"Well Done, Good and Faithful!"

In this blog I write mostly about the work we do. If you'd like to get some insights about our daily life here in Tanzania, see Paula's journal entry for October HERE.

“Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.” (Matthew 25:21)

This past Sunday at Ambureni Lutheran in Arusha, Tanzania, we celebrated the grace of God in a service of remembrance of the Lutheran Reformation. We remembered how Martin Luther became faithful, that is, full of faith. Through the power of the true Gospel, the Holy Spirit revealed to him the Scripture truth that God had declared him to be fully forgiven and righteous, as his free gift, because of the suffering, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Thus filled with true saving faith, he became a courageous preacher of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, from Scripture alone. He bore up under personal dangers and duress, leading the way free from the spiritual wilderness created by the Roman Catholic Church. Down through the centuries, countless thousands have benefited from the faithful service of this man and others like him. There is no doubt that he has already received the Lord's commendation, "Well done, good and faithful servant!"

At this same Reformation service, we also remembered the faithful work of another servant of God. Pastor Nathan Lengutai served for many years as a confessional Lutheran Pastor here in Tanzania. He went through his own Reformation when he left a larger, false-teaching fellowship in order to serve in the TCLC. In more recent years he has been a teacher of future pastors at Wittenberg Seminary. He recently retired from teaching due to declining health. We are thankful to our Lord for this faithful servant and others like  him, and we are confident that when the Lord calls Pastor Lengutai home someday he will likewise be commended by our Lord: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.” 

Here are a few photos from the service (click to enlarge):

Wittenberg faculty members, students, and Pastor Lengutai

Pastors Jeremia and Lengutai, following the service

A meal for all was enjoyed that afternoon

A video of the sermon I preached for the occasion is HERE

Some of the young men celebrated God's grace with dance and song, HERE

Pastor Lengutai's remarks (with English translation by Pastor Jeremia) is HERE

A few other recent photos (click to enlarge):

Students, faculty and staff at our home

On the way to our remote sister church, "Gembock wa Hadzabe" Lutheran church

The congregation after worship; we showed the "Jesus Film" the previous evening

A video clip of the church choir is HERE

Overnight accommodations for Pastor Jeremia and me

We visited this and two other small congregations on the way

FOR MORE CLC Foreign Missions News,

See Missionary Todd Ohlmann's blog HERE