Welcome to Swaziland, a hilly country landscape with roaming cattle and goats, a green canopy of trees, shrubs and cacti intermingled with a web of red dusty roads, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and friendly Swazi people. African voices ring out in beautiful angelic harmony singing praises and worshipping our Creator. This country with its increasing rate of HIV/AIDS patients is said to be diminished by 2050. Despite that sad fact, this country is full of love, laughter and life. The hills are alive with the sweet faces of children.
For the month of May, our whole squad is partnered together with the AIM base. The base has Care Points which are places for children to come and have a meal and be taught a Bible lesson. They are also places for children to come and have fun and play together. In the morning the youngest children are there and are taught preschool, while in the afternoon the older children come from their schools to eat a meal and participate in the sports ministry. They also have an agriculture program of which I am a part of. The first few days we were in the gardens which are located at different Care Points. We helped detach hoses from the irrigation system so they could go through and rototill the garden and then we re-attached them. There were two days of planting spinach, green onions and red beets, and another day of weeding the lettuce and tomatoes and hooking the tomatoes onto strings so they can grow upward. It’s been fun and enjoyable working in the sun and being able to see some results of what we’ve done.
A lesson I learned from our planting experience (not an accurate analogy as plants and children are entirely different, but it still fits somewhat)….
Planting the plants was in a sense like parenthood. We planted, we watered/fed them, we prayed over them and left them in God’s care. We had to leave them and hope for the best. A week later we returned to see how they were doing and how they grew and could see the results of God’s work.
This is like parents letting go of their children. You’ve birthed them, fed them, and raised them as best as you could and then the time came when you had to let them go. You prayed over them and watched them leave and hoped that they’d remember all that you taught them. As the children left the protection and care of their parents, the results were up to God. There’s nothing you can do when they leave. They’re on their own. Independent. Sometimes you can see the results of your efforts, other times not, or maybe later down the road things change.
This event made me wonder what it’s like to be a parent and having to let go of the child you raised. It also made me wonder about my own life of leaving home and the choices I’ve made: Are my parents approving of what I’m doing? Have I made choices that made them happy and proud, or sad and disappointed? But most importantly, am I living my independent life dependent on God? Is God’s work evident in my life? Am I continuing to be watered and fed by Him and His Word?
Psalm 1
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not whither; and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”
