Joseph Singletary Ministries: KITONGA VILLAGE

We traveled far out of Mwanza to a church under the umbrella of The Pentecostal Church of Mwanza. The church is located in the Kitonga Village. In Tanzania, 80 percent of the population are people living in villages. Villages that have clay houses, with grass roofs, no electricity, no running water. The people are uneducated, they have no means of transportation. They grow their own vegetables and raise cattle and goats for meat to feed their families. As we turned off the main highway onto a narrow lane, not what I would consider a road, we drove for what seemed miles and miles of ditch and bumps. On either side of us were fields of dirt and occasionally you would see a cow, or in the distance you could see someone walking. Far in the distance were rock mountains. Finally we turned to the left, no road, so how in the world Moses knew this was the place I have no idea!

We drove for another mile or maybe two and we began to hear voices singing. As we reached the village you could see the roofs of houses. The houses are made of clay, some with a piece of tin in the doorway, and some without doors completely. They are sparsely scattered on the property. When the people saw our vehicle, children came running toward us. As we stepped out of the vehicle, a little girl in a purple dress grabbed my hand. She must have been about 3 years old. Eddie was welcomed immediately by a little boy. You would have thought that we were long lost relatives and they had been waiting for us for a long time. The little girl walked with me hand in hand as we visited the village homes and then began playing with the other children. Eddie's little buddy, however, did not leave his side the entire day! This child was determined that he was going to soak up all the anointing he could! It was the most incredible thing you can imagine. He would stand between Eddie's legs while he was sitting, at times going to sleep with his head rested on his leg. When Eddie walked out to preach, he still had hold of his hand, so Eddie took him with him to begin his message.

There were hundreds of people that had walked to this village crusade. Not within our eyesight did we see enough houses to account for the people. Everywhere you looked, you saw people that had come to see and hear the Man of God from America. They were sitting under trees, sitting on the mountain rocks, standing in the distance close enough they could hear. The churches had made special preparations for this day, which is such an

honor for us. The dancers had matching shirts, which meant that they had to make a trip into town at some point. Town is a long, long way from this village, I promise you. You probably wonder the same thing I did about their clothes. Where do they get them? Most of the clothes that you see on these precious people, are worn, torn & obviously ones they have had for a very long time. It is a fact that the clothes you see them wearing are more than likely ones they have been wearing every day for the past year. One of the elders of the village will go into town once a year and purchase clothing and other items that may be of use to them. Yes, it is very hard to grasp and imagine this lifestyle. But it is a lifestyle that they are comfortable with and the only lifestyle they know.

There were three churches that had come to the crusade and all had choirs that prepared their songs and dance to honor us and to honor the Lord. It was so touching and very entertaining to watch them as they danced and sang. What amazing talents they have and what a shame that this talent is only seen within their boundaries. The background music was played using a generator. Once our church bus arrived, the singers were able to sing with the background of the keyboard, drums and guitars. Many songs were sung without music, and the harmony of the voices is absolutely overwhelming. This is truly what the scripture is talking about when it says that "God inhabits the praises of his people".

Eddie began his message to these Kitonga Village people, as he continued to hold the hand of the little boy, that to seek Jesus we must become as a little child. This is a message that we all can learn from. The faces of the people were focused and listening to every word as though they were accepting and believing it was directly for each one individually. Occasionally you would hear a yell or clapping of hands, and a heavenly "Amena". As he preached, the little boy was close by, never stepping far from his new found friend. At the end of the message, an altar call was given for those that did not know Jesus, but wanted to accept Him as their personal Savior. Several came forward and stood with their backs to the crowd, waiting for the Man of God to anoint them, lay hands on them, and pray the prayer of faith with them. One young man standing in line, wearing a white shirt and black pants, holding his hands toward the heavens as Eddie walked toward him, had his eyes tightly closed. Soon after Eddie touched his forehead, he fell to the ground. The young man began to show manifestations of demon possession as he lay on the ground. After a few minutes of this spiritual confrontation, Eddie had declared to the demon that "I am tired of dealing with you!, depart". At this time, the young man went limp on the ground, Eddie and Moses helped him stand, and he raised his hands high to the heavens and began weeping with joy and accepted Jesus as his personal Savior! I have come to believe that the Word of God is as true and real today as it was 2000 years go. We tend to read about the demon possessed in the Bible, but want to think that was then and only then. This is far from the truth. What I witnessed on this day was real, it was not an act, it was not planned. Jesus clearly states in Mark 16:17 & 18, that these are signs that will follow them that believe. I am a believer, are you?

People that were sick in their body were asked to come forward for prayer. I would say that probably one fourth of the people came walking forward and stood in line waiting. One scripture that I claim and stand on daily is "the prayer of faith shall save the sick!" Eddie motioned for me to come beside him as he prayed for the people. Tears were flowing as we walked to each person, anointed them and prayed for their healing. Many people would collapse and others would receive the prayer of healing as they were anointed. We never know what the Holy Spirit will do and what manifestation will take place, but we do know that He is who He says He is, and He will do what He says He will do. It is an awesome experience to be used by the Lord in this way. The last person standing in line was a young mother, holding a baby boy in her arms. He was wrapped in a piece of cloth that was tied around her neck to securely hold him. He burned with fever, suffering with Malaria. Tears were in her eyes as she begged for prayer for her precious child. Eddie anointed the baby with oil, and I took him in my arms as we prayed. As we were praying, the baby raised his head, looked in my eyes and turned his head looking for his mother. She began to weep as I handed the baby boy to her and she hugged me and Eddie saying "Asante! Bwana Asifiwe!". We do not walk away in HOPES that this child is healed, we walk away believing that he IS healed in the name of Jesus!!!! All I can tell you is that he now felt cool and certainly was now alert!

Dishes drying

After the ending prayer, as the singers sang and danced, and Eddie and I were gathering our things to leave, Moses informed us that the women of the village had prepared food for us. It was getting late in the afternoon, and we were certainly not expecting this. They motioned for us to step inside a clay brick building behind us. As we pushed back the cloth covered doorway, they had prepared a small table, one that we would consider a "coffee table", with chairs around it. We sat down as we watched the women carrying buckets into the room. I am sitting there wondering how were we going to eat what they have prepared. Okay, God, it's up to You right now to make this happen without obviously incident. The Pastor and his wife came to sit beside us. They were so proud to be able to serve us this food that they had no doubt spent most of the day preparing. My mind is racing about now. There is no running water, and the water they do have we have no idea where it came from. And I just took a picture of the dishes they use and how they dry them. Each one of us was served this huge bowl of rice . On the table they placed two bowls. One was filled with what appeared to be boiled chicken in a red sauce. The other bowl was unidentifiable to me. Moses leaned over and said "Janise, this is goat" GOAT? As in billy? "Have you ever had goat?" That would be a definite "no"! Everyone is sitting very close at this little table, so there is no way I am going to get by without them watching every move my spoon makes. Eddie is looking at me and just smiles. We are "one" you know, and he knows exactly what is going through my mind and is waiting to see how I handle this! First of all, let us pray! God bless this food and our stomachs! I took a piece of the goat and placed it in my bowl and slowly brought it to my mouth. All I can tell you now is that I have tried goat once in my life. By this time it is getting dark, thank God, because it is hard for them to see what we are eating. The only thing that you could see was the white rice, Eddie and me. We were getting ready to go because Moses had plainly told us that mosquitoes in Kitonga Village were the biggest ones he had ever seen, and the mosquitoes come out at dark! We started getting up to prompt Moses and he caught on and motioned for the others to stop eating so we could go. Moses told us as we were driving away, that he appreciated that we ate the food they had prepared because it blessed the people for us to share a meal with them.

This was truly another blessing for us to have an opportunity to visit the village people. We leave here, as we have many other places we have visited, asking ourselves what can we do to make a difference?