Easter & Evangelism

Easter and Evangelism, there would not be one without the other. Evangelism is simply a proper response to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The early disciples turned the world "upside down" with their zeal for the Gospel.

The Lord Jesus said to the religious leaders early in His ministry, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up!" He was speaking of the temple of His body, and those men did not understand what He meant, neither would we have understood... but on the third day after His crucifixion and death, everything changed. He did it, He rose from the dead. He did exactly what He said He would do!

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead was proof that every claim He made was absolutely true. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, He is alive, He has defeated death, and offers eternal life to a sinful world through faith in Him. The world is reminded of this important event once a year, but Christians celebrate this everyday all over the world like our friend we met down in Kitavi!

It was great to celebrate the resurrection of Christ here in Tanzania among our fellow believers. They love to sing and dance, and they love the Lord Jesus. So this year a fellow missionary, also a music major, came over to our assembly to put on a special choir for Easter Sunday. Dave is a fun guy and asked around among the missionaries here if anyone would be willing to join the choir for this special Sunday. Elaina and I took the giant leap of faith!

It was a lot of fun joining in with them and experiencing a taste of their culture first hand. The resurrection of Christ is no doubt something to celebrate! So we included a few clips from Easter Sunday for your viewing pleasure :)

We had many practices together, and even during the practices the neighborhood kids and people passing by would gather in the doorways or climb up into the windows to watch and listen. The song celebrates the Gospel and the victory Jesus won over sin, death, and Satan. Praise the Lord for the different ways He has used this performance.

The week after Easter Luke Johnson and I had planned a seminar on personal evangelism. This was actually planned several months back, and we did not know it would fall on the week immediately following Easter, but the Lord did! What a perfect time to equip the saints for evangelism! I made up booklets for each person which includes different methods for sharing the Gospel, illustrations, and handling objections. (Similar to one I made in English)

Kitabu cha Vifaa cya Uinjilisti means "Book of Tools for Evangelism"

About 30 people came to this seminar which was two days, Friday and Saturday, with teaching each morning and 2 hours of evangelism in the surrounding neighborhoods each afternoon. On the second day following the evangelism, we had a report session where each team shared some highlights of their conversations. We thank the Lord for how well everything went, for the many things we learned, and for how the believers were eager to learn and share with their neighbors.

Door to door evangelism in Kigoma is very different than going door to door in the US. Most are willing to sit and listen for a long time, as we were able to visit 3 houses in 2 hours! On one visit a person on my team shared almost every illustration in the booklet, read the Romans Road verses, asked The Way of the Master questions about the 10 Commandments, and gave personal testimony! Not every home is like this, as most muslims here are not interested in discussing the Gospel. The picture below is from a visit to a home during the evangelism seminar sitting on a straw mat in front of the house discussing spiritual things.