The significant unrest in areas of Tanzania is limiting the ability of the CMF church catalyst team to travel and minister to the church planters and young churches, according to CMF missionaries Steve and Doretha Limiero.

“They are battling a spirit of fear as they live within this unrest,” said Doretha, “and we as a team are hindered from going and ministering in their areas.”

The Limieros ask friends and supporters to pray specifically with them for the following areas:

Maware

Solomon (a church planter) reports that there are no men left in the area as all have armed themselves in preparation to fight. The government has plans to come into the area to redraw boundary lines. As you can imagine, there is significant emotion at the thought of losing one’s land, heightened by the fact that crops have already been planted for this year. Solomon has asked Steve Limiero to postpone his teaching trip there.

Tanga region

Our team leader, Gary Woods, had to cancel his monthly trip to meet with the group of church planters working in this area. We heard on Monday that Al-Shabaab (a militant terrorist group) has moved into this area. The Tanzanian and Kenyan governments have sent troops in to fight back. Our church planters on the ground there have reported that there is great fear and a curfew has been imposed.

Loliondo and west Kilimanjaro areas

We have eight churches planted and growing in the Loliondo area, and one of the couples who just completed the Church Planter Training in November 2014 has settled in for ministry in West Kili. Over the weekend, many Maasai houses were burned in Loliondo (68), and west Kilimanjaro (48). The reasons have not been confirmed, but there is unrest and fear as people in these areas have fled their homes in search of safety.

Pray with us for peace and safety for the church planters in these areas, wisdom for the church planters, church leaders, and believers in these areas and insight and wisdom for us and our team as we wait for the opportunity to return to these different areas to teach.