I was born in Christian God fearing family in 1949. My father worked in a remote village in a Lutheran church in the 1940s and 1950s; and later in the 1960s as an evangelist preacher until he was laid to rest 6 years ago, at the age of 99.8 yrs. We were therefore brought up in a strict and controlled Christian environment.
1972: At Moshi Secondary School, Kilimanjaro Tanzania
I had just reported to this Moshi Secondary school as a science teacher to begin my teaching career fresh from college in my early twenties. It seems this is the very year that the Message of the hour came to Tanzania.
I went for my undergraduate studies at the University of Dar es salaam in 1975 and graduated in 1978, and posted to teach in a High School. When I graduated that same month, I got married to a young lovely Christian girl: Eliaremisa Urio originating from my same home region, Arusha.
When God blessed us with a son in 1979, we called him Innocent, Elinami [Elinami means GOD WITH ME], but never took him for baptism until later at the age of three when my father forced to baptize him. I remember the child crying, wiping off the water sprinkled on his head, when on the other hand the pastor and the elders where complaining that the resistance was the result of letting the child grow up to the extent, now of fighting the pastors. Our son believed the message years later.
By 1982, we had got tired of going to our denominational church, where there were many offerings given every Sunday, and we just left the service spiritually hungry as we had entered. We didn’t know much but we slowly stopped going to church.
We believed the Message of the hour in 1982 after a Brother called Kaviche testified the Message to me and my house. We believed and I, wife and two relative sisters living with us got baptized that Easter, and had a real blessing company of a believer fellow teacher, Brother Mbwana who supplied me with Message books. We worshiped together until this brother was called to serve The Lord as our Tanzania Swahili translator for VOG and moved to Moshi, Kilimanjaro.
After believing the message, we received kind of automatic and immediate separation from some family members and friends, to date. My father who had always expected me to become a Lutheran Pastor was very disappointed and even got sick when he received the NEWS! Our relations to some friends and relatives either ended or were never the same since then.
In 1992, I changed career after completing my post graduate at the University Of Dar es Salaam. I was relocated to a Research Institute, and assigned to research on, and improve the Post-harvest Food Storage System and prepare packages for farmers. This I did before I retired from government service.
In all the years from 1992 I was also ministering to a little Church in Arusha called Kwapole, where we lived, and was also the VGR Lending Library representative.
In 2012, twenty years after I had joined the research Institute and retired, I received a call to work for Voice of God in Tanzania, from January 2012. This time it was a different kind of Storage system: Spiritual Food Storage of the Voice of God. I then called for a family meeting and informed them about the call and my re-locating to Dar. This was indeed unexpected NEWS to their ears but after allowing it to sink in their hearts for some time they all said,” LET HIS WILL BE DONE! ” My wife was then working with the government under the Ministry of Education as a District Education officer. She decided to get early retirement and this became ANOTHER UNEXPECTED NEWS to all of her office workers! By God’ grace she was permitted miraculously and left immediately to assist me in our new home and office.
I thank God for giving me and my wife Elly this opportunity to serve Him in our old age. We can recall that rainy morning of 2nd April, 2012 as we departed from our little home in Arusha for Dar es Salaam, leaving behind our son and two daughters (with tears in their eyes) to stay without us. It was their first time to stay alone without us. We thank God they have ever been safe in HIS Hands and have grown fast in the sense of responsibility and independence. God Has taken care of them daily. He is OMNIPRESENT, the same yesterday, today and forever. Blessed be His Precious Name, His faithful servants and His Kingdom.
Continuous prayers of Saints mean so much to the office here.
MY SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE
2012: At VGR Tanzania office, Dar es Salaam
Twenty years from the time I was assigned to build up post harvest storage system for farmers at my former Institute, I found myself in a different kind of Storage system: Spiritual Food Storage of the Voice of God who spoke to me in 1972 when I started to work for the government; I did not know about this Voice and obey the call. Today the Voice has spoken, calling me to come to establish an office for an already prepared Spiritual Food Package, for distribution not to farmers as such, but this time it is for His Bride in Tanzania. I thank God for the grace and opportunity He has given me and my wife to serve Him.