Mission Moments: Kilimanjaro

Living to bring forth fruit

By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ

Kilimanjaro Chapter leader Dauson Chonjo teaching fellow guides and porters about being a disciple of Jesus. (Photos by Damson Samson)

Pastor Winford Mosha was there in the beginning. He saw the vision and knew it was God ordained.

Mission: Kilimanjaro 2007 was our first Evangelic Expedition to Tanzania and meeting Pastor Mosha was a divine appointment. He shared with us how he wanted to see guides and porters discipled. It was the same desire God had put on our hearts.

A dozen years later, a second group of guides and porters is learning what it means to be a disciple of Christ, new believers are being welcomed into the family of Jesus, and our Class of 2018 is teaching and learning more about being a disciple who makes disciples.

“Giving Pastor Mosha time to say something, he shared the story of how Climbing For Christ was established,” Climbing For Christ kingdom worker Damson Samson said at the conclusion of our September Kilimanjaro Chapter training.

“He further added that he is living to see this ministry bringing forth fruits.”

The fruitful production continued during this third-quarter meeting of chapter members.

The Kilimanjaro Chapter has never been a members-only get-together. Guides and porters show up – often at the invitation of friends who are in the training – and the next thing we know, they are our brothers in Christ.

Some examples:

Damson and eight others climbed Sango Mountain on a day of fasting and praying before the training began. “We prayed and worshiped God for His might and power and we shared the Word as well, where in the end we had one brother give his life to Christ Jesus,” Damson said.

The following day in Moshi, 21 students attended The Timothy Initiative (TTI) training we have done quarterly since November 2017. Three of those students “gave their lives to Christ Jesus, bringing the total number of four brothers who have offered themselves to Christ Jesus,” Damson said.

New brothers in Christ.

In Marangu three days later, 24 students attended and “we had eight of them come to the Lord in repentance” after a stirring morning devotional, Damson said. Training then continued with long-time chapter leader Dauson Chonjo teaching from the TTI study about New Testament Gospels.

When Damson was invited to share at a church on the road to Kenya, yet another man committed his life to Jesus. He taught from 2 Kings 1 and told the congregation “we must recognize the presence of God in our midst and have the fear of Him. What God is expecting is for us to be truly abiding in Him and do right by Him and never, ever go to worship other gods no matter what situation we should be in.”

Toward the end of Damson’s two weeks with the Kilimanjaro Chapter, he gathered some of last year’s graduates for another round of Disciples Making Disciples (DMD) study. Thirteen members attended the first day, when Damson opened with a word from James 4:1-3 and talked about how “we are the body of Christ and God is not expecting us to fight with one another. We need to demonstrate the love of our Lord, Jesus Christ to others, especially by loving one another. People outside are looking at the way we treat each other, and this can bring about negative results when our conduct is not good.”

This led to the DMD teaching on “Life in the Church.”

The next day, 15 students attended to study “God is the Heavenly Father” and “Self-Feeding” (or how to learn to trust and obey God’s Word). This study concluded with a call to spread the Gospel. “I am hoping for more harvesting from now and in the years to come,” Damson said.

Pastor Mosha, right, and Damson during training.

Pastor Mosha, who attended the two-day DMD training with Damson, agreed. He foresaw when we first met in 2007 what has come to fruition.

“I have to tell you that the fruits for this ministry have been witnessed,” Pastor Mosha told Climbing For Christ through Damson, “and [we] should be happy that things are going according to His will.”