Tanzania: new mission partners

New mission partners Dave and Tricia Rollett are preparing to move their family to Zanzibar, where they will support Christians in a minority context to grow in their faith and be a loving witness to their neighbours of other faiths.

Please pray for Dave and Tricia as they enter a season of training, preparation and transition. Pray for them to finish well as they wind up their current roles in England, and for peace as they prepare for the big move and everything this will entail.

Pray too for the funding needed to support them, especially for the success of the Tea for Tanzania event in Leicester on 16 May, that many will come and be enthused by the vision that the Rollett family share with our partners in Zanzibar.

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Uganda: Cawdells finishing service

After three years serving at Archbishop Janani Luwum Theological College in Gulu, Sarah and Simon Cawdell left Uganda this week and are preparing to finish service as mission partners. Pray for them as they settle back into life in the UK, and for the new principal of the college, Dr Denis Ruhama, as he and his family get established in Gulu.

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People from Dinka Twic and Dinka Ngok tribes, which have been in conflict since 2017, now worship together in a church plant in Turalei, Warrap State, CMS-Africa reports.

Many had thought such a thing would never be possible. But now, the people groups are working together to build bridges across a longstanding divide.

Children from the two tribes now play together and adults are building community. In their own words, “God has done this.”

The conflict is related to a dispute over a piece of land which is being claimed by both communities. This led to the outbreak of violence. A particularly bad instance of this in 2022 led to the displacement of thousands of people and massive destruction of properties as well as the loss of several innocent lives.

Women take the lead for peace

CMS partners have been facilitating an ongoing peace process and in June 2025, women from these groups came together for a special event: the Twic and Ngok Joint Women Peace Dialogue Meeting.

The event brought together religious leaders, United Nations Mission in South Sudan, government officials, community representatives and more, and was facilitated by local partner Regina Lueth, who teaches theology at St John’s Theological College in Wau.

Women from both people groups committed to be ambassadors of peace in their homes and communities, to encourage forgiveness and respectful dialogue and to lead peacemaking efforts.

They made an impressive list of formal commitments to work for peace:

1. Act as peace ambassadors in our homes and communities by messages by sharing peace messages with husbands, sons, daughters, and neighbours.
2. Denounce hate speech and incitement, especially through cultural mediums such as music and storytelling.
3. Lead peace dissemination efforts through radio stations, churches, schools, health facilities, and local gatherings.
4. Engage in women-led exchange visits and trust-building dialogue between the Ngok and Twic communities.
5. Encourage forgiveness and respectful dialogue at the family and community levels. Engage youth to discourage violent practices such as cattle raiding and retaliation.
6. Counter misinformation and disinformation through verified messaging and strengthen the local peace network.

Pray together

Pray for the women in these communities to actively look for big and small opportunities to build bridges between the two groups, and encourage each other to keep working towards peace. Pray for their desire and drive for peace to spread to those around them.

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Ethiopia: refugees leading churches

Chris and Suzy Wilson work to equip churches to actively pursue peace across ethnic divides. Chris also trains church leaders in refugee camps. They write, “Please join us in praying for our brothers and sisters who are displaced, for refugees leading church communities in extremely challenging situations and for wisdom for our team as we partner with them.”

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DR Congo: help and hope for a desperate nation

Mission partner Martin Gordon, Bishop of Goma, shares that the church is the one institution in DR Congo that people still trust. With a church at the heart of every community, Christians are well placed to offer help and hope to all those who are desperate for relief from the ongoing conflict. Pray for churches to be able to continue to offer hope and practical help.

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Uganda: new health clinic

CMS-Africa partner Seme Peter leads Save Life Christian Ministries (SLCM), a ministry which seeks to transform lives and promote holistic development through spiritual, social and economic empowerment in Uganda, DR Congo and South Sudan. Pray for obstacles to be removed so that Peter and others can establish a community health clinic in one of the villages.

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Try to imagine being a child in eastern DR Congo. Your whole life you’ve lived in the shadow of violence.

Think of the horrors you might have witnessed – armed robbery, murder, sexual assault.

And what if your parents had also never known an extended time of peace, so they had no words of comfort for you?

Who could you talk to? Who could your parents go to, to get help coping with their anxiety, grief or anger? Or would they just have to bottle it up inside?

A beacon of light for broken hearts

In 2013 The Guardian reported that DR Congo was undergoing a “mental health catastrophe” due to millions of people living with the stress of near-constant conflict for decades. Today, there are still only a few dozen trained neuro-psychiatrists in a population of over 65 million people.

In places like Goma, where CMS mission partner Martin Gordon serves as bishop, there are only a handful of mental health professionals for millions of people.

Suicide, addiction and domestic abuse are rampant in a population which has  known only violence for so long.

Enter the church.

Bishop Martin shares that local Christians are at the forefront of recognising the need for psychological and spiritual care if the cycle of violence is ever going to be broken in DRC. He also shares some glimmers of hope gleaned in the past year since the latest outbreak of violence.

On the ground in Goma

An update from Bishop Martin Gordon

The east of Congo has known conflict for nearly 35 years, and we’re still under occupation since the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group seized the city in January 2025. They had been taking over ever greater swathes of land around Goma for almost three years prior to the invasion.

The immediate aftermath of the occupation saw 8,500 deaths, a peak in sexual violence, arbitrary arrests, public beatings and executions, kidnappings and raids on hospitals. We count the number of internally displaced people and the number of children out of school in the hundreds of thousands.

Today, although the banks, the airport, the prison and the courts remain closed, there is now more of a sense of calm. But it is an uneasy calm. Violence can flare up at any moment.

Seeking solace in church

But for us as a diocese there has been some encouragement. The Church is still seen as the one remaining institution that can be trusted and in DRC there’s always a church at the heart of every village and community. 

After Goma fell to the rebels, we saw an increased attendance in several of our parishes. Those who don’t usually come to church came asking for prayer, and those on the fringes started coming more regularly. There is a spiritual hunger.

In the weeks following the fall of the city, through the generosity of Anglicans across the world, we were able to distribute emergency cash to 60 of our clergy, 50 diocesan staff and over 200 school teachers whose salaries were not able to be paid by the central government. And we were able to rebuild or repair eight out of our 109 schools ahead of the start of the academic year. So almost 3,000 pupils can study in better conditions than before.

Thousands turning to Jesus

And in the sadness, in the pain, in the suffering, there are some real signs of hope. Because most of the diocese is under M23 control, it means getting around is easier. We’ve been able to visit parishes that have been inaccessible for the last three years to see how they’re doing and to encourage them. Land purchase and construction are less heavily policed and in the last year we’ve been able to build 16 churches and have bought 22 plots of land for church planting.

In summer 2025, we were able to hold large scale evangelism campaigns in four of our secondary schools in the city, where over 6,000 children heard the gospel and a thousand came to faith and our school chaplains are now busy following them up.

We’re seeing particular fruit in Walikale which is our archdeaconry in the forest, two days away from Goma by motorbike. Here, God has given us an open door for the gospel. We’ve been busy training church leaders, buying land, building schools and a guest house, and planting churches.

Since 2024, the church in Walikale has gone from a handful of struggling groups of believers to 17 churches, each with their own land and church building. Nineteen leaders have already finished two or three years of theological training or are in the process of being trained.

We’ve heard some exciting stories of the power of God breaking into people’s lives through monthly evangelism campaigns in Walikale.

From hate to hope

The bigger picture for us as a diocese and part of our day-to-day calling as a church is to pursue peace and reconciliation in the midst of conflict. For four years, we’ve been working with all faith leaders across the city, issuing joint media statements to change the narrative of hate and suspicion, doing weekly radio broadcasts to millions of people, and organising inter-community cultural and sporting events.

At the heart of our peace work is training religious and community leaders in self transformation. Teaching them to find peace with God and with themselves and then being sent as peacemakers to bring peace and reconciliation to their families, churches, and communities.

Joining hands for peace

After one such peace training focusing on youth, leaders from four different ethnic groups, usually at each other’s throats, took to the stage, joined hands, and gave a public commitment that from now on they would work together to bring healing to the community.

Photo: schoolchildren form an enthusiastic crowd at an evangelism campaign

Mental health mission

Increasingly within this area of self-transformation, we’re focusing on trauma healing for pastors and for leaders. This latest conflict is just another layer on top of previous trauma. We believe that the pastors are much better able to help their own congregations if they themselves have experienced de-traumatisation or found some measure of healing from past trauma.

To date we have trained around 300 young people, women, pastors and evangelists to be able to offer support for others who are traumatised.

Adopted into the family!

I’ll end with a story of healing and reconciliation that has profoundly moved many of us.

Canon John, the Archdeacon of Goma, retired in 2025 after 49 years of ministry and 50 years of marriage.

The first 10 years of marriage were hard as his wife Providence fell ill and they couldn’t have children. Eventually, they did have two children, although they’d always wanted more.

Earlier this year, Canon John was with Mama Providence in a trauma healing seminar. There was another participant called Ansh who gave her testimony around the trauma of never knowing her father.

She was now in her 30s. She had six children, but she spoke of how she missed the father she’d never known. She also told of how her husband had abandoned her. Her tailoring business had been looted in the fighting.

Everyone sympathised with her situation. But Canon John did something different. Touched by her story, he had a whispered conversation with his wife. They approached Ansh to say that they’d always longed for more children and would love to adopt her as their own adult daughter. Ansh readily agreed and immediately took their family name and started calling them mom and dad. Their only son Samuel who was at seminar came forward publicly to embrace and welcome Ansh into the family.

You can imagine the reaction of the other participants. Canon John came to my office the following week to tell me that everyone in the community knew that they now had a new daughter and earlier this year she brought two of her children to the cathedral to be baptised.

Holding on to hope

I want to end simply by thanking you all for your prayers, your interest and your support. Times are still incredibly hard in Goma.

The recent invasion adds one more layer of trauma to more than 30 years of conflict.

And many still struggle to make ends meet.

But amid the suffering, we can testify daily to the faithfulness of God, and we continue to put our trust in him, knowing that he sees our suffering and is always at work.

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DR Congo: renewed violence

Pray for the residents of Goma, DR Congo following recent drone strikes on residential areas and the killing of humanitarian workers. Ask for God’s protection over vulnerable people and pray for the immediate, continuing de-escalation of the conflict between the army and rebel forces. Pray for wisdom for regional leaders, and for the Church and CMS people in mission to be strengthened as it provides trauma relief and essential care for hundreds of people.

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South Sudan: training courses

We give thanks with CMS-Africa and local partner Joseph Noel for the many opportunities to minister in different churches in South Sudan using CMS-Africa tools and resources. As people engage with Financial Freedom for Families (a budgeting and financial stewardship course), Discover, Develop, Deploy (a course which supports young people to unlock their potential and enter the workforce) and women’s empowerment training, pray for God to continue to build his church and equip his people for all good works (2 Timothy 3:17).

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Tanzania: youth work

Lift up young Jesus-followers growing up in Muslim-majority parts of Tanzania. Pray for God to raise up youth leaders who are passionate about inspiring young people to keep following Jesus and who will be good role models. Pray for great friendships to form between young Christians to encourage one another as they learn about Jesus together.

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Born profoundly deaf and with spina bifida, Josephat’s early life in Tanzania was a struggle.

People with disabilities in Tanzania are often considered a mistake, a curse. So, finding employment as a disabled person in Tanzania is virtually impossible. Many are reduced to begging in the streets or are hidden away by embarrassed family members. 

After losing both parents during childhood, Josephat was grudgingly looked after by extended family who made him feel like a burden. Trapped by a lack of opportunity and the belief that he would never be able to support himself, Josephat faced a future of dependency and stigma.

Everything changed for Josephat in 2003 when he became one of the first three trainees at Neema Crafts, a project started by the Anglican Diocese of Ruaha in Iringa. Neema means “grace” in Kiswahili. With help and guidance from pioneering Church Mission Society (CMS) mission partner Susie Hart, the centre was established to provide dignity and employment for people with disabilities. Today Neema has trained and employed over 100 deaf and disabled people. 

From “Hunchback” to “He is Able”

Deaf people in Iringia often use descriptive “sign names”. For years, Josephat was known simply as “Hunchback” due to the severe curvature of his spine caused by spina bifida. However, as his skills flourished at the centre, his peers soon saw a profound transformation.

Josephat became particularly adept at creating the centre’s renowned elephant dung paper, a process that involves boiling and processing elephant waste into high-quality stationery. His expertise eventually led his fellow trainees to officially change his sign name to “He is Able” – a title that reflects his skill. His whole identity and understanding of his worth changed. 

From dependency to dignity

Today, Josephat is a leader. He takes great pride in his work, especially in teaching others papermaking. This professional success has allowed him to earn a stable wage and achieve independence.

Beyond economic empowerment, the community has offered Josephat spiritual and emotional healing. Through the centre’s weekly Bible studies and the support of the local chaplain, Josephat has replaced the cultural stigma of being “cursed” with the understanding that he is loved and valued by God. 

Now comprising a crafts centre, cafe, tourist accommodation and a variety of workshops for making everything from textiles to prosthetic limbs, Neema is a beacon of light, showing the local community how much disabled people can do. 

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DR Congo: peace seminar

Local partner Bisoke Balikenga asks for prayer for a peace seminar taking place at the peace centre he leads in Bunia from 9–14 March. Pray for each person who comes to the seminar to have a powerful encounter with God and be encouraged to work towards unity across different church denominations and for resolution of conflict between people groups.

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