What is the nature of your ministry with children? Please describe how your role as a global worker in this location was needed. 

Pamoja is creating television shows for children. East Africa is the youngest region of the youngest continent, and there is a desperate need for Godly images of success and progress for the next generation of East African kids. For more than 20 years, Pamoja has been using media to minister in East Africa, but today TV is a new open door for us in ministry. TV, and specifically Christian shows that are designed to be utilized by the Church, in discipleship environments, have an incredible potential to reach millions of kids across Tanzania and beyond. We are currently in post-production on two seasons of kids TV that will teach about salvation, Bible stories, Godly management of our emotions, and much more that is necessary for children. As global workers, our role is to begin to bring an outside perspective on what needs to be done and to enable a local response to the situation itself – giving kids across East Africa true God-breathed answers to the question “Who can I become?”

Are children there responsive the Gospel? If so, why?

 Yes, children are open to the Gospel. The Gospel has taken root in East Africa over the last generation, and children are happy to learn. Almost half of Tanzanian kids are growing up in homes that are at least nominally Christian. It’s important that we take this task seriously, though, as if we neglect ministry to children now, we’ll spend the rest of their lives trying to reach them.

What difference are you seeing in the lives of children as a result of your ministry? Please share a testimony.

This is hard to answer, as we still have not released the first episodes unto television, but as we have begun to show the partially-completed episodes to live audiences in partnership with local churches, we have been able to see excellent responses both from children and from their pastors. We want to enable churches to effectively minister to children, and we see that this is a wide open door.
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What can the Canadian church do to help partner with you?

One way to help is to sponsor an episode of a TV show and help us disciple kids. For less than $9,000 Canadian, we can write, film, edit, and release an episode of one of our shows. The entire first season of one of the shows has been sponsored, but we are still looking for funding for the second show, and for the second season! If a dozen groups were willing to sponsor one episode each a year, it would enable a tremendous growth in our effectiveness in ministry.

Another great way to help is to COME! We need volunteers – people who care about kids and are willing to invest a significant part of their life in helping children to succeed. Most of the kids in Tanzania have a lot going for them – the economy is growing, their communities want them to succeed, there is peace – but they need a vision of who God is and a roadmap for life that they will not get accidentally.

 What are the greatest challenges/obstacles in reaching children?

There are so many children, and there are so few resources. The average age in Tanzania is 17, and the population is growing rapidly. We need to remove hindrances in the way of kids coming to Jesus – we need to make sure that they can hear the message in a way that speaks to them loud and clear.

How can we pray for you and your ministry?

In very practical ways – for people to come and help, for a steady supply of power so we can film, for health and safety for our volunteers and staff, for good connections with local church leaders who see the vision and value of training up the young people in their churches, for computers and electronics that are reliable and predicable and for technology that makes our job easier and not harder (there is nothing worse that losing a whole day’s filming because the camera didn’t work right!).