About Our Church
A vibrant community of believers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, dedicated to growing in faith and serving with love.
1,425
Members
35
Groups & choirs
1,413
Baptised
1973 to today
This congregation began in a family's sitting room, moved to a borrowed classroom, was locked out of it on an election day, built itself a church in twenty-eight days, and was told years later that the road needed the ground it stood on. What follows is drawn from the parish's own written history.
Mbezi and Louis were joined and registered as Mbezi Luis. The Nigula family began gathering Christians of several denominations to pray in their home, the first worship this place knew.
Professor Hossea Kayumbo's family settled beside Mbezi Primary School and opened their home for worship. The whole of Mbezi Luis was still bush, and fewer than eighty thousand people lived here.
Thirteen families came together. Mrs Loice Kayumbo obtained permission for them to worship in a Standard Six classroom at Mbezi Primary School. Four leaders were sent to find a mother parish and walked from Kimara to Ubungo to Tumbi, where Rev. Mfinanga received them. The youth choir was founded the same year, rehearsing under the trees at Makondeko.
The parish fellowship began carrying the gospel out to Luguruni, Mpigi Magohe, Msakuzi, Kibesa, Neema and Kwembe. They bought Evangelist Emmanuel Frank a bicycle so he could reach them. Those journeys became the sub-parishes the parish still keeps today.
On election Sunday the congregation arrived to find the classroom locked and all gatherings forbidden at a polling station. They said the Lord's Prayer outside, gave their offering, and went home. Within weeks a tent stood beside the foundation, roofed with iron sheets donated by Wariaeli Kaaya, and a church seating three hundred was built in twenty-eight days.
Summarised from Historia ya Usharika wa Mbezi Luis, 1973 to 2021, written by the parish history committee under Dr Josephat Saria and published in March 2021.
Our Mission
To make disciples of Jesus Christ who love God, love people, and serve the world.
Our Mission
We love God and serve others with Christ's compassion.
We gather to worship God in spirit and truth.
We build authentic relationships in faith.
Senior Pastor
The twelfth pastor to serve Mbezi Luis, leading the parish since 2020.
Rev. Godlisten Sebastian Nkya is the Senior Pastor of Mbezi Luis Lutheran Church, the congregation known as Mlima wa Matumaini, the Mountain of Hope. He leads a parish of more than fourteen hundred members in the Eastern and Coastal Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania.
He came to Mbezi Luis after years leading the parish at Ubungo, where his ministry is remembered for a decision that tells you what kind of leader he is. In 2017 a wall the parish had built stood on land belonging to Ubungo Plaza Primary School, blocking eight classrooms the school needed. Rather than defend the boundary, he went to the table with the municipal director, and the parish handed over one of its own buildings to serve the school. He gave the reason plainly: the church exists to see lasting educational development in Tanzania.
At Mbezi Luis he founded Sifa Langoni, the praise service held on the third Sunday of every month, and established Salem Radio, the congregation's own station, so that worship, teaching and prayer reach members wherever they are.
Those who have served
Twelve pastors have served this congregation, from the days when one came monthly from Muhimbili to a classroom of thirteen families.
Came from Muhimbili once a month for pastoral services, while Mbezi Luis was still a mtaa of Tumbi parish.
Also head of the Western District. Mbezi Luis was raised from a sub-parish to a full parish during his term, and the partnership with Kreuztal began.
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The parish entered a partnership with Kreuztal in Siegen, Germany, that has held ever since. A tree was planted to mark it on ground where nothing else had grown, and the two parishes have visited, preached and built together in the years since.
The nursery school opened with twenty-five children and grew past fifty by 2007. It turned no child away over the faith of their family, and it remains one of the parish's clearest marks on this neighbourhood.
TANROADS gave notice that the church stood inside the Morogoro Road reserve and would be demolished for the widening. The compensation offered was three million shillings. The parish began again, buying land and laying a new foundation.
The pastor's house was completed and work began on the church that stands today. Families took a window each to build as their own, and the foundation stone was laid by Bishop Dr Alex Malasusa.
Rev. Godlisten Sebastian Nkya became senior pastor, the twelfth to serve this congregation since 1984. The following year the parish published this history, the first written account of its own life.
Served through the demolition notice from TANROADS and the building of the present church.
