Hadzabe Now Largest Church Plant in Tanzania
By Bryce Whiting, Europe/Africa Area Director
The Joshua Project is a Christian organization that tracks ethnic groups with the fewest evangelical Christians. These are ethnic groups who have yet to hear about or respond to the good news of a Creator God who loves them and wants them to be in his forever kingdom. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, Joshua Project lists 867 unreached people groups (UPGs). We are pleased to say that there will soon be one such group scratched from their list – the Hadzabe of the Great Rift Valley in Tanzania.
Early in 2021 our churches sent two evangelists from the Mwanza Region in Tanzania to seek out the Hadzabe, befriend them and tell them about a God who is greater than all other gods. We could not have predicted the response as the book of Acts seemed to come to life again. Several settlements of Hadzabe received the Word with gladness and were baptized. Our evangelists made three trips with funding from our Department of International Missions, one of those trips taking a full five weeks of living, eating and sleeping with the Hadzabe.
Every two years, right before Christmas, the Hadzabe have a gathering of many settlements, bringing together family members they do not regularly see. The Hadzabe begged the evangelists to return for this event so they could reach even more people with the word of God. Sadly though, it was near the end of the year and we were over budget already. Deeply saddened, I prepared myself to tell our brothers that we would not be able to help them make this trip. But then I got some wonderful news. Our treasurer remembered a generous gift from one of our churches expressly designated for the Hadzabe ministry. That gift alone was enough to send our two evangelists on their way!
As predicted, other settlements joined together over a period of 10 days, and for all of that time our brothers Amos Komanya and Festus Tungaraza spoke boldly the Word of God. Great was the response and great was the rejoicing as the Hadzabe believers joined in a singing and dancing circle of celebration.
Three trips are planned for 2022, the first scheduled for April. Baptisms and more teachings are planned for that trip. For some it cannot come soon enough.
We are pleased to say that over the past year the Advent Christian Conference in Tanzania has planted three new churches. Of the conference’s total 17 churches, the largest one of all is among the Hadzabe.
Acts 2:47 “… And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
(Below is a video of the Hadzabe from the recent trip. Unfortunately, the video rotates a few seconds in. Our aplogies!)