IN THE NAME OF JESUS,STOP USING ARVs!

From the miracle cup of Mzee Ambilikile Mwasapile of Samunge village in Loliondo early last year it was clear to all that we are never short of gullible people around here. People travelled great distances to get a sip of the mysterious concoction at a price, the price of the sip itself was negligible in comparison to the cost of visiting the premises from say Dar es salaam apart from other expenses such as food and accommodation which shot to the sky due to sudden unrealistic demand. It was also ironic that the old man had a Reverend prefix to his name which left everyone guessing as to whether he represented Jesus Christ or other lesser known gods, but the good thing is he did tend to all immaterial of their religious affiliations. There was also a sudden spontaneous occurrence of other cup vending ‘doctors’ all over the place such that we may stretch the phenomenon a bit and pride ourselves as having gone through some occultic awakening period, if occultism is anything to boast about that is.

Now this is 2012, a year later and the experiences from those times safely tucked away in our waistband, one would expect we are now wise enough to navigate away from such sham practices but not so. In a burial last week of a lady in her twenties in Rau, on the outskirts of Moshi municipality it emerged that the deceased was on an ARV course for about two years but she joined a born again movement and was advised by her pastor to quit using the drugs and that she would get cured by the name of Jesus, interestingly the name of the pastor in question is also Mwa(something) indicating that he is of the Nyakyusa descent just like the Loliondo reverend and he practices in Soweto area and in the center of town. What troubles us now is how many more users of ARV has he managed to “lead” away from their medication so far that we do not know of as such matters are done in secrecy to avoid stigma. The common factor here with the Loliondo case is that people are convinced to abandon scientific treatment in favor of unproven spiritual healing approaches, being of religious upbringing we do not deny the possibility of spiritual healing in Christian circles, but how can one be sure that the one dispensing such healing is the real thing, so to speak?, and what is wrong with going on with medication while practicing your faith, it isn’t like medicines are controversial in any religion, they are not alcohol you know, again one is tempted to see the miracle of Jesus in the discovery of the drugs itself such that using them would imply accepting the miracle. Why don’t people realize that miracles come in all forms?.