We want the world
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Relational mission
'He is able' – and so are we!
 Susie Hart, CMS mission partner, in the Neema paper-making workshop
(Photo: © Harts/CMS)
 
Today Josphat rejoices over his new nickname – ‘he is able’ – and the dignity that goes with it. And it is all because of Jesus.
The story is simple. The young deaf and disabled man went to work at Tanzania’s Neema Crafts Centre. It’s the pioneering work of CMS mission partners Andy and Susie Hart. Neema, which means grace in Kiswahili, gives deaf and disabled people a future and a hope.
Josphat became the workshop’s most skilled paper-maker – and truly ‘able’. Yet there is far more to it than that. It really is all because of Jesus.
As you know, many communities see disabled people as cursed – fit only to be hidden away or to beg on the streets for survival. They are a shame to their families and a shame to themselves.
Now the love of Jesus is changing that in Tanzania. Josphat, and hundreds like him, are standing tall on the inside even though they may be hunched on the outside.
Those bringing such change are Andy and Susie. They began the Neema Crafts Centre nine years ago – with three young deaf men making paper from elephant dung in a rented room.
Today, thanks to the support of people like you, the Centre has trained and employs well over 100 disabled people no longer condemned to a life of poverty and contempt.
Were you to visit you’d find skilled workers producing beautiful craft work – glass beads, candles, weaving, ceramics and more. There’s a world-renowned cafe run totally by people who are deaf. And a guest house - the first in the world run fully by people with disabilities.
Andy and Susie would love you to meet those whose lives have been transformed. People like Benjamin, disabled from childhood – most likely by polio – and now part of the weaving team.
 Benjamin - with supplies for the weaving workshop
(Photo: © Harts/CMS)
You could also meet Godfrey. Born deaf, he used to be thrown out on the street by shopkeepers who simply thought he was mad.
For the past few years, Godfrey has been a chef in Neema’s deaf-run restaurant. Customers learn a little sign language and come to see being deaf through very different eyes. This includes those shopkeepers, who no longer throw Godfrey on to the street but give him royal treatment.
Susie would tell you, “This is what Neema Crafts Centre is all about; changing negative attitudes towards people with disabilities in the eyes of those around them and in their own eyes too.”
The expressions of Jesus’ love do not stop there. Those working at Neema Crafts have lacked an education – due to the stigma of their disability, or being unable to travel to school. So there are literacy classes and training on how to manage the money they never thought they would have.
As you would expect, there’s a weekly Bible study. And a new deaf church with services entirely in sign language. Wonderfully, those who have had their future changed by the love of Jesus are gradually coming to know him. |
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Make yours a lasting gift...
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