God’s
Warm Embrace
Ndenaghafumwa
Umburi (her name means “let us glorify God”) is a busy woman to say the least.
Ndenaghafumwa, who goes by Mankia for short, lives on a shamba (farm) on
the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest freestanding mountain in the
world. I met Mankia and her family the day they received two LWR Mission
Quilts, delivered by the local Lutheran pastor. (The Quilts arrived just in
time as it was rainy season in Tanzania and quite cold and wet in the village.)
On the day I
spent with Mankia, she prepared breakfast for her family, cut banana leaves to
feed her cows, harvested mchicha (amaranth greens) and cooked them for
lunch, walked to a distant field to weed her corn and bean crops, walked back
home, cooked supper, tidied her small home and cleaned up all the dishes from
the day. She also shared a good laugh with a neighbor who dropped by, hosted
her pastor for tea, and caught up on the village news with another neighbor.
At the end of the long and busy day
Mankia was able to rest warmly under her new LWR Mission Quilt. The second
Quilt covered her son, Goodlove, who has been confined to his bed for 18 years
after a fall from an avocado tree left him paralyzed from the waist down. An
extra layer of warmth from an LWR Mission Quilt will help prevent what could be
a life-threatening illness for Goodlove, who is especially vulnerable to
extreme weather conditions.
And just as the
Quilts will warm Goodlove and Mankia physically, they will also warm them
spiritually and emotionally as they feel supported and cared for by people who
are serving Christ through serving him.
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Does your
congregation have quilters? Encourage them to make quilts for LWR’s 2013
quilting campaign. Through programs like this, we, as the ELCA, are changing
lives! Thank you!
We cannot be quiet about
what we have seen and heard! Acts 4:20
Christine
Donahue, Mission Interpreter Coordinator
