42. Magdelena

(Warning: Some content in this blog post might be distressing for some readers.)

Now this is a turnaround. Usually, I hear testimonies of ministry to the Deaf. Today I find myself transfixed by a testimony of the Deaf ministering to the hearing. The world is changing!

Magdelena Mwinuka is a 34-year old Tanzanian lady. She is hearing. Born into a poor Christian family, when she finished her primary school studies, she found a job as a domestic worker for a Muslim family. The family had two sons in their twenties, one of whom began to sexually abuse her. She resisted strongly and spoke to his parents about this but they didn’t believe her.

One day, the family went away, leaving Magdelena to care for their supposedly sick son. As soon as they left, he raped her. This left her traumatised and pregnant. Her family spoke with his family about it and both insisted that the only course of action was for them to marry. So Magdelena was forced to marry her rapist, a man she hated and who frequently beat her. “I had no choice,” she laments. “I couldn’t go back to my old community as my family no longer accepted me. If you are raped, your life is worth nothing. Even if you are innocent, you become unmarryable.”

But life with her husband was horrible. They fought constantly and the violence continued. He tried to force her to go to the mosque but she refused. After bearing him a second son, he pressed their children into harmful superstitions, including trying to sacrifice their second son in the belief that it would make them rich.

She sought help from the local churches, but rather than helping her, they merely warned her about the consequences that seeking help might bring! Magdelena longed for peace, love and protection, but these were just cruelly elusive dreams.

Then she met a deaf neighbour named Veronica, and her life changed.

Veronica was a member of DMI’s church in Ifakara, Tanzania, where her husband serves as an evangelist. On Christmas Eve, 2015, Veronica asked her to help with preparing dishes for their Christmas party and suddenly Magdelena found herself serving food to the Deaf and attending their service. “I was amazed at how the Deaf worshipped God,” she recalls. “Amazed at how cooperative they were, how unified they were, at their words of inspiration and encouragement, especially from the leaders who taught the Deaf not only about loving yourself and your community, but reaching out to love the hearing community, too. I’d never heard or seen such love and compassion.”

From that day, Magdelena entered DMI’s Deaf church community. She learned to sign and began to worship with her new brothers and sisters. Despite being hearing, the Deaf treated her as their own. They cared for her, sheltered her when she ran from her husband’s abuse, and helped protect her son from being sacrificed.

But it was more than just kindness. These people had clout and they weren’t afraid to use it. When her husband threatened her and the church, they had faith in God and they had training in the rights of the deaf and vulnerable. They returned serve to the family with a threat of public humiliation, and so the family backed off and for the first time began to fear her!

This was more than mere comeuppance. It gave Magdelena the freedom to participate in church life and the Deaf community. She was chosen to be the secretary of the church and to attend a three-month DMI leadership training course. She still couldn’t quite believe how and why the Deaf would be so accepting of her. All she knew was that they had something that she wanted. And that something was Christ.

It was during that leadership training course that Magdelena really understood who Jesus was – ministry she received from the Deaf. Though raised in the Christian faith, she had never known or experienced the Jesus of that faith. 

“One night while the other students were asleep, I knelt down and said, ‘I give up my selfishness. I surrender my diluted notions that I can save myself and that I can work my way into your grace.’ I got up off my knees after praying and thought that the world would change, but the world hadn’t changed. I had changed. I changed spiritually, mentally and physically. Before, if I was able, I would sleep in until noon because I had nothing to look forward to. Since trusting in Christ, I want to get up because there’s a whole day ahead, and I want to live it!”

But such change rarely goes unchallenged. 

It drove her husband mad. A nasty, prolonged legal battle began for the custody of their children. The churched helped with this financially and logistically. Her husband married another woman. The lawsuit continues to this day but Magdelena is strong to fight it and believes she will win because her case is strong, she has the support of the church, and her God is mighty.

Magdelena concludes: “I feel blessed, loved and have peace of mind. God showed me a new way of life. I continue to experience his love through my work with the Deaf church. Please pray for me and my children to follow the right path. Pray that my rice farming activities will succeed to enable me to live and feed and educate my children. Pray that I will win the case to keep my children with me. Thank you!”

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