Steve Nowak spent September teaching in Utungule Moravian Bible College, teaching church workers, recording sermons for radio broadcasts and distributing Bibles and Christian books to the many people hungry for God’s Word in one province of Tanzania.
The college has 75 students on a three-year course, and Steve taught from 8am to 5pm each day for one week. He has been working with the college since 2009. The uniqueness of Jesus, the doctrines of grace, the destructiveness of the false teachers in Africa, and the need of pastors to have a close personal walk with the Lord and to be filled with the Holy Spirit were taught and discussed in 90-minute sessions through the day. The lively questions and answers at the end of each lecture were encouraging. All the students received a set of five distinctly Reformed and evangelical books in their native language of Swahili, which they read and write a review on before they graduate.
Traditional religion
Although there is much evidence of genuine faith left after the revival in the middle of the 20th century, traditional religion is so embedded in the culture that many self-professed Christians are actively involved in pagan practices. Even some denominational and congregational leaders are regularly involved in paganism.
Steve recorded five sermons which were then broadcast on a radio station at prime time with an audience of anywhere from 20-50,000 listeners. This visit also included preaching to a crowd of over 600 at a funeral service, and teaching at five secondary school assemblies and many church services. No-one complained when the sermons were over two hours long!
Subsidised Bibles
Bibles were purchased from the Tanzanian Bible Society for £5.20 and were sold for 10,000 Tanzanian shillings (approx. £3.60), making them more accessible to the poor subsistence farmers. Many churches will only have a few Bibles among them and many elders and deacons do not own a Bible. So. the 2,000 Bibles distributed only scratches the surface and many more need to be provided. There are 600,000 Moravians alone in the one Province visited. There are plans to distribute 5,000 more Bibles next year.
