BCC Fellowships in Tanzania ‘linked up’!

The Brunstad Christian Church (BCC) fellowships in Tanzania may be small but are showing gradual yet steady growth. The genuine interest in the gospel and wholehearted commitments from young people are most encouraging. The total membership of 39 is made up of 31 members from Mwanza, 7 from Shirati and a new member from Morogoro. Almost half of the members are children and young people. At present church services are held separately in Mwanza and Shirati, as because of the distance, it is impossible to come together on a weekly basis, however the two fellowships do come together for conferences at the home of Thobias Silas Mbori.

The BCC fellowship in Mwanza has recently become one of the ten locations in Africa that have live video links, enabling them to participate ‘live’ in BCC Africa conferences and other online church activities. This technological development has made a tremendous difference, giving them a sense of inclusion and unity with all the other BCC fellowships in Africa.

Tracing the development of the Tanzanian fellowships and the positive impact technology has had, makes interesting reading. It also bears witness to the commitment of BCC to carry out the ‘Great Commission’ given by Jesus Christ to all Christians, to spread the gospel to all the nations of the world. (Matthew 28: 16-20).

Until three years ago the fellowships in Tanzania had no regular contact with BCC Africa and were only able to travel to Kisumu in Kenya, to attend BCC Africa conferences. In 2018, when Moses Kepha and Thobias Silas Mbori travelled to South Africa to visit BCCSA in Vanderbijlpark, they became more familiar with the work the church does and how it operates. Moses joined the Christian Youth Development Program (CYPD) and this set the wheels in motion for technological changes to take place in the Tanzanian fellowships. (Refer to his personal testimony below).

A technical team from BCCSA went to Tanzania in 2019 to install BrunstadTV equipment which enabled the fellowships to watch transmissions and send in audio and video testimonies. Although at that stage members could not participate ‘live’ in church services, having access to BrunstadTV made a huge difference to their spiritual development. While on the CYPD, Moses Kepha was trained in, among other things, setting up live video links and on completion of his time on the CYDP, he returned to Tanzania with the necessary skills and equipment to set up the video links with BCCSA. Now, BCC fellowships in Tanzania are able to participate ‘live’ in online conferences and church services and in the words of Moses: “It is like we are together with everyone in BCC Africa!”

Moses Kepha (Tanzania):

“I joined the CYDP in October 2018, this has had such a positive effect on the youth and the youth clubs, because I can apply what I learned on the program to help them. I am able to organize youth activities and help them to access the church’s spiritual resources on the BCC Portal, Brunstad Multimedia and the ActiveChristianity website and so on. The technological training and skills I gained on CYPD has also helped me to install equipment in 2 homes to enable access to BrunstadTV.”