Despair, “the complete loss or absence of hope.� Oxford Dictionary
It is what I call a sick cycle. Generations upon generations have faced it countless times. Today you can’t get away from it. Despair fills the air with cries from frantic people begging • for help, for someone to notice, for someone to care. Where is hope when you need it? Where is God when they are beaten?
The most important lesson I have learned this month is the value of someone’s life. I have watched the women of Tanzania as they are devalued and dehumanized. It’s better to be a dog on the streets than to be woman in this nation.
I saw women in the hospital suffering from physical abuse by their husbands. I heard one of our translators say women in Tanzania feel loved when their husbands beat them. I also saw women carrying the burden of miscarrying a child, and the humiliation along with that of not being a mother, not to mention being told the miscarriage was their fault. The women here are last and men are always first. They are considered servants, and they must obey
In Luke 8 we read that the woman who was bleeding was desperate and had spent all her money on doctors. Today, Tanzania is full of sick people. They cannot afford health care; they cannot afford to go to hospital. Therefore, they look for the alternative, which is a witch doctor. They sell their souls to the devil, and this is the reason why they have spirits around them and in them. They have given Satan a foothold in their lives.
Do you know that God is in the business of healing? He wants everyone to be set free. Jesus looked at the woman in Luke 8 and Jesus said, “ you are healed, and you are whole.� These are the powerful words that Jesus is saying today. Yet He is asking us to be His mouthpiece.
What the women of this nation need to know is that they are loved. I saw Grace the other day (The reason for the “behind the curtain.� series Part 3) She is a true testament of God setting someone free from the bondage of sin. What I saw was joy upon her face and as I hugged her she whispered in my ear, “Jesus loves me.� She knows without a doubt how much she is loved. Will you be a vessel of this love?
“The world today is hungry not only for bread but hungry for love; hungry to be wanted, to be loved. They’re hungry to feel that presence of Christ. In many countries, people have everything except that presence, that understanding. That’s why the life of prayer and sacrifice comes to give that love. By being contemplative, you are to be that presence, that bread of God to break.â€� –Mother Teresa
