Zanzibar?

 What comes to your mind when you hear the word Zanzibar? Laura remembers a line of a poem she learned in elementary school..."figs and dates from Zanzibar…” Ruth knew less than that! While we lived in Uganda, a few of our single missionaries went there for Christmas and showed pictures...but never would we have guessed that we would actually be on that island for ministry!

For a bit of a background, in case you too are not aware of these facts, it’s a small island, legally a part of Tanzania but has been given a fair bit of autonomy, partly because it is 98% M’m as compared with 35% of the rest of Tanzania. As God only can do, the evangelical Protestant church is respected on the island and they made it possible for Scripture Union to have a building in “downtown” Zanzibar City which houses their office and a couple small meeting rooms. Among other ministries, they had a Scripture Union club among students in one Primary School (2019).

Newly trained trainers serving with smiles! (2020)

Group picture of 2020 Zanzibar training.

In early 2020, Laura and Ruth went to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with Beth, our Ugandan friend/colleague and spent a week training four Scripture Union Tanzanian staff to conduct VOICE trainings. And of all places, Zanzibar was chosen as the location for the very first Swahili VOICE Training!
The four newly trained Tanzanians did the vast majority of the training while Beth (who knows a fair bit of Swahili) and the two of us (who by then knew about 4 words!!) were their coaches! It was a wonderful “highlight” experience, and of course, none of us knew what God would do as a result.

Charles

Fast forward to late October of this year, Beth and her assistant, Chris, were back in Tanzania to hold a Training of Trainers, not for four people this time, but for 30+ Christian workers! One of the participants, Charles, who somewhat recently joined the work on Zanzibar island, shared with Beth the wonderful report that there are now 15 schools who have Scripture Union clubs and seven of them are using the VOICE curriculum!

Praise God for what He has done! And now that Charles has received training, join us in praying that God will continue the work He has started and use the Biblical Values curriculum to bring many more students and their families to Christ as Savior and Lord.