So we have moved onto Mozambique but I just wanted to give
y’all an update from some of our goings-on in Swaziland last month. Here are some of the awesome things that we
got to do:
Bring on Baby House
–
One of the best things that we got to do was
hang out at a place called the “Baby House.” As you may have guessed, this is where they house the babies at El
Shaddai! I’ve included some pictures of
these children in my last blog post. As
I’m sure you’ve noticed they are some of the CUTEST kids. Many of them, however, have very sad
stories. The director of El Shaddai,
Charmain told us many stories of babies being dropped off that were extremely
sick or had lost one or both family members. She even told us that one of the cute little girls was HIV
positive. El Shaddai offers these
orphans good meals, a warm bed to sleep in and even free education. It was really great getting to love these
little ones and spend time with them throughout the month. It was also encouraging knowing that a life
that had a rough start had been offered hope through El Shaddai orphanage.
We didn’t start the fire….oh wait yes we did!
–
So I don’t know how many of you know what a
firebreak is so allow me to explain. Basically, during certain seasons people throughout Africa (especially
in rural areas) will set fire around their property. They do this to ensure that if a random
wildfire breaks out their will be nothing flammable in the area. This fire is usually supposed to be
controlled. However, when our team was
given the task of creating a firebreak around El Shaddai’s property this was
not the case. Day one went relatively
well and we had to stop because the wind was a bit wild. Several days later, we were informed that we
were going to continue working on the fire break. Big mistake. After working farther down the property line, several teammates decided
to move ahead leaving just a few of us back to watch the fire. Suddenly, a wind gust swept the fire into the
long grass. As we valiantly tried to use
our tree branches to swat out the fire (crazy in know!), the flames continued
to intensify. I was able to run and
gather some other people to help us out. By this time the fire has moved quickly up the hill and was heading for
the church and the Baby House! We all
scrambled to find water and anything else that would put out the fire. The flames, however, were several feet high
and anytime anyone got close to the fire we were blinded and inhaled a ton of
smoke. By the grace of God we were able
to find blankets that we doused with water, and were able to beat down the
fire. After battling the fire for quite
a while it finally died down. Many of us
were covered in black soot and many of the women in our group were crying and
had been shaken up quite a bit. It was
amazing because the fire stopped right at the fence of the Baby House and the
Church. We believe that we will probably
be the last team ever asked to do a fire break at El Shaddai J
In addition to hanging out with some babies and nearly
burning down the property we also got to help out with various
construction projects. Our team helped
to tear down chicken coups, fix fences, dig a massive pit, move trailers and
help out at El Shaddai’s school. All in
all it was a pretty exhausting, but very rewarding month!
