A Touching Story: "If anyone is in Christ, she is a new creature"
Though our food distribution project is now dwindling, ministry opportunities, which emerged from it, are just beginning. Meet Speciose, age 68, who bore eight children. Only one of her children is still alive today, a daughter named Olive, age 30. Olive has two sons, ages four and two years.
Olive has a heart-breaking story to tell. At age twelve, she was forced to work as a prostitute. This continued for twenty-eight years until the start of the pandemic. She never attended school and never learned to read or write.
We first met Olive on the days she came to receive food. Before handing out the goods, our team shared how much God loves every recipient and their families. After Olive received 10kg maize flour, 5kg beans and a bar of soap, she remarked, “Thank you God for the food. But I don’t have where to eat it from.”
Godfrey, the Dufatanye Organization (DO) Founder and Director, shares, “Her words touched me and prompted me to go visit her home. I found it not worth being called a house. We decided to rent the family a house until God provided the means to build a house for them. As the Hunger Relief Project has slowed down, we have begun to mobilize our DO members and others in the Village of Hope to make mud bricks for the house. Each staff member at the DO also contributed a sack of cement. This is not a little thing. Several of our staff have very few resources to live on.”
“We hope, as funds materialize, to also build a kitchen, toilet and bathroom, and a little garden nearby called a ‘kitchen garden.’” He continues, “After receiving food from us the second time, Olive said, ‘I have never been given food without being beaten or having several men sleeping on me. God is good.’ She decided to join the DO and has started making bricks with the others for her house. When she first started, the others laughed to see her working because she had never been used to that kind of hard work. She told them, ‘I am now a new Olive, not the one you used to know. I have known how much God loves me, and I will never be a prostitute or the Olive you knew before.’ Every one laughed and rejoiced with her!”
“Now, Olive is seeking the Lord. She works on the house every day, and last Sunday she attended church. She brought her mother and the children with her.” Olive is sometimes embarrassed to smile because she lost three teeth after a man, who used her for his pleasure, beat her instead of paying money. But Olive smiles now. She has discovered our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She knows that He smiles upon her. He is transforming the old Olive into a new Olive. As God prompts you, please pray for Olive and her family.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, she is a new creature. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
Martha Vetter served with the Anglican Church in post genocide Rwanda from 2001-2007 where she taught Bible at Sonrise School for Orphans and wrote a Bible curriculum for grades 1-6, based on the National Curriculum of Rwanda. Presently, she works part-time on behalf of The Dufatanye Organization and Cooperative, a small NGO in southern Rwanda, which assists impoverished families, most of whom have HIV+/AIDS. Previously, she received her Master of Religion (Biblical Studies) at Trinity School for Ministry, Ambridge, PA and her Master of Education at Marymount University, Arlington, VA. She’s a nurse (BSN, UNC-Chapel Hill), teacher and has served as the children’s minister and a women’s retreat speaker for various churches. Her biggest claims to fame were hiking the Camino de Santiago, surviving a volcanic eruption and subsequent earthquake tremors in Rwanda, and flipping in her car twice (catty cornered!) down an embankment in Rwanda before rolling within six inches of a steep cliff! While thanking God for his amazing protection, Martha enjoys home in Charleston, SC with her two English Cream miniature dachshunds, Honey and Mercy. She’s an avid UNC Tarheel fan and enjoys books, sports and spending time with friends.