“Nasoro was one of the kindest, gentlest men I’ve ever known.”
Dr Ruth Hulser
Nasoro and Miriam at his Baptism
Nasoro was the security guard for the Diocese of Tabora and had worked for them for many years. When he reached retirement age, he was ‘pensioned-off’ as we would say in the UK, except for one small omission. No-one at the Diocese had paid any money into his pension and so, when he left, he was without any form of income to see him and his wife through their old age. Dr Ruth was far from happy with this arrangement, and so quickly employed him at the clinic as a ‘kitchen-hand’. Unfortunately, that didn’t last too long as the ladies already doing that work didn’t feel that he was up to the job. And so, Ruth employed him into her own household as a night guard but also a kitchen worker and was very satisfied with his work.
Eventually he was able to buy the piece of land next door to Ruth’s house and with Ruth’s help a small but fairly well-equipped house was built for him and Mariam his wife to live in. He became ‘part of the family’ which was Familia Moja. He was accepted into this ‘one family’ [which is what ‘familia moja’ means in Swahili] despite being a Moslem and having a Moslem wife, because FM doesn’t make distinctions like that when considering who to help. More recently, his wife started having some rather strange dreams. [And it seems that this is not entirely unusual for Moslems who God is seeking to draw to himself – see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K_lou3qTCY ]. She dreamed that she was struggling to find the local mosque. Every time she tried, she was thwarted and every time she asked for help she was directed to the local church. Eventually, the couple gave in to God’s prompting and recently they were both baptized as Christians.
The relationship with the rest of their family was already difficult but now it was to become more so, as they has broken away from their Moslem roots and as such were considered outcasts as they had dishonored their family. For many Moslems who convert, this effectively becomes a death sentence as that is often considered the penalty for ‘apostacy’. Thankfully, this wasn’t the case here as they were somewhat protected because of their involvement with ‘Dr Ruth’.
This last year Masoro died quite suddenly. It wasn’t clear quite why he died, but he left Miriam his wife in a very precarious and vulnerable situation. Traditionally, the family would turn up to claim all of the man’s possessions. This would have left Miriam completely destitute as none of them would be willing to take on an ‘apostate’ woman in order to look after her in her old age. However, when they arrived, they were told by local people that a whole lot of the things there were looking to claim couldn’t be taken. Why? Because they had been provided by ‘the doctor’ and so they belonged to Ruth. And the house [and the land it stood on] could not be claimed by them because the house was ‘the doctor’s house’. And so, after a bit of negotiation with the family, much of what Mariam would need to survive into her old age continued to be considered hers. Nasoro’s family obviously didn’t want to be very involved with their funeral and so it was Familia Moja that once again organized and provided the funeral.
But that is what you do for family. It is a long term commitment.
Will you join in that if you haven’t already done so and help provide more long-term support?
You can give using our CAFDonate secure portal which allows us to collect Gift Aid if you are a UK tax payer.
https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/11331#!/DonationDetails
A message from Dr Ruth
Please go to https://youtu.be/6XxGYA6tPbo to view this message [about 7 mins long]
Familia Moja Community Project 