the Country with No Men

This month has been slow; with no electricity for almost a week and never having internet connection until we stole a ride out to the nearest restaurant (almost a 3 hour walk away) and used theres we haven’t had much contact with the outside world. But all that being said this is my small blog post for the month with the 5-10 minutes allotted in our hour long rotation of internet that we can pay for.   🙂 Gotta love missions 🙂

This title is coming through noticing a similarity in this world of lives without men. Today i talked with the pastor for the community and Sylvester (age33), one of the local men, as they were gawking over how cool my hammock is. They ended up telling me about a local man that just died that day; not even an hour before us talking, and how he had a little over 12 children through his multiple wives. He was a military man and thus lived many different places, all with different families. And the 12 children were just the 12 they knew about. (Polygamy is practiced in Swaziland even by the King) The conversation ended up going to all of the many families in the area that are living with no fathers and all the wives without husband… For the whole community they were connected with, they knew of 3-4 families that actually still have men living there. They all leave because of their “desire for another life” and/or an intense presence of HIV. I told them, “I don’t even know what my life would look like if i didn’t have my father in it.” Then Sylvester said, almost in an angry bitter tone, still aching from the loss, “don’t even talk to me about fathers. I don’t even know what it is meaning to be loved by them.”… “How can others expect me to love, how can i be expected to love if i don’t even know what the means; what that looks like?” He continued to go on about how children today really don’t know what any of life looks like. Because they don’t have anyone there teaching them about life or disciplining them they just continue to live in the same paths of the past. They lose there fathers due to laziness, self-centeredness, a lack of money, and illness and because they lose there fathers, there is no one to tell them not to do it. “I’ll continue in lust because my fathers not here telling me otherwise.”

… But he’s not there since HIV stole him…  

Please pray for MEN to step into their roles of leadership; in this community, around the world, and YOUR neighborhood. This world needs men, not in the sense of manly grunting and getting all the girls (its got plenty trying to be that already), but this needs men who are willing to Live fully and aren’t afraid of loving fully. 

IF YOU’RE A MAN: Please consider my challenge. Pick up all that you are and this month consider being particularly loving to someone least likely… Putting another first, loving without the normal conditions, or even letting yourself hurt (some place where it really hurts) so that someone else doesn’t need to…. And just let God show you…

I’m sorry i never got around to some of the blogs i promised you all last month, but mission work is really touch and go sometimes, especially with no computer of your own. I’m well over my time already, but this was worth it. 🙂 I might even be yelled at for it but all the better 🙂  TOO MUCH LOVE TO HANDLE! 

 PS sorry for spelling errors, i didn’t have time to look back through. 

You should all check out the most recent blog posts by Molly, Ben, and Kursti for more of whats going on in my team and on the field. 

MollyTkacik.theWorldRace.org

BenjaminSwain.theWorldRace.org

KurstiBailey.theWorldRace.org

Love you all,

  Josh-OO-a

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