ENLIGHTENMENT AND INSPIRATION - Seminar for Soma Biblia workers 2018

23rd-27th of May, we the workers at Soma Biblia met for our annual workers seminar, this year held at Amabilis conference center in Morogoro. Workers from all of Soma Biblias branches in Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Iringa, Mbeya and Mwanza came together. And we were also visited by some special guests from the Tanzanian Bible Society, and Pastor Oswald Ndelwa from Iringa, blessed us with two inspiring Bible lessons. 

There was also room for recreation at the seminar.

One of the purposes for this annual seminar, was to be together and evaluate our work in the past year, to exchange experiences, discuss and share ideas on how to reach even further with the gospel of Jesus Christ. But there was also room for recreation; to play games and to visit various attractions, like the animal reserve in Mikumi, and the Uluguru mountains. Most importantly we had time for sharing and witnessing for eachother, which touched us and encouraged us; even if we are put through tests and trials, we are still on the winning team. 

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Pastor Oswald Ndelwa from Iringa

Pastor Owald Ndelwa taught and reflected together with us over word of God in 2 Cor 5: 11-21, and reconciliation. And how the way reconciliation in our African society is different from that of God, who gave His only son to die in our place for our wrongdoings. This gives us a responsibility; a responsibility to bring people to Jesus, to witness to them, spread the gospel in various ways including spreading the Word of God. 

At the seminar we also had time to share from our daily work; the upsides and the challenges we face in each and every branch. This is a very important exercise, as all can contribute with their views and ideas of how to solve different problems. 

A special tradition was started at the seminar this year: the recognition of the workers who have worked for Soma Biblia for 10, 20 or 30 years. Four workers were this year recognised and given a special certificate and a gift of appreciation. Among the four, were three who have worked for more than 10 years, and one who have worked as long as 30 years with Soma Biblia. This was a real encouragement also for the other staff, as they see that their work is recognized and appreciated. 

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The workers at Soma Biblia Mwanza took the victory and the Soma Biblia cup home!

Every year in the months leading up to the seminar, there is a competition between the branches to wee who are best at distributor of a chosen item or items. This year the competition was on which branch could sell the most books produced by Soma Biblia. The competition was hard, and everyone really did their best, but in the end it was the workers at Soma Biblia Mwanza who took the victory and the Soma Biblia cup home! 

All of this is a motivation for the workers, showing them that their work is not taken for granted, but that they are recognised and appreciated. Praise, honor and glory are to our God, who has enabled us to do all this.

James Sabuni, Editor Soma Biblia

NEWS update from Soma Biblia

New literature

Did you know that Soma Biblia last year sold over 2,2 million Bibles and books? And that Soma Biblia is the third largest distributor of Bibles in Tanzania? In other words: together we build Tanzania, and even better: together we build the kingdom of God. 

The organization Soma Biblia can be found everywhere in Tanzania. We have five branches spread across the country, and to reach even further, we have cars that go out from each branch in order to cover the whole country. A lot of people ask us how we use the surplus from our sales. The answer is simple: we invest it in going to those remote, far-away places where we know there is a thirst for the Word of God, and to places where we do not sell much because of poverty or other reasons, but where we can build relationships and spread the word of God through fellowship. We also use our surplus to invest in making new books, and to make our magazines: RIZIKI (a free magazine for those who work for the church) and Twende (a Christian magazine for children).

The latest RIZIKI (number 2, 2017) is now available. You can read it online by clicking this link: https://issuu.com/riziki/docs/riziki_2_2017

The latest issue of TWENDE is now available at only 500 tsh each. 

Soma Biblia workers seminar

In order to create unity among our branches, and to inspire and create awareness about our work, all Soma Biblia workers gather once a year for a seminar. This year we met at the Amabilis centre in the city of Morogoro. We had a really good seminar, where we among other interesting things had Bible lessons held by Elizabeth Lulu from Mzumbe University, and a session with the Bible Society of Tanzania, who talked about the different translations of the Swahili Bible. In the evenings we had good time to build friendships and play games. And at the end of the seminar, we had a gamedrive through Mikumi national park. 

Mzee Jon Jøssang 10.30.1926-12.30.2016

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of the founder of Scripture Mission, Mzee Jon Jøssang. Mzee Jøssang passed quietly away, 90 years old, with his family around him in Norway on 30th of December.

How do you sum up a life as rich as that of Mzee JJ? The stories about him are endless. He was curious, adventurous and seemingly without fear. He was a true believer in Christ, but not without doubt, and maybe that was what made his preaching so real and trustworthy. He and his wife had the ability of creating great things from what seemingly was dust, which made them perfectly fit for what the Lord had planned for their lives. But there is one trace throughout JJ`s life that really tells us a lot about who he was and why he did the things he did: he was always lead by the question ”how to lead a person to Christ.”

Jon Jøssang, best know as JJ, got at an early age the call to become a missionary. He came to Tanganyika the first time in 1954 as a missionary through the Norwegian Lutheran Mission. Here he worked for many years in Dongobesh and Kansay in Mbulu district. He served, as he puts it himself, as a ”jack of all trades”; construction worker, car mechanic, driver, priest and author. He built schools and churches and was part of the building of Haydom Lutheran Hospital. And then he of course preached on Sundays. He married Kjellaug his first year in Kansay, a warmhearted Norwegian nurse who had grown up in China as a missionary`s daughter. JJ and ”Memsab” (as JJ called his wife) were witnesses to the big happenings in the history of Tanzania: they were present during ”Uhuru”, heard Nyerere speak and saw Tanganyika and Zanzibar become Tanzania.

But the true legacy of Mzee Jossang, began one night he was unable to sleep. He had seen so many Tanzanians being baptized, but he did not have anything in writing to help the baptized continue to learn about their new faith. So together with another Norwegian missionary, Ingebjorg Boe, he developed two pamphlets (”Hubiri Habari Njema” and ”Tufundishe kwa Furaha”) to help evangelists and sundayschool teachers in their work. Now, God`s plan is often a lot bigger than ours, and these two pamphlets would mark the beginning of something far bigger than I think JJ realised. Because an other sleepless night in 1971, as JJ and Kjellaug`s time in Tanzania was coming to an end, JJ heard the name ”VOI”. And one day as he had some business in Moshi, JJ thought it wasn’t that far to Voi, so he crossed the border and entered the small, dusty, Kenyan town of Voi. In Voi, JJ stumbled upon an old, disused sisal farm with a couple of run down buildings. JJ met with the owner and was allowed to rent the place for almost nothing. So after a short period in Norway, JJ and Kjellaug with their two kids, moved to Voi.

In Voi JJ started working with whatever the Lord put on his mind: like teaching the Bible at two secondary schools, and regurarly visiting the Manyani prison and preaching there. Then JJ noticed how buses going to all over East-Africa all had a stop at Voi, and he started handing out tracts at the bus station. 96000 tracts were handed out just like that! And JJ realised the great potential of spreading the gospel through the bus station. But he needed help. No problem! JJ was the kind of person who found workmates everywhere! His only requirement was the same that Barnabas said to Saul the first time they met ”Have you seen Jesus?” Whether people were Anglicans, Baptists or Presbyterians was less important to JJ. The only question was: ”does my colleague have Jesus in his/her heart?” Which of course led him to wonderful people of God, f.ex. Josefu who JJ hired to sell Bibles, books and pamphlets at the bus station from a small table. When the business was running well, they opened a small bookshop.

Also the potential of leading people to Jesus via correspondance was something JJ dived into. He wrote a simple but engaging booklet in Swahili called ”Faith and Life” (Dini na Maisha). This book was made into a Bible correspondence course, and is to date used in Soma Biblias Bible correspondance course and one of Soma Biblias most popular booklets. Also ”Badala ya” (”instead of”)  which in simple words explains how Jesus compensated for our wrongdoings, came to life at Voi and became a popluar book on the market and is still in sale today.

In 1976 JJ finally registered what would become NLM`s literature work in Kenya as ”SCRIPTURE MISSION”. At the office in Nairobi for the registry of mission work, JJ was told that ”It’s a very nice name indeed!” .

JJ`s literature work expanded and more missionaries came. A literature base was created on the NLM compound in Nairobi. Two magazines were founded, RIZIKI for pastors and evangelists, and ”The Brief” for students. RIZIKI is still very much alive today! The work continued to grow, and more effort was put into media, even a radiostation was built in Voi and Wazee Jossang moved the literature office to Wundanyi in Taita Hills. Here they built their house and workplace for many years, called Hebron. A wish for the literature to reach further into East-Africa, made the registration of Scripture Mission Tanzania happen in 1985, with Norwegian missionaries taking JJs work further.

JJ and Kjellaug continued their literature work in Wundanyi up to 1993, when they retired. Although a couple like JJ and Kjellaug cannot leave East-Africa just like that and they continued working for small periods all the way up to 2006 when JJ`s health declined as he was diagnosed with Parkinsons. But also in his last ten years, JJ followed the work of Scripture Mission closely, including the merge of Scripture Mission and Soma Biblia in 2015.

Today, as Bibles, Christian books, booklets, tracts and magazines are everyday spread throughout Tanzania through a Soma Biblia bookcar or a Soma Biblia bookshop, we look back in gratitude at the work JJ started, keeping in mind the number one reason for our work: How can we continue to lead people to Christ?