Messages from MOKICCO are posted here to keep you informed about their developments.
I want to start by thanking everyone for all the support and prayers that MOKICCO has received over the past three months: September, October, and November.
In mid-October, my sister Joyce Seka passed away. This was a great sorrow for us as a family, but also for MOKICCO. It was Joyce who helped Carl-Erik and me establish the work with childcare in Tanzania. She gave the organization the name MOKICCO (Mount Kilimanjaro Children Care Organization). Joyce managed contact with the authorities in Tanzania and assisted us with childcare around Mwanza and Lake Victoria. After Carl-Erik’s return to Sweden, I held the main responsibility for MOKICCO, and Joyce was my assistant. She was diagnosed with cancer and passed away at the age of 64, leaving behind a husband, four children, and eight grandchildren.
However, there have also been encouraging and joyful developments over the past months. At the end of October and beginning of November, a group of Christian friends from St. Klara Church in Stockholm and a few other churches in Sweden made a mission trip to Tanzania. The purpose was to visit the work initiated by missionary Carl-Erik Sahlberg in Tanzania, aimed at caring for orphans, the poor, and children in difficult circumstances, spreading the gospel through Christian literature, and helping the poor, widows, and others in need.
The planning also included visiting the work of other missionaries, combined with a vacation. Ten people participated in the trip.
We visited MOKICCO’s vocational school. Currently, we only have a sewing course. Six students completed their one-year course. Their prayer and wish were to receive their own sewing machine and start their own sewing projects. On December 6, they completed their studies, and all of them went home with a sewing machine. Many thanks to St. Klara Church, which, through its mission collection, helped these young people with sewing machines.
Many other Tanzanians received joy and blessings from the trip. It was a great pleasure for the MOKICCO children to meet friends from Sweden and spend time with them. Every evening, we held devotions with the children, and on the first Sunday, we celebrated a church service with a sermon by the Swedish priest Lars Sahlin from Bollnäs. At the Bible school, where Carl-Erik Sahlberg and I have taught approximately 300 future priests and evangelists, the students received lessons on caring for children with special needs, a subject in which Sweden is far ahead of Tanzania. Many of those involved in MOKICCO’s work are priests and evangelists.
A neighbor I’ve known since childhood became severely addicted to alcohol as an adult. After much struggle, he managed to leave alcohol behind, marry, and lead a normal life. He now has two small children and lives in poverty. He had started building a house to use as a restaurant so that he and his wife could work and support their children. However, they couldn’t finish the house due to a lack of funds. One of the travelers helped the family complete the house and start the restaurant.
A widow received support to start a chicken project to provide for herself and her grandchild.
The young people of MOKICCO are part of a Christian youth group called “Young Life.” With the money they received from the guests, they started a project where they bake and work in a café connected to the Christian bookstore owned by MOKICCO. Thank you to the friends for the gift.
**The connection with Young Life was established through the mediation of the Yourright Foundation**
Finally, we visited two churches: the Lutheran Church, which is my home congregation, and the Pentecostal Church, which is very significant for Christians in our village of Marangu. It was in this church that the Ibra Radio initiative was started by Pentecostal missionaries. Unlike Sweden, Tanzania is much less ecumenical, but I remember that in my childhood, all Christians listened to Ibra Radio without distinction.
Other guests we welcomed were friends of MOKICCO, specifically the organization Children Need Help, founded by Pentecostal pastor Lars-Gunnar Sandberg from Kungshamn, who previously worked as a Pentecostal missionary in Zambia. Children Need Help assisted MOKICCO in drilling a well in the village of Kituri, which now provides drinking water to three villages. Their main goal was to see the well, but they also took the opportunity to visit other MOKICCO projects such as the vocational school and family homes.
The year 2024 is drawing to a close. I wish everyone a Happy New Year!
Overa Seka Sahlberg
