MWANZA, Tanzania - A couple well-worn photographs are Paul’s only physical reminders of a criminal past.

In one shot, the good-looking teen is crouched in the dirt, arms folded across a puffed-up chest. A bandana is tightly bound around his forehead (a tribute to his favourite rapper) while his head is cocked to one side, eyebrows furrowed and lips pursed in a defiant smile. 

“If you get your a** taxed,” rapped his stolen radio, “bring a gat back.”At that time Paul was known as Ahmad Bashir, the son of Muslim parents living on the east coast of Lake Victoria. His parents divorced when he was four years old; his mother moving to Kenya as a prostitute, while Ahmad and his sister were inherited by an aunt.

Like Cinderella’s step-mother, she treated them like slaves. Unlike the fairytale, Paul seethed under the surface and vowed to avenge her cruelty.

At seven years old Paul ran to the streets of Mwanza, Tanzania’s second largest city. New-found friends taught him to steal and how to forget the past through ‘bong’ (marijuana) and alcohol.

But nothing could stifle Paul’s hatred for life, and he blamed everything on his aunt. “If you get your a** taxed,” rapped his stolen radio, “bring a gat [pistol] back.”

Paul says there is constant temptation
to return to the street.

When Paul met evangelist Micah Ngusa, he wasn’t interested in Jesus. But he did like the idea of food, a bunk bed and free schooling. If only he didn’t have to hear about Jesus so much.

Pretending became easy, though, especially after seven years’ practice. Paul learned to pray out loud and share a ‘testimony.’ But at night he tossed and turned, further eroding his crumbly mattress. Peace could only come with the death of his aunt, he thought. And so he plotted.

***

One day Paul’s all-in-one teacher took him aside after class. “You must accept Christ,” he insisted. “We know you are leading a double-life.”

Perhaps it was the relief that often comes with being found-out. Or maybe it was the honest zeal imprinted on his teacher’s face. Certainly it was supernatural; for as suddenly as the satanic whirlwind had descended upon Paul, Jesus calmed the 12-year storm. Paul gave in.

Up till now Paul was still Ahmad Bashir. In his enthusiasm, he renamed himself after the apostle Paul—worst among sinners. Like the apostle, conversion came at a great cost; it meant breaking up with a long-time girlfriend and losing his best buddy who still mocks him for his faith.

***

“I want to study hard to help my family,” he says. After finishing high school, Paul hopes to find his mother and sister.

 “I want to study hard to help my family,” he says. Paul asks for prayer however, saying there is a constant temptation to return to the street. Drugs are still alluring, he says, when he thinks of his mother in Kenya.

In the meantime, Paul’s radical transformation has blessed Micah’s Tanzanian Children’s Rescue Centre with a living example of Christ’s transforming power. His is no artificial testimony.¤

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