From Monday 16th to Friday 21st February 2004 Swedish Missionaries working in Tanzania are meeting for their annual retreat conference to be staged at Maweni Farm, Soni - Lushoto. These are missionaries sent by Swedish Evangelical Mission (SEM) and the Church of Sweden Mission (CSM). 30 people, including missionaries coming as far from Malawi and Kenya will be joined by SEM’s General Secretary, Anders Johan Sjöberg and CSM’s Lars Hofgren, both from Sweden.

What is the objective of your visit?

Well, the main objective of my visit is to attend the SEM and Church of Sweden Mission’s conference to take place at Soni, next week. The second purpose is to visit Bishop Dr. Stephen Munga’s family. They are friends of mine so I thought it is not a bad idea to visit them as I haven’t yet done that before.

No. It is my second time. In 1991 I visited Tanzania; on the Southern part – Iringa, Kidugala, Matema and Njombe. I used to help the missionaries there, and taught bible studies with them. But it is my first time to visit Usambara Mountains.

So far we (with her wife) have visited various institutions in the diocese; Irente Farm, UTC (Usambara Technology Centre), Bangala (Lutheran Junior Seminary). Today we have visited Lutindi Mental Hospital. Tomorrow we expect to visit a school for blind people (Irente School for the Blind) and Rainbow school. And on Sunday we will visit a congregation with the Bishop. Then, as I said, from Monday we will participate in the missionaries’ conference.

Well, this conference will bring together missionaries from different parts of this country (including two working in neighbour countries). I will be teaching bible studies in the morning sessions.

Spring of Faith. I will teach about the Work of Christ, Cross of Christ, Resurrection of Christ and Ascending of the Holy Spirit. I think these aspects are very important for us to work with in our daily services. And also not everything will be serious. There will be lots of time for fun. Remember, this is a recreation conference.

First of all: We have seen the love of the Lord on every place we have visited. People here are willing to live with the Gospel. You (the diocese) have worked with it, and it is very important for you to live together with gospel in order to meet more people.
Secondly; you have good plans for educating young people. For example, when we visited Bangala we were very impressed to see a special secondary school which prepares the young generation for the future of the work of the church. Also to consider educating poor clans, like Maasai people is very important. I can suggest that the concrete work the Bishop Dr. Munga has done is to install a good administration and put the institutions in good shape.
Thirdly; to see that the diocese is fully engaged in starting income generating projects is very encouraging. Through these project the church can obtain income in a positive way, and also gives itself a big chance to reach gospel to many people.

In the aspect of Mission Work, I was surprised to learn that the diocese has other mission works in other dioceses in Tanzania. This is very good. And I can also see the need of it in Sweden. Your hearts are burning in desire to hear that gospel reaches as many people as possible.

During my informal conversation with the Bishop Dr. Munga I heard that every year at least 200 adults in the diocese are baptized. This is a good theological experience to share between our churches. And here I get an idea about improving our exchange programmes between our churches. For instance theology teachers from, say, Johannelund Theological College in Sweden can exchange positions with those of Vuga Bible School, and vise versa. I think these are important in both ways.

Today I can see that the standard of living is a little bit higher, compared to how I saw it in the first visit. But again, I can clearly see that this has gave a negative effect – the gap between the rich and poor people has became wider. This is a big challenge for the church to meet in a prophetic way. 

Good question. In 2000 the State Church in Sweden met its end. You can learn more of this in our website (www.efs.nu). By the time, the population of Sweden was 9,000,000 people. With this population, 6,800,000 people were Christians. But only 3% were attending church, and not frequently. Unlike here where I have seen a good number of people happily attending church services, it is unlikely in our church. So our big task here is to find a best way of handling this situation of people who look at the church as a place to go only in big events as Christmas, Easter and other cerebrations. It is our task to take these people deep into faith, in order to retain the existing percentage and win more people to believe in God. 

Oh, Lord! After only two days!! (He exclaims with a loud laughter)! No, I am not ready to say anything.

(And after a moment’s thinking) May be I can only underline something I have seen. It is in a very healthy way that the Bishop is leading this diocese. And I pray and hope that this trend will continue. I had also met the Dean (the Assistant to Bishop, Rev. Jonathan Mwamboza). I have understood that both are very wise leaders.

Thank you Anders. I hope you will enjoy the rest of your time in Tanzania.

Oh! Thank you very much. I will be available for any information you will need from me.