GINA HELMS
President
SHEILA MAKINDARA
Organizational Development Director
The journey began when Gina Helms was introduced to different cultures and faiths during her university studies. Those experiences were seeds which grew and eventually led her to full-time work overseas in Tanzanian in 2007. Today she is an active mobilizer for a variety of ministry and community development projects with a focus on unreached areas known as Unreached People Groups (UPGs). Gina is from Fort Mill, SC. Her home church is the Fort Mill Church of God and her sending church is New Life Church, Virginia Beach.
She is a software developer by trade with a B.S. and. M.S. in Computer Science. As a result of her shift to full-time ministry, Gina also completed a M.A. in Biblical Studies with a concentration in interpretation as well as a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min) degree. Her doctoral research explored how the perception of Christianity is formed in unreached people groups, specifically the Sonjo tribe.
The purpose of the research was to better understand why it has taken so long to take the gospel to the whole world as Jesus said to do. We know the places waiting to receive the gospel may be difficult to reach, and they may be resistant to the gospel. But there could be other barriers due to the way we present the gospel. The research focused on that aspect to inform us on how to do evangelism more effectively.
Gina is also a certified personal coach and coach trainer and simply loves helping a person, a village, or a nation move closer towards thriving and flourishing as God intends people, communities, and nations to do. Her life message and mandate is John 10:10, "The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come to give life and life more abundantly." Her purpose is to align with this verse, to go after uncontested darkness, and release the light of God's love, truth, and power in proclamation and demonstration.
Gina's heart is to build a Tanzanian dream team to carry on and expand this vision. She is excited and hopeful about the potential of this growing team!
Operations Manager
Sheila is a management professional with over 20 years of experience in administration, organization development and management of charitable organizations. Before joining Prism, Sheila was working with the United Nation's World Food Program in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, where she was heading a livelihoods program for 20,000 women in host communities affected by refugee crises. Prior to that, Sheila worked for 8 years as Country Director for Childreach Tanzania, a non-profit in Moshi working to improve children's access to and quality of education, sanitation and child rights. During her time at Childreach, she grew the organization at many levels, from reaching less than 10 schools in 2010, to over 100 schools in 3 regions of Tanzania in 8 years’ time. She received numerous awards, some personal and others for the organization. In 2014, under her leadership, the organization received the prestigious Stars Impact Award, which was handed to her by President Bill Clinton in London, for being a well-managed local organization contributing to improved education for children in Tanzania.
Sheila was also one of 500 African young leaders to receive the competitive Mandela Washington Fellowship award, under President Obama's Young African Leaders' Initiative in 2015, which allowed her to spend 6 weeks in the USA at Arizona State University, where she underwent tailor made leadership training, got an opportunity to share about her work in Tanzania, networked with other civil society leaders from Africa and the US, and was mentored to become a change maker back in Tanzania.
Sheila works in other voluntary roles within Moshi, including offering human resources and general management consultancy services to small organizations, mentoring young people in career and leadership development, serving as the secretary for the Tanzania Assemblies of God Kilimanjaro Western District projects department, giving inspirational talks for youths in schools and colleges, and serving the body of Christ through Christian ministry including teaching and preaching the word in churches, schools and office settings.
We are excited to have Sheila's strength on our team. We believe it is a convergence time where her leadership skills are helping us steward our call more effectively and take all of our operations to another level.
CHRISTOPHER PETER
Project Manager
MATHIAS MSANGI
Mr. Msangi is responsible for overseeing all ministry efforts, hosting teams, expanding our outreach, as well as overseeing all property management matters, and providing critical cross-cultural understanding for all our efforts. His is especially talented with music, sound systems, and singing. A teacher by profession, Mathias has spent many years of his career teaching in primary schools. He is also known as a choir master, and loves to spend his time formulating and mentoring youth choir groups. He and his wife have a special additional calling to children’s ministry. His family runs New Generation Camp which provides children from different districts in Kilimanjaro and Arusha region with an opportunity to stay at a facility for two days, learn the word of God, be ministered to in prayer, receive counseling and on-going support as they mature in their Christian walk with the Lord Jesus.
He has been married to his wife Esther for about 25 years now, and they have four children, Victor, El Shaddai, Shalom, and Jane. Mathias is from the Maasai pastoralist tribe which is well known for their high jumps and love of meat. His wife Esther is Chagga, originally from Kilimanjaro region.
Mr. Msangi is a very rare find. Trustworthy in all matters, wise, mature, considerate, servant-minded, faithful, respected, and full of abounding energy like you would not believe.
It is beyond exciting to have Christopher Peter Mushi join our team as Project Manager. Chris, who was supported through our Tanzania Education Advocates (TEA) program since 2017, graduated from Wenzhou University in China, in 2021, with an undergraduate degree in Biotechnology.
While at Wenzhou Chris received recognition as a best performing student in academics. He also served as President of the student government representative council, and also President of the Tanzanian Student's Association in Wenzhou China (WETASA). He was actively involved in cross-cultural events across his province as a speaker, organizer, and contributor.
Chris has now joined our local team in Tanzania as Project Manager, leading our two community development projects, Safe Water and Public Health projects. He has begun strengthening relationships with local government stakeholders and has forged new relationships for smoother implementation of our ongoing community development initiatives. We can count on him and he delivers.
We are excited about the amazing young man he has become. We are proud to see what God has done for him and in him, and we are honored to have our former project beneficiary as our new Project Manager and colleague!