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How to Let God Be You?

As a street child hustling on the street searching for my own basic needs and for supporting my step brothers and sisters, life was too tough for me to understand and believe in preaching about God's ability to solve people's people's problems.

 

It was until the time  I was offered an opportunity to join an orphanage boarding school under Hananasif Orphanage Centre (HOCET). As I was in this boarding school, I was able to study, get my basic needs and I was able to help my family back home by taking some food item from school  store to my home.

 

I was the only adult child that i had to work to help my family, but when i was enrolled to this boarding school, I couldn't work to help my family. I thank the school management for allowing me to take food and other important need from a school store to my family so I could concentrate on my studies without thinking about family situation back home. 

 

On my first day at school, I wasn't happy thinking much about my family, but also I didn't like the fact that I was called an orphan for joining an orphanage school. I did not consider myself an orphan because I knew my parents were alive and healthy but due to different life challenges they decided to abandon me.

 

My mother got pregnant with a stranger when she was in primary school, they were just having fun which ended up to bringing me to this World. Due to her parent's harassment, she decided to give birth, abandoned me and fled away from her family home. Efforts were made to find my father and I was given to someone thought to be my father who was married to another woman already.

 

My suspected father and his wife already had 5 children, I was transferred from the village to live with his family in another region away from my mother's village. Unfortunately within a year, the man abandoned his family of five children with me on it. My stepmom started to get very sick and couldn't work to provide for his children, including me.

 

Since I was the older son in this family, I had to start working at a very young age to provide for my brothers, sisters and help my mom as she was sick on bed. This was my journey beginning to living street life for many years before I met Hananasif Orphanage Centre in Tanzania (HOCET). 

 

I remember one day my step mom was very sick, i went to our neighbor to ask for help to drive my stepmom to a nearby hospital. It was Sunday morning, as I knocked on the gate, our neighbor was getting out with his family in the car heading to church. When I asked for help, he replied that they will be late to church and they had very important offering to give there, so they left.

 

My step mom has been always insisting me to rely on God, but this was very difficult for me to believe. She believed that i could go to school one day even if we don't have money for school fees. When the opportunity come for me to join the orphanage Centre, i expressed my feeling to her that i was not happy to go to an orphanage school. She told me as she was crying that, you should go my son, i have been praying for this and i am sure it is God who have answered my prayers.

 

I hardly agree to join the orphanage school, i thank God i graduated and my dream to get an education was possible. After i joined the school, my two brothers were also given the opportunity to join the school, so at least three of us from the family got an education. 

After i graduate and went back to street, i was shocked to find out many of my friends i played with on streets were going decay.

 

Some of my friend had passed away for being killed of theft, some were single teenage mothers, some were suffering from drugs abuse and some formed very dangerous gangs which destroyed peace on our street and many other jailed at the very young age. One day as i was attending a burial ceremony of our friend who was killed by set to fire after caught stealing. I remembered that when i was on street i was doing similar things like what many were doing. Stealing from people, drugs, underage and unprotected sex. So i knew that i could fall under similar problems if it wasn't for the orphanage to take me out of street to a boarding school.

 

Thinking deeply on this day, i started hearing a voice talking to me, it told me to take action to change the narrative about out-of-school and street youth. These group of youth wasn't respected on streets, they were considered dangerous all the time and this hindered them from getting help from the community. This was the time i decided to initiate a movement called Let God Be You to help provide out of school and street youth with necessary resources, education, skills and guidance to lead a health and self sufficient lives.

 

Let God Be You comes from my spiritual motivation as i grew up, we can not be God but i have learnt that God is a spirit and he created us in his own image. I believe for him to work on people's lives, he must use our bodies, for him to use our bodies we must be willing to let him do so. People have turned out to be so selfish in the World today that they don't let God's blessing flow to other people.

 

This is why many people today are suffering from different problems, they seek for help from relatives, neighbors and friends unsuccessful. When things get tough, they turn to God, go to churches and mosques to find solution for their problems. Unfortunately even churches and mosques today have caught up with capitalism systems that even the Word of God isn't preached in a way to give hope to people.

 

From their spiritual motivation, most fellow youth believed that they are going through different problems including poverty by God himself and God will change their destination when he wants. So many of fellow youth could just sit without working, could steal, and do any dangerous activity to live while waiting for God's mercy for their lives to be made better. It is true, even in church and at home, our parent and guardian made us believe that it is God who made our families poor and he will change it when he want. 

 

With Let God Be You, i wanted to inspire fellow youth and children that, we can decide to be what we want to achieve by trusting in God and working hard toward our dreams. Also, i wanted to inspire my friends from well to do families to share their blessings with other in need because that is the only true offering God can receive and bless us abundantly.

 

Through Let God be You, i collected different resources and support from my friends, i developed a community educational and training center where out of school and street youth got the opportunity to spent their time. They learned different skills, they got basic needs, they developed strong connection with local and international friend who were visiting our community center.

 

After the youth finish their programs, we worked with local business to find job placement for them, some of them were grouped into different groups to work on single project, some started their own businesses and some got opportunity to advance their education. Through Let God Be You, i and my team have impacted more than 900 youth directly and indirectly, unfortunately with Covid-19 eruption and restrictions, it disturbed our revenue stream which was contributed by international students and tourists who come to visit and volunteer. 

 

In 2020, i come to a conclusion to postpone our programs so i can get enough time to rethink of a better way to do God's work. I am now working on a project which i call Kizazi Huru Village (Free Generation Village). This is almost similar project to what i have done before, but this time with out of school youth in rural areas. I have manage to buy a farm where i am looking for support to build an Eco friendly and alternative school for out of school youth in rural areas and those coming from residence care and my past programs.

 

The reason why i have moved to rural and bought a farm is to ensure that i and beneficiaries will empower each others and work on the natural resources including our land to produce farm and animal products that we will sell back to our local and international community to sustain our project, its impact and empower ourselves economically.

 

To conclude, remember when i went to knock my neighbors gate for help for my mom to go to hospital, they replied me they were hurrying to church. Yes they were going to meet God as they were being taught by traditional words of God preaching, but probably they were leaving God dying on street for neglecting to rush my mom to hospital. What about the orphanage school i went to, the founder and his family and his management were truly worshiping God by action. They were living the word of God and preaching it by doing. 

 

Let God Be You today by doing small act to help those around you get relief from their suffering, Let God Be You today by supporting those who do business for social good like me. I would like to welcome you to join our fundraising campaign to help me and my team be able to develop our land resource into a carrying home and alternative school for out of school and street youth in rural Morogoro.

 

You can not be God but a medium for God's blessing to others, people only see God by us taking collaborative actions to help one another in solving everyday challenges. When we see someone in need, we should try to take actions to help and preaching news of hope to help them get back to life. We can let God be us by allowing him to work through us in serving his people. God is like a fire and we are the sparks, separating from one another is putting of the fire, but uniting as sparks we make a whole flame of fire.

 

Let God Be You today, thank you for reading and taking action

@Mwalimu David

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