made him to see the need for English. I spoke throughout our conversation without using their language. I got bread and I left. I went to his shop the following day and used Swahili language. He then openly told me how he desperately needs to know English. He asked if I could be his teacher and I knew there won’t be any other opportunity with him like this. With the eyes of love for the lost souls, I told him I could teach him for free. We have been teaching him for three months now. Though he is busy, but he now knows how to greet and ask some few questions in English. He didn’t know anything before, not even “how are you” “I am fine”. This was the beginning of our friendship with them. Our Muslim neighbors have started sending their children for English lessons. We want to also sponsor two Muslim women who have given their lives to Christ as we are going to see in the next update.

Having Bible study with a Muslim

She is from one of the unreached people groups of Tanzania. They are called the “Digos”. There is no church in their village, all are Muslims. She is our neighbor. The very first time she saw us, she never had anything to do with us. More especially after she knew we are Christians. Though she didn’t want us, we continued showing love to her. She later accepted us, but still didn’t want to hear anything about Christ. She openly said she couldn’t believe in Jesus. We continued praying for her and demonstrating love through sharing what we have including buying food. She started by sending her daughter “Hafsa” for English lessons. Later we invited her to fellowship with us on Sunday and she accepted. It was one of the greatest breakthroughs we have seen. We couldn’t believe it, until she came into our house with her Muslim clothes and told us she was ready. I didn’t know what to say as a preacher. I kept quiet for seconds observing if it was really happening. I opened their Quran in Chapter 2 and the Bible in Chapter 2. We have two similar stories of Adam in both the Quran and the Bible. I started with their book and concluded with the final authority which is the word of God. She asked some questions and we were pleased to give answers. God started working in her life. We have been meeting with her secretly. We want to also preach to her husband. Praise God!

New Church plant

My wife and I want to plant a church in this Muslim community. These are some of the people we have preached to. Planting a church among Muslims has got two major challenges: 1. if the Church is not built with bricks, it can be burnt. It has been happening here in Tanga. 2. If church is to be built, it must have tiles. All the Mosques here are well built and all have tiles. Muslims find it difficult to come to a Church with a less standard than Mosques. It must at least be attractive and clean and not in a house. We have people who are waiting for their new home {Church}. We want a big land for church for few important reasons: firstly, the church will have an English Pre- School. This will attract more Muslims. Secondly, it will have house for homeless. Once a Muslim comes to Christ, is rejected by their families and communities. It can also lead to loosing properties. When that happens, they become our responsibility. Thirdly, we want a place where we could be conducting Jesus film Evangelism. Muslims, who cannot be reached through door to door evangelism, can be reached to by Jesus film Evangelism. For example, I was preaching in a certain Muslim community. There is a Muslim witch doctor nearby and he has lot of followers. There was a man who came from a bit far place; he went to see the witch doctor for his healing. He heard the gospel through sound waves. The man came crying at a crusade and repented his sins before the feet of Christ. He brought all he got from the witchdoctor and we burnt them. Praise the Lord! He is now a new creature and we have started a Bible study with him through What Sapp.

Praise and prayer requests

  1. Thank God for all the supports we are receiving from you. It is not easy to live in a foreign country as missionaries, more especially among Muslims.
  2. Praise God for the souls who have come to Christ.
  3. Pray for my wife. She has started a ministry she calls “Compassion”. She is identifying families who cannot manage having two meals per day and buy food for them. She also wants to start sending orphans and Muslims, who have been rejected because of Christ, back to School. On the other hand, I am planning to empower people with business.
  4. Pray for Bible study we are about to start. It will lead to Church. We need 20 plastic chairs, 20 Bibles and 20 hymn books.
  5. Pray for school fees. We are attracting lot of Muslims because of English, but I’m not an English trained teacher. Once it has a government’s attention, I might even lose my work and residency permit. I need about 300$.
  6. Pray for Church rentals. Before we build, we want to rent a building where we’ll be having Church services. We wanted it to start from our home, but it is not safe for us. Because we are surrounded by Muslims and we want to also allow Muslims to come. It must be a bit far from where they live.
  7. Lastly, pray for our own house. It is hard to rent a house here in Tanzania. Rentals start from 6 months to 1 year. If God can provide for our own house, our work could be easy.

Those are our major prayer requests. We are calling on you our mission friends and families to lift those pray request before the throne of God, so that together we may make the name of our Lord known.

Thank you for your love, care and support!

Contacts: +260953207043{whatsApp}; Email: vmushimbami47@gmail.com

For His Glory,

Missionaries Victor and Dorcas.