The Sunday of the Paralytic, we visited Mloa village, in order to serve the Divine Liturgy at the Church of Holy Archangels. In the Holy Gospel, we heard the paralytic say “Sir, I have no man when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool’’, but we felt the love and interest to our fellows, as the kind souls of our native brothers do not stay aside in front of the need and pain.
Arriving at the Church, the women and the children welcomed us. They had already begun the preparations of the meal. After we greeted each other, we admired the surrounding area of the church, which was beautiful and clean, we saw a young man coming to church, holding by hand a blind elder and helping him. The old man received the Holy Baptism in our Mission Center two years ago.
The priest of the village informed us that this man despite his disability, attends the Divine Liturgy continuously. Just before the Holy Communion, we saw two-three young men preparing him. Immediately we thought about the Paralytic of the Holy Gospel who had no one to put him into the pool. Seeing that, what could we teach to those people? How to teach them about love, when they already perform the Gospel’s teachings with their actions. It is true that in Africa, firstly you are taught and then you teach. You are taught from the greatness of the soul, the love and the simplicity of the people.
Not only that, during the meal time, the meal which our brother Nikolaos Kyparissis donated, we came across another surprise. The older siblings were feeding the little ones. Orphanhood demands from the older children to take care of the younger ones, something which is not a fact in the lifestyle of developed countries.
We spent some time with these people until the afternoon and we had the opportunity to discuss with them and visit another nearby village where the task of catechism is spreading wide and more 60 inhabitants have already been baptized. They asked us to visit their village, in order to show us a field in the center of the village, where they want a church to be built. Another pathway, where God’s providence has been opened in the blessed land of Tanzania.
