The message below was told by the late Mrs. Elizabeth Mwakasisi (Dr. Mwakasisi’s first wife) on January 1, 2009, on the fifth anniversary of the ministry of Mighty Outreach International.
The following is a true story about my love, my best friend and my husband for over 24 years Dr. Frank Mwakasisi whom God Almighty through the power of the Holy Spirit transformed from his career of over 20 years as a Civil Engineer and for a couple of years as a Professor at Western Michigan University into a formidable and passionate Evangelist who has a deep passion for lost people.
Frank graduated in 1995 from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, with a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering specializing in Structural Engineering (Bridge Engineering) and Earthquake Engineering. He is a son of the late Baptist Pastor Rev. Thompson Mwakasisi who went to be with the Lord in 1991. His mom is Deaconess Tupokigwe Mwakasisi of a Lutheran Church in Tanzania. We moved from West Lafayette, Indiana to Portage, Michigan in July 1995 when Frank got a position as a professor at Western Michigan University and we became members of St Michael Lutheran Church.
My husband who has witnessed a number of Christian revivals back home in Tanzania (East Africa) was a Christian whose walk with the Lord was average at best. However, in October 1996, he started seriously reading the Bible. Since then I could tell something had clicked in his spirit and his interest of things of God started.
Then in October 2003 he attended a two-day conference called “Becoming a Contagious Christian” in Lexington, Kentucky. The conference was sponsored by Willow Creek Association based in South Barrington, Illinois near Chicago. The conference trainers included Mark Mittelberg, Bill Hybels, Rickey Bolden and Lee Strobel. Frank drove by himself to Lexington. When he came back he was a changed man. He shared with me that he had a unique experience, an encounter with the Holy Spirit on his way back. He stopped on his way back to rest after a long drive. While resting, he had a revelation saying, “for over 20 years, you have been a bridge engineer designing and building bridges for driving comfort on highways. Now I want you to continue designing and building bridges to connect souls to myself”. He said the revelation was profound and very humbling.
Initially, I thought he was kidding me, but he assured me it was for real. The message really scared me as I didn’t know what it meant and I could see he was also confused. He started praying about it as what God really wanted him to do. Sometime in December 2003, he told me that God wanted him to surrender everything and get into the ministry to teach people how to share their Christian faith. The message really disturbed me as I wasn’t sure if he was going to get compensated to the tune of what we needed to raise a family of 7 people and meet the financial responsibilities of our extended family back in Tanzania. I could remember the tough discussions we had on this issue. In February 2004 as a volunteer, Frank became the Director of Evangelism and Mission here at St. Michael Lutheran Church.
Frank launched his ministry Mighty Outreach International with a mission to Help Churches Reach More People for Christ offering FREE Seminars to train pastors, church leaders and members of congregations on how to reach unchurched people in their communities, how to equip and train church members to discover how to share their Christian faith, etc. Frank conducts a total of 8 different Evangelism and Church Growth seminars. All seminars are FREE. All he is asking is a free will offering. His services are available to all Christ-centered churches anywhere in the US.
Since his encounter with the Holy Spirit, Frank has not been the same. His engineering career was transformed into a formidable and passionate Evangelist who has a deep passion for lost people. The biblical truths from that conference especially the fact that lost people matter to God were so piercing, recondite and transforming. As He imparted His passion for lost people on Frank, God also revealed the Word to Frank such that he doesn’t struggle at all with anything related to Evangelism or Church Growth.
The Becoming a Contagious Christian conference was about developing a Contagious Faith, Contagious Heart, Contagious Relationships and being empowered to deliver a Contagious Gospel Message of hope to the dark world. The conference was a call for God’s people to have an authentic desire to lead a Contagious Christian Lifein ways the Holy Spirit can use to let lost people know that they matter to God.
As revealed in Luke 15, Frank views Evangelism as an opportunity that God has given us to tell someone outside the family of God whether he is aware of it or not that:
Dr. Mwakasisi is a sought-after national speaker and trainer in areas of Evangelism and Church Growth. His zeal, hunger and thirsty for God is phenomenal and contagious. Dr. Mwakasisi is SOLD OUT to God and has NO PLAN B other than proclaiming the Good News, the Gospel to the dark world, to people outside the family of God. Because of his deep passion for lost people, he decided to offer FREE seminars on Evangelism and Church Growth so that any church in America can afford to have him train their leaders and members of their congregations.
Dr. Mwakasisi believes in the local church being the foundation for the spiritual renewal of our people and our communities as God commands us to go and make disciples of Jesus Christ. He is looking for church leaders who have at least a mustard seed of faith to believe that their churches can become ACTS 2, biblically functioning communities (Acts 2:42-47). Helping churches live out the ACTS 2 vision for the local church is the very premise that Mighty Outreach International was founded. We count it a great honor and unique privilege if we will be of help and support to your church.
