An e-mail to Tanzania

Here is an e-mail I sent to a Tanzanian friend last year.  I wrote to her about my dream of seeing African mission societies launched and run by Africans who send Africans into the mission field.

Dear sister,

I was in Tanzania in November and December for four weeks with a group of students from the European Bible School.  It was a challenging time, but while we were there, my dream grew much clearer and stronger.  The church in Tanzania is strong and powerful.  I believe that the time has come for Tanzanians to cross borders of culture and even borders of nations, to share the good news that burns in their hearts.  Soon all of the language groups in Tanzania will be represented in the Seventh-day Adventist church, but there are still so many dark areas in the countries around.  

Have you ever looked at the website: www.joshuaproject.net ?  There are listed all of the people groups of the world, with statistics over the unreached people groups, groups with no significant Christian church among them.  That web-site is just about Christians in general, not Seventh-day Adventists, so the numbers don't apply directly to us.  But, according to Joshua Project, there are still over 6,600 unreached people groups in this world!  I have heard that there are over 12,000 people groups with no Seventh-day Adventists among them.  That is nearly half of the population of the entire world!  Now, the SDA church doesn't keep track of the ethnic background of its members, so that number is just an estimate, but it is probably pretty close to the truth.  Jesus said, "and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, as a witness to all the nations, and then shall the end come."  He didn't mean nations like we think of nations today; political entities with clearly defined borders, governments, etc.  Like Kenya, Tanzania, DRC, Norway, Sweden, Benin, USA, etc.  He used the word "ethnos," which we get our word "ethnic" from.  He meant tribes, people groups, clans, language groups, etc.  And He promised that all of those groups will be presented with the gospel, and then the end will come.  Earthquakes, diseases, famines, etc., will just increase and increase as long as time will last, because they are not sure signs of the end of the world.  The gospel going out to all people groups is the sure sign, and when it happens, Jesus will return to get His waiting church!  

If there are about 12,000 people groups left, it seems like a huge task, but actually, knowing what the real work left for us consists of is a huge part of helping us to be prepared to do that work, and we can focus on the work where it is most-important, not simply continuing to maintain the mission machinery that already exists, wondering why Jesus isn't here yet.

Sister, you probably know all about this already, for all I know.  You said that you have a similar dream to mine, so you have probably already studied these things, but they burn in my heart, and I can hardly help myself from writing about them!  We have a work left to do, the very work that Jesus gave to us, and because we have not done this work, Jesus has not yet returned.  We get so involved in lifestyle issues, what we wear, what we eat, what we watch and listen to (at least in America and Europe), while the largest lifestyle issue of all is neglected: are we using our lives to reach the unreached?  Is our style of life like that of Jesus, leaving a comfortable, spiritually conducive atmosphere, to go to difficult, distant places if necessary, to spread the gospel to those who do not have it?  

Jesus promised us that not only will the gospel go to every ethnos, but there will be representatives from each people group on earth in heaven!  I was just writing about this a few days ago, and was amazed to see how many references there are to this in Revelation.  "And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation."  "After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands."  Revelation 5:9; 7:9.  Jesus waits to come back, because He promised so clearly in Revelation that there will be representatives from every single language, people, tribe, and clan in heaven, and that is not yet true!  Jesus waits so that we will do the work that He has given us to do, which is a blessing to us, and I am just amazed as I think of how long He has waited.  

It almost seems to me that the church in the "West," in America and Europe, has waited too long, and the opportunity is passing on to others.  Now more and more mission work is being started and performed by people from Asia, South America, and the Pacific Islands, from areas that were themselves "mission fields" 100 years ago.  But, what is being done in Africa?  Surely much more than I know about, but it seems that Africa, the most-Christian continent, is not leading out in mission work as it could be.  Africans have been stolen and sold as slaves for hundreds of years, but Jesus told us that the last will be first, and the one who has been servant or slave of all is to be the leader.  I believe Africa will soon awake to the task ahead, and will lead the world in sending out cross-cultural missionaries.  There are still many places in Africa itself that need missionary labor, and Africans would be able to cross borders and cultural barriers much more easily than others could.  Many tribes and people groups extend across national borders, and travel from country to country is cheaper and faster for Africans than for non-Africans, usually.  

I have been reading various materials in preparation for our mission service, and I have learned so much.  But pretty much all that I have read so far is written by people from America about how Americans can be missionaries.  The material is not bad, but we need material from Africans, about how Africans can be missionaries in an African way, not in a white-man's way!  It is so sad to see intelligent Africans who receive their education abroad, and who lose so much of that thing that makes them distinctly African.  They try to blend African and European thinking, and lose something precious in the process.  Don't get me wrong, I think that education is a wonderful thing, and if the best education can be attained outside of Africa, then that is fine, but what I long to see is truly powerful, practical, African material being produced to motivate Africans to reach out to Africa and beyond.  

I have learned that there are three big degrees of evangelism, called E-1, E-2, and E-3.  E-1 evangelism is reaching out to those in one's own culture that are not saved.  E-2 is reaching across cultural boundaries to those who are culturally similar in many ways, but also different in significant ways.  E-3 evangelism is the hardest, most-demanding form, the most-expensive form, at least when white people do it.  It is crossing boundaries of culture that are very wide, learning one or two or more new languages in order to speak with the people about the gospel.  This is traditional missionary work, what Maggi and I are preparing to do in Benin.  The interesting thing is that while E-3 evangelism must take place, a bridge must be built into unreached cultures, E-3 evangelism is not the most-effective nor most-powerful.  It must be done, but when it has been successful, when converts are made in the unreached culture, they become E-1 evangelists, reaching out to their own culture, and their witness is far more powerful than that of the missionary, because they understand their own culture from the inside.  E-2 evangelism is also more powerful than E-3, because the missionary understands much more of the new culture than an E-3 missionary does.

While we are going to be doing E-3 evangelism in Benin among the Bétammaribé, our hope is to help Otammari individuals become evangelists to their own people.  But, think of how much better it would be, and how much faster the work would go, if Tanzanians, Kenyans, or Zambians, would go to West Africa to work as church-planting missionaries!  Even in the Congo there is much work to be done, to spread our message of peace and forgiveness to the people there.  Basically, with perhaps the exception of North Africa, all of Africa is an E-2 mission field for Tanzanian SDAs!  Each African country is different in many ways, but in essence, Africa is Africa, at least from my perception, and there are cultural realities that cross nearly all national and tribal borders.  

Imagine if Africans would take the initiative to start up an African mission society, which would focus on sending missionaries to unreached tribes!  Imagine if that society would send out researchers, to find out which areas needed help the most, then train, equip, and send African missionaries to those areas, to raise up the light of truth in the dark areas of the world.  Then imagine if that mission agency would eventually begin to send out missionaries to North Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and even Europe and America!  Africans are amazing people, and you have skills that could help this become a reality.  Africans know how to live quite simply and inexpensively, and to travel light and far.  You eat simple, inexpensive foods, and you know how to grow your own food.  Tanzanians especially are very enterprising, knowing how to start businesses to support themselves, with very little capital.  Most of us Americans and Europeans require far too much stuff and baggage and insurance to think that we can survive, but Africans know how to live with the bare necessities.  While I was in Tanzania this last year, Kibidula moved three of its missionaries to the village where we held a small evangelistic campaign.  Three people, with all of their belongings, fit into a daladala that had several other passengers, as well!  That would never be possible with wazungu, let me tell you!  With us, it is more like three daladalas per person!

I believe that this can happen, and I believe that it will happen.  I am not the first nor only person with this idea, and I believe that God will work in mighty ways in the near future.  I just hope to be a part of it, and to be in a place where I can see it taking place.  A self-supporting Tanzanian missionary could travel far into other countries of Africa, and set up work in unentered areas.  Tanzanians generally know how to farm, so the missionary (or hopefully missionary team) could start farming, could learn the local language in a few months, and within a year or two, could have a group of people ready for baptism in most areas.  Some areas are harder and require more time, but with proper training, with the understanding of how to best plant a strong church, and with lots and lots of prayer and Bible-study, within a few years most areas would see a church planted.  Then that missionary could train up local people to be evangelists to their own people, and could set a translating and publishing work in action, if necessary, and could then move on to another area.  With dozens of such missionaries being strategically sent out every year, many unreached groups could be reached and discipled in a short time, and Jesus would return!  Oh, what a blessed hope we have, and what a wonderful God we have, who allows us to participate in this wonderful work.  This is my idea, and perhaps God has other ideas, but the Great Commission is in the Bible that Africans read, as well, and with lots of prayer and the compelling of the Holy Spirit, God can and will do amazing things through Tanzanians and other Africans.

There seems to be a mentality among some I have met in Tanzania that they should not start up anything new unless there is an mzungu involved.  Not everybody has this thinking, of course, thankfully, but some do.  Why should you wait until white people get involved?  White people are expensive, and often cause more problems than they solve!  European and American ways are not what Africa needs.  African Adventists need to know that God gives them the freedom and the power to step out and take charge in His work of spreading the gospel.  The gospel does not belong to white people any more than to Africans, and it is time that you exert your powers as children of God and heirs of the kingdom of heaven!  We can work together, and we can all learn from each other, but oh how I long to see when Africans are taking more initiative in missionary endeavor!  God will lead each of His children, and we do Him a great disservice when we look to others for guidance that only He should give.

The organization we work for, Adventist Frontier Missions, is doing a good work.  They are focusing on reaching the unreached, spreading the word about the needs that still exist in the world, and mobilizing people into mission service.  They are pioneers among Adventism in many ways, and I am grateful that God has allowed us to be part of this organization.  We have learned a lot, and AFM has taken good care of us so far.  However, I see our work with AFM as a step towards something more, or at least our work among the Bétammaribé, as not the end of our work in Africa, but rather as the beginning.  What we learn there will help us to be able to teach others how to do what we have done, and the ones I want to teach are Africans, in Benin, throughout West Africa, and perhaps beyond.  

AFM is a great organization, but they have only one African family working for them.  Well, two, if you count the Petersons, a white couple from South Africa.  Michee and Elmira Badé are from the Ivory Coast, and are working in Benin, among the Dendi people.  Michee is a pastor with a Masters from Andrews, I believe, but instead of working for the church, he has committed to planting the church among the Dendi Muslims.  What a commitment, and what a power his witness has, from what we have read of his stories.  But, where are the other Africans?  Well, I have been told that AFM receives many applications from Africa, from people who want to be sent out as AFM missionaries, but they don't have the capacity to take them.  What Africa needs is some sort of an Africa-AFM, which can receive these applications from Africa, and can properly screen, train, and send these people to other places in the continent!  AAFM, or something similar!  This should not be an organization controlled from America, however.  The leadership and staff could be primarily, or completely African, teaching in African ways, using material written by Africans with experience, and being a demonstration of what God can do through those who surrender their entire lives to Him for His service.  I suppose such an organization would look very different from what AFM looks like today, but there's nothing wrong with different!  Africans don't need to copy wazungu ways of doing things!  African is beautiful, very beautiful, and God wants Africans in heaven in all of their beauty and variety.  

One more thing is on my heart as I write this to you.  You are a single woman, and of course I have no way whatsoever of knowing God's will for your life, but many other single women have done great things for the Lord by His Spirit.  In fact, Wycliffe Bible Translators, an organization that focuses on translating the Bible into languages that do not have the Bible yet, has found that the more difficult and dangerous the work is, the more likely women are to volunteer to do it!  They have found that the women they send out in teams are more likely to complete their projects than men are.  Single women have done much mission work throughout history, but we hear more about the men, for some reason.  Women can go to places that men cannot get to, especially in Islamic cultures, and women tend to plant the church more-solidly than some men do.  I was told at Kibidula that the female lay missionaries that they have are often more successful than the men, so this applies in Tanzania, as well.  A woman is viewed as less of a threat, and can quietly and humbly begin to plant seeds of truth that a man would not be allowed to plant.  Only God knows what your future holds, and only you are allowed to discover that, but I felt impressed to share this.

You told me to e-mail you, but you probably didn't expect so much as this, did you?  I hope that I have not overwhelmed you with what I have written here. 

Have a blessed day, sister!  Take courage, your work is not in vain in the Lord!