A Call to Separation Re-emphasized

Brother Kimimino Muzanas of Ifakara Ecclesia and I were among the thousand or so teachers who were selected to mark O-level English examinations at Marangu Teachers’ College near the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro in the north of Tanzania. The task was so demanding that even the magnificent view of the snow-capped peak of the giant of Africa lying near the equator went unnoticed for all of the 30-plus days we stayed there. But one thing will never leave my memory. And that was the few hours we were granted each Sunday morning for everyone to go to his or her house of prayer to worship.

None of the thousand had ever heard of the Christadelphians! They kept wondering why we should not join other Christians in the many buildings of prayer scattered all over the college’s compound.

Here we had the privilege of introducing our faith to the few who cared to listen. Many just ignored us. “God has no time with just a few who do not enter His usual houses of worship,” some commented, referring to the R.C., Seventh Day Adventists, Moravians and Pentecostals among the many Christian sects abounding in Tanzania.

Bro Kimimino and I knew that after our baptism, we were called to be separate: to be holy and never to contaminate our clear understanding of the Bible teaching with the teachings of man. So while others sang loudly stifling our meek singing thus letting it go unnoticed to those around us, we were sure that the One to whom our singing was intended, heard every word we uttered. After all, why should we worry after His plain promise that whenever two or three of you gather in my name, I will be in the midst of you?

Bro Justin Mwakasege (Ipinda, Tanzania)