By Michael Snyder, M.M.

As a young priest in the early 1980s, I was stationed in a rural parish in Tanzania called Bunda. Farmers always struggled to grow crops due to sparse rains. Then a major drought hitting countries in eastern Africa exacerbated the situation. Many in the United States will remember the photos on the evening news of bare-boned African children staring blankly into the cameras. The song "We Are the World" was composed at the time to raise money for the African people suffering during this drought.

In our own parish the drought affected so many, especially, of course, the poorest, such as Elizabeti, a 70-year-old widow. She had no family and lived alone in a mud and stick home with just a few pieces of secondhand corrugated roofing over her head. When you sat in her home, it was almost like sitting outdoors; there were so many holes in the wall.  Elizabeti had no livelihood and lived from day to day hoping for assistance. Her neighbors responded as best they could.  At one point they even grouped together to fix up her simple dwelling.

As I became settled in the parish, we cast our attention on those with the greatest needs. Elizabeti began to come to the parish nearly every day asking for assistance. We would help, but as time went on, I had to tell her, "Elizabeti, you can't come here every day. We won't be able to take care of you all the time." She would reply, "Hamna, Hamna, Hamna" ("No, no, no!"). Elizabeti was not going to take no for an answer.

The first president of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, came from a village not too far from Bunda. Whenever he came home for rest, Elizabeti would somehow find a way to get to his village and ask for his help. She always returned to Bunda with a sack of corn, compliments of the president!

Elizabeti reminded me of the story of the Canaanite woman in Matthew's Gospel (15: 21–28). In short, the woman asks Jesus to help her daughter, who is possessed. Because she is not of the house of Israel, Jesus tells the woman he cannot help. "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," Jesus says. But the woman persists. Jesus says, "It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs." She replies, "Please, Lord, even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters."

Whenever I read this passage, I see the Canaanite woman as Elizabeti, saying, "Hamna, hamna, hamna!" The woman knows who Jesus is and is not going to take no for an answer! As the story ends, Jesus says to her, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish."

Elizabeti has long gone to her eternal reward and I now work in the major city of Dar es Salaam. Today another drought has spread throughout this portion of Africa and the Elizabetis are again especially afflicted. But, as I remember my old friend, I realize that people like her can serve as our teachers because persistence, endurance and faith continue to reside in the depths of their spirit. They are simply not going to be defeated!

As we seek solutions to drought and famine in the world and face our own personal challenges, we should turn to the Canaanite woman and Elizabeti and follow their example. Then we too may hear the words, "Great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish."

Maryknoll Father Michael Snyder, from Rutherford, N.J., was ordained in 1979. He serves in Dar es Salaam as the Catholic chaplain at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, the national medical university of Tanzania.