Blessed to be a Blessing
Fanja’s Ministry
Some people who have moved out of poverty are eager to leave that life behind and shun any association with the poor. Others seek to offer hope for those still stuck in poverty’s clutches. Fanja is one of the latter, having grown up herself in a poor family, the oldest of 7 children. From an early age she had to help support the family, and then even more when her father died when Fanja was 19. She continued to help support her mother and younger siblings, even after getting married and struggling to make ends meet in her own new family.
Having studied sewing and embroidery, Fanja quickly earned a reputation for the high quality of her work. Other women living with her also needed help so she taught them and shared orders with them. Soon other women were asking for help as they had no way to earn a living and no money to feed their children. Fanja gradually added more seamstresses to a growing business as a way of helping women move beyond poverty. Many times Fanja hasn’t known where the money would come from to pay them. But God has always provided.
Today Fanja has 28 women working in her center. She strives to treat and pay the women well, providing food every noon, offering spiritual nurture regularly and classes about health, nutrition, and other topics of needed study. And Fanja herself continues to study to improve her business and her outreach. She looks for new ideas and products, better ways of conducting the center, and how she can better minister to the needs of the women. Knowing that many of them faced difficult husbands when they got home, she had the idea recently that there should be something to offer those men as well. So her husband led a one day class for them about marriage and Christian living. Many of the women commented that their husbands had changed after that one session.
Fanja acknowledges that it is draining and difficult, but she presses on in her ministry because as she says, “Many people helped me to get out of poverty so I want to also be a tool of God to help others.” Fanja has been blessed to be a blessing to many others around her and she asks for prayers as she strives to carry out this calling.
Fanja and Monica Cox