The statistics are not promising for Swaziland. 26.1% of adults and over 50% of adults in their 20’s are infected with HIV. The entire people of Swaziland will not exist in 40 years at the current death rate. Many of the people live in poverty. Roughly 150,000 children are orphaned. Sexual and physical abuse is all but uncommon. The life expectancy here is only 48 years. But the statistics aren’t nearly as bad as the reality. Every year that someone celebrates a birthday past age 48 they celebrate all the more because they beat the odds. Many of the people don’t know or want to know their HIV status and parents don’t want to know the status of their children. If they do know that a child has HIV or AIDS that child will many times be neglected and even denied a blanket or food at handouts.
Kids eating at one of the care points we go for ministry.
With numbers like that it is easy to lose hope. We wonder where God is in a situation like this. But there is hope! God has not forgotten Swaziland!
This was the sunrise we saw when we entered into Swaziland. To say the least, I was speechless.
God reminds me that He sees the bigger picture and continues to teach me the power of prayer. I believe that more is going on here than we can see; and I believe God is going to use this place in His story for His glory. Knowing this I have still found myself questioning God’s hand in it all. How could He allow all of this death when all He has to do is say the word and Swaziland lives?
Since I have been here I have met more people who have joy and hope in the Lord than I ever expected. Even with pain and suffering running rampant, they have hope. I am reminded of the story of Job. Job continued to worship God even when everything was stripped from him. What Job didn’t know was that there was a battle going on in heaven (Job 1:6-12, 2:1-6) and God’s glory was made known because of his faithfulness. At the end of the book Job prays, “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know” (Job 42:3b). Though we do not understand why there is such suffering, we also do not understand what is going on in heaven, perhaps a battle for Swaziland. And “the Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first” (Job 42:12a).
There is hope. Because of Jesus Christ there is hope for the hopeless. There is hope for Margaret who can’t walk because of the pain in her feet. There is hope for Mercy, a beautiful baby in the hospital who was abandoned. There is hope for the orphaned little girl who has cerebral palsy and lies in her hospital bed contorted every day. God wants to use us to give that hope to Swaziland.
Mercy. To learn more about her click HERE.
Spending this month in prayer God has showed me the power in it. Jacob wrestled with God and He blessed him (Genesis 32:22-30). Let’s wrestle with God for blessing on behalf of Swaziland.
One of the kids praying at church after Sunday school.
My prayer is that in 100 years, when this place is still here beating the odds, the only answer to why is this: God moved!
Many Blessings,
Kim
