Tim & Bronwen Heaton recall how a Christian broom seller stood up to the crowd.
Each Thursday afternoon Tim meets up with five Mwani believers along with Steve, Patrick and two Makonde men to worship, listen to Bible stories and pray. One of these, an old man called Mumadi, seems to never respond to questions about the Bible stories, or really take part in any way. We often wonder what’s going on in his head; we just keep going hoping that some of what he hears goes in. Well, we were very surprised when one of the local Makonde pastors told Patrick about what happened one day down in town. There was a big crowd of people waiting to buy stuff at one of the big warehouse shops. Mumadi was there trying to sell to the crowd some of his home made traditional brooms.
Praise God that Christ has worked in Mumadi’s heart so that he has chosen the way of truth, and is sticking up for it!
Samuel, the Makonde pastor, was on the fringe of the crowd watching but Mumadi didn’t see him. Mumade has one of these wind-up players which has parts of the Bible in Kimwani on it. As he was selling his brooms he was winding the player, letting people listen to the Bible stories. A group of Muslims started to form around him saying things like, “What are you doing? Why are you hanging out with these Christians? It’s all rubbish”. Samuel (the pastor, watching from the fringes) got worried, thinking “Oh, no. How is he going to respond to this?” Well, Mumade responded by saying, ”I am following Jesus now. The old way of being a Muslim is not the right way. I have found the way of truth!” Well, the group started ripping into him saying that he was confused and he was only saying these things because the missionaries must be giving him money. His response was, “If the white people were giving me money, would I be here trying to sell my brooms? You know that what I get for these brooms is hardly nothing!”. Well Mumadi left to go to try and sell his brooms somewhere else. Samuel remained listening to the group as they started questioning each other saying, “That guy is crazy”. Others said, “No, he is not confused. A person doesn’t talk like that if he’s confused.” Praise God that Christ has worked in Mumadi’s heart so that he has chosen the way of truth, and is sticking up for it! How cool is that!? He is enduring criticism and abuse for Christ. Praise God! Pray that Mumadi will remain strong and have a greater desire and ability to share his new found faith.
