In Swaziland, I was broken by some of the stories I heard. Meeting the children, you wouldn’t know what they had suffered.
One child, who we’ll call Sarah was left by her mother when she was really young, I believe 2 years old. The family used her as a slave girl and probably sexually abused. People at Hawane farm found out about her when she was near 8. The day they came to rescue her, all Sarah had was a school uniform with missing buttons, a t-shirt, and a little plastic bookbag. Before she left, they took her by her school to say goodbye to her teacher and friends. As they were pulling away from the grounds, she asked the driver to stop, got a coin out of her bookbag, and ran to give it to her friend. A man from Hawane involved in the rescue told me this story and how it showed him two things: one, her precious heart to care for her friend and two, that little Sarah knew she was going to be cared for. She now has a family on the farm and is a precious, happy girl with a beautiful smile.
Another child, who we’ll call Jon was orphaned and taken in by a man to shepherd his sheep. The man who was “caring” for Jon would beat him if he didn’t perform well. One specific time Jon lost some sheep and the man took a fan belt from a car, put it on the end of a stick, tied little Jon’s wrists to a banana tree and whipped him till his back was bleeding. I saw the horrible pictures and couldn’t stop looking or crying. It looked like images you’ve seen of Christ’s back, or even worse. This was a little boy, 7 years old. His back was covered in scars, so you could tell this had been going on for a long time. Somehow the police caught wind of the abuse, did an investigation, and they were able to rescue him. He’s now 9 years old, doing very well, and really being cared for.
There are countless other stories. At Hawane I met a boy who had been forced to live in a latrine, then at ABC, Abandoned Babies for Christ, there were rescued children who had been boiled, buried alive, and raped. On top of all this, a number of the children have contracted HIV/AIDs.
These are real children, of which there are many, many more. I’ve played with them, heard their stories, seen their scars. What breaks my heart is that there are so many still living in those situations. There are so many more. Please, please, please, pray with me for these children. I’m so thankful that there are people living in Swaziland who are voices for them.
It can be easy to blame those who abused them, but they were probably children one day with similar stories who don’t know life any differently. Please also pray for the abusers, that their wounds would be healed and their lives changed.
In all of this saddness I’m hopeful because I know that God has not forgotten these little children and wants them to be whole. I’m so blessed to have met the children at Hawane farm and to have walked life alongside them for a time.
