Go Africa – 🇹🇿 Tanzania – Dar es Salaam, Street Evangelism 1
The accommodation in Dar es Salaam, where we arrived after 18 hours of traveling.
As soon as we arrived, we moved all the luggage that had been unloaded, got our room assignments,
and because we were so tired,
we quickly settled in and went to sleep.
Then, the next day, we heard some news that really surprised us.
With so many team members and so much luggage,
I hadn’t even thought about it,
but one of the vans heading there the day before had broken down
and had been stuck in one place for a long time.
Then another van that had gone to help repair it also broke down,
leaving the two vans stuck in the same place.
In the end, another van that had already dropped off some of its passengers went there,
packed everyone in as tightly as possible,
and brought them back.
The vans had already been running for almost 24 hours,
after the team members had only slept for two or three hours,
spent a full and exhausting day,
and had barely had any time to rest.
I was really worried about the team members who had been driving those vans.
Anyway, because of what happened,
the two vans were still being repaired,
and only three vans were able to move.
And because the drivers also needed to rest after driving through the night,
many of the ministry schedules for our first day were changed.
We were originally supposed to go to three schools,
and everyone had to be divided among them,
but more than twenty people—the equivalent of about two vans—had to stay behind.
So I raised my hand
and said that we wanted to go out for street evangelism.
I said that we wanted to share Bibles,
and that although this was an area where we might be a little weak,
we also wanted to go out
with the Swahili Gospel evangelism script
that we had prepared for this very purpose.
So our Korean team,
except for one couple who were sick,
went out for street evangelism.
Following Cory’s advice,
we first gathered together and took time to pray.
We prayed for the people we would meet,
the people we were meant to meet,
what we called Treasure Hunter,
and then we set out.
We had to return before lunch,
so we did evangelism around the neighborhood.
Holding the drawings we had made in Korea
and the scripts written in Swahili,
we began sharing the Gospel.
And more people responded right there
than I had expected.
Sharing Gospel tracts and Bibles
was our purpose and one of the main things we had come to do,
so it was good simply to be able to do that.
But more than anything,
the Muslim woman in this photo
accepted the Gospel
and received Jesus as her Lord.
It wasn’t a long conversation,
but when I saw her clearly nodding
and saying that she wanted to receive Jesus,
there was a moment when I thought,
“Really? Really?”
But later, through Theresa,
she heard the Gospel once again,
and I was happy to know
that she had clearly accepted the Gospel.
Confirming it again.
“Is it really true?”
“Really?”
I think those questions are necessary.
Letting them hear it again.
Confirming it with them.
Letting them confirm it for themselves.
After lunch,
we went near the ferry terminal where we would take the boat to Zanzibar,
had a cup of coffee,
and prayed together again.
And as we prayed together,
we looked for the people we had talked about as
“the people we were meant to meet,”
and boldly shared the Gospel with them.
There were times when we could barely manage to share in Swahili,
but thankfully, with people who spoke English,
we were able to have long conversations,
answer their questions,
and have some really good conversations.
There weren’t many,
but once again, through this time,
several people accepted the Gospel,
acknowledged Jesus as the Lord of their lives,
and decided to give their lives to Him.
Even in the taxi on the way back,
we shared the Gospel with the taxi driver.
In other countries,
good conversations often begin naturally.
“Where are you from?”
“When did you arrive?”
“Are you enjoying your trip?”
To these common questions asked of travelers,
we end up giving a very different answer.
And those conversations become
good opportunities to share the Gospel.
But only when we simply open our eyes,
stay alert,
and recognize that this too is an opportunity given by the Lord.
Through prayer,
Seongmin was also able to share the Gospel,
and even our group, which was a separate team,
was given precious opportunities
to share the Gospel
and pray for one person.
Usually, we followed the people who were doing the school ministry.
But on this day,
we were able to do the things we had wanted to do,
moving together as our own team.
It was fun.
We shared many seeds of the Gospel,
and there was fruit as well.
It was a joyful day.