One of the greatest blessings and greatest ways I believe God has used me this year (along with my TZ bestie Laura) is in the life of our houseworker Esther. Esther is a beautiful, hard-working, God-loving woman who cleans our house 3 days a week. [If you're thinking life here sounds pretty easy that we have a regular houseworker, please know the most important factors in the situation: 1. This allows for employment in a land where work is very hard to come by and the majority of the population is living below the extreme poverty line, 2. This gives us the opportunity to have a relationship with and make the difference in the life or lives of Tanzanian individuals, and 3. Living here can be really hard at times and the extra help really is helpful! We're a lot more adjusted now and could live without a houseworker (though we wouldn't want to b/c of the relationships it allows us to have) but at the beginning of the year... learning how to boil & filter all of our water, thoroughly clean veggies, cook everything from scratch, wash clothes by hand when power's out, etc. etc. ... was a little too much to learn off the bat on our own without the help of our wonderful househelper(s).] We do also have another househelper, Jacki, who comes and helps us out on Saturdays. We really don't "need" the extra help from her, but she is a beloved friend and Tanzanian neighbor who was in need of more work so we decided to have her help us one extra day a week. The cost to pay these women is so low (due to Tanzanian standards of living and reasonable wages here) that it barely affects us to have a little extra help, while it goes a long way to provide for these women and their families.
So.... Esther. Quite frankly, there were some problems in her previous work situation and how she was being seen and treated. I will not go into details, but there were. Nothing huge or abusive, but oppression in its most subtle and sneaky forms. Oppression and dishonor were rearing their ugly heads, and I could not overlook it. God wouldn't let me overlook it.... He continued to place her on my heart, day after day, and bring to my Spirit the truths in His word about her... about the poor, about the needy, about the oppressed.... about the very reason He brought me here to Africa. Jeremiah 22:16 says "'He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is THAT not what it means to know Me?' declares the Lord." God very clearly and very strongly put Esther on both Laura's and my hearts (have I mentioned how incredibly thankful I am for Laura?!) and ended up using us to *defend the cause* of her, a poor and needy woman in Tanzania. He used us to fight for her honor and her dignity and to assure that she was being treated with dignity, respect, and honor and being paid fair wages.
Over the course of the year, as Laura and I have striven to treat her with dignity, to show her the value we place on her life and on her service, her demeanor has changed greatly. She now sings while she works in our home, she beams from ear to ear when she sees us, and she glows with a bright smile that comes only from a joy deep within. Sadly, these traits did not characterize her work at the beginning of the year. They were far from characteristic of her demeanor. But through God's love and service being poured out through Laura and me into her life, He has worked healing and blessing and love over her.
This past weekend, Laura and I went to visit Esther in her home. We felt that this was important, in order to show her that we truly "see" her. That we see her home, her daily life, who she is and what her life is made of. That we care enough to *know* these things.
So Saturday afternoon, after she finished working at our house, we traveled with her by daladala (super-cramped/most-people-standing-up bus) to her home. We traveled the long 45min-1hr daladala ride (most of it standing) to her neighborhood, and then walked the long road down to her home (10-15 min. walk). The hour-long commute she makes to and from work everyday in order to make daily wages that would only buy us a meal at a fast-food restaurant.
As we walked down this long road, so many emotions were welling-up inside me that I just wanted to walk off on my own and *bawl*. To let the tears just come rushing forth. The hard work that this woman gives everyday (she also works for another family a couple days a week). The long and arduous commute that she undertakes daily. The little impoverished-corner of the world that she lives in. All to make enough money for her daily rice and beans. Walking down that road and knowing with most probability that none of her previous employers have done this.... have seen where she lived and have thus "seen her"... To know in that moment how much that must have meant to her.... It was almost too much to bear.
Once we arrived at her home, we were greeted by playful children running around, neighbors living in community, each (family) living in their own "room" in these attached concrete-block homes. Esther's home: a one-bedroom room, which is probably 7'x7' in size, with no bathroom and no kitchen. A bed in the corner and a little "dining table" (i.e. a low coffee table with some small wooden stools around it) on the other side. She had 3 small woven baskets hanging on the walls as decoration, and so few material possessions to her name that I could count them on my 2 hands. A Bible on her dining table (2 Bibles actually, one given to her by our wonderful former housemate Marie). A Bible verse hung on the wall (the verse was Hebrews 13:2 "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it." Oh the beautiful irony and symbolism here.... I know God was smiling down....). She had placed nicely embroidered fabric over her table and stools and draped it across the pile of stuff in her corner (clothes, pots & pans) to make it look "nicer"... fabric which was clearly only brought out for the most special of occasions and likely even borrowed from a friend.
As we sat in her small home, seeing where and how she has lived for the past 10 years, we spoke with her in our very minimal and broken Swahili. We pulled out our Swahili dictionary and looked up words we needed.... we surely butchered our grammar.... but we did our best, God helped filled in the rest, and we were able to have a beautiful time of conversation and relationship. Laura complimented one of the baskets hanging on her wall, and you know what Esther did in that moment? She took 2 of them down and gave them to us as gifts. Oh, the tears are coming now as I write this. 2 of the 3 decorative items that she owned, she took down and GAVE to us. To us blonde city-girls who live in a big home, with so much jewelry that she can't even dust around it.... and she gave us 2 of the very-few possessions to her name.
We prayed with and over her before we left, and in that moment I know that God worked in even greater ways than He already has this year. We prayed that she would find continued employment as Laura and I both move on this next year and will not need her, that she will find employers who honor her and treat her with respect and dignity. That He will bless her in her inmost being with the spiritual riches of Love, Joy, Peace. That He will provide for her *every* need. Please continue to pray these things with me.
There were many tears, many smiles, much laughter, and much love on this day.
Oh, I will not soon forget this day.
And even now, as I look back on this situation, I am so humbled to the core at the reality of what God has done here. A beautiful woman that He loves, living in an impoverished slum area in the middle of impoverished Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In the middle of Africa. This woman living in a one-room home, living hand-to-mouth, with so few possessions to her name. Day after day, year after year, working hard and loving God as she returns to her home at the end of each day in this tiny poverty-stricken corner of the world. And My good Lord looked down and cared so much about her that He chose to take 2 blonde city-girls living in 2 of the biggest and most materialistic cities in the world- Dallas and Los Angeles- to pick them up and transplant them here to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, so that He could use them to bless and change the life of this one woman that He loves.... neglected and forgotten, oppressed.... He transplanted us into her little corner of the world because of the value He places on her and on her life and the great love that He has for her. That He would choose ME. I am so humbled.
As Hagar proclaimed, "You are the God who sees me... I have now seen the One who sees me." (Genesis 16:13) Oh, our God is one who SEES us. How awesome is He.
Esther's Home
Me, Esther, & Laura
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"'He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so *all went well*. Is THAT not what it means to know me?' declares the Lord." -Jeremiah 22:16
