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By George G. Makala, TANZANIA
As a child, I was fascinated by pictures of Jesus. They usually showed Him with children or a lamb in His arms. No one told me about Him, but I just used to look at Him and love Him.
My grandparents had been Lutheran pastors, so my family were members of the Lutheran Church. However, they stopped going to church except for Christmas and Easter. I was the only one who went all the time. Although the denomination encourages the people to have a spiritual conversion, my family did not have the born-again experience. Perhaps church and Sunday school were a place of freedom for me. I am the eldest of five children and my mother, a primary school teacher, was overly strict with me. She always wanted me in the school where she was teaching, so she could keep an eye on me. Mother said that too much freedom spoiled children, so I wasn’t allowed to play with the neighborhood children. She wanted me to be home reading and studying; a whipping awaited me when I went out to play in her absence.
I looked forward to Sundays because I loved Sunday school and became very active in it. All my teachers loved me. I went through catechism and confirmation when I was about 13 or 14.
Often the church held spiritual meetings with guest speakers. Through them I realized I was a sinner and that without being born again, I would not go to heaven. I wanted to go to heaven, but I loved to be with my friends and loved disco and music very much. I learned a Western dance and became one of the best dancers.
A number of us young people attended crusades held by the Assembly of God Church. At the end of the service when an invitation was given to receive Christ as Savior I would say, “Lord, I know I need to be born again. Help me to accept You some day.”
Sometimes at a disco this thought would come to me, If Jesus came back now, you and your friends would all be left behind. Coming home after a whole night of dancing, I had a feeling of emptiness. I didn’t know what it was, so I would pray, “Oh God, help me one day to accept You.”
Up to this time, I had taken my home life for granted. We had never lacked for food or clothing. Father, an engineer who had trained in India and Germany, had a good position with the Ministry of Water and Energy in Dar Es Salaam. For some reason he and my mother were constantly quarreling. After drinking with their friends, my father would be abusive. One day after a bitter quarrel, my father got into his car and left us.
It was a very sad time for us children. At first he would return now and then with a little money for us children. But Mother would go out and use the money to buy drink. So we went to school without breakfast and lunch. For the first time in our lives we went without food and clothing.
When I was in Form Two in Secondary School, I suddenly fell sick. I thought I had malaria, so I went home, took some medicine and felt better. Then a week later I was sick again. Sometimes I would be well in the morning and seriously ill at night. This went on and on. I knew it wasn’t AIDS as I had not been involved with any girls. The doctors gave me all kinds of medicines and vitamins, but the sickness continued. I finally quit telling my teacher I was going home sick, so she wrote on my report card that I was a truant and skipped classes. My grades dropped badly.
When home sick, I slept or read my Bible. Mother thought I was bewitched so she took me several times to a friend of hers who was a witch doctor. I was prescribed medicines and given charms for my pocket. I hated to carry these, but my mother said I had to do it. However, none of this helped me. I was so skinny that my friends thought I was going to die. I was so afraid.
At home I continued to sleep and read my Bible. When I finished the Gospels I read through Acts. As I read, an understanding began to come to me. Through my illness, all the things that kept me from saying yes to the Lord were removed. I couldn’t have a good time with my friends; I couldn’t go to the disco. I thought, What good will my music and my friends do me? I’m going to die.
I remember praying these words: “Lord, please help me. The method You have chosen to help me accept You is terribly painful. Will You find another way?” But the illness continued. At times I would be numb with freezing cold and other times I had a raging fever. I had lost all joy of living.
One night just after midnight an overwhelming presence came over me. I felt so sorry for my sins. I started crying, “I am so sorry, Lord. I have been refusing You. I have been saying NO to You.” I cried for almost three hours non-stop. I prayed, “Lord, let this feeling stay on to help me accept You tomorrow. This will be my strength to accept You.”
The next morning I dressed in my uniform and went to school. I looked for the born-again brothers and told them I wanted to receive Jesus. They hadn’t seen anyone wanting to accept Christ without being preached to, so they asked, “Are you serious?”
That day we had Religion Class at school. I went to the class of the born-again students. They told me to kneel down as they surrounded me. They shared with me some verses from the Bible: “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (Jn. 1:12). “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth you confess and are saved” (Rom. 10:9,10). Then they led me in a prayer of repentance. The presence of the Lord was strong in our midst. I cried and cried. What a release I felt. I knew in my heart that I was born-again and that my name was written in the book in Heaven. The crying continued for several weeks.
The brothers who had prayed for me gave me a book to read concerning the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Three weeks later we met again. They had asked me to fast that day. After sharing Scripture verses that show the Holy Spirit at work in the hearts and lives of believers, they laid hands on me and prayed. A heavy anointing came upon me and I began to pray in an unknown prayer language.
My sickness began to leave gradually and after three weeks it was completely gone. I was so taken up with spiritual things that I hadn’t noticed I was well. I began regaining strength and weight.
Through the Christian Union meetings, I realized there was a calling on my life. Surely there was nothing better in life than serving the Lord.
I had lost a year of school, so I began trying to catch up. Chemistry, biology and physics were too hard to make up, so I put all my time into the rest of the studies to prepare for the fourth year national exams. The three D’s in the subjects I could not make up meant I could not go on to high school and university. I asked to study mechanical engineering, but the Lord did not provide the funds.
Then in a very providential way I met a Tanzanian lady who lived in Kenya. She told my friend and me about an organization called Youth With A Mission (YWAM). She called them on our behalf and we got admission to their Discipleship Training School. The Lord provided the funds for that. After completing the course, we went on to enroll in their School of Biblical Studies. YWAM decided to disband their base in Kenya, so we had to leave.
A Korean worker sponsored us to attend another Bible College. But there were problems. My friend became envious of me and accused me of doing something very terrible. We were both suspended. The man who sponsored us believed the lie and I had to return to Tanzania.
I shared the incident with my pastor, but he couldn’t believe me for some reason. The Bible College wrote to him that they did not accuse me, but that my friend did. They asked the pastor to investigate the situation.
He wrote to the college that he was leaving it to their discernment and told me to wait until my accuser came. But he never came. I felt like my world had come to an end.
One day an American worker came to pray with me and encourage me. She gave me some materials to read and directed me to a pastor who counseled and directed me. The Lord lifted me up and began to heal me.
Eventually the college discovered who was in the wrong, and they sent me new forms and a letter asking me to find a new sponsor so I could finish my studies. But I had lost my appetite for Bible College. The experience had been too traumatic.
A year later the Korean realized the truth and he came to Dar Es Salaam to find me. He knelt before me and repented. I forgave him and we cried together. It was a release for me. The man pleaded with me to let him sponsor me again, but I told him that I was studying computers and no longer wanted to be in the ministry. I continued in my job and served the Lord as an assistant pastor until the Lord spoke to me about going abroad.
About this time I met a friend who obtained a scholarship for me to attend the Institute Of Ministry (IOM) in the U.S.A. After the course, I planned to go to a university to complete my computer studies. However, the experience I had at IOM was revolutionary. The Lord spoke to me saying, “You don’t have to hang on to what happened to you. I have a greater plan for you.” He began to reveal Himself to me and filled me with His power, strength and His anointing fire. Then He spoke to me saying, “Go back to Tanzania and preach there. I will use you in many places in the world, but I want you to begin at home.”
I now pastor Dar Es Salaam Chapel. The Lord told me not to invite believers but to find people who are not born again. He said He would use me to heal the bruised and broken. We have just a small congregation, but the Lord is working in many ways. The people who come have deep needs for God’s love and His healing in their lives.
I now see that the difficulties of my childhood and the trials and testings in my Christian life prepared me for the ministry God has chosen for me. God uses all things for good—even suffering.
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