Team Tanzania — Jeff Radichel: His Work in the Field and in Our Hearts

As our bags sat packed and we waited for the ride to the airport, it was difficult to understand how two weeks could have passed so quickly.

We came to Tanzania prepared to teach, serve, and encourage others with God’s Word. Looking back, however, it is clear that the Lord was doing something more. He was not only working through us in His field. He was also working in us.

“For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
Philippians 2:13

Today we returned to Mbuyuni, where Pastor Robert serves. It was encouraging to see the congregation again after two years and to recognize signs of steady progress. The church now has a cement floor and a new roof, and Robert has begun building his home next door.

Those improvements were a quiet reminder that God’s work does not stop when visitors leave.

We often see only a brief moment in the life of a congregation or ministry. We arrive, participate for a day, take pictures, say goodbye, and return home. But the Lord remains. His people continue worshiping, teaching, praying, serving, and trusting Him.

That was one of the clearest lessons of this trip.

The work was never ours.

It belonged to the Lord before we arrived, it belonged to Him while we were here, and it will still belong to Him after we leave.

That truth also changed how I viewed the people we came to serve.

This was not simply a matter of us bringing something to Tanzania. Again and again, Tanzanian believers encouraged us, taught us, strengthened us, and helped us see God’s Word more clearly.

Today, I preached a sermon that Robert had helped me revise. That felt like a fitting picture of the entire trip. We were not working above others or apart from them. We were serving beside brothers and sisters in Christ.

The Gospel was not moving in only one direction.

The same Word we came to share was the Word we needed to hear.

The same Christ we came to proclaim was the Christ strengthening our own hearts.

The same believers we came to encourage often became the ones encouraging us.

Daily time in Scripture shaped the entire trip. Preparing lessons, teaching children, listening to sermons, praying together, and hearing believers sing praise to Christ continually brought us back to what matters most.

It is difficult to spend that much time in God’s Word and remain unchanged.

The Lord used His Word to expose pride, impatience, fear, and self-reliance. He also used it to renew joy, deepen gratitude, strengthen faith, and remind us that His power is made perfect in weakness.

As the trip progressed, the days seemed to move faster. The places became more familiar. The teaching became more natural. Relationships deepened. Before we knew it, we were preparing to leave.

But the Lord’s work is not ending.

He will continue working in the congregations, schools, families, and communities we visited. He will continue strengthening the pastors and believers serving here. He will continue planting His Word in the hearts of the children who heard it.

And our prayer is that He will continue the work He began in us.

Prayer Requests

• Pray that the Word shared throughout this trip continues to take root and bear fruit.
• Pray for the pastors, teachers, congregations, schools, and families serving faithfully in Tanzania.
• Pray that the Mission Helper team carries the lessons of this trip home and continues growing in faith and service.
• Pray that the Lord keeps us humble, grateful, and dependent on His strength.
• Pray that Christ remains at the center of every relationship and every future opportunity to serve.

We came to Tanzania hoping God would use us in His field.

He did.

But one of the greatest blessings of the trip is realizing that while He was working through us, He was also working deeply in our own hearts.

In Christ,
Jeff Radichel
Tanzania Mission Helper Trip