My last week in Tanzania was eye opening to say the least. Eight women from my squad went to the hospital to pray for a member of the church that had just given birth, I thought nothing of it. The next thing I knew the women they prayed for was pronounced dead and the baby was still alive. The house we were staying in became the center piece to a real life drama that was unfolding before my very own eyes.
The baby was taken to our house to be cared for. The Dad of the baby was off working in another town and would be back in 3 days just in time for the funeral. Just moments before the funeral the father arrived at our house where he was told that his wife was no longer alive and now he had a baby boy. Before he could even react to what he had just been told he was carted off the funeral where hundreds of people had gathered to pay their last respects. This is when it hit the father – his life had just been flipped upside down in a matter of moments. I watched him as he went through every emotion possible from disbelief to despair.
All he had left to cling to was his faith in God and his new baby boy that he hadn’t even met yet. He spent the next week living with us at the pastor’s house. We did our best to encourage him throughout the process. We never really knew what to say and for the first time in my life I think the language barrier was a good thing. Our presence seemed to comfort him in the fact he was not alone and that mzungus (white people) from the other side of the world truly cared for him.
Within a few days we would occasionally see him smile. His smile lightened up the room and was a sign that everything was going to be ok. This father put is faith in God in his weakest moment and it became evident that he would come out of this tragedy stronger than he has ever been before. When I said bye to him a few days later to head to Rwanda he strongly shook my hand and looked me in the eyes as to say thank you from the deepest part of his heart. That’s when I finally realized that God put me in Mwanza Tanzania for a reason. That God put me on the world race for a reason, to provide hope to the hopeless.
