Following The Call » Our lives as we join the mission field in Tanzania

As I was sitting in my living room this morning with my kids, watching the Thanksgiving Parade I received an email from one of the missionaries we will be working closely with in Tanzania. 

From Mike-

Dear Family and Friends, 

It’s already Thanksgiving morning on my side of the world, but most of you who will receive this update are still sleeping!  Most of you will probably be eating turkey today, too!  Think of us – we will probably have beans and rice, but with an added treat of some wild hartebeest meat and a nice pecan pie to make the day special.   

I want to tell you about Tuliza.  She came to our house last week, brought by her mother.  She was all wrapped up in a kitengi (an African cloth) and you could hardly see her.  Her mother sat outside on our bench until I happened to look out the window and notice her there.  That usually means a medical issue of some sort.  We went through the traditional greetings and then I asked how her baby was.  Her response was “nzuri kidogo” or in English, “a little bit good”, which means there really is a problem.  She then proceeded to unwrap one of the smallest, skinniest babies I have ever seen in my life.  Her name was Tuliza and she was eight days old. 

The mother said she had been to the clinic and the doctor sent her to our house for a “box”.  Not being sure what she meant by a box, I looked again at the baby to see if she was even breathing, thinking the doctor may have meant a coffin.  Yes, she was breathing, but barely.  Later I decided the doctor may have been referring to an incubator, which we do not have.   

The mom said she got married in March, but her husband had left her already and taken another wife.  Her mother is in a faraway village and her father is rather crazy.  She lives with an aunt who doesn’t seem to be giving much help to this new mother. 

Trying to get information out of people here, especially women who pretty much only speak their tribal language and not Swahili, is quite difficult.  I asked her if the baby nursed well – she assured me that it did.  As the discussion continued, I finally ascertained that Tuliza only nursed once a day, because she slept the rest of the time.  I asked the mom to nurse her baby in front of me so I could see how she sucked, but she laughed at me and said the baby was sleeping.  I took the baby from her and unwrapped it and tried to get her to nurse.  She was much too weak to do anything more than open her mouth just a crack.  I wrapped her back in the cloth and weighed her with our fish scale – she was less than two pounds, including the cloth.  

I gave the mother some tea and bread and then told her that in my heart I was afraid her baby would die.  She seemed surprised and then started to cry.  We talked for a while longer, then I asked her to return the next day so I could give her more tea and bread and check her baby again.  Tuliza never came back to my house – I’m sure she did not survive the night.

As I think about Tuliza this morning, it is hard to feel thankful for her situation.  But God didn’t tell us to “feel” thankful, he told us to “be thankful” (Colossians 3:15).  And so, I choose to be thankful – thankful that I got to see Tuliza at least once; that I got to hold her and meet her mother.  Thankful that God brought us out here to be available on that day and at that time to see this precious little one. 

And we, dear friends and family, are also thankful for you who help us live and work among the Tanzanian people. 

With love from Africa, 

Mike and Lynn Caraway

I am so thankful today.  God has given me an amazing opportunity  to go to the other side of the world where my heart will be touched, my eyes will be opened and I will be able to show God’s love to many.

 

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
Serve the Lord with gladness; come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the Lord he is God; it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. (Psalm 100:1-5).

 

-Lindsey

I struggle with Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for, but this is also a sad day for me. It was 2 years ago that my baby kia was put into my arms. This was a happy happy day. My family had grown, I had a new beautiful daughter and for that I was thankful.  But my gain, was another woman’s loss.  So you see, while on thanksgiving I am thankful for so very much, my family, my home, and all that I have, I also morn the loss that a mother felt knowing she would never see her child again.  I wonder where this amazing women is, if she is even alive. I wonder if she has other children. I wonder if she is suffering in any way.  I wonder if she thinks about me every day like I think of her. Does she weep tears thinking of her baby? Because I weep when I think of her.

So you see, this day 2 years ago was the beginning.  As I sat in a small room at the orphanage, staring at the mother of my baby and asking her questions through a translator,  I realized something.  Had I met this women a few months earlier,  she could have kept her baby.  Her first daughter. Her everything. Through the interperter I asked her what ‘Kia’ meant. Her response- ‘You are Mine.’ Kia means you are mine. And that baby was hers, and she was mine.  Had I met Kia’s mom earlier Matt and I could have helped her, given her a way to get training, education, a job. A way to support her sweet baby girl.  But I did not meet her earlier, so as I walked away with her daughter, she walked away with a couple pictures I gave her of her baby. 

And thats how it began. Through all the excitment of our new daughter, Matt and I began to digest what we had witnessed in Ethiopia. Why did a loving mom have to give her baby up for adoption? How could we allow this to happen? What could we do about the situation? And the bigger question, why did I need to do something about this?  

God began to work in our hearts and as Matt and I  tried to forget about the tug on our hearts to help, God started to clear a path for us. A path that took us back to Africa, this time to Tanzania.  I once again found myself in an orphanage looking at beautiful little faces with big brown eyes looking back at me. 

This time I knew that I needed to help. As a follower of God, trying my best everyday to follow the path of Jesus it was so obvious. The Bible states over and over the need to care for the orphans and widows.  It was as clear as that. 

So this thanksgiving I am thankful for a mother who wanted more for her child.

 

I am thankful for that child who opened my eyes.

And most of all I am thankful for  God, who knew all along that I would enter this path of following his call to care for the children of the world. 

So as you sit down to your thanksgiving dinner with food a plenty, please remember the mothers around the world who may be struggling, 

remember the children who are  living in orphanages,

 

living on the street,

 

maybe crying out in hunger,

or maybe so hungry that they can not cry.

While no one person can help all these children, you can start by helping  one.