We Needed A Bodyguard

We Needed A Bodyguard

October 19, 2020

I’m not sure I know what “The New Normal” means, do you? Every day at Neema Village brings a new challenge, a different experience, or a dozen upsets to the routine! I can plan the day but it rarely turns out that way. Thank God He has it all under control.

Friday was no exception. Anna, Neema’s MAP director, wanted some company going out to check on a woman who had been homeless with two children. The village was “different” she said and we would need a body guard, so we took David.

With the purple Jacaranda trees it was a beautiful drive out to the village. But after we arrived we knew it was one of the worst living conditions we had seen in our fourteen years living in Africa.

The young woman we came to see had been abandoned by her husband after she had their second Albino baby. An older woman in a small village by the river let the little family live with her. The house was small for the five people living there and children and chickens running in and out. 

There were big holes in the walls where the mud had fallen out from between the sticks, letting the cold wind blow through the house. She kept a cook fire going on the floor in one end of the house to keep it warm and there was a bed at the other end where they all slept together.

The old woman was cleaning small fish for their dinner during our visit.  

There were cute little kids everywhere playing in the dirt. They made up their own toys like this little boy with his push toy that clicked as he ran around the yard.

The little guy below kept running back to his “box” so I guess that was where he stayed.

Tausi’s oldest boy had built a motorcycle out of logs for himself.

Tall banana trees and a clear, rocky stream tripped along beside the village. It looked lovely on the outside but there was something sinister about this village. I asked why the men of the village did not fix the old widow’s house. She said it was a pombe village where they made native corn brew and the men got drunk and laid around all day.

One of the houses had a scary witch drawn on the door. It certainly kept me out!

Tausi, the young mother, had been chopping wood and selling it to have money for food. You would not want to arm wrestle with this woman!  

Ashley had brought a bible for her and she said she did not know about Jesus and asked if Ashley would come and teach her.  That of course made Ashley’s day.

Next week we will move Tausi and her children out of this scary village. She will move to the houses we rent for other MAP moms until we can get the Jeff May MAP houses built. Then we can start talking to her about a business.

 At Neema Village she will be able to attend the Women’s Rights seminars, sewing classes, computer classes, business classes or English classes. She will meet other women who have had the same experience of despair and poverty. She will learn that it is going to be okay and that there can be happiness again for her and she will hear that God dearly loves her.

When we go out like this to interview a woman who has been beaten down and thrown out like garbage, I always feel like we go with an incredible secret. She doesn’t know the secret yet but her life will never be the same because Hope by the name of Jesus Christ has just entered her life. It is one of the greatest joys we have as we get to be administrators of God’s Amazing Grace in Tanzania, East Africa. 

Colossians 1: 27. “To them, God has chosen to make known the glorious riches of this mystery which is Christ In You, the Hope of Glory!

Anna visits with a desperate mom.