God Sets The Lonely In Families
by Lydia Schaeffer
Ten year old Catherine has experienced much loss in her young life. Raised in a simple mud house, her father died when she was very young, and her widowed mother married a fisherman named Tuombe. They lived in the rural community of Mikocheni, surrounded by sugar cane plantations. Just when it seemed like Catherine’s family life was finally becoming stabilized, her mother died, leaving her living alone with her stepfather.
Catherine’s stepfather eventually remarried a lady named Rehema, with whom he had two daughters, Lucy and Justina. Justina was just five months old when her mother, Rehema, (Catherine’s stepmother) died of AIDS. This was the third parental death Catherine had experienced in a 6 year period. At that point, her devastated stepfather, who had also been diagnosed with HIV, decided to take Catherine to a nearby orphanage where she would be able to begin attending school. She was 6 years old. Tuombe brought his infant child Justina to the Welfare Department, and officials placed her in the care of TOA. Tuombe kept Lucy with him since she was no longer breast fed and could be cared for by his sister, who lived with him.
Tuombe has been very faithful to visit Justina at Treasures of Africa over the last two years. But during that timeframe, it became obvious that his health was deteriorating and he no longer had a permanent home. It was becoming harder and harder for him to travel to the orphanage where Catherine lived and then to Moshi to see Justina at TOA. So when he asked if we would be willing to have Catherine move from the other orphanage to begin living here at TOA, we were very open to his request in order to keep the girls together. We recommended that he bring 5 year old Lucy as well since she was also essentially homeless and we were concerned about what might happen to her if he died. Lucy arrived at TOA on August 31st.
 Lucy had been with her father and traveling quite a bit, sleeping wherever space was available, so she is still adjusting to the structure at TOA. But overall she is doing well. She is happy to be reunited with her sister Justina and they can be found outside running, swinging, or just sitting on the grass laughing together. Lucy has an outgoing personality and loves to play and run around.
After living for years at another orphanage in a rural comunity, ten year old Catherine was finally reunited with her stepsisters, Justina and Lucy on September 14th, 2009, when she came to live at Treasures of Africa. She was quiet and unsure at first, but after a week or so, she was comfortable and all smiles. She has become fast friends with Doreen, who is so happy to have a girl her age in the home!
Catherine’s only other adult relative (besides her sick father) is the aunt who had helped care for Lucy, but she is now also sick from AIDS. Her stepsisters are the only other family members she has left and we are committed to helping them stay together.
In Tanzania, it is a common practice for a child to be given the father’s first name as their middle name, so all three girls bear the name Tuombe. Interestingly, that name actually means “Let’s pray” in Kiswahili.
So we want to encourage everyone to do just that - “Let’s pray” for Catherine and Lucy and Justina - that their hearts would be healed from the trauma of death and loss that they all have experienced, and that their father will receive the miracle of salvation and healing. We believe that as these girls allow themselves to receive the love available to them as part of the Treasures of Africa family, God will truly heal their hearts.
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
God sets the lonely in families,
he leads forth the prisoners with singing;
but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.
Psalm 68:5-6 New International Version
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