When missionaries Jerry and Rachel Wyatt moved to Tanzania in 2009 to assist Jerry’s missionary father at the church his father had planted in Morogoro, no one could have envisioned what God was planning to do with this young couple. Already fluent in Swahili, Jerry easily assimilated back into the Tanzanian culture he had grown up in since the age of 10. Rachel quickly adapted and endeared herself to the Tanzanian people through her natural expressions of love, grace, and hospitality.
Jerry Wyatt is a visionary and an organizer par excellence. Since becoming the pastor of the Faith Baptist Church of Morogoro in 2012, Jerry’s God-given leadership skills have resulted in an increased church attendance from 250 to 650 in 11 years.
Compassion is the cornerstone of the Wyatt family ministry. The Wyatts love people, and it shows. The poorest among them are greeted warmly and treated respectfully. Food is provided for the entire church every Sunday. Two homeless orphans are housed at the Imani Boys’ Home. A separate feeding center provides 2 meals per day and Bible lessons for 25 area impoverished children, and the Family Hope Farm offers a plot where various church families can grow their own food. A yearly Vision and Medical Clinic provides free care for thousands of sick people. In the recent August 2023 clinic, 41 American and Tanzanian medical personnel treated 2,370 patients, and 766 were saved.
Cleanliness is next to godliness in the Wyatt family. Their rented home and their church facilities are impeccable. The walled-in church property (with a water faucet on the outside so that neighbors can get free clean water) boasts an open church building, a fellowship/conference hall, a radio studio building, and a soon-to-be-completed classroom/kitchen/nursery/office building, along with several semi-temporary classrooms. More impressive is the immaculate simplicity of the entire compound, complete with brick sidewalks, a playground, and luscious green grass! (Remember, this is red-clay, dirt-road Africa.)
The signature event of the Wyatt ministry is the yearly Tanzanian Stadium Crusade—the fulfillment of Jerry’s childhood dream. Two professional soccer teams are invited to play an exhibition game in the Morogoro stadium. For the past 9 years, crowds ranging from 4,000 to 20,000 have packed the venue—90 percent are adult men and teen boys, and many are Muslims. At halftime, a cross is raised, a platform is erected, PA is installed, and the Gospel is preached to the attentive crowd of soccer fans. Churches in the U.S. provide the money needed to secure the stadium, pay the teams, and buy a copy of John and Romans for every attendee. Volunteers from those churches work with the Tanzanians to meet them individually and greet the crowd, set up and take down the halftime program structures, sing (in Swahili) the special music, and aid in soul winning. Every step is bathed in prayer. In July 2023, more than 5,000 attended the crusade, and 838 were saved.
The following Sunday, 40 neighborhood soccer teams, who had previously signed up, attended church for Soccer Sunday. Each team of 11 people (age 15 and older) received a free soccer ball and pump. Many times, the gifted soccer ball is the only usable ball that the team possesses. On Soccer Sunday 2023, church attendance jumped to 1,069, and 74 were saved.
“In our town of half a million people, there is hardly a family that has not been touched in some way by our radio station, medical clinics, or stadium crusades,” Rachel Wyatt revealed. By using their God-given gifts for ministry, the Wyatts have seen God perform many mighty works.
View the 2023 Tanzanian Stadium Crusade and Soccer Sunday.
PERU
Olmos Report from Pastor Pablo
Gospel Radio 102.9 F.M.
Thousands of people are listening to the preaching on Gospel Radio. Many have been saved, baptized, and joined the Old Paths Baptist Church. A few weeks ago, two entire families heard the Gospel on the radio, accepted Christ, were baptized, and now attend regularly. We are out of space. We have purchased a new 36-foot by 75-foot sanctuary building, but we still need $2,000 for the roof.
UKRAINE
Carpathian Mountains Record-Breaking Summer
Broadcaster Paul Dudka has experienced a moving of God during the five weeks of summer VBS camps. The largest group assembled included 360 children and 100-plus adults, all unbelievers from a village with no Bible-believing church. A total of 1,200-plus children attended the 5 weeklong events (not counting hundreds of adults); more than 100 were saved. “The war has made everyone’s heart soft,” Pastor Dudka reported. Download the VBS video.
USA
Crown Point, Indiana
Media Makes Sense
Spotify is a music-streaming platform—one of many on the Internet that is used by Hyles-Anderson College (HAC) to post music. Anthony Collins, Director of Music at HAC, reported that, in the month of July, there were 314,000 views from 141 countries. Of that number, 987 views were from United Arab Emirates, 439 from Saudi Arabia, and 394 from Qatar, which is a total of 6 times more than the huge country of India. Amazing! The Gospel is being spread to Muslims in restricted-access nations just by streaming a song. Media gets results!
George Zarris
Christian Radio International
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- The Jerry Wyatt III Family, Missionaries to Tanzania
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- Pastor Pablo broadcasting for Gospel Radio 102.9 FM in Peru
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- 2023 Tanzanian Stadium Crusade
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- Summer VBS Camps in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine
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- Christian music is reaching those in restricted-access nations!
