Ok, so of course I’m not serious, the people of Swaziland do need Jesus. But more so, they need his hands and feet. They need people to bring physical ways of support for their AIDS crisis, food for children, and support for the Go-gos who take care of hundreds of children.
My time in Swaziland was spent working alongside fellow believers who want to care for the needs of the widows and the orphans. We helped put on Christmas Parties at different care-points; areas/buildings that children can come to for a meal, a bible study, and a safe place to play. The care-points were mostly out in the rural areas surrounding the city of Manzini so many of them had a couple hundred kids show up. Each Christmas Party involved cooking and serving a meal, watching the children sing or put on performances, playing games with them, and then passing out candy packages and a head of cabbage to each child.
We would arrive around 11 each morning and help the Go-go’s (an African term for older ladies that take care of many children, kind of like Grandma) cook rice, beef stew, cabbage cole slaw, and beets. Then we would play with all the kids and separate them into groups to play Lava, Two Dragons, or Oh-Le-Le. The meal usually came after they gave a performance so we would help dish up plates starting with the youngest first. After we ate the same Christmas meal, using our hands, we would help pass out the candy bags and huge cabbage heads.
While these days were really long days under the African sun, I will always cherish the memories of these bitter-sweet parties. I remember dreading them on some days because I did not have enough energy to deal with five or more kids hanging on me. But by the time I was rolling down the dirt roads in the van, looking out the window at Swaziland’s beautiful mountains helped ease my spirit into one ready to love. And then even more so once I got to the care-point and had a little one constantly attached to my hand.
So through this month and Zimbabwe, I feel like I’ve seen the needs of Africa that everyone usually thinks of. Resources to bring food, medicines, and education. Only I experienced something different in Swaziland. Christianity isn’t rare in Swaziland so they don’t necessarily “need to hear the gospel”. Even they are sending people out into the nations to share Jesus. The church that we went to right down the road from our house was sensitive to the importance of international missions, but like the rest of Swaziland, did not seem willing to be aware or to acknowledge the severity of the AIDs crisis in their country.
Swaziland needs more examples of Christ’s hands and feet doing His work. They need real examples of His love lived out in service towards the orphans and the widows. They need more people who God has called through Isaiah 58:6-7 and James 1:27.
“Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen; to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
So this is basically one of ‘those’ blogs. I’m calling out. Anyone who has ears, let him hear. Swaziland needs you (along with many other African countries). God wants to use you. Yep, even you, even though it seems doubtful. He can use you. Even if it’s not right this moment. Even if it’s just a donation to Food for the Hungry or Compassion International or Adventures in Missions or any other organization you can come up with. Even if it’s only a week. Even if it’s only $5 but it’s all you’ve got because you are a college kid eating ramen. God can and will use your effort, your time, your resources, your love; and He will multiply it. Just be obedient to what He asks you to do and ask him to multiply it.
That’s all I did. I thought it was crazy when I felt like God was telling me to go on the World Race. “But I have health problems. But I don’t have money. But I don’t have time before grad school.” I was obedient anyway and trusted that He would take care of all my worries. I only had $213.40 in my WR fundraising a couple months before launch and people thought I was crazy for trying to fundraise that quickly. But I felt that God really wanted me to leave in September so I asked Him to do what He did in Mark 8 where Jesus fed four thousand with only seven loaves of bread and a few fish. I asked Him to multiply my fundraising if He really wanted me to leave in September and He did.
God is bigger than any excuse. And He will take care of everything if He is calling you to do something for Him or His people. You just have to listen and trust Him.
