“Every mission team boards our boat expecting to help someone else. None of them expects the journey to change them.“
Before sunrise, sleeping bags, tents, Bibles, food, and supplies are loaded aboard our forty-foot boat. Captain Harold and his assistant, Shukuru, have made this trip across Lake Tanganyika for years. Every journey begins with the same excitement.
No one ever knows what God has planned miles down the lake.
As we stepped off the boat, hundreds of children greeted us with songs and dancing. Waiting with them was Pastor Mpipi, a Hope of the Nations Bible College graduate who had planted the church in Mkuyu. He welcomed us with a smile and a hug, but behind the celebration, he knew his village was carrying a heavy burden.
As we unloaded the supplies and set up tents on the beach, I noticed something unusual. The children laughed and sang, but many of the adults looked weary and discouraged. I wondered if I was imagining it and pushed the thought aside as we settled into our home away from home.
The team split up into groups. Some went door to door, and others devoted to kids ministry started playing games on the beach. Sand and colored construction paper filled the air. Hundreds of Kids surrounded us even before the last tent spike struck the ground; however, the adults sat and waited. What little food they had was gone. Some of the women said they had not eaten in days.
That night we sat around the campfire eating dinner.
No one said much. Finally someone spoke the question every one of us was thinking.
How can we eat when they have nothing?
Something was going on behind the scenes, and I wanted to know what. On my knees. A group of us gathered to pray, and that’s when the real story erupted.
We soon learned that a group of men had convinced the villagers they could remove a curse—but only if they were paid with chickens, vegetables, and whatever food the families had left.
Someone had driven a stake into the ground near the primary school, which supposedly was the reason why students were not passing the National Exams. If anyone were to take the stake out of the ground, they would die.
Satan always speaks the language of fear and death. Jesus speaks life.
The entire village believed the curse was true.
It was time to open God’s Word and teach what it says about the power believers have in Christ.
The next morning, up early, the team and staff prayed over the land and the stake. We also prayed for someone to have the courage to pull the stake out of the ground.
People came with questions. They came carrying fear. As Scripture was opened, we could see hope beginning to replace fear. Many heard the Gospel for the first time. Seeds of faith were planted while our nurse cared for those with medical needs and the team shared the food we had brought.
On the five-hour sail home, Harold felt the Holy Spirit bring to mind how we could help this village. The team had prayed and came up with ideas on how to get funds to feed them and fishing supplies.
Every year, HOFN purchases ten tons of rice and six tons of beans to feed the Bible College and Primary School for one school year. We decided to take a portion of the rice and beans and distribute them to the leaders to bag and give out to people in the village! Yes, we needed the food for our schools, but we trusted God to provide.
Before the team had to travel home, they helped set up the food onto the boat. Tears of joy filled all of our eyes. The team would go home knowing they were a part of a much bigger story.
Today
Mkuyu is a village we visit often. The rice and beans helped feed the families to be able to start over. Then something happened no one expected. After we left, a drunk man pulled the stake out of the ground. He is still alive. The church is growing, and teams still visit.
The most recent team shared door to door, and over thirty people surrendered to Jesus and were baptized! Every visit, people are choosing to follow Jesus Christ as Lord. The little Hope of the Nations church is growing beyond its walls.
Because a team came to serve, a village was fed physically and spiritually.
Many of those team members have returned to Mkuyu. It’s no longer just another village on the map.
It’s part of their story now. Maybe God is inviting your church to become part of someone else’s story.