2015 SAGE Award Recipient – Literature Category
Tecla Tawonezvi’s evocative and colorful memoir – Diary of my Pilgrimage of Faith is a fascinating tale that covers her own sojourns over the last decade or more, from growing up in the war torn South Africa and Zimbabwe, to her emigration to the strikingly different environs of Dallas Texas and eventually to her present home near Nashville Tennessee where she lives with her husband and three children.
Tecla attended Wiley College in Marshall, Texas to pursue her Bachelor’s Degree in Hotel, Travel & Tourism Management. Prior to this she attended Bulawayo Hotel School in her native country of Zimbabwe and at a University in South Africa before relocating to the USA.
Tecla’s love and amazing drive and desire to assist others in reaching their absolute potential led her to found the Ministry Minded Fellowship (M&M). This ministry is designed to help African and/or International Christian musicians and artists to gain exposure, while simultaneously reaching the world with African music and showing the diversity within this rich culture.
In her inspiring book, Diary of My Pilgrimage of Faith – ‘on the Highway of Holiness’ she shares stories from both her own life and the teachings from the Bible. Some of the stories are hilarious and others are sorrowful. Her life story will have you laughing, then crying and then pausing for a moment to contemplate life and what it means to have faith.
This book also speaks about the amazing story of Tecla’s hero, her Mother’s untold story of pain, love, hope and faith whose two sons were kidnapped at birth on the exact same day but in different years and her conviction to still find these sons after so much time has passed.
The book presents a harrowing saga of adventure, personal tragedy and tribulations overcome. Throughout the narrative, she recounts the peaks and valleys of a life truly lived, always guided by two spiritual forces: her indomitable faith in God and the stalwart example of her courageous and steadfast mother, Sophia Muza Tangawabaiwa (whose last name translates to we have overcome a lot), now still alive and well back in Zimbabwe. Along with these perpetual angels watching over her, she was also armed with her own stubborn determination to make a go of things, regardless of the many obstacles crossing her path.
Tecla initially undertook the daunting task of recounting her adventures about two years ago, with the intention of chronicling not only her personal growth experiences, but her mother’s as well (to whom the book is dedicated).
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