TIME OFF TO THE BEACH IN TANGA
By Charles Ngoje Mid November, 2008

As the Americans were voting on the 4th of November, a group of teachers from USA, Kenya, Uganda and Russia (Staff of the Intensive Care Ministries) were
conducting a valuable seminar at the hall that we use for church meeting. Over 100 pastors/elders, ministers, evangelists and leaders of area churches attended a course on Inductive Bible Study. It aimed at equipping church leaders and members on how to inductively study the scriptures. This seminar brought together leaders from all persuasions and it was quite a picturesque of unity in diversity.

The leaders of our Church attended –Paul Dhudha and Justus Mollel took part in the course fully. Samuel and Lucas attended for a day. And having gone through basic course on ‘How to Study the Bible…’ they enjoyed looking at the course from a different perspective. This non-denomination and non sectarian ministry trains people on how to probe the scriptures at three levels:
1. Information
2. Interpretation
3. Application

They believe in letting the Bible speak for itself. They encourage people to study the scriptures for themselves as the Bereans did. They discourage Christians from preaching other people’s sermons and they are vocal against the culture of depending on other people’s interpretation of scriptures and the notion that the pastors, ministers and missionaries only have the monopoly of understanding the scriptures. These are the tenets that the churches of Christ stand on and seek to uphold. Calling people back to the scriptures and not human traditions. Building a
community and a culture that hold a high view of scriptures. Not adding to scripture and not taking away from the scriptures. Getting meanings from the
scriptures and not reading meanings into the scriptures. But sometimes we realize how inconsistent we are. So meeting this group re-affirmed in me the truth that whenever apostasy threatens the Church God will raise up men and women who will go against the grain of the apostate sometimes at great pains, to champion a restoration. There is not a place to restore people to as the scriptures –where they would constantly hear God speak to them in their own culture, generation and experiences.

But after the seminar, Florence and I had the honour to have dinner with this team in our house and it was great. Later, two teachers from Russia (Igor and Alex), expressed a need to visit Tanga for a rest at the beach. And since they are new to the country, they asked me if I would accompany them. I have never been to Tanga.

And so when Florence gave me the permission to go, I was happy. They fuelled my car and we had a wonderful time.
We prayed and studied the Bible and nothing could be so refreshing as to study the word of God with these great men of God from Russia. The cost of being a Christian in Russia is greater –it is not fashionable being a Christian and so the Russian faith in my judgement has a lot of substance.

Now that I was in Tanga, I had the opportunity to visit with the family
of Jim and Anna Bumpus –a church of Christ missionary family from Tennessee. Again it was great meeting this wonderful family after several months. It was encouraging to hear in what different ways the Lord is using them and the challenges that they had to overcome. At least I got the encouragement that I am not the only one but many have had their stint with Satan trying to slow down or to discredit their service both to God and man. But in all things God works together for the good of those who love Him. We love Him, so we will serve Him
sacrificially with the knowledge that He is watching over us!