Karagwe Visit

Last week, I returned to Karagwe in the north west of Tanzania with Barry Farr and Conrad Schoombee of Cornerstone Church in Johannesburg; to visit and encourage our friends in the local churches from the area. We spent two days travelling and two and a half days teaching - a pretty poor ratio, but given that we were redeemed from having to take the overnight ferry (11 hrs) at the last minute we were pretty happy with the situation! Precision Air who previously flew over Lake Victoria have withdrawn from the route and local charter operator Auric Air fortunately stepped up to the plate - albeit a good deal more pricey!

Some of the leaders from Karagwe saying farewell on our last night. (Back:) Andrew, Conrad, Barry, Jonathan, Mama, Phineas; (Front:) Kezia, Heavenlight, Appollos, Ezekiel.


We had an incredible time with the local leaders who were so hungry for teaching that we had three hour sessions in the morning followed by another two hours in the afternoon. As we expounded on justification by faith and living under grace instead of the law, people were like dry land drinking in the rain. As the revelation of grace came to people's hearts you could sense the weight of years of legalism lifting to be replaced by a freedom and gratitude.

We listened to people's testimonies of how they came to Christ and so many through miracles of healing. One young man told us of how at a certain time every month, he would start to bleed from his nose and ears for days. One day, one of the pastors also present was preaching from Matthew chapter 4 verse 23:

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

As the pastor preached, he felt faith come into his heart and he gave his life to the Lord. He was immediately delivered from the bleeding and it has never again returned. He later found out that his grandmother who lived in Rwanda used to sacrifice blood every month to demonic spirits, his bleeding started from the time that she died and as eldest in his family the demand for blood from these spirits fell on him. As he gave his life to the Lord Jesus he was delivered from the curse and its effects.




The small wooden structure where the smaller children attend creche.





We also visited the orphan project initiated by mama Mulokosi and gave donations of clothing and linen collected in the church. This humble lady, wife of Jonathan Mulokosi was literally overwhelmed by the small gift of "hand-me-downs" for the children. Last year we sent two boxes of clothes and toys for the children, many of which were in evidence when we visited. In an area that experiences one of the highest HIV infection rates in Tanzania, the number of orphans is constantly increasing. Last year when we visited there were 30 orphans in the project and this year there were 46. Mama Mulokosi has started a creche for the smaller children which is taught by a lady who was an orphan herself and the older ones go to primary school.




Mama and Jonathan Mulokosi