Impressions of my first mission trip to Tanzania

Robin Eggerman,Immanuel Lutheran Church

Lockwood, MO

Chris Eggerman, back row, has been on mission trips to Tanzania before and was delighted to share this experience with his mother.

My first reaction was one of wonder and amazement. The people were so warm and welcoming. We were always greeted with wonderful smiles, enthusiastic handshakes and often times heart-felt hugs.

When our teams visited homes, the families were always happy to greet us and stopped whatever they were doing and rushed to find us a place to sit in the shade. They were anxious to hear what we wanted to share about our Lord Jesus Christ. We baptized many adults and children and they were delighted to be welcomed into God’s kingdom. Not everyone accepted our invitation to be baptized, but they were always happy to have us pray for them.

One particular lady will always be in my heart. She was not a family member at the house we were visiting, but a neighbor. As we talked with the family, we found out that they had all been baptized. This lady stood off to the side and when she was asked if she had been baptized, she said that she was Muslim. The family members and Timothy, our interpreter, talked to her a long time. We couldn’t understand what all was said, but this went on for about ten minutes. She looked very uncomfortable and I finally told my son, who was also on my team, that we couldn’t baptize her yet anyway because we hadn’t shared the story of Christ with her. The lady agreed to listen, but after hearing they story she still did not want to be baptized. Together we prayed for her and went down the path to the next house. There we spoke to another family and as we were talking with them, the Muslim lady came forward and said that she was ready to be baptized.

We were all so delighted that the Holy Spirit had worked in her and she was ready to be a child of God. It was miracles like this that we witnessed countless times on our trip that made for the best memories.