Unajua Jesu?
by Dorris Fortson
“Do you know Jesus,” was the question we asked Naha one afternoon as
we sat on the floor of the baby home in Arusha, Tanzania. Naha didn’t
speak English or Swahili so we had to ask her through our house
cleaner who was taking a break from her mop and giving one of the
babies a bottle. We spend a lot of time on the floor at Neema House
Arusha playing with the babies, changing diapers and giving them their
bottles. It is also a great time to talk about Jesus.
Naha is a Maasai and had been sleeping on the floor at Neema with her
tiny twins, Elesha and Theresia for over a month. The babies and Naha
were starving when Matt brought them in to the big hospital in Arusha.
Almost as if they were outcasts, they were living in a small mud hut
on the outskirts of a Maasai village in Northern Tanzania. It soon
became apparent why they had been shunned by the village people. The
babies were deformed with their hands permanently folded into tight
balls, thumbs glued to their palms, legs pulled up tight to their
empty tummies and tiny mouths that could barely stretch to suck a
bottle. But they were beautiful and as we held them, Naha could
communicate only with timid smiles hidden behind her hands. She had
never been to school and could not read so we just held her babies,
loved and kissed them, changed endless diapers and returned her
smiles.
But that day, with Mama Lily in the room, we finally realized we could
talk with Naha about Jesus. Mama Lily is also Maasai and speaks the
language of the famous and once fierce Maasai people. So with my poor
Swahili and Mama Lily translating we were finally able to talk with
Naha about a Savior who came to give life and power and forgiveness.
It was a sweet time as we watched this gentle woman begin to open her
heart to Jesus. You just have to know Mama Lily though. I would say
one sentence to Naha in my broken, what I call Kitchen Swahili, and
Mama Lily would translate into long paragraphs of Maasai. I finally
realized she was preaching her own sermon. But whatever it was it
worked and one day after some talks with Michael, Naha said, “When I
am baptized I will go after Jesus.”
So we took some nannies and went out to a beautiful Safari Lodge in
Arusha to baptize Naha. Safari guests were lounging around the pool
when our nannies began to sing “Sikuku, Oh Happy Day,” and the lodge
staff came out to watch what I am sure was the first baptism in their
sparking blue pool. I thought, ”Naha lives in a dusty dry village on
the plains of Africa, she has probably never seen more than a bucket
of water in her life and if she won’t get into the pool, so I
whispered to Michael, I may have to get in with you.” But she jumped
in and we cried and watched as this quiet, gentle woman gave her heart
to Jesus.
After fifty years of ministry and in our retirement years, we thought
we would just be taking care of abandoned, orphaned and at risk babies
in Africa. God’s plans are always so much bigger than our thoughts
and plans, aren’t they.
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