36. Glory

^{_{For each of the blogs, I usually meet with the subject, in person if possible, or online, and try to get to know them as much as I can – find out who they were and who they have become, what struggles they have overcome, what joys they have found and any eccentricities that make them uniquely them. An interview can take hours. In the case of Glory, I received this story from her firsthand (through our Tanzania Director Joseph Hizza). Some stories are best left untouched. This is one of them. Glory’s testimony remains as it came to me with virtually no editing. I’m sure you’ll be moved and encouraged by her story. – Pastor Andrew}}

From Islamic background to devout Christian

My name is Glory. I was born as Fatuma Ally in the 1990s. I am the third child of Islamic family of five of Mzee Ally Athumani. Although my family members weren’t devout Muslims, I as other Muslim children in our background, studied the Quran and followed its teachings.

But something was missing. As a child, I had many unanswered questions about Allah. I always asked a lot of questions and I couldn’t get the right answer. In our neighbourhood we only had access to Quran and Islamic books and therefore I could not do research on other religions.

“Why did we have to pray five times a day? Why did we have to cover ourselves? Why did we have to speak to God in Arabic? Could God not understand our native language, which is Swahili?”

I was always disappointed when I read the Quran and never felt a closeness with God by reading it.

Many verses in the Quran are against women. Many verses encourage war. There are verses that say if you convert from Islam to another religion, you are an infidel. But I had this passion to know God.

I faced all of these questions and struggles as a child and these continued during my primary education era at Deaf Unit of Msasani Primary School where we had religious classes too.

Marriage trouble between my parents, especially my father who hit my mother so often as he said that Islam allows a man to punish unruly wife. This added to my hate of the religion. It didn’t take long, even before I completed standard seven in the first quarter of this decade, before my parents divorced and later my mother died a heart broken woman.

My parents’ divorce and mother’s death were main reason of my failure to do well in my final examination and hence I applied to join at Yombo Rehabilitation Training Institute in Dar es Salaam to study two year tailoring course.

Because of the poverty situation I was unable to access to basic needs as I lived on my own after father went away from us. But he did pay a rent with no electricity for me to live while studying at Yombo. This situation saw me start a relationship with a hearing man whilst at school so that I could rely on him for daily necessities.

However, through this relationship I became pregnant, which led me to abandon studies at the Yombo. I gave birth to a daughter and started life with this man who is also from a Muslim family.

However, this man was very drunk, every day when he came back at night, beat me. All of this reminded me of my parents’ life and my mother’s sad death.

The man did not provide any money, including for childcare, later he left me and went to marry another woman in the name of Islamic religion.

I decided from that day I will never relate with any Muslim man. The baby went to live with the man’s brother, and for me, life got worse. I got depressed, especially thinking how my daughter lives. My health dropped; I became very weak. My older sister heard my trouble, came to pick me up to go and live with her.

However, the thought of my daughter living far from me, and in the hand of people I don’t trust continued to stress me out. I searched where my daughter is and found that her heath had deteriorated due to mistreatment.

So I tried my best to try to take her from the arms of the man’s brother, but due to my poor condition, I could not face them, as they use money to bribe officials to prevent me from taking my daughter.

There was a deaf sister named Rabia who came to help me. She presented my problems to the Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner, Paul Makonda, who directed me to police and social workers who intervened the matter and able to bring back my daughter.

As I got a job as a hair care worker, I came to meet another deaf sister named Juliana who is an evangelist and choir member at the Immanuel Church of the Deaf. As she has work like me in the saloon, I met her so often and was interested how she lives, how most of the time she sing to praise God. She also gave me the good news of Jesus’ salvation. Christ. She told me that Jesus can hear my trouble and remove them if I accept him.

I told my sister about the Good News of Salvation but she was not satisfied with it and forced me to give up the faith. She said Islamic law forbade them from sharing Christianity. But it didn’t stop me. I learned new faith everyday from Jestina who helped me to answer difficult questions and those questions she failed to respond, she directed me to church leaders who helped me. At Buguruni where church located I enjoyed to learn Holy Scripture in sign language.

While insisting on this new faith which gave me peace of mind, my sister chased me from her home after being advised by Muslim sheikhs.

Juliana and Church leaders helped me to find another place to live. Their love touched me so much. I was able to access Bibles and signed scripture without obstacle and able to memorise verses that sometimes carried me through the awful conditions.

It wasn’t easy. But there is a verse in Matthew that talks about forgiving your enemies and those who persecute you. I asked God to help me to live those verses. Having accepted Jesus as my Saviour, I attended weekly baptism classes, that saw me being baptised on May 23, 2020.

As a best way to move forward, I follow Jesus and listen to Him as I saw it making a real difference in my life, an urge I did not see before.

Despite the past, I have forgiven those who offended me as the Christ is the one who gives us the power to love and forgive others. However, I still need support spiritually and physically. As I have a daughter without father and I have no full-time job at the moment to care for me and my child who next year start education. Please pray for me and my child so that I get permanent job or sponsor for the child’s education.

If you would like to support Glory, or any of our students, teachers or pastors, please click on the donate button below, or mail to info@deafmin.org