Tanzania 2019: Friday 25th October
From the 20th to the 29th October, two teams -- one from Churches Inc, and one from Wheels for the World -- will be hard at work in Tanzania. We'll be bringing you all the stories and details of what they're up, the people they're meeting, and the lives they're changing just as often as the internet connection allows. Please keep praying for the team and for all the local people they're meeting, who often travel long distances with the hope of receiving a wheelchair.
Wheels for the World
Feis is a delightful little girl. She is 4 years old. Her name means Faith. Fais has deformities of both hands and her left leg. She was crawling and the wheelchair will help her go to school and church. You can see her colouring, looking at a board book of Bible stories and singing.
Techies and therapists work together to create cushions and padding to keep children secure and in a good position.
Sometimes a chair fits a child perfectly. It was a carved foam seating system. When we first saw the chair we did not expect to find a child to fit it. This little girl was called Happy, she was born without a cry and is 5 years 4 months old. She mainly sleeps.
Last night it had got to late and dark to assess this man.
We were so pleased to see him return this morning and provide him with a wheelchair. Last night a man had scooped him up in his arms and carried him across the dark, wet, busy road.
How can we sum up an amazing week? Thank you for your prayers, for sponsoring wheelchairs, collecting wheelchairs and frames for sending out, making sanitary products, sending money for Bibles, books, crayons, reading and sunglasses.
It has been a great privilege to be part of the Through the Roof partnership. The blessing of smiles and laughter, the anguish of seeing tears, poverty and pain but these are so often turned to gratefulness as lives and families are transformed.
"Wheelchair means I can get to the toilet myself. This gives dignity." Thank you from Tanzania!
The WFTW team’s have seen 257 people, including 100 children, and given our 140 wheelchairs and buggies, 76 walking aids, 179 Bibles (including 58 audio bibles). We saw them on a military area. This meant people didn’t have to go up into the hills where there was a large venue but it would be difficult for disabled people to reach. The roof was in 2 sections and rain could enter from above and from the sides. The rain was a challenge but the venue was well known and easy to access. Thank you to everyone involved, and to all of you at home for your prayers and support!
Churches Inc.
Today the Churches Inc team had the privilege of visiting some of the people who have received wheelchairs.
It was great to see Helena using her new light-weight wheelchair and to hear that it will mean she will now be able to go to school.
We then visited a man called Maghembe who works as a teacher. With his new wheelchair he is now able to write on the blackboard and move around his classroom. It was very moving to be thanked by his pupils for giving their teacher a wheelchair to help him to teach them well.
Altogether the Churches Inc team have had 740 people attending sessions during this week. This is an amazing number. We have seen people giving their lives to Christ and seen disabled people responding to the great commission - going back to their communities to share the good news of Jesus.
It has been a particular blessing to be part of an international team with representatives from the UK as well as pastors from Tanzania and Kenya, bringing a variety of experience and expertise. It has also been wonderful to see the different aspects of Through the Roof working together - with Churches Inc and Wheels teams in the same venue - blessing people both practically and spiritually. We pray that the momentum that has grown during this week will continue long after we have left and that the trip will have made a real and long-lasting difference to the lives of disabled people in the Mwanza area of Tanzania.
