Trip Report: Kilimanjaro 2013

Mission: Kilimanjaro 2013

Trip Report: Healing rains fall in Africa

By Gary Fallesen
President, Climbing For Christ

We may have cursed under our breath at the weather conditions on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, but there was no use praying for the rain to stop. We were outnumbered by all of the farmers in the fields spread out below us. They were praying for the start of the rainy season as they prepared to plant their many crops.

Day 3 of the Kilimanjaro trek saw our team climbing into snow at 14,000 feet.

So we climbed in rain and snow, wind and cold, all the while humming the tune of Toto’s 1980s hit song Africa:

“It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
“There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
“I bless the rains down in Africa, I bless the rains down in Africa

“I bless the rains down in Africa.”

This trip wasn’t about Africa’s highest mountain, anyway. Remember, the work God shares with Climbing For Christ is about the people, not about the peaks we find them on. It is about service, not a summit.

Mission: Kilimanjaro 2013 was only the next step in the direction God has been leading C4C to do ministry in the East African nation of Tanzania.

RELIGIOUS COMPLEXION

The population of mainland Tanzania is 35 percent Muslim, 35 percent indigenous believers, and 30 percent Christian. The island of Zanzibar is 99 percent Muslim.

For many years, Zanzibar has ranked among the 50 most persecuted places in the world. But all of Tanzania ranked 24th on the Open Doors “World Watch List” for 2013, and the murder of two pastors and burning of churches in February provided further proof of growing hostility toward Christ followers.

Joshua Cook, participating in his second Evangelic Expedition with Climbing For Christ, was being introduced to pastors and porters alike in anticipation of possibly being planted among them to work for two years beginning in 2014. From evangelistic training (which C4C short-term teams have done with the local guides and porters four of the past six years) to worship with the church in Marangu to ascending 19,340-foot/5,895-meter Kilimanjaro, Joshua was getting a lay of the land.

After two weeks he could see Climbing For Christ “helping to raise up men who love God and follow His commands” (per Jesus’s instructions in John 14:15) while at the same time “seeking to search and rescue the least and lost on mountain slopes.”

This two-pronged approach – equipping the found and loving on the lost – has been the vision for Mission: Kilimanjaro since before the first short-term trip there in 2007. Our original “Mission Vision,” written in June 2004, identified Tanzania (Kilimanjaro) as our “model mission.” We anticipated sending a full-time missionary to work there. We knew, as with all things, it would happen in God’s perfect time.

While waiting on this, God led us to start teaching those who would join C4C about how to share Jesus while working on the mountain.

Joshua Cook hangs from a window to illustrate a point during his teaching with guides and porters in Marangu. Pastor Mosha, left, is translating.

In 2008, 74 guides and porters joined Climbing For Christ at our first training sessions in Marangu and Moshi. After another 52 joined us on this mission, we have more than 160 of the hundreds of guides and porters who work on the mountain now affiliated with C4C.

The possibility of a full-time missionary committing to live among this community to disciple, equip and evangelize had Pastor Winford Mosha feeling Godbumps. It was Pastor Mosha whom God first used to open a door for us into the trekking community. We met him through a divine appointment in 2007, when he shared his passion to bring the many on the mountain into the flock.

Climbing For Christ continues to work with Pastor Mosha, his family, and the churches he is associated with as the district pastor overseeing 44 Lutheran parishes and 46 pastors in Tanzania. We recognize Pastor Mosha as a God-send and give thanks to the One who is directing us.

As two-time Mission: Kilimanjaro participant Michael Heitland said: visiting with Pastor Mosha is always one of the highlights of the trip.

And the lowlights? One might point to the conditions on the mountain – from several days and nights of rain to snow and minimal visibility as low as 14,000 feet to extreme wind and cold on summit day. But prayers were being answered for the farmers so we give thanks for the weather. May God bless the rains down in East Africa.

HIStory

1998: While preparing to climb Kilimanjaro, God instructed a newspaper sports writer, Gary Fallesen, to start a Christian climbing organization. This would become Climbing For Christ, incorporated as a non-profit in 2004.
2007: Our first short-term team was sent to climb Kilimanjaro. Through a divine appointment we met Pastor Winford Mosha of the Lyasongoro Lutheran Church in Marangu, one of the gateways to the mountain.
2008: Evangelistic training begins with 74 guides and porters attending two sessions – one in Marangu and another in Moshi.
2010, 2011 and 2013: More evangelistic training and three more Kilimanjaro climbs carried out by Climbing For Christ.
2014: Prayerfully, the planting of a full-time missionary to work for two years with Kilimanjaro guides and porters. Short-term teams will support this effort at least once in both 2014 and 2015 (dates to be determined). To participate in a Mission: Kilimanjaro trip, contact info@ClimbingForChrist.org.