Pastor Gervase Masanja...
is the founder and general overseer of Pentecostal Missionary Church, and also Gospel Literature Distribution. He has planted a number of churches in 15 regions of Tanzania. He has 12 years of evangelistic experience, as well as a college degree, and continuing studies with African Ministries Network School of Leadership. His skills include literature translation.

For many years, evangelists have preached to people in the country's capital and a few prominent towns. In remote villages and rural areas, thousands and thousands of reached people have an unquenched thirst for the Word of God. These are the ones they are reaching!"



Praising the Lord outdoors!




Tanzania is an African nation of over 33 million people. It is located on the east coast of Africa, on the Indian Ocean. It is 15% Christian, 32% Muslim, and over 53% traditional ethnic religions.

Beyond these facts lies a more complex story that demands urgent response. Tanzania remains one of the poorest nations in the world - the average income is about $1 per day! The country is also plagued with the spread of AIDS, especially among those between 15 - 30.



crowds coming forward for prayer


While Tanzania has been spiritually responsive, and many won to Christ, the lack of teaching materials and Bibles, coupled with high rates of illiteracy, leave an open door to Muslim influence. Christians are ignorant of Islam's beliefs, and unable to defend their own!


Pastor Gervase Masanja's family.

Clarifying Currencies:
Tanzania's money is called Tanzanian Shillings. However, figures given here are converted to American or US Dollars. For the sake of perspective, here are the amounts mentioned on this page in several other well-known currencies. Keep in mind that world currencies are always in motion up or down, so you are wise to look these figures up on a currency web site such as www.xe.com (you may have to drill down to more advanced search features to find Tanzanian Shillings).

Currency Conversions at www.xe.com
$7,000 USA/month= 8,729,000.00 TZS (price of current church property).

78,000 Tanzanian shillings = $62.55 US
or $71.09 Cdn,
or 33.69 GBP, (for pastor's home).

69,575,000.00 TZS = $55,000US for Mission Head Office.
or $61,774.Cdn,
or 29,250 GBP

To get Container out of Customs...
$3000 US =3,795,000 TZS,
or $3,369Cdn
or1,595.GBP

children waiting in plastic chairs to learn


Worshipers



Believers at prayer.



a crowd of children needing to know Jesus loves them.



map of Tanzania.

For more research about Tanzania try the official Government site


Tanzania is a land of contrasts and majesty, Africa at its most wild and unexplored. There is the snow-capped summit of Mount Kilimanjaro and the sun-kissed beaches of Zanzibar, the vast herds of game grazing on the Serengeti plains and the slow volcanic eruption of Ol Donyo Lengai. With so much natural wealth, it's no wonder that Tanzania has something for everyone.



animals carved out of Tanzania's fine hardwoods sought after by tourists.


Pentecostal Missionary Church Ministries website has more about this unique church and Pastor Gervase.

Behind every successful organization, whether business or mission for God, there is usually one key leader who has the vision and determination to bring about certain goals. In correspondence with Pastor Gervase Martin Masanja, of the Dar-es-Salaam Pentecostal Missionary Church in Tanzania, Africa, we are discovering him to be such a man. He has a lot of projects on the go, and is not ashamed to beg help for the cause of Christ!

Our challenge here is to profile this man, his church and special mission, Gospel Literature Distribution (GoLD), and the their great need of help from others who will give them support and encouragement and the right kind of gifts.

Meet Pastor Gervase M. Masanja

He came to know Jesus personally in 1986, in the Assemblies of God Church, and was called by God to be a Literature Evangelist. It has become his passion. In 1998 he planted a new church, Pentecostal Missionary Church, and is now pastor of 100 members, with other branch churches starting up in more rural areas around them, where many have come to Christ through his ministry. His title is National PMC - Overseer.

Gervase is married to Mariam, and they have three children, plus two orphans and three other dependents in their home.

Get to Know . . .
    The Pentecostal Missionary Church

* Reaching rural villages and un-reached peoples with the gospel of Jesus Christ
* Discipling new converts with sound, Biblical doctrines through native pastors and literature distribution
* Planting churches and equipping the saints to reach their neighbors and stand strong for Jesus Christ.

The Pentecostal Missionary Church is located at Maili Moja Kibaha about 3O Km (Morogoro road highway) from the Tanzania city centre, Dar Es salaam. Kibaha is a District in the Coast region too. Kibaha is at present facing a great revival of the Gospel because historically this muslim area previously knew nothing about Jesus Christ until in I973 when the first Pastor from Assemblies of God who started preaching, planted a church at Kibaha.

Over the last ten to twenty years, many denominations came to this area to plant churches. It is still difficult for the residents to accept Jesus, but as people from other parts of Tanzania come to work or travel through this area, the gospel is taking hold.

Because KIbaha is outside the Tanzania City centre, it has not been visited by big name preachers, and spiritual inroads are slow. Poverty is a strong factor. Moslems tend to horde all educational facilities for their own people. Children of Christians cannot get registered in those schools.

However, Pastor Gervase Masanja has a plan for his Pentecostal Missionary Church to start Christian nursery schools, primary and high schools, adult education centers, life skills centers, and Bible schools. He would like to start orphans centers too, and plant more churches while working to help Christians become as self-sufficient as possible.

This church used to meet in a tent, extended with timbers and tarps. Heavy rains caused the timbers to rot. Friends donated fresh timbers and metal sheets for roofing, which they gratefully put in place as shown.






They are paying $20 (US) monthly rent, but the owner has offered that they may purchase the property for $7000 (US) before December 31, 2006. This place is also used for the offices of the Gospel Literature Distribution (GoLD) mission, a nursery school, and a school of ministry, besides the Pastor's office, and the place of worship.





The congregation cannot afford this purchase sum. Church members are poor. Those that have jobs only make about $1 US a day. They are also concerned about an opportunity to purchase the pastor's home. (Obviously, God will need some volunteers to do miracle here!)

We rejoice to announce that God HAS raised up volunteers who have pledged to raise the money for the property. The people of the congregation were praying their hearts out at the end of the year, and early in January, a woman impressed of God to help churches in Tanzania, found Pastor Gervase's web site and used the form to write and ask how she and her husband could help. They are from the southern USA.

Catch the Vision... for a Mission Head Office

Pastor Gervase Maaenja has already begun Gospel Literature Distribution (GoLD) and is eager to distribute tracts as wisely and prudently, but as generously as he can. Since the people cannot afford a Bible, they were gladly receive even a single folded sheet of paper with a gospel message on it. Every piece of paper is treasured! People come almost daily to beg for tracts or New Testaments.

He is able to get a box/package of 5000 tracts from his denomination's head office for $20 but that is an enormous expense for him. When he has such a box he doles out the tracts carefully by rural regions so they may be distributed evenly. $100 reaches 2,500 people with truth from God's Word!

Is it any wonder then, that he dreams of large-scale help from aboard to purchase a larger plot of land, and build a church to seat 300, and a head office from which to operate not only the literature distribution, but a number of other ministries too?

This Ministry Head Office is to be a central place for the Church, and the Literature Distribution, storage for quantities of literature, a nursery school, and training spaces for ministry, skills and additional small buildings to hire out for small businesses - hoping to provide employment for their poorer church members.

November 2007 Update

During this year, 2007, funds have come in to purchase the church building and property which they had been renting and were even threatened to be evicted. The last amount of money for this purchase is expected to arrive this month.

But Pastor Gervase and his people now have a goal to renovate the five extra rooms in that building the landlord had been renting out to business men. They intend to offer training their poor people so they may find good employment. The courses they are thinking of offering are - tailoring, secretarial services, and computer courses. They will, course charge some money. It is hoped that will cover the expenses. The other four rooms - once they are renovated - they want to rent out to local businesses. This will bring in an income for the church too. However, they are hoping for help with this initial make-over expense. Are you able to help out?

There is always so much need in Tanzania! But every little bit can help.

Their current six month budget may look like a wish list for the moon and far away stars. It includes things like; furniture, office equipment, (especially for the secretarial services courses), transportation, public address systems, printing of tracts and gospel literature, and the fees to get the container loads of gifts that come from other countries out of customs.

[NOTE: We at Generosity-Alive! recommend contacting Pastor Gervase and asking questions until you are satisifed about these projects and God's will for you to be involved. Better still would be, if you could visit and assess the needs for yourself. Unfortunately, we cannot make these assessment visits for you].

Gospel Literature Distribution

Tanzanians have been spiritually responsive,but there is grave concern among church leaders. Although they are reaching the lost, winning them to Christ and baptizing them, the new converts are not being discipled. This leaves the new converts vulnerable to the efforts of Muslim proselytizing. Believers in Tanzania need to be firmly grounded in God's Word in order to reach their country for Christ and stand against the growing shadow of Islam.

The answer is getting the Word of God into the hands of native pastors and believers in Tanzania. Shipments of Christian literature and Bibles have a great impact.Pastor Gervase reports, "I have so many letters requesting booklets... There is a great need of Scripture because many people cannot purchase even a New Testament... the daily income for one person is $1.00! Now when they get these booklets free, they wonder and thank God for this miracle."

Financial support for Gospel Literature Distribution is greatly desired. This would include books and Bibles for the Discipleship Lending Library, the printing of books and tracts in Swahili, and funds to sponsor native pastors and evangelists and their families. Of course, faithful prayer support is essential too, to make all these things possible.

URGENT! Get a Container Load of Gifts OUT of Customs

Pastor Gervase doesn't have a computer at home, but has been using one in an Internet Cafe to network and make connections around the world. Through these efforts a group of Christians in Canada have prepared a 20 foot Container, filled with Bibles, Christian books, tracts, bicycles, sewing machines, and computers both for evangelism campaigns, and to train the poor to be self-reliant in supporting themselves.

This container was sent off to them by ship on September 19, 2006, and arrived in Tanzania the first week of November. The donors were kind enough to pay for the shipping that far.

But when it arrived, Pastor Gervase and his people were expected to pay the $3000 in customs fees to avoid demurrage, warehousing and storage charges. They had all the paperwork ready, but were worried that they will not be able to receive this great gift right away.

Here too, prayers have been answered! Funds were sent from an earlier contact Pastor Gervase made, and came in time to get that container out of customs. Praise the Lord! However, he tells us that another shipment of 200 typewriters is on the way, and he urges us to continue to pray for more funds to receive them. Of course, if you can be an answer to these prayers, he would like to hear from you too!

Pastors' Training for Ministry

This church has seen some serious problems with putting people in charge of new church plants who had no training. When they ran into problems they dropped out as failures, sometimes collapsing a struggling church at the same time. So Pastor Gervase Masanja and his congregation would like to start a school to train pastors for the ministry. This too is an urgent need, but help is needed to get this off the ground.

Pastor Gervase assures us that this is a fast growing ministry, and those that choose to partner with them by providing funds and by praying for them, are planting good seed that will bear much fruit and that one day, the Lord Jesus will call you "Blessed."

We would like to add that entrepreneurs who know how to organize, and run small businesses,could go there, and find plenty of employees, and an opportunity to minister simply by starting one or more businesses. We've learned that Tanzania is well-known for its hardwoods, which are turned into lovely carvings by the gifted local people. That implies a world export business potential.

You might also consider making a trip to discover for yourself the resources and opportunities for businesses and services run in Tanzania. If you are going, contact Pastor Gervase ahead of time to find out what kind of gifts you could bring in your luggage. No doubt he would be happy to show you around and introduce you to many people that would be great contacts for you.

If you feel called of God to teach and train pastors, administer schools, publish Christian literature, drive and maintain buses, or whatever... there is likely seven as easily as one place for you! Simply setting up a small business and hiring people would be a huge help! Or if you are able, to offer micro-loads to the nationals who are eager to become self-reliant, if only they can have that initial boost. They have many ideas for micro-businesses.

Think it over. Pray about it. Make a decision!

Making Contact

Generosity-Alive recommends that you do your own due diligent research. Please use this form for your initial correspondence with Pastor Gervase Masanja. He will be more than happy to answer your questions and give directions for sending funds as the Lord prompts. (Western Union is recommended, or a direct bank transfer).