If you’ve been following the last few #StorySaturday posts, then you’ll remember the journey that started with a keynote in 2017 and led me to Heritage Insurance Company — and ultimately to the beginning of a book club. Now, that book club might have seemed like just another client activity, but in hindsight, it would quietly open doors I didn’t even know existed.
After conducting a training needs analysis for the team at Heritage, one of the outcomes we agreed on was to introduce a reading culture in the organization. Our very first book was Who Moved My Cheese, and I was asked to help source the copies.
At the time, I didn’t know any bookstores in Dar es Salaam, so I turned to Google and landed on a bookstore called House of Wisdom. I dialed the number listed online and spoke to a lady named Georgette Saliboko — polite, warm, and willing to help. But as we were wrapping up our call, I couldn’t shake off how familiar her second name sounded. On a whim, I asked her if she happened to know a Mr. Saliboko who used to work in IT back in the mid-2000s. Her response: “That’s my husband.”
Small world.
Fast forward to December of that same year — 2017. I had just received what I can only call a divine instruction: to begin a personal reading habit where I would commit to reading one book every week. But as I sat with that thought, I felt led to go one step further — to invite others to do the same. And that’s how the #52BooksIn52Weeks challenge was born.
I returned to House of Wisdom in January 2018 to tell Georgette about the challenge and asked if she’d consider offering a small discount to anyone who came through me. She didn’t even hesitate. “Yes,” she said. Then she encouraged me to go around the shop and select the books I planned to start with, just so she could check whether she had enough copies. I went round, carefully selecting titles I felt would be a good foundation for the first quarter of the challenge. As I was gathering them and taking a photo, she quietly began packing the books into a bag.
I told her I wasn’t planning to buy them that day — I was simply showing her the list. And she smiled and said, “It’s okay, Liz. These books are for you. I feel in my spirit that I should bless you with them.”
What she didn’t know was that I was going through a difficult time — both financially and emotionally. I didn’t have the money to invest in physical books then. But I had chosen to obey the prompting to start this challenge anyway, believing that provision would come somehow, because I honestly love reading physical books more than ebooks. It was that one act of generosity from someone who barely knew me that carried me through the first three months of that challenge.
When God sends you on a mission, trust that He will also make provision for the mission. That's the only way I can explain what happened.
I kept going back to buy more books in the months that followed, as many others joined the challenge and also purchased their books from House of Wisdom. Then, sometime in August, Georgette received a call from Tanzania Cigarette Company (TCC). They were preparing for their Learning & Development Week scheduled for October, and they wanted her to deliver some sessions during the week. She’d never done something like that before, but for some reason, a reason she would later describe as a “nudge from the Holy Spirit”, she told her husband she felt I was the person to partner with.
Mind you, we’d never talked about my work outside of books. Yet she chose me over so many other options, including a very well-known name in the personal development space whose office was right across from hers. I later asked her why. Her response was simple: “I just felt led to.”
That one partnership would go on to blossom into multiple opportunities. We facilitated that event together for two to three years, and in one of those years, when she was out of the country, she handed me full responsibility to manage the entire week. I didn’t take that lightly.
It was around that same #52BooksIn52Weeks season that a client asked to meet me at Mlimani City on a certain afternoon. For some strange reason I couldn't explain I decided to go there 30 minutes earlier and as I waited, I passed the time reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. I was so engrossed in the book, I didn’t notice a woman at a nearby table watching me. Eventually, she walked over and introduced herself.
What I didn’t know at that moment is that this encounter would become a major turning point in the year that followed.
But hey — that’s next week’s story 😊
In the meantime, let's get some takeaways from this story:
- Obedience isn’t always convenient, but it’s always intentional and rewarding - That quiet prompting to visit House of Wisdom wasn’t just about books. It was a nudge toward purpose, a divine setup in disguise.
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A generous heart can unlock more than you’ll ever imagine - Georgette had no idea what I was going through, but her simple act of giving solidified my faith and became a bridge to everything that came next.
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Not every door looks like a door - Sometimes, it looks like a person, or a book, or even a casual conversation in a bookstore.
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Your calling will speak even when your CV stays silent - You won’t always need to pitch or push. The right people will find you, not because of who you know, but because of what you carry.
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There’s no such thing as coincidence when it comes to purpose - Every piece connects, every step leads somewhere, even the ones you took in uncertainty.
So if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: divine instructions don’t always make sense in the moment. Sometimes they sound too small to matter, like walking into a bookstore, starting a reading challenge, or showing up 30 minutes early for a meeting.
But obedience has a way of setting things in motion. When you obey, "coincidences" happen. What I have come to realize is that there are really no coincidences; just divine connections.
Maybe there’s something that’s been tugging at your heart lately; an idea you haven’t pursued, a step you’ve delayed, a prompt you’ve tried to silence because it feels too ordinary. I don’t know what it is for you, but I do know this: don’t ignore it.
That gentle nudge may be the key to something far greater than you imagined, the answer to one of your many prayers.
Honor it. Follow it. Say yes to it.
Be ignited. Be inspired. Be influenced. Become the best version of yourself you can ever be.
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