Page 1:The Beginning of a mission
Page 2: When God says YES, who then can say NO?
Page 3: The Future of BIMT
BIMT, Baptist International Missions of Tanzania
is a team of missionaries who have banded together to reach the Tanzanians with the Gospel of Christ.
BIMT begins with the first missionary sent from BIMI to Tanzania, Greg Wagoner. Before he could go to Tanzania he had to stop in Kenya for language school.
Greg writes, The nation of Kenya was buzzing over the upcoming elections. Around the country one could hear reports of spatters of rioting. The political and social stability of Kenya was in question.
I keenly remember sitting in the office of my pastor, Jeff Davenport, in tears, because, quite honestly, I was afraid to fly into Nairobi with my wife, Paige, and our fifteen month old daughter, Abigail. Despite my personal apprehensions to “make the move” into a location experiencing slight civil unrest a few things were sure…
I fully believed that Jesus Christ died for the sins of Tanzanian men and women.
I was fully persuaded that God had called my family and me to Tanzania.
I was fully aware of the great deal of prayer and planning that had gone into a move of this magnitude.
The Holy Spirit provided the calm that was needed in our hearts at that time, so we got on the plane! At approximately 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, January 6, 1998, Paige, Abigail, and I touched down… together… in East Africa.
“Hello, Brother Wagoner, I am Swante Lindquist.” I thought to myself, “Praise God! I am now together with a veteran missionary!” Swante Lindquist had faithfully served the LORD for 20 years in Senegal, West Africa and was now giving himself to assist me in pioneering a new country for BIMI.
Brother Lindquist and I were to begin studying Swahili together on January 12 at a language school in Limuru, Kenya. Much to our delight we were informed that classes were rescheduled and would not begin until January 26. We immediately began planning for a survey trip into Tanzania together. The planning began by unfolding a map of all 945,087 square kilometers of the nation. We prayerfully and pointedly examined where the absolute best location would be to move our families and plant a church. Together we decided to fly into Mwanza, the second largest city in Tanzania, situated on the Southern shore of Lake Victoria.
For four days and three nights we roamed all over Mwanza sitting where the people sat and seeing what the people saw. Each evening at 6:00 p.m. in our hotel room we watched hundreds of men pour out of a local soccer stadium as the match of the day was completed. Then we would pray together. It did not take us long to determine that Mwanza was, indeed, the right location for the genesis of the Baptist International Mission of Tanzania.
In August of 1998 we all moved into Mwanza. This was a time of sorrow in East Africa because of the Al Qaeda bombings of our U.S. Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. I have no doubt that some of those who died in the explosions were believers. I was in the Embassy building in Dar Es Salaam one week prior to the tragedy and am grateful that the LORD kept me from the area of disaster at the time of detonation.
Once we were able to “get our bearings” about us it was time to begin the visible and vocal aspect of the necessary church plant. Brother Lindquist and I had prayed every Saturday morning for the work and now we were going to start church planting together.
We were living in the Ibungilo area of Mwanza. Ibungilo is a very discombobulated place where a traditional canvassing is not easily planned. After praying with Brother Lindquist at his house, we stepped outside of his gate together and I remember asking him –
“Where in the world do we start?” At that precise moment a man who lived directly across the street from Brother Lindquist walked outside of his front door and stood on his porch. Brother Lindquist said to me –
“Well, Greg, how about right there?” That’s how it all started.
Page 1:The Beginning of a mission
Page 2: When God says YES, who then can say NO?
Page 3: The Future of BIMT