Mama Christy lives in Bafumen, the main village
where the language of Mmen is spoken. She shares her story with me as we are
waiting for the fufu-corn to get heated over the fire. The fire is the only
source of light in our house here in Bafumen and the fire also makes me and the
other children in the house warm enough to sleep well throughout the cold
night. Mama Christy starts her story by telling me about what her life was like
before she heard the message of Jesus Christ in a language she understood. She
was brought up in the catholic church just as most people in Bafumen, but she
had never had the gospel presented to her in a way that she understood.
“Churchgoing was more of a Sunday tradition
while we kept our own traditions all the other days of the week” she says and she tells me of the time when
she got married.
“I was getting old”, she explains “almost 25,
and felt like I was being left behind, when finally one man proposed to me. I
didn’t need time to think. I knew that if I refused this man there would
probably never be any marriage for me, no children either in that case, the secure
insurance for my future.”
Marriage in Bafumen can be quite different from
marriages in western culture. Marriage in this case was more of a formal
document and the husband didn’t show any intention to provide for his wife and
family. So as Ma Christy gave birth to seven kids, four girls and three boys,
she still had to work her farm and make sure the crops gave enough yield to
feed her family and if she was lucky she might also have a chance to make some
profit by selling some of the harvest and help one of her sons to school. The
others would have to manage on their own if they wanted to gain their education
and the girls would grow up and marry one day, what would it gain them then to
have paid years of schooling?
“My husband refused to pay the children’s
school fees and he wouldn’t care whether we had enough to eat or not. While I
worked my own farm and others to earn some extra money, he went off to bars and
had other women besides me.”
Ma Christy continues: “when one of my sons got
sick, my husband refused to pay his transport to the local hospital 10 km away.
I had to carry my 10-year old son on my back. But once we reached the hospital
he was already too weak and the money I had wasn’t enough for his treatment and
medication. I had to let him go. He died.”
“This made me become very bitter and
disappointed with my husband. When I decided to leave his house and go and build
my own compound he spread lies about me. He even expelled me from going to the Catholic
church. I was angry and bitter with everyone, I hardly left my house, except
for going to my farm, and I didn’t greet people I met on the way. That is when
one woman who saw me, invited me to the local Baptist church.
Ma Christy gives a big smile as she explains: “We
used to laugh at them and call those Christians the bong-bong Christians because
they played drums in church. But I had nothing to lose. If this woman was kind enough
to invite me to her church I could at least give it a try.”
Ma Christy continues her story by describing how
different the service was compared to any other service she had been to before.
They sang songs in Mmen and when they prayed they prayed in Mmen. It was
in that church that she first heard the message of Jesus in a way that she
could relate to, the pastor spoke about forgiveness and the love of God.
“My heart was moved” she explains “moved by the
love of the message and the love the Christians showed me. From that day on, as
I forgave my husband, my life started to change. My heart was filled with joy
and I got strong enough to work my own farm and others so I could earn enough
money to help my kids to school. Today I have even been able to build a new
house with a good roof and enough rooms for my grandchildren who now stay with
me. I often host other children than my own as well, children who are being
persecuted by their parents because they wish to attend the Baptist church or
another smaller church. But as the smaller churches are growing people in Bafumen
realize that those churches are also Christians and as we get to translate the
word of God into Mmen everyone will know that the Bible isn’t just a Catholic
bible, Presbyterian or a Baptist bible, but a bible that belongs to all Christians.
“Ma Christy smiles as she concludes: “I’m a blessed woman and God has shown me
his love by speaking to me in the language of my heart.”
