The woman in white is Semeni. Her sister-in-law Irene is next to her. Semeni's daughters are Christina, in the denim with buttons, and Kareen, in the lime green. It's customary for Tanzanians to crop their hair short or shave their head.
Here's Semeni cooking in her kitchen, which so far is a small 8 x 8 concrete room in her home where she cooks on a small charcoal cooker. Notice her colorful Kanga, which is a fabric panel worn over regular clothes.We're back from Tanzania. It's been a couple of weeks already. Alan was going to give a talk in church about how we met Semeni from Tanzania, but he became sick and ended up not being able to go to church.( He was sick for 2 weeks with a stomach bacteria but he's fine now.) We sent his speech to our group leader to read to our congregation. I decided to print it below for all to read.
My name is Alan Hildebrandt. I want to share my story of how I met Semeni Gama from Tanzania in East Africa. Semeni is a local Tanzanian who traveled with us on our 2 week mission trip. While there in Tanzania she introduced us to her home village and her family, opened up her home to us for a wonderful farewell dinner, and was one of our translators for the trip.
In 2006 while working to fill a mission need in Tanzania, my wife Mimi and I met Semeni. She worked 6 days a week, 10 hour days, as the housekeeper in the home of our host family. She traveled an hour each way between home and work, and after keeping house for her employer family, she went home to begin her dinner on a campfire for her own family. We learned she taught herself to read, write and speak English by saving English newspapers from the trashcan of a previous employer, by making herself listen to English radio stations, and by speaking English with her employers. She learned to cook for her employer family by reading English recipes and converting kilograms and liters to ounces and cup measurements. She is an amazing woman of God, and knows everything she does or happens in her life is only because of God in her life.
As our friendship grew we became shamefully aware of how insignificant our list of comforts we had given up for 2 months were small in comparison to the daily struggles for Semeni and her family. We learned that Semeni and her husband Juma, along with 2 of their 3 children, Semeni’s sister and her 2 boys, plus a young girl from the home village, were all living in 3 small rented rooms with no plumbing, no electricity, no windows or window screens, and no kitchen. Semeni, Mimi and I often shared our love of Jesus and then our blessings. We’ve been privileged to see the work of the Holy Spirit in their family, from Semeni to her children, her husband, her church and her home village.
Mimi and I are so thankful that Terranova sent money to Juma for a keyboard. It was arranged that if Juma could get a keyboard, the music director would teach him how to play at church, and they could finally have music for their choir and for the congregation. For many years they’ve had only clapping hands, which is beautiful, but they’ve dreamed and prayed of having a musical instrument and someone to play it. When Juma asked me for the money for the keyboard I was disappointed they wouldn’t get one until I could come up with the money. What I learned is that when the Holy Spirit is involved you better get out of the way! Their prayers were answered by Terranova and they’re so proud of the new keyboard! (By the way, the music director is a wonderful keyboard player and practiced at a music store in Dar es Salaam since he doesn’t own one. As our group can testify, he was ready to demonstrate everything the keyboard can do and he’s pretty excited to be able to direct the choir while someone plays it!)
Semeni confided to Mimi while we were there that Juma is a changed man from 3 years ago. He used to drink a lot, get into fights, but now he’s a church going, keyboard playing Christian who wouldn’t think of missing a four hour church service. He has become a Godly man, head of his home who initiates prayer every night before they fall asleep, and his best friends are at church now. Juma was born a Muslim to Muslim parents who converted to Christianity when he was a preteen. Most of his childhood friends are Muslim and now he witnesses to them. He and Semeni open their home every weekend to church members, friends and family who don’t have jobs to come spend the day with them after church. They feed them and fellowship together. They usually have 1 or 2 girls from their home village come live with them and learn how to cook or sew in hopes they will learn a skill for a future job. Once the girl finds a job and moves off, they have someone else who needs a place to live move in with them.
Semeni and Juma now live in their own home but still don’t have electricity or plumbing, still need interior doors, furniture, a kitchen, and a ceiling. Semeni has been attending secretary school and will graduate in November. She dreams of owning her own restaurant and will continue helping people from her village as she and Juma are able. She knows she’ll need to find a job after she graduates, a job which is scarce in Tanzania. She loves her country and loves Jesus. She said she felt honored that she could travel with us to villages to talk with people about Jesus She wanted me to tell Terranova that she is so thankful for this church traveling so many miles to see her country, her home village and meeting members of her church and her family.
In 2006 while working to fill a mission need in Tanzania, my wife Mimi and I met Semeni. She worked 6 days a week, 10 hour days, as the housekeeper in the home of our host family. She traveled an hour each way between home and work, and after keeping house for her employer family, she went home to begin her dinner on a campfire for her own family. We learned she taught herself to read, write and speak English by saving English newspapers from the trashcan of a previous employer, by making herself listen to English radio stations, and by speaking English with her employers. She learned to cook for her employer family by reading English recipes and converting kilograms and liters to ounces and cup measurements. She is an amazing woman of God, and knows everything she does or happens in her life is only because of God in her life.
As our friendship grew we became shamefully aware of how insignificant our list of comforts we had given up for 2 months were small in comparison to the daily struggles for Semeni and her family. We learned that Semeni and her husband Juma, along with 2 of their 3 children, Semeni’s sister and her 2 boys, plus a young girl from the home village, were all living in 3 small rented rooms with no plumbing, no electricity, no windows or window screens, and no kitchen. Semeni, Mimi and I often shared our love of Jesus and then our blessings. We’ve been privileged to see the work of the Holy Spirit in their family, from Semeni to her children, her husband, her church and her home village.
Mimi and I are so thankful that Terranova sent money to Juma for a keyboard. It was arranged that if Juma could get a keyboard, the music director would teach him how to play at church, and they could finally have music for their choir and for the congregation. For many years they’ve had only clapping hands, which is beautiful, but they’ve dreamed and prayed of having a musical instrument and someone to play it. When Juma asked me for the money for the keyboard I was disappointed they wouldn’t get one until I could come up with the money. What I learned is that when the Holy Spirit is involved you better get out of the way! Their prayers were answered by Terranova and they’re so proud of the new keyboard! (By the way, the music director is a wonderful keyboard player and practiced at a music store in Dar es Salaam since he doesn’t own one. As our group can testify, he was ready to demonstrate everything the keyboard can do and he’s pretty excited to be able to direct the choir while someone plays it!)
Semeni confided to Mimi while we were there that Juma is a changed man from 3 years ago. He used to drink a lot, get into fights, but now he’s a church going, keyboard playing Christian who wouldn’t think of missing a four hour church service. He has become a Godly man, head of his home who initiates prayer every night before they fall asleep, and his best friends are at church now. Juma was born a Muslim to Muslim parents who converted to Christianity when he was a preteen. Most of his childhood friends are Muslim and now he witnesses to them. He and Semeni open their home every weekend to church members, friends and family who don’t have jobs to come spend the day with them after church. They feed them and fellowship together. They usually have 1 or 2 girls from their home village come live with them and learn how to cook or sew in hopes they will learn a skill for a future job. Once the girl finds a job and moves off, they have someone else who needs a place to live move in with them.
Semeni and Juma now live in their own home but still don’t have electricity or plumbing, still need interior doors, furniture, a kitchen, and a ceiling. Semeni has been attending secretary school and will graduate in November. She dreams of owning her own restaurant and will continue helping people from her village as she and Juma are able. She knows she’ll need to find a job after she graduates, a job which is scarce in Tanzania. She loves her country and loves Jesus. She said she felt honored that she could travel with us to villages to talk with people about Jesus She wanted me to tell Terranova that she is so thankful for this church traveling so many miles to see her country, her home village and meeting members of her church and her family.
Okay everyone, that's all I have so far. Soon I'll be posting pictures from our trip. Our scouting trip was very successful, very tiring, and the two weeks went by fast. We traveled to several villages, usually 2 or 3 each day, didn't stop for lunch, mainly because there wasn't any place to stop. We had peanut butter fold overs and water every day while driving to villages. Every village we came to knew of Jesus, but none had Bibles and knew of Jesus only from what their preacher or priest had told them. Very few of them had a relationship with Jesus. Some of the villages had never seen white people before. None of the villages had good water, most drank water straight from a river. That's all for this post. I hope that makes you curious about the rest of the trip. I'll write more later.
love, mimi
1 comment:
What a wonderful story, Mimi. It's a blessing that you & Alan could do something like that. I'm sure your lives have been enriched in many ways from your experiences in Africa. And I'm sure you have enriched the lives of the many people you met along the way. Thanks for sharing the story, and we hope to see more pictures soon.
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