by Deusdedit Mulokozi
September 25th of 2021, the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, Province of Tanzania, sent Fr. Deusdedit Mulokozi C.PP.S (Pastor) and Fr. Innocent Miku C.PP.S (Associate Pastor) to the Diocese of Rulenge-Ngara in Tanzania to open up a new community in the rural areas of Benaco. Due to the charism of our founder, Bishop Severine Niwemugizi of this diocese handed us St. Josephine Bakhita-Benaco parish for pastoral activities, a place that used to be a home for Rwanda and Burundi refugees as a result of 1994 genocide. He believed that, through our Spirituality, we could restore hope and trust to the wounded community. The parish is made up of 20 sub-stations with approximate of 3,478 populations of the faithful and the last sub-station is at 75km away.
St. Josephine Bakhita-Benaco parish was established in March 2011, due to rapid population increase out of heavy influx of refugees from Rwanda and Burundi in 1994, which attracted a good number of people who came to work for international and local refugees’ agencies. After the departure of the refugees from 1997 most of these people settled permanently in these rural area and it’s surroundings.
Since we arrived here, our main focus was on how to bring people of God on board fired up by the word of God. We visited the communities identifying their spiritual and physical challenges but at the same time identifying people to be our collaborators in evangelization. Serving more than 5,000 Catholics and non-Catholics, in a very dispersed ambient, with no fixed roads, no vehicle that suits rough roads, no facility center where we could gather people for catechesis and youth formation, lack of clean water, and many other demands for ministry is very tiresome but rewarding.
Pastoral work in rural areas demands to closely work with people in every aspect. There is a time where physical needs conflict with spiritual needs. The majority of the people we serve live on hand to mouth produce basis, so the time you need them for spiritual formation, they are in the fields working for their daily bread. On the other hand, when you gather them together emerges a sense of suspicion among them due to their tribal historical conflicts, and a good number of them are still lacking a sense of belonging, they cling to their community of origin where they are living now.
St. Gaspar has inspired us preach the gospel to the marginalized, labor much in restoring hope, preaching peace and justice. Our plan, apart from parish ministry, we dream to establish peace and justice center then a school where children rescued from human traffickers may be nurtured and educated.
The message of the Holy Father for the World Mission Day 2023 reflects what we are doing in our mission at the border with Rwanda; the risen Lord will always be with us!