Her name describes her well, translated Tom in Swahili means sweet; Mama Sweet. She is a powerful woman of God and a blessing to everyone she meets. Widowed after her husband and children were beaten and shot over a tribal dispute in Kenya over land. She miraculously was able to escape with her infant nephew Calvin.
She has testimony upon testimony of God’s grace and provision in her life. She loves to tell us the story of how she had to nurse Calvin but no milk would come out so she prayed and prayed until 3 days later milk came out.
Although she has faced terrible tragedies in her life, things that can really break and wreak people she has found the Lord and relies on His constant provision and joy for everyday.
On Wednesday four of us went to visit Mama Tom in the morning. She lives in a small village near the Nyonwe market in half of an old church building made out of mud and sticks. As soon as she saw us she ran to us shouting my children, my children and started worshiping God in one of her favorites songs:
“I praise thee, I praise thee,
I praise thee in the morning, I praise thee in the daytime,
I praise thee, I praise thee,
I praise thee till the sun goes down”
She welcomed us in to her home and she started praying a passionate prayer, crying out to God on our behalf asking that he would bless us for visiting her and thanking God that He sent us to Uganda to love her and she prayed for our parents back home and I started to cry but I had to hold it back because I wanted to ball my eyes out, I just felt so moved!
As we sat down and asked her how she was doing she told us that she had typhoid but the medicine was too expensive so she was praying that God would heal her.
Mama Tom is 70+ and is physically very poor but spiritually very rich in faith, joy and love. She takes care of 15 orphans and although she basically has nothing she gives everything she does have to others. As we sat down she showed us the pot of rice she had cooked earlier and she said we are going to eat. This is the rice she had made for her and her orphans to eat and she was joyfully giving it away so that we could eat with her. And again I started crying, I was a wreak, I was so moved by the generosity and joy she had doing it as she gave us food knowing that it meant that she would eat less that day. After blessing the food she disappeared for a moment and came back with cokes and fried bread for us and again tears rolled down my eyes, that morning I could not stop crying I was so moved by the spirit filled things she prayed and did.
While we were talking to her, Derek one of her 6yr old orphans dragged himself into the house and lent against Brittany’s leg as a faint whimpering sound came from his mouth and brittany went to pick him up and realized he was burning up so we told Mama Tom that we wanted to take Derek, Mama Tom and King David (a 5yr old orphan that had a bad congested cough (and yes his name in KING David!))to the clinic.
So we spent the rest of the day with them at the clinic. Derek was diagnosed with malaria with a fever of 104F (40C), and King David got some medicine and Mama Tom talked to the doctor and told him she had been tested for typhoid and was positive but she was tested at a different clinic so in order to get medicine she had to be tested again and she was also tested for diabetes, malaria, blood pressure and urine and everything came back normal! God healed her from the typhoid and praise him that nothing else was wrong.
It was a long day filled with screaming kids, lots of walking between clinics, waiting and cleaning up vomit but it was all amazing! I was so blessed by spending a day with Mama Tom!
I am really excited because after we are finished at the internet cafe this morning we are going to to get Mama Tom a mattress because she does not have one and she despritely needs one because she sleeps on a thin foam sheet with folded clothes underneath. I can’t wait to see her face!!!!
WoW Tara!!! All I can say is GOD IS AMAZING!!!!
I keep hearing such amazing things about Mama Tom from all of your blogs! Can someone throw up some pictures or a video to help us meet this amazing woman?
Jimmy
Dear Tara, There are people who come into our lives, that leave a true “lasting” impression of the person of Jesus in a human frame. My heart rejoices for each of you that have been so touched by this precious vessel of God. Our God is so faithful, there are many who have been added to “Mama Tom’s team” through the accounts that each of you have sent. We, too, have come to love Mama “Sweet”.(Ps.37:23)