EIM Trip to Tanzania

By Dr. Greg Payne, Board Member • EIM

On Sept. 3, I traveled as an Evangelistic International Ministries (EIM) team member to the Maswa village in north-central Tanzania for a medical/dental mission trip. We partnered with BMMI to help a newer mission church gain a stronger foothold in the community where the church plant is located. This area is north and east of Shinyanga, our home base. Shinyanga is just under 100 miles south of Lake Victoria, which borders Uganda. The travel there was quite arduous, and we arrived in the area we were to base our work on Sept. 5.

We held six clinic days and church services on Sunday with the community and our 21-member team. People were seen for medical needs and given help with vision problems, and they had dental aches and pains tended to. We worked with a team of 10 translators and a group of evangelists. Over 1,000 people came through the clinic. The evangelists reported 400 plus professions of faith.

Watching a group of different people come together and minister is fun. We had people working side-by-side on their first trip and true multi-trip heroes. All shared the desire to love these sweet folks who are in a place of limited access to what we all take for granted on a daily basis.

This was hard work, and the conditions were difficult at best, but it was so valuable. It makes mission work so tactile. The spiritual and physical needs of the area are very evident. Nothing is subjective or theoretical about what you see. God has used this work over the last decade to open my eyes to what is going on outside my little part of the world. This trip felt like a real-life book of Acts lived out in front of me. I’m thankful I was able to serve here with these people. I tell folks that Tanzania has a special place in my heart. It has physically whipped me, but I believe in what God is doing with the ministry there.