History of Chimala Mission

Since the beginning of the mission work in Tanganyika, which later became Tanzania, great effort has been made to reach the people of this East African country with the gospel.  From the beginning when medicine was handed out of the door of a small metal building, to the present 130-bed hospital, this facility has served to provide medical and spiritual care for the people of the Chimala area. It has been said, “people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Thousands of people, over the years, have learned of the love of God by receiving treatment from our medical facility.

The first known attempt of the church of Christ to enter Tanganyika was in 1948 when Eldred Echols went to Dar es Salaam to obtain permission to enter and preach. However, permission was not granted.  Since Tanganyika citizens could not sell land to foreigners, two farms were found which had been owned by Germans since before World War I.  Some American congregations of churches of Christ bought these so our missionaries could enter the country.  One farm was at Chosi at about 3,500 feet elevation, which they continued to farm. The other land was at Ailsa, which had been a German pig farm, located on the plateau south of Chimala at about 6,000 feet elevation. Here the Tanganyika Bible School was started.  It was later abandoned about 1971.

In the 1950’s it became more and more difficult for American missionaries to enter Tanganyika, but young men were continuing to be trained to become preachers. Soon after Tanganyika acquired its independence from Great Britain in 1961, the government informed the church of Christ that unless some type of benevolent work or social service was started they would have to leave the country.

Due to the remote location of Chimala, which is approximately 450 miles west of Dar es Salaam, a medical facility was the first choice.  The Chimala Mission and Hospital was the first hospital built by members of the churches of Christ.   In an effort to maintain the presence of the church of Christ in Tanzania, Andrew and Claudene Connally founded the Chimala Mission and Hospital in 1962.  The Park Row Church of Christ in Arlington, Texas, purchased a rural hotel with 490 acres at Chimala on the Great North Road from James Cormack.  It was only a dirt road then, and the railroad had not been built. Here the Chimala Mission Hospital was built. The outpatient clinic was opened in April 1964. The hospital was completed in late 1965.

When it opened, the original facilities included a 50-bed hospital and outpatient clinic.  Many of the funds necessary to build the hospital were raised through the efforts of members of the Park Row church.  The hospital has also been sponsored by the Springtown Church of Christ, Springtown, Texas; the Seagoville Church of Christ in Seagoville, Texas; the New York Avenue Church of Christ in Arlington, Texas; and is currently under the Dalraida Church of Christ in Montgomery, Alabama.

Between 1963 and 1971 the church of Christ grew from a handful to about 5,000 members. About 120 churches were established as a direct result of the work in the Chimala area.  Without the hospital, there could have been no foreign Christian missionaries in Tanzania.

The hospital administrator was Wayne Smalling with his wife Flo, who worked as head nurse.  The first physician to work at the hospital was Dr. Jerry Mays. Others who worked in the early days of the hospital included Drs. Ron Huddleston, P. R. Wheeler, and Jim Rackley.  Numerous other medical and non-medical personnel have also worked at the hospital since it first opened.  However, the hospital was without a Christian doctor from the summer of 1972 until Dr. Henry Farrar arrived in the summer of 1979.  Dr. Frank Black has the longest tenure of any American doctor at Chimala Mission. He and his wife Lou Ann and a nurse, Janice Bingham, were there from 1992-1997.

At one time at the Chimala church building, a daily school was conducted. A large school was also located at Ruaha, about 15 miles east of Chimala. There were several smaller schools in outlying villages run by churches of Christ.  By 1980 when the government had taken control of all schools, a preacher could still teach a Bible class at a public school where there was a student of his religion.

About 1974 the government began Ujamaa, which was an order to all citizens to move closer to the main roads. It caused many of the villages to be deserted.  Unfortunately, it destroyed many of the congregations which were located in the bush country.  By 1980 there were less than a dozen congregations in the entire country–certainly a discouragement to our missionaries in Tanzania.

Still in operation, the hospital (now with a 130-bed capacity) includes an outpatient clinic, male ward, female ward, children’s ward, maternity ward, post-natal clinic, eye and dental clinic, isolation ward, family shelter, morgue, storage and laundry areas, dispensary, and housing for visiting missionary families as well as some mission workers. There have been as many as 60,000 patients treated and 3,000 babies born at the hospital per year. Serving them is a health secretary, accountant, chaplain, 7 doctors, nurses, matrons, and other various hospital staff and workers.

In 2004, the New York Ave Church of Christ congregation contacted the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver about the prospects of offering a degree program at Chimala. After a number of positive meetings, the approval was given for the new Chimala Bible College. In October of 2005, the undergraduate program began with the first enrollment of students for CBC. Howell Ferguson served as academic dean and stateside coordinator for the CBC undergraduate program, and Gary Fallis served as academic dean for the graduate program. In about 2011, the name of the preaching school was changed to the Chimala Bible Institute (CBI) when the English and Swahili programs were merged into one program.

In 2017, Bill Stinson (former NYA elder, Chimala administrator, and later stateside coordinator) contacted Howell Ferguson indicating that he was planning to retire and asked if Howell would be willing to become the new stateside coordinator as well as help him find a new overseeing church. After much prayer and thought, Howell accepted the invitation. After contacting a number of congregations, the Dalraida Church of Christ, Montgomery, AL accepted the challenge to become the new overseeing church. Beginning in January 2019, the Dalraida congregation assumed the oversight of the Chimala Mission and Howell became the new stateside coordinator.

Not only did 2019 mark the change to a new overseeing church and stateside coordinator, but there were other changes as well. A new farm program was begun with the assistance of Gage Coldwater of the “Manna Project” in an effort to move the mission closer towards becoming self-supportive. The old Ailsa Farm was enlarged to 450 acres by the government with a new 99-year lease upon the commitment that the mission would develop the land through agriculture.  CBI also saw a change by once again becoming a self-operating preaching school and by returning to the original government-registered name of the Chimala School of Preaching (CSOP).

Besides the Chimala School of Preaching and the Chimala Mission Hospital, other works of the Chimala Mission include the Chimala Mission Primary School with teaching staff and an enrollment of around 500 students; the Herring Christian Secondary School with teaching staff and an enrollment of around 130 students; and an estate of a total of approximately 850 acres of property. The Chimala Mission administrator is Menard Swila. Working with him is a mission foreman, skilled carpenters, electricians, plumbers, automotive and structural mechanics, cooks, cleaners, gardeners, guards, farm supervisor and workers. There are nearly 1,000 people on the Chimala Mission estate at any one time during the week. It is quite a large operation requiring a specific budget to keep the mission running smoothly.

At the beginning of 2020, there were no existing American missionaries residing on the Chimala Mission as Richard and Carol Rogers returned home in Nov 2019 after serving the mission for 3 years. However, there are plans for 2 potential missionary families moving to the mission in 2020 or 2021. One of the families is the son of Howell & Mary Ferguson, Nathan Ferguson and his wife, Kristi and their two young daughters, Eden and Emmy.