This month my squad is starting our three months in Southern Africa. We are in Swaziland working with Adventures In Missions to help feed and minister to children here. My team is with two other teams in a town called Nsoko, living amongst an endless sea of sugar cane farms and impoverished villages. There are mountains in every direction and the air is much cooler and cleaner than anything we experienced in Asia. The scenery is beautiful, but it is hard to enjoy because of how sad the quality of life is here.
If you don’t know much about Swazi, it has the highest rate of HIV and AIDS of any country in the world. There are very few monogamous marriages here. The Swazi culture is highly sexualized and most of the people have little awareness of the consequences of living a highly promiscuous lifestyle. It has been projected that if things don’t change, the entire nation will die out before the year 2050.
There is an entire generation just missing because of the disease. Children run around everywhere without parents while their grandparents do their best to raise them. Some kids go days at a time without eating a single meal. In America you hear about the starving kids in Africa at Christian conferences or on late night TV commercials, but nothing can prepare you to actually walk among them and see what real poverty actually looks like. Two days ago I saw a little girl eating a dirty plastic grocery bag just to put something in her belly. I have heard that this type of thing is not uncommon. The enemy has a strong grip on this place and he isn’t going to let go until Swaziland is completely destroyed.
Adventures in Missions is partnered with a ministry called Children’s Hope Chest in Swaziland to provide thirty-two Care Points. There are ten Care Points in the Nsoko area and another twenty-two around Manzini for the communities there. A Care Point is a place in the community where they provide food and discipleship for the children after they get out of school in the afternoon. For most of the kids it is the only meal they will receive each day and on the weekend when most of the care points don’t operate, the kids usually don’t eat at all. The cooking at the Care Points is done by Gogos. Gogo literally means grandmother in SiSwati. These women volunteer their time to make sure that the kids in their village get to eat. Some of the Care Points also provide community churches and preschools.
There is a discipleship team of mostly people in their twenties and early thirties who go between the Care Points and teach the children bible lessons and worship songs at least once a week. We are living at one of these Care Points and working alongside the discipleship team to teach the children about Jesus in hopes that they will grow up following Him and the tide can change on the AIDS epidemic. Our teams rotate between teaching preschool, doing manual labor, and ministering through Care Point discipleship. It makes for full days, but it still feels like there is still so much more that needs to be done. These kids are the only hope this country has for survival. We are in constant prayer that this younger generation will rise up and completely change the face of this nation.
None of this can be done without outside help though. AIM and CHC are working hard to literally bring Jesus to this dying nation. There are churches in America who partner with these organizations to support the Care Points, but there are many unreached communities who are still in need of support. There are opportunities for people to donate to specific regions or to specific areas of ministry. World Race teams and other missionaries through AIM are constantly coming through doing what we can while we are here, but it is obvious that more is needed.
It is an honor that God has called me here this month. Before I signed up for the Race, I had never even heard of Swaziland. I certainly couldn’t have imagined a place where kids are so hungry they eat plastic just to have something in their stomach. I do know that I will never forget this place. I will never forget the faces of the starving abandoned children. I will never forget the lack of a thriving family structure to be an example to these children. The odds are completely against this place and these kids, but as we know, God likes to step in when things seem impossible. It is all up to Him.
Please join us in prayer for Swaziland. Pray that these kids grow up to make better decisions than the generation before them. Pray that organizations like AIM and CHC are able to effectively help feed these starving children while teaching them to become self sufficient. Pray that God works a huge miracle here. It has been spoken that this nation cannot last longer past 2050. Imagine the testimony of God’s love and power the world would have if this country not only survived, but flourished. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. For more information on Swaziland and ways you can help support this fight, go to Adventures.org/Swaziland. Love Y’all!!!
