Wheels for the World trip to Tanzania PICTURE GALLERY
13th – 24th June 2006
I would like to share a few thoughts about the trip with you; about God’s perfect timing and the way He answers our prayers so abundantly.
The team met at Heathrow airport knowing that the container with the wheelchairs, which had left in February, was still impounded at the port in Tanga. As we boarded the plane we received a text to say that it had just been released. After a long journey, which involved two flights, we flew into Kilimanjero airport where we were met by a mini bus that transported us to En Gedi, the mission compound where, we were staying.
My first impressions: - it was cloudy and not hot as I expected, the amount of green vegetation (it was the end of the long rains) and the number of birds flying around. We passed fields of sunflowers, maize and banana trees everywhere. As we arrived at our final destination the container had arrived and a crane was lowering it onto the ground. Wow, God’s perfect timing.
The team consisting of 4 therapists, 1 administrator and 1 technician ministered to 200 people by fitting wheelchairs, crutches and giving advice. We were also able to share the Gospel and present Bibles in Swahili. So many people whose lives have been transformed through the gift of a wheelchair – children now able to attend school; people only able to crawl around due to the effects of polio, now given the dignity of sitting in a chair instead of on the floor; a mother released from having to carry her 16 year old child around on her back; a teenager who said now I will be able to go to church!
I’d like to share 2 stories
with you. Mary, who I saw at
Magugu. We had 1 self-propelling chair
left and 3 attendant controlled chairs. There were several people still waiting, whom should we give the chair 
to? Liz, our
contact in Tanzania, felt very strongly that God was saying that we should give
it to Mary for cultural reasons. Mary
was 19 years old and was born with no legs; she had shuffled to school on her
hands and bottom. She was very bright
and had passed her primary education. To go on to secondary it is necessary to pay or for someone to sponsor
you. Mary’s parents would not let her
carry on with her education as they thought it pointless. They told her she could never marry as if
she did she would have children who would also have no legs. She had gone to a disabled centre to try and
get a wheelchair but as she couldn’t pay they wouldn’t give her one. On leaving school she had taught herself to
sew, but the future was not very bright for her. I wish you could have seen her face as she transferred into the
wheelchair and moved herself around – what a special moment. But that wasn’t enough for God. On that day the MP for the region had
visited for ten minutes to see the work we were doing and had left her assistant
with us. He was so touched by Mary’s
story he said that now she had a wheelchair he would personally see that she
got sponsorship to complete her secondary education.
At the second distribution centre a man turned up requesting a wheelchair. He came from 500 kilometres away. A 45 year old lady with a family in his church needed a wheelchair as she could only crawl around, the church had been praying about it. He had tried to buy a wheelchair for her but had been unable to find one. He had travelled to Arusha to register some land settlement and as he was walking along the road of the shantytown he saw someone in a wheelchair. He went over to ask them where the wheelchair came from and you guessed it was one of ours. They explained where we were and we were able to provide one. God’s perfect timing again – its mind blowing. It would take him at least 12 hours to travel home by buses and then he was going to carry the chair on his head the remainder of the way. We were so overwhelmed as indeed he was.
And the future? The container has been left to be set up as a workshop for maintaining the wheelchairs. Two local mechanics Saitoti and Robert were able to have some training while we were there and they will be responsible for the wheelchairs. 200 hundred people touched by the practical demonstration of God’s love. Swahili Bibles given to Christians and Muslims and only God knows what the effect of His Word will be. I feel so privileged to have been a part of this distribution.
Sue Pimentel
Page last updated 26.11.06