September 2015
My dear friend,
I will never forget my first visit to Zanzibar – a Tanzanian island off the coast of east Africa. We visited the only Anglican church building still standing there. Today 99 percent of Zanzibar’s population belongs to a different religion. Christians are constantly persecuted. At the altar, I saw the circle of reddish marble on the floor symbolizing the place where the slave whipping post for the island’s largest slave market used to be. It is a permanent reminder of the actual blood of innocent youth, men, and women that once stained the dusty ground. From Zanzibar, thousands of slaves were shipped around the world – but most to my native country of Brazil. The wooden cross was made from the tree beneath which the famous Dr. David Livingstone’s heart was buried. He was an ardent antislavery crusader and died on May 1, 1873, while searching for the source of the Nile.
I can’t help but notice a very beautiful, very personal thread that connects this inspiring story to what you and I do today. Seventy-two years plus a day after Dr. Livingstone’s passing, I was born in Brazil, that New World nation where so many slaves ended up. Like him, I became a missionary, and now I join you in proclaiming through Project Hannah that Jesus Christ gave his blood on the cross to free everyone who believes from the slavery of sin. A mighty river of salvation flows from his cross, defeating the power of poverty and injustice and the strongholds of this world’s “spiritual slave trader” – Satan himself!
A few months ago, I saw again the transforming power of the cross at work in all of East Africa. We went to Zoissa, a cluster of five villages in the heart of Africa. There, in this remote spot, we found 1,500 women and men praising, dancing, and singing with joy these words – “God heard the cries of the afflicted, and his grace came down to us through Project Hannah!” That’s what hope looks like, I thought to myself. Tears of joy filled our eyes as we saw hope dancing upon poverty and injustice.
Let’s pray with confidence for East African women because, I assure you, our prayers are making a difference. Women in bondage are experiencing the reality of Jesus’s statement: “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). So, let us pray without ceasing for these dear women in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and beyond. May they dance and praise and rejoice in God’s promise that “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
Believing with you,
Marli Spieker
Global Ministry Director/Founder
Project Hannah
TWR