DUMILA

Dumila is a town about 40 miles north of the city of Morogoro. Pastor Jorom Gondwe (whom I have known for many years and who is my interpreter when I preach) moved here so that he could pastor a Maasai church at a small village called Mororoi, which is a 3-hour bicycle journey away into the bush! He used to cycle there very early in the morning every Sunday and then back again in the evening. However, at Dumila he started to have a small prayer meeting in his house, which then turned into a Bible study group, which then became a church! So he now serves two churches. To help him in this work, we managed to buy him motorbike, which has been invaluable to him in many ways, not just benefiting him but also the Christians, as the motorbike enables him to visit Mororoi on a weekday as well as Sunday to take a Bible study! You can read about the work at Mororoi on the Mororoi page.

The church at Dumila used to rent some buildings to meet in on Sundays. They were keen to have their own building so they made thousands of mud bricks. At that time I had some money so they sold the bricks they had made and together with the money I sent they have built a structure of concrete rendered blocks. Because they had to leave the rented buildings earlier than expected we started with the structure below, which allowed them to meet with some measure of protection from the rain!

But work has continued and the walls are now built as can be seen below. This building - together with the one in Kibaoni - has been a great blessing in many ways. In order to meet in Tanzania, every association must be registered with the Government. I supported these brothers in their application and when the government inspectors came to make sure they represented a group that could be officially registered, these buildings at Dumila and Kibaoni made a significant impression on them!

Pastor Gondwe is a remarkable brother who gives himself tirelessly on behalf of God's work and for the Lord's people. Pray for him that the Lord will keep him and strengthen him in his labours and that he might truly be blessed himself to minister God's word to people. Pastor Gondwe and his family had a house on one side of the main road that goes through Dumila and in the past two years that side was subject to severe flooding. They had real problems and only just managed to keep the water from entering the house although the external cesspit had only one outlet, that is, in the house! Remarkably, a builder wanted that plot of land because of its location (!) and told Gondwe that he would build him an exact copy of his house for free in exchange for his house! This has now all been completed and Gondwe has moved into his new house opposite the church building! It was an absolute wonder and an amazing token of God's goodness to them and to the church.  

One of pastor Gondwe's sons bringing a goat indoors during a flood. However, they only just managed
to keep the water from entering the house. The family has since moved location to opposite the church
where it doesn't flood!

The building under construction with the baptistry.

                                                                                                                       

The building nearing completion.

Most of the believers here are extremely poor as it is difficult (expensive!) to get a good education and jobs are few. Those that can, try to cultivate and acre or so of land to grow maize. However, the climate has been so unpredictable in recent years, with rain and floods destroying the crops on the one hand, and drought causing failure of crops on the other! Life can get very difficult and some move to other regions of Tanzania to look for work or to live nearer other family members who can help them. Goats have been given to the poorest of the poor. At times of severe famine, I send money so that they can buy maize to distribute among the believers. This year (2016) rains and floods have destroyed the early year crop and also endangered the mid-year crop. At the moment (April) they are experiencing exceptional hardship, so I have just sent money to help buy maize flour, beans and cooking oil. £30 will feed a family of four for one month.

Instead of regularly supporting widows and the poorest families with money each month, we have bought about 40 special breed goats. This should provide a household with one or two litres of milk a day, most of which is used by the household but some of which can also be sold if there is an excess. Moreover, the goats should produce at least one kid each year.