Dear Friends and Family,

As most of you know, I was blessed with the opportunity to go to Rwanda, Tanzania, and Burundi for a two-month summer internship with EFM, for more training and experience. I was part of a small team of others my age who are also exploring and preparing to serve as career missionaries in the future. EFM missionaries, Brad and Chelsea Carpenter, were my supervisors and mentors.

This internship took place in June and July 2025 and included:

• 1 Week: The EFM Future Missionary Retreat in Colorado. (Last week of May)
• 5 Weeks: Time in Rwanda including:
  • Culture bonding and language learning
  • Home stays with Rwandan families
  • Exposure/training in whole-life discipleship and its success in EFC-Rwanda
  • Learning about the lifestyle of the missionary family on the field
• 10 Days: Immersion into the dorms and student experience at the East Africa School of Missions in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. (EFM calls it the missions training “boot camp.”)
• 2 Weeks: Time in Burundi; joining a student short-term missions team coming from Mid America Yearly Meeting
  • Engaging with the church at Burundi youth camp and other opportunities
  • Learning about the Burundi Friends Church history and the great example of their multiplication movement.
• For more information click here.

The most valuable part of this internship, for me, was to be able to see one example of what it looks like to be missionaries on the field. I had read many books about being a missionary, but being part of the Carpenters’ daily life gave me more confidence in being able to live as a missionary myself.

My next steps will include the Ecuador  Luke 10 Prayer Trip happening in October, and a year-long internship in Ecuador, as soon as the funds, visa, and other logistics allow.

I want to thank you guys for supporting me so well. I have been so blessed by all of your prayer. I know that so many people were praying for me when I broke my leg and now are praying for my discernment process as well as my upcoming steps, and I am so grateful. Prayer will continue to be so necessary!

I also want to thank you for your generous financial support. I had everything I needed for my internship. God is so good!

Thank you,
Grace Anderson

Please consider supporting my prayer trip and internship in Ecuador. I will need monthly recurring financial partners to get me through the one-year internship. You can partner with me by:

• Online: Visit the Field Intern donation page by clicking the button below. Once there, scroll down to find my name and select your gift amount. You’ll have the opportunity to indicate whether you are giving monthly or as a one-time gift.
• Credit Card: This may be given online (as stated above) or by calling the EFM office (303) 421-8100 to give your information to a live person.
• Automatic Bank Transfer: Download the form here and email it to Debby McElroy (EFM Bookkeeper) at debby@friendsmission.com. Please note that ACH payments are processed on the 10th or 25th of the month.
• Check: Mail a check to EFM, P.O. Box 771139, Wichita, KS 67277. Please mark your check “Erik Nilsen Field Internship Support” and note if you will be giving on a recurring basis (monthly, quarterly, etc.). Pay to the order of “EFM.”

The post Grace Anderson | September 2025 Update first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Ten exploration teams made trips to ten different destinations and peoples between April 2022 and March 2023. These trips were the first wave of exploration in discerning potential new fields for EFM to launch as part of EFM’s Five-Year Goal. It was determined that eight of those destinations require a second trip for further, deeper, exploration, plus as of July 2023 plans are being made by FSW to start a new work among unreached people groups in Cambodia and surrounding areas. Further exploration will help EFM to begin making decisions about where to make commitments in November 2023 to send North American households to launch new fields. See more information here.

The following is a report written by a member of the team, Matt Macy.

This team is made up of representatives from Burundi Friends and the U.S., including: Pastor Domitien Sabongerwa (Burundi Friends Church Missions Liaison), Pastor Fidele Bizimana (General Superintendent of Kwibuka Yearly Meeting – Burundi Friends Church), Pastor Daniel Nkuriye (Kwibuka Yearly Meeting – Burundi Friends Church), Salomon Ntibaharire (Kibimba Yearly Meeting – Burundi Friends Church), Pastor Aaron Mupenda (General Superintendent and Legal Representative of EFC-Rwanda), Brad Carpenter (EFM Missionary), Brendan Steinacher (EFC-MAYM), Matt Macy (EFM Director of Mobilization), Nathan Macy (Future Missionary from EFC-MAYM), and Todd Brown (EFC-MAYM).

The team met in Dar es Salaam on September 17 and started the trip with a day at the East Africa School of Missions on September 18. We are interested in this African one-year training school for Burundian, Rwandan, and American future missionary training to prepare for going to the unreached peoples. Some of our team arrived directly from the second South Sudan Luke 10 Exploration Trip.  Two Luke 10 South Sudan team members joined us at the school: Aaron Mupenda (EFC-Rwanda Superintendent and EFC-Africa Director) and Todd Brown (EFC-MAYM).

Then those on the Tanzania exploration team traveled to Ngerengere from September 19-22. The first Luke 10 Exploration Trip to Tanzania last year, visited this city and visited graduates from the training school who are working as missionaries among unreached peoples in the region, including with the Kutu and Zaramo people. The team felt that the Ngerengere area was promising and decided that the second Luke 10 trip should focus more time here. The team split into three groups to explore the town and even visited villages nearby based on contacts we made. On the 22nd, on the way back to Dar es Salaam, the team followed a tip from a Massai village near Ngerengere to visit an unchurched village called Boyi, which turned out to be a promising lead for potential church planting.

The remainder of the trip was spent in Dar es Salaam in times of prayer and discussion for discernment on next steps.

Visit to Missionary Training School.  Our day at the East Africa School of Missions in Dar es Salaam was inspiring and unifying. We observed classroom teaching in Swahili and English and toured the small campus. We were challenged and impressed by missiological discussions led by the school’s Director, Samwel Kengela. We had seen the fruit of the school’s training when we visited several graduates of the school serving among unreached people in the field last year on the first Trip. This, along with hearing Samwel’s experience in planting churches among the unreached, gave us increasing confidence in the school. The school has trained just over 100 African students since 2015, in an April-March calendar year, which includes a three-month group field experience at the end. The school uses seasoned teachers and practitioners from all over the world to make one- or two-week visits to the school to fulfill all of the school’s courses.

Samwel helped our team further understand what it would take to prepare our missionary team to go to the unreached. Also, our understanding of each other’s mission-sending framework expanded as we continued to discuss the idea of sending missionaries together with Friends in Burundi and Rwanda. We see the need for missionary training among both the goers and the senders. Plus, we love the idea of US missionaries getting training alongside African missionaries in Africa.

  Time in Ngerengere. We split into three groups to explore this town. We met many people who were friendly, open to talking about their families and customs, and also many who were interested in showing us their homes.

• We were surprised initially, based on last year’s visit, how many people here identified as church-attending Christians. But we also learned that many of these churchgoers did not understand the gospel or how to follow Jesus. We also learned that the Muslim or Christian identity was often more about a family or community cultural identity than about a personal, active practicing faith.
• We learned consistently that in this town, Muslims and Christians live in peace with each other (they report that the village is generally different in this regard, and we saw this last year). We were told several times that a new church would be welcome here, as long as it did not bring division among the religions and groups that were established.
• We talked to several people who didn’t recognize any difference between Muslim and Christian. One team talked to a man who visited both Muslim and Catholic churches and saw no difference except that shoes had to come off to enter the Muslim church. We also met people who were Muslim and married to a Christian. But we also met some Christians who knew and could clearly explain the difference.
• We heard of villages further away from town that don’t have local access to the gospel or have any church. We met a man and heard of other people who travel quite a distance from villages to attend church occasionally.
• We had several groups of people, especially in villages, invite us to come back and start churches. We felt warm hospitality and welcome, and a hunger for spiritual and physical development.
• We kept hearing from everyone that access to water is a big need in this area, both for human consumption and for cattle.

• We are honored and excited about opportunities for partnering with Burundian Friends to learn together how to develop a multi-national missionary team. We would like to see EFM continue to work with EFC-Burundi in developing a missions-sending framework.  We are praying for EFC-Burundi as they continue to strengthen and organize their missions-sending vision and capacity.
• The Burundians are eager to begin evangelism and church planting and inspire us all to go. Nathan Macy, a future missionary on this team, is expressing desire to go. We all see opportunities for whole-life discipleship and development.
• Research shows a vast number of villages, towns, and peoples in the greater area who are unreached.
• Ngerengere is a place that needs the gospel, and it makes an excellent hub logistically for getting established and developing an equipping and sending strategy in the area.
• Missionary training and a common language for missions strategy amongst Burundian and American missionary teams, as well as among senders, will be a key part of developing an effective missions-sending framework.

We look forward to sharing more news as it becomes available about what we are finding and discerning in EFM’s Luke 10 Initiative.

The post Report from the Second Luke 10 Exploration Trip to Tanzania first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

This next trip to Tanzania is taking place between September 17-25! This team is made up of representatives from Burundi Friends and the U.S., including: Pastor Domitien Sabongerwa (Burundi Friends Church Missions Liaison), Pastor Fidele Bizimana (General Superintendent of Kwibuka Yearly Meeting – Burundi Friends Church), Pastor Daniel Nkuriye (Kwibuka Yearly Meeting – Burundi Friends Church), Salomon Ntibaharire (Kibimba Yearly Meeting – Burundi Friends Church), Pastor Aaron Mupenda (General Superintendent and Legal Representative of EFC-Rwanda), Brad Carpenter (EFM Missionary), Brendan Steinacher (EFC-MAYM), Matt Macy (EFM Director of Mobilization), Nathan Macy (Future Missionary from EFC-MAYM), and Todd Brown (EFC-MAYM).

Matt Macy and Brad Carpenter provided these insights into this trip to Tanzania. The team will fly into Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and plan to visit several villages in the area west and south of Dar es Salaam

On September 18, they will visit the East Africa School of Missions in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The purpose is to explore the idea of future missionaries from Burundi, Rwanda, and the U.S. being trained there before being sent to their new mission fields. After this day, Todd Brown and Aaron Mupenda will return to their homes.

Then, from September 19-24, the team will revisit Ngerengere town and from there will visit surrounding villages to seek insights into where God is at work and where he might lead Burundi Friends to start their mission work.

Another aspect of this trip will be to gain more insights that will be a part of how EFM discerns whether or not God is leading EFM to send missionaries to Tanzania or if EFM will simply partner with EFC-Burundi as they start their mission in Tanzania.

The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to cast out more workers into his fields.

Matt Macy

Director of Mobilization

To learn more about how you can join these trips or if you are interested in exploring missionary service, visit here.

The post Pray for the Second Luke 10 Exploration Trip to Tanzania! first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

This was taken on our first full day in Tanzania. We visited the family Pastor Domitien did his practicum with 22 years before and heard about the work they were doing. In that time, they had grown from about 50 churches to about 600 ministering to a number of different people groups! (Pastor Domitien With The Family He Did His Practicum With)

After visiting that family in Mlandizi, we stayed in a pretty guest house in Mlandizi. This was taken there the following morning as we prepared to go to the villages.

The missionaries in the first village we visited had an amazing story of sacrifice. The wife had really been put to the test by one of the local people groups before they would accept her. Both her and her husband are seeing people come to Jesus, but because of the circumstances, are meeting with them in secret.

The next day, we visited another missionary and his family. He shared an amazing story of how God had healed him from diabetes when nothing else worked and how he became a follower of Jesus as a result. He also shared about a woman in the village where he now works as a missionary. God healed her of a tumor, she began following Jesus, and now she is a powerful witness and evangelist to her village about Jesus.

The following day we visited two missionaries. The first was pastoring a church in a very remote place, and we were honored to be able to visit and by the way they received us. Most of the people in the church are transplants and not from that part of Tanzania. It is a very difficult place to reach the local people, and there is still much to be done there.

Afterwards, we had the chance to pray with the missionary over the site of a new church building.

After we left that congregation, we met with the other missionary on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam. He has seen 36 of the Zaramo come to Jesus who make up most of one of the local churches. He shared how there’s openness among the Zaramo where he’s working, and we were so overjoyed to hear that. (Meeting With The Missionary In Masaki)

Our last full day in Tanzania, we met with the director of the East Africa School of Mission in Dar es Salaam, the school all of the above missionaries had gone through. We were very encouraged to hear about how this school is training missionaries with excellence before they go out to wherever God is calling them. (Meeting With The Director Of EASM)

This little old lady by her house had a tumor by her heart and she had gone to the witch doctors for healing for a long time with no help. Couldn’t afford medical attention beyond diagnosis. The Christians met her and started praying for her and soon she was healed. She was their first disciple in the village. She immediately began running around the village telling everyone and she is the primary reason that they now have 30 who have excepted Jesus. And of course they were also using their prayer ministry with all of these people as she was announcing her healing. The lady’s family destroyed her house because they were so disgusted and angry and shamed that she decided to follow Jesus. So the pastor and a couple of the new believers built this little mud house for her and have not yet been able to get the grass roof on top of it. We already knew her story before we met her but when we came to her she immediately started talking 100 mph telling us her story of healing and how good Jesus is as if we could understand her language

The post Luke 10 Exploration Trip: Tanzania Stories first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

The following is a report which Thomas Moore, serving for one-year as a short-term missionary in Central Africa, helped prepare.

The team was comprised of:

• Domitien Sabongerwa (Team Leader and EFC-Burundi Missions Coordinator)
• Brad Carpenter (Team Co-Leader and EFM Missionary to Central Africa)
• Fidele Bizimana (Kwibuka Yearly Meeting, Burundi, General Superintendent)
• Thayne Thompson (EFC-MAYM General Superintendent)
• Salomon Ntibaharire (Burundi Friends representative and Swahili translator)
• Thomas Moore (EFM short-term missionary in Central Africa)
• Matt Macy (EFM Director of Mobilization)

We flew from Bujumbura to Dar es Salaam, then from there visited eight communities among the Kutu and Zaramo people groups. The primary contacts that we made on this trip were through the East Africa School of Missions in Dar es Salaam. This gave us the opportunity to learn about receptivity to the Good News among these people groups and hear stories of successes and challenges for pioneering new churches in their communities. It didn’t work out to make connection with FUM-Africa church planters on this trip, but EFC-Africa and Burundi Friends have open communication with FUM-Africa and have had several other visits with FUM-Tanzania, and we look forward to following Burundi Friends’ lead in further learning and interaction with FUM.

The Kutu people in Tanzania are two-three% Christian with 77% connected to Islam faith. The Zaramo people are also two-three% Christian with 95% connected to Islam. Both are considered unreached peoples. Each of the specific places we visited already has a church planter/missionary from another people group in Tanzania working there. However, each of these church planters affirmed that there are many villages near them that don’t have any churches or planters working there. Throughout the trip, we repeatedly heard that both peoples are Muslim in name, but in reality still very much follow the traditional spiritism religions that their ancestors followed.

Praying over the site for a new church building in Dar

Meeting with a missionary in Masaki

• We joined Domitien in reconnecting with a multiplying family of Tanzanian led churches in Mlandazi, where Domitien had completed a practicum during his missions training from South Africa 22 years ago. We were encouraged to learn that this family of churches has multiplied from about 50 churches when Domitien was with them, to a reported 600 today. They have some work among the Zaramo and affirmed that much more work was needed among these people.
• We visited the East Africa School of Missions in Dar es Salaam. We were impressed with this small school, which opened in 2015. They effectively train African missionaries in a one year intensive, from April start to March graduation. They have had 94 students graduate from the school, and 47 of them are now serving as missionary/church planter/disciple makers among unreached peoples. This year, they have 16 students with a capacity of 28 per year.
• The following are some of the sites we visited where Tanzanian missionary-church planters came from other people groups to reach these unreached peoples, after graduating from the East Africa School of Missions:
  • We visited a young couple in Nyambogo who came to work with the Kutu people. After three years of hard work, they have 12 who have decided to follow Jesus, and they do much of their discipleship work after dark for security reasons. She helps support their ministry and disciple others through a sewing business.
  • In Kidunda we visited Muslim background believer who came to this village as a farmer with his family in order to make disciples among the Kutu. After three months, he began to pray with people who needed physical healing, and saw Jesus heal several who had not found healing with the witch doctors. We met one elderly woman who had been healed by Jesus of a tumor in her chest, and despite her family tearing down her house for becoming a Christian, she had become one of the church’s primary evangelists. They now have 30 gathering at his home as part of the church. Some of these families have experienced significant persecution.
  • We visited a village deep in the bush named Dar where a young church was started to reach the Zaramo people. The congregation has mostly grown from other people groups moving into the area for agriculture who are more open to the Gospel, but two Zaramo have accepted Christ and joined the church. We had the opportunity to interview a Zaramo non-believer about his culture and worldview.
  • We visited another Tanzanian who has worked among the Zaramo since 2018 in the town of Masaki, where six churches already existed but there was one Zaramo church member amongst that group of churches. He has seen 40 persons accept Christ through their church and his ministry, and 36 of these are Zaramo. He testified that the Zaramo are willing to listen and are showing openness to the Gospel, but the church in general is not focused on reaching this people group.
• The team had exposure to other cities, such as Kisangire, where insights were gained that could help an EFC mission strategy develop.

Above: The woman who had been healed of a tumor in her chest.

Top: Congregation in Dar Bottom: Talking with the director of East Africa School of Missions

The team wants to express a big thanks to those who provided generous financial support from both Burundi and the U.S. for the costs of this trip. The team also praises the Lord for the vehicle and driver that the Lord provided for the long trips into difficult places in “the bush,” and how despite the challenges the driver and vehicle had mechanically and the condition of the roads, paths, and thorn bushes, we completed the trip with no problems. Above all, the team is grateful to God that we saw exactly what we needed to see and learn on this trip!

We look forward to sharing more news as it becomes available about what we are finding and discerning in EFM’s Luke 10 Initiative as we continue to explore where EFM may launch new mission fields.

Matt Macy
Director of Mobilization

The post A Report from the Luke 10 Exploration Trip to Tanzania first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.