Adventist teachers in Tanzania are sharing Christ and serving people by offering free education to public school students in the rocky city of Mwanza. After realizing parents pay a lot of money to have their children taught when school is on break, the teachers decided to offer free education to students in the community.
During the summer session, teachers at the Nyanza Adventist Secondary school have also been giving Bible studies to 144 students who received the Voice of Prophecy certificates at the school’s graduation ceremony this week. The majority of the students who completed the Bible lessons, 111 to be exact, were not Adventist
According to the headmaster of the school, Sosthenes Mgunda, parents were overwhelmed with joy and felt the offer was too good to be true. Once they saw that the offer of free education was real with no strings attached, they enrolled their high school students for the summer session.
The free summer school conducted classes during the same hours as in regular times. The purpose, the headmaster said was to have children from non-Adventists parents taste and experience the joy of Adventist education and go home with the Adventist message.
Students were involved in studying both an academic curriculum along with the Adventist churches, Voice of Prophecy lessons. Teachers were willing to teach free of charge as they saw this as their way to get involved in the world church’s Total Member Involvement initiative.
Students from a variety of denominations such as Muslims, Catholics, and Protestants enrolled along with students from several other religions. In addition to free education, the students were also provided with free breakfast.
Martha Paulo, one of the parents, said she had never seen such a kindness of a church before. As a non-Adventist, she commanded the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Tanzania for the intellectual growth and character development she has seen her son exhibit when he comes home from school each day.
According to the teachers, most those who completed Voice of Prophecy lessons are preparing for baptism. They added that this type of community-based evangelism would be done every year.
Godwin Lekundayo, president of the Seventh-day Adventist church in Northern Tanzania and Joel Okindho, the coordinator for the Total Member Involvement campaign in East-Central Africa, commended the school for their commitment to “Total Teacher Involvement.” The three-week Total Member Involvement (TMI) evangelist meetings being held across the country of Tanzania are in their second week and are taking place in over 5000 sites.