A woman named Teddy from a small village near Musoma welcomed John Issaya, our AICT MUD development officer who works with World Renew. This is Teddy’s story of transformation that she recently shared with John.

Teddy lives in one of the villages in the Mara region of Tanzania that is supported by World Renew’s partner the Africa Inland Church of Tanzania – Mara/Ukerewe Diocese (AICT MUD). She and her husband have six children—two boys and four girls. They are making a living by cultivating crops and raising poultry. Her husband runs a Bodaboda (motorcycle) taxi business in their village.

“After completing grade seven,” Teddy says, “I wasn’t able to continue with my studies. I decided to get married to my husband when I was 17 years old, after the arrangement and agreement of my father and my husband. I was still a little girl. My married life was tough to the extent of not getting even clothes to wear. My husband used to buy me two sets of clothes a year, and I would wear those clothes until they wore out. I was not loved nor cared for by my husband and that made my life very difficult. My friends advised me to get help from the witch doctor to find a way to resolve the problems in my marriage, but I refused to do so. As the days went on, my life continued to get worse, and I finally decided to start a business selling local alcohol to help me earn income to support my children.

“My business of selling alcohol was not very profitable and did not help me. I didn’t notice any good changes in my life from it. Every cent I got from my business was just disappearing without me knowing where it went. I didn’t even earn enough to buy plates and dishes for my family to eat from, and my life became even worse than before. Eventually, the stress of this difficult life got to me and my husband, and we started drinking. We continued to live a hopeless life with no future for a long time. We didn’t think about what our lifestyle was doing to our children. Though my husband was giving me company when we drank, he was not supportive or caring to his family.

"In 2011, the Evangelism team from AICT-Mara and Ukerewe Diocese visited our village and preached the good news of Jesus Christ in a crusade. I was among the people who attended the crusade and decided to give my life to Jesus. From that day on, I started attending the church for teaching and prayer. Finally, I decided to join the prayer team and became a prayer warrior. As the days went on, I kept on growing spiritually and became an active and strong church member. After a year of being an active member of the church, people said that my life was totally different from the Teddy that they used to know. 

"I joined the Upendo savings group at the church. AICT-MUD is implementing a sustainable livelihoods program with Canadian government funding from DFATD, and I started to attend various trainings conducted by the AICT MUD development department staff. After taking training in subjects like how to be an entrepreneur and how to start, run, and manage a small business, I set out to start a small business of selling dagaa (small fish) in my village. In the mornings, I completed my shamba (farm) activities, but in the evening I sold dagaa. In 2013, I qualified for a loan from my savings group and with the money, I started to raise hens and ducks. At first I had just one hen and one duck, but I put my efforts into caring for them, and eventually they produced offspring. Now I have flocks of 20 hens and 14 ducks!

“In 2013, after being trained on entrepreneurship skills, I also started cultivating cassava effectively. During the previous years, we were just cultivating cassava for food, but after taking this business ownership training, I planned with my husband to cultivate cassava not only for food for the family, but also to sell as a business. In April 2014, we harvested our cassava and sold them. We bought a motorcycle from the income we earned from the sale of the cassava. Now we have also started saving money from our businesses to buy iron sheets to replace the grass roof on our house. We have already bought 20 iron sheets, but we need seven more to finish improving the roof on our house.”

Teddy is now living a peaceful life with her husband, who is now caring and loving to her and the children. She has clothes to wear, food for her family, and her relationship with Jesus is deepening. Teddy and her husband plan to build a new, sturdier house and continue to grow in their faith.

We praise God for how He transforms lives that seem hopeless, like Teddy’s, giving them meaning, a bright future, and a relationship with Him.

 

Prayers for Tanzania

  • Safety for World Renew staff and our partners as they travel. There have been an increasing number of road accidents lately. 
  • World Renew Tanzania is hiring a finance manager, with two candidates as finalists out of 175 applications. Pray that the person we choose for this key position will have integrity and commitment to our work.
  • Pray too for a capable, God-fearing person of integrity as we interview candidates to take the place of Chris Enns who will be leaving Mwanza in July after six years of faithful service with World Renew.
  • Pray that God will continue to grant wisdom to World Renew Tanzania leadership as they interact with ACHAMA
  • Pray that more girls will be reached
  • Pray that volunteers and supporters will come forward to help ACHAMA realize their goal of ministering to sex workers.
  • Pray that more innovative interventions targeting at-risk populations will emerge.
  • Pray that through the intervention more girls will give their lives to Christ. 

Praise items 

  • Good outcomes from our strategic planning exercise in January.
  • Successful visits from donors and World Renew staff to see our programs and give advice to our partners.

Blessings, 

Chris Enns

Program Consultant
World Renew Tanzania