From the mission field: Church planting in Tanzania

The Rev. Jonathan Clausing, LCMS missionary to Africa, works with students at St. Peter Seminary in Himo, Tanzania, in 2019. Emmanuel Seming’indo, third from left, is now a pastor of the Lutheran Church of East Africa who serves as a seminary instructor and church planter. (LCMS/Erik M. Lunsford)

This month’s report comes from the Rev. Jonathan Clausing, LCMS missionary to Africa.

Although the town of Himo in Tanzania, Africa, has been home to St. Peter Seminary for many years, there has not been a confessional Lutheran parish within the city limits for more than a decade. In the early 2000s, a mission start struggled along for a period of years but eventually closed.

Since relatively few Tanzanians have the luxury of owning cars that they can conveniently drive to a neighboring village to attend the church of their choice, it’s especially important to have congregations located within walking distance of people’s homes, and the absence of a congregation in Himo has long been a notable deficiency.

The Lutheran Church of East Africa aims to remedy that deficiency this year. Two instructors at St. Peter, the Rev. Emmanuel Semng’indo and the Rev. Jonathan Mkiramweni, have been appointed to serve part-time as church planters to reestablish the congregation at Himo. The seminary chapel, which has typically sat unused on Sunday mornings, will serve as a convenient facility in which the new congregation can worship initially.

These young pastors will bring youthful energy along with faithfulness to God’s Word to the task set before them. Please pray for this new congregation and her pastors, that the Word and Sacraments preached and administered there would produce a bountiful harvest.

Learn more about the Rev. Jonathan and Anita Clausing and their work in Tanzania at lcms.org/clausing.

Posted April 23, 2025