My name is Pastor Joseph Almasi Irunde, a native of Singida province, Singida district, Mtinko county of Kijota, Tanzania. I was born in 1969 .raised in a family pf Islamic faith and my name was then Mohamed Almasi Irunde. I lived in that belief of devotions / devils for a long time. Unfortunately my father died when I was still a little child. After my father's death,my mother was not able to raise all the family on her own. All the children left by my deceased father were nine (9) children.Despite all these challenges that i was facing, my mother became seriously ill by being possessed and harassed by evil spirits until she got mentally insane.

Several attempts to treat her failed and thus the family decided that she was to be taken to Mirembe Hospital, Dodoma region ,Tanzania where she would be admitted for over two years (2). This completely destabilized my family .And when I started primary school in 1981 in Jota primary school in the same province that i mentioned above,I studied in a very difficult, disappointing and hopeless environment, but that didn't stop me from working hard until I finished my primary school studies in 1987.

Despite the will to study ,I could not continue with secondary education for lack of financial support although I was willing to pursue my education further .After failing to continue with my studies, and seeing the conditions of our home keep deteriorating and the poverty level gathering pace, I decided to find a way to make some money so that I could also help my sick mother and the family in general. In the process of searching for solutions to reach my goals,I met some people who were running their activities through dark powers and convinced me that I would succeed if I agreed to cooperate with them and go to traditional healers.

And since my Islamic religion did not prevent me from interacting with witchcraft, so I did not find it a problem as I was told that God says that "HELP YOURSELF FIRST AND I WILL HELP YOU". On the basis of Islamic religion, we were taught to worship one God (1) Allah, to honor his Prophet Muhammad, and to respect dark spirits as our brothers according to the Quran. This false belief led me to so much suffering from various diseases and being haunted by demons, and the whole situation led me to seek help from traditional healers for many years without success. Bad spirits were cursed on me and I eventually became lame for seven(7) years.

By not knowing that traditional healers are agents of the devil and Lucifer himself.I went to seek help from them yet they are the great sorcerers who mislead people from knowing their true " God (Jehovah)" ,the merciful ,generous one to whom belongs true help for his people.I sought help in every part of our country Tanzania without success. I was given more than one hundred and eleven (111) demons for protection against witches, to bring me wealth and success by these witch doctors, yet it was a great lie.

The rules and restrictions that were given to me are as follows:

1. I was forbidden to open my eyes from the morning when the sun rises up to 7 in the evening.
2. I was not allowed to sleep inside my house in the night and I had to sit on a stone without clothes until morning.
3. I was ordered to go to the cemetery and stay there as per requirements.
4. Sometimes they ordered me to go out in the bush far away from people.
5. I was prevented from communicating with anyone until i was granted permission to do so.

6. They did not allow me to eat any kind of food apart from vegetables

I was very tired of this life of so much suffering that I lost the desire to continue living and thought it was better to die rather than continuing to live this way.

My salvation and knowing Jesus Christ

When I was in great distress and despair, one day I heard a preacher who was preaching in our street saying:Jesus is coming, he saves, heals and pulls people out of their troubles even though you have suffered from illness for many years and suffered from sins,if you accept him in your life he will heal you, save you completely and deliver you from your sufferings.

After listening for a long time, the sermons touched my heart and I began to think about it. Since I was paralyzed I was not able to walk to the street,so I sent someone to call a minister to come and talk to me personally so that i could tell him about my problems. When he came I shared with him my troubles and told him how I needed help from him and he gave me instructions and promised me to return to me after a short while.

And following his promise there came the pastor and I had the opportunity to talk to him in detail.When the pastor listened to me and understood me, he advised that all  equipment I was given by traditional healers should be burnt and that I repent of all my sins.

And the materials given to me by traditional healers are as follows:

1. 111 demons
2. Magical stick
3. Various herbs
4. Sheets used in the graveyard
5. Various magical rings and bangles.

We agreed with the pastor to come the next day so that I could have enough time to collect all the materials.When he came  the next day along with his other partners they found me ready to burn them and we burnt them all. The demons inside me were very furious and began to threaten to kill me. The following day When the pastor returned to visit me I told him about the threats because I needed assurance about my safety. And he gave me the assurance that I would not suffer any harm because Jesus would defend and fight for me.

After this brief discussion they prayed and some demons came out of me and i felt very light,free and delivered. They continued to worship at my home consecutively until I was completely healed. .

My life after being saved

After I was saved I faced a lot of challenges, which are as follows:

1. Rejected by my family for changing my religion from Islam to Christianity
2. Rejection by friends and relatives & find myself lonely
3. My wife refused and stood against my decision on salvation
4. My financial situation was bad due to terminal illness and loss of all my assets to traditional healers
5. Discrimination, hatred as i appeared to be confused by the decision to accept Christ
6. Lack of basic needs such as food, clothing, medicine, and so on
7. I didn't seem to have any worth because I was seen as a traitor of Islamic religion and a great unbeliever

But despite all these challenges I did not give up or go back to my decision, I moved forward with the journey of faith in Jesus, continued to honor Jesus Christ and give him first place in my heart.

I continued to be taught the Word of God and the people of God continued to encourage me every day and to help me with some of my needs until I came to understand more about the true God (JEHOVAH) and His Word. Witches who made me suffer for seven years (7) did not accept defeat, and swore to wipe me off from the face of the earth.But glory and honor be to God that he saved me as they did many attempts to kill me but they did not succeed and instead many of them were wiped from the face of the earth because they competed with Jesus Christ without knowing that he is the ultimate authority.

After Jesus Christ saved me and healed me and revealed to me that he is indeed God who saves thus i decided to serve him for the rest of my life, and so it is until today and I will never go back even if I encounter storms, hurricanes,floods, distresses, war and all their dangers I will serve Jesus Christ faithfully and with all my heart until I leave this world.Romans8 : 35-39

The call to serve God

Since God saved me in 1995 I continued to serve him faithfully and with all my heart until he called me into a special shepherding call. I shared my vision with the pastor to acquire more advice and directives about the procedures required to go to the Bible college. I got the correct guidance from him that led me to a Bible college in January 1998,then I was able to start the study of diploma levels in Bible studies at the University of Arusha, Tanzania.

When I started studies I went through a number of challenges as I did not have direct support  to pay the fees and other necessities. Due lack of finance and the tragedy that hit me before knowing Jesus Christ,as I explained on my first page (1) .So it was necessary to fight against all the circumstances that came along in prayers.And when God saw my intentions he intervened until I finished my studies and graduated in the year 2000. Although many people got up and tried to break my heart that I would not be able to finish my studies.I did not look at what people say but what does God say?

That's what helped me achieve my goal as no one can break God's promise. So I advise you, if you are experiencing various challenges like i did, the correct answer is not with human beings with a lot of words and empty promises, but real answer are with our  God who has unconditional and enormous love for his people.

Pastoral journey

From the first year I started praying to ask for God to reveal to me where I would serve him.I took that step because I needed proper guidance from him. And the second year (2) God answered my prayers and spoke to me openly.He said to me that he would send me to a place where there was no Christianity completely.I had to go there to announce Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.When I wanted to know more where and exactly what region does God say I should go to?He said I should go to Tanga region,Tanzania and I would not serve him in the region where I was born (Singida)Tanzania.

I obeyed and started making preparations until  5th January 2001,when i was officially planted to start ​​serving in Tanga region, Handeni district, Komkonga County and began to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God.

The environment I found and its challenges

In Komkonga County, I found very poor and frightening conditions, I found people of the same type of religion, one Islamic system, common belief in witchcraft, superstitions , traditional medicine,extreme magic, magnifying devils or demons, rituals and practices of idolatry, extreme fraud, theft and extortion.Empowered by their supernatural god called MANGUBE -using a say in their native tangue (ZIGUA) language.to show him that he is greater than all other gods (Mnungu na Mangube yuhi mkulu? -meaning who is greater between God and Mangube) and others respond that Mangube is greater.
From these conditions people lived in fear,despair and without hope and a life of total uncertainty.

The dark system set by the village elders as a practical guide in this community

It is as follows:

1. planting evils spirits on the road and causing accidents and killing people
2. Children were targeted by demons in school and even others lost life
3. Pregnant women were used for magical strides and die with their babies in their stomachs
4. Blocking any sort of development with witchcraft
5. Not to allow people to build modern houses except for a few  special individuals but with permission from village elders
6. One person will be hit by the car to die as a sacrifice every beginning and the end of the month .
7. Banning children from attending normal schools that were interpreted as a white man education that aims to undermine Islam.
8. Young girls forced to marry while they are still young
9. Children had to attend and learn Arabic and the Quran  so they can learn to live in a strict muslim way
10. Strict prohibition and anti-Christian religion in the district
11. Torment people with various diseases through witchcraft

The aim of the system was to make people slaves, to create fear among the people, and impose their authority upon these people.This motivated me and realized that this society was supposed to receive spiritual help and knowledge of the true God (JEHOVAH) and Jesus Christ as the Lord and savior in their personal lives so that they could be released from this bondage of the dark powers that tormented them for so many years.

When I started to preach for the first time, I was given a very strong warning about the salvation teachings that I brought about that Jesus saves, heals, and it is God who deserves to be worshiped. In short, the villagers arose to the occasion  but I was given a strong warning that I should no longer be heard not unless i was tired of living by the elders.

This warning was accompanied by  keywords that i was not allowed to pronounce:

1. I was not allowed to mention the word Jesus because in this city,well according to their belief there is only one god who is Allah and his prophet Mohammad (who is different from (Mangube) traditional god).
2. Banned to mention the word church
3. Forbidden from talking about witchcraft.
4. community banned to give or sell a plot for church building and any Christian activity

The reason for this prohibition by quoting their words, was that their land is sacred and the city of Komkonga is known by the popular name as small Mecca. Therefore it was not allowed to build any church of unbelievers here because Christianity is unclean and wrong religion,that's according to their strong belief.

But I ignored their orders with all their gods. according to the Bible because Jesus says:

• Go and preach the Gospel to all the nations of the world- Mark 16:15.
• I knew i should not fear because Jesus warned us about the devil worshipers and witches ,and sinners- Matthew 10: 16-17.
• And Jesus promised us that He would be with us until the end of time -Matthew. 20:20.

I was given only two days (2) to make a sound decision. The first day to surrender, the second day to die if I was going to keep ignoring their order . On the other hand I continued with the responsibilities given to me to continue to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of heaven without doubt and any fear, knowing that our true God (JEHOVAH) was with me. So it was translated that I was arrogant,silly, disrespectful, abusive and contemptuous person, and an emergency meeting of witches , magicians,and traditional healers was convened to come to discuss about my strong position.The resolutions of their meeting was that I did not deserve to live on earth.

Then a fierce attack against me and my family started officially :

• Sending a rogue squad of rats that invaded the entire room where we were sleeping at midnight and began to attack us with the children, biting us,tearing our mosquito net,spreading a very bad and unpleasant smell the entire room,screams and making different sounds and destroyed some of the utensils we had.and this lasted more than 3 hours.
• They cast magic spells to kill me by a car accident with my two children
• They sent a strong wind to blow up the roof of my house,destroying various items.
• They sent robbers to break down my house with traditional weapons (knives, machetes and pieces of metals) and managed to wound me to and hurt several parts of my body.

I managed to fight and caught one of the bandits until neighbors came to the scene after shouting for help and helped me to control the bandit. After that I went to the police to explain and write a statement, I was taken to Kabuku County Hospital afterwards. And the robber was charged at the Handeni district court and he was convicted for breaking the law and sentenced to 30 years in jail for a criminal offense according to the laws of the united republic Tanzania.

A magic spell was cast on my first child (1) and her voice disappeared and taken and remained dumb for a whole week and even after taking her to the dispensary the doctor did not find what was the problem.I was hunted down to be killed by a local healer for 4 years for being disgusted after his wife's survival by having prayed for her and being healed from various demonic torments she had for many years yet he wanted her dead as a sacrifice for his healing powers to be greater.His mission failed until he decided to surrender himself by his own will. After being questioned why was he unable to achieve his goal? his response was that the pastor has great power that is guard him because he used all of his methods unsuccessfully.

Whenever he tried to use all his supernatural strength he found himself powerless and felt weak as if he was going to die, finally he got discouraged and decided to come to apologize and so to seek reconciliation to again have peace in his life.And his wife and children are doing well and serving Jesus to this day.In spite of the difficult circumstances that I went through, I did not despair or give up and I thank the the almighty God who has never let me down but has been merciful,gracious and wonderful to this day.

The place of worship

When I began to announce the good news of the kingdom of heaven I did not have a specific building or place of worship. I tried to find a room,or a hall for worship and services but I did not succeed.So I had to worship under a tree for a year (1). This cost me a lot because sometimes very heavy rains poured down in a row and I failed to go to the tree and worship, thus remaining in a lonely state between me and my God for a while as was forced to warship at home.

When worshiping under the tree we were sometimes mocked, ridiculed and even marijuana smokers came to smoke marijuana around us and threw insult at us.And some people were holding their noses when passing near us by interpreting that we were dirty unbelievers,stinking, or pigs, and we did not deserve to live.After a year I returned again to ask for a class room for worship at a nearby school, I am grateful that my request was accepted and I was given a class room where we would hold our services. Little did I know that the school was haunted by demons.Children could collapse in disorder and were dying every two (2) or three (3weeks) as a must.

We started a seven(7) months special prayer sessions for destroying those dark powers.Then we succeeded in breaking down all the strongholds of the dark powers that had tormented children for many years, that forced the school to be closed every now and then, and most of the time parents were afraid to let their children go to school and forced to stay with them at home.Various government officials at the district level came to find a way to solve the problem but it had failed for all the past years.

The community was involved in various donations to bring traditional healers from Sumbawanga district in Rukwa, region of Tanzania and other parts of our country to come and heal the schools but only to fail.But when we fervently prayed in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, God(JEHOVAH) answered the prayers of His servants, cleansed the school and the problem came to an end till today.And now the school is doing well academically and enabling children to go to secondary school.Amen!

After these dark forces were destroyed ,the village elders who were benefiting from these evil activities were very furious and made plans and false accusations so that I could no longer worship at that school by claiming that the school was their property and not my property,they managed to convince the head of the school and thus we were chased from holding our services there. After an agreement between them and the teachers was struck I received an sudden letter informing me of termination of our partnership with the school .

The news was very shocking to me .and very disappointing since it was a rainy season, I was left with no choice but to accept their decision and move forward.I continued to ask God to help me overcome this difficult period and that is what he did.The incident was also followed by my landlord being put under so much pressure from the village elders asking him why he agreed to allow an unbeliever and enemy of Islam to live in his home in order to destroy their affairs?,so i was chased from the house with my children and my things thrown out of the house.But I continued with the spiritual fights.made  Crusades until victory was found by the commanding officer Jesus Christ -1Timothy 6: 12,2Timothy 4: 7-8.

The great works that Jesus Christ did in my ministry

• Saving - through this ministry Jesus has saved some of the Muslims, pagans, sorcerers, traditional healers and sinners.
• Healing - Jesus has healed through this ministry people with various diseases and illnesses, HIV, people with epilepsy, palms, heart disease, kidney, liver, breast cancer, diarrhea and various demonic sufferings,a child's hair loss and head rotting for five years (5) has been healed of his sores and his hair has grown again,a man who was paralyzed for more than fourteen years (14), has been healed and completely healthy till today, another one who had been paralyzed on one side has also received his healing and he is completely healed today,two pregnant women (2) whose pregnancies held by dark powers for twelve months (12) were taken to the hospital for help in vain when they were brought to church Jesus healed and delivered them ,they safely gave birth to their children and are safe even today,and many others have been released and delivered from their various bonds of darkness.
• Witches surrender - Some witches who fought against the church's existence, others lost their lives, others surrendered and apologized, others brought their equipment (different kinds of pots,brooms,magic sticks,horns,human fingernails,mirrors,hairs,rotten blood,and ect... some completely moved from the village.

I thank God so much for being faithful, in serving this community for the glory of his mighty name, and revealing himself through the great works that he has performed in different people's lives whenever we need him as he said in. Jerm29: 12-14

The bishop withdrawing my permit and confiscating the church building

After going through all these very difficult challenges and God doing a great job of building a church through various givings and savings, other battles arose from church leaders.These leaders sat a number of meetings in secret without my knowledge.Gradually the war started and grew day by day until it was clear and my wife joined the leaders to ensure that their subtle plan was successful.

Suddenly one day I received a letter of suspension for 4 months and I was not allowed to attend or run the church services for claims that I was a sinner,I questioned the decision.As a pastor who deeply loves,knows and respect the word of God and I know the church constitutional principles and respect it, I wanted to know in details about these allegations and proof of their claims when and where I sinned and thus I questioned.There is no single church leader at all levels from the national level to the village level who proved their claim that I was a sinner.

No leader or anyone else ever gave proper answers about my suspension until the four months (4) came to pass.then the Archbishop came to announce at the altar that they had investigated and were satisfied that I was not a sinful pastor and I am not guilty and such claims are false. For lack of fear of God, these hypocritical leaders led the church to confusion and disharmony and they became agents of the devil,through out all this time until they fulfilled their evil plan.After lacking the basic reasons to prove that I was guilty before the church ,the next Sunday they still continued with their satanic plans of wanting to move me out the church unconstitutionally.I questioned what was the principles that were used to dismiss me?and I was told that I had just to obey.

Then I realized that this was folly and ignorance on their part, and I said in my heart that these leaders had lost their sanity and lost their credentials to be my leaders. After this,announcement,I received a letter of immediate transfer without notice and this transfer had to take effect within 1 month .When I questioned about the transfer fees and school fees as who would pay for the children so that children do not lose their focus on school?The answer was that the transfer cost is on me and the issue of children was my own responsibility. For these answers I knew that these people had no compassion and mercy in them, so I decided that it would be difficult for me to continue cooperating with them .

I resisted those temptations and it was seen that I had disobeyed the church leaders.They decided to take from me the church identification and permit, the building that I fought for with all my strength through God's grace,the generous givings of the servants of God,savings and brought in another pastor.

And my wife decided to separate from me and to support them with assurance that they would help her open a business, gave her many empty promises that kept her away from me and we eventually divorced.God had blessed us with four children, a girl(1) and three (3) boys.

Through God's grace I have managed to carry on with life and decided to live single.Thanks to GMM ,Tanzania for integrating me within the Ministry and we have started afresh,from point zero. we started again to worship under the tree and now we have had to build a tent  so that the work of God will go ahead and this community to continue receiving spiritual care.

Conclusion

May glory, honor, respect, dignity, praise and power be to God (JEHOVAH)the almighty and our Lord Jesus Christ the king of kings forever and ever more,for the great deeds he has performed in my entire life,for revealing himself though his word,and various miracles in saving,protecting,healing us.

My call to God's people !

And if this testimony touches you and blesses your heart, then we invite you to the service of the Lord in fellowship with us in any way that God will speak to you so that we can build God's kingdom together.We need your prayers for for this city bound by the power of darkness so that our brothers and sisters may be delivered from various evil and demonic convictions.Please do also consider a gift through donations and help us acquire or build a durable church for the glory of the almighty God.

We need various materials such as (transport, microphones, furniture general) for proclaiming God's word effectively.We are grateful for your cooperation and love in building God's kingdom - May our Lord continue to bless you.Amen!