Today is our free day. I walked six kilometers to get internet at a lodge nearby. So here I am, sore feet and all, overlooking the world’s largest clay dam, typing a blog…. for the second time….
Welcome to Swaziland!
Where the views are gorgeous, the sunrises and sunsets are beyond breathtakingly beautiful, the roads go the most roundabout way ever, it takes hours to get anywhere (which is ironic for such a small country), you feel like you’re driving through Middle Earth, and the internet is slow even when there aren’t twenty some Racers on it…
This month, my team is working with two other teams at El Shaddai Ministries, a children’s home and school. It is run by a South African woman who has been here for 17 years. She has 80 some kids under her care, from infant to high schools [the high schoolers are on a different property down in the valley]. A majority of the infants come in to the home close to death due to malnutrition and/or neglect. And most of the older children [preschool to high school] are victims of sexual abuse, usually by their close relatives.
The people of this country are laden in witchcraft and black magic. Witch doctors have a lot of power and respect here. They tell people things like that they will be healed HIV if they have sex with a virgin [hence all the abuse]. They also snatch children off the street to use as child sacrifices [whole or in part] in ritual ceremonies. With the younger generation dying out from HIV/AIDS, the older generation that is steeped in this witchcraft are left to raise the youth. And the people do what they do, because “that’s what mom did,” even if it’s wrong. It’s sad to see a society virtually dying out, and the culture just makes the situation worse, spreading the poison so to speak.
It’s sad to see all this darkness in this country. But it’s also encouraging to see ministries like El Shaddai here in this country, making a difference and turning culture on its head. The homes serve as a place for the children to live, away from the abuse [and it is up to the mom of the family to report the abuse, and women are not well respected at all in this country, so it is really tough to get girls out of abusive situations]. They are teaching the children the Bible and the Truth. They are raising the leaders of this country that will be influencers, movers, and shakers when they grow up. By the grace of God, this country will NOT die out.
While we are here, our teams are doing a lot of manual labor. Some of the guys are digging a french drain. Some of us are digging out a playground to relocate it (sometime 3 feet deep to rip poles out of the ground). Others go to the baby house to help with physical therapy with the babies who are developmentally behind, play with the others, and help with feeding during lunch. Some of the guys will be tiling a bathroom later this month. Some of us help tutor the kids during study hours after school and then lead a fifteen minute chapel before dinner. There is definitely not a lack of work to do here!
Charmagne (our host) is doing so much in this country with El Shaddai Ministries. And she has hopes and dreams to do som much more, but she doesn’t have the hands or resources necessary to do it all. On the way back from the grocery store, she shared with us her vision of bringing the high schoolers back up to the mountaintop to have all the kids interaction together, but she doesn’t have the money (3 million Rand) to build a new school nor does she have the time to look for potential resources available to build the school (i.e. grants). She hires some local women to help care for the children, but they do not necesarily know how to. They do not think they need to discipline them, and do not think it is necessary to teach them while they are young. But kids are most apt to learn when they are young.
So, please be praying for my team, the teams we are working with, as well as the ministry as a whole. My team is hoping to help her with at least a rough skeleton for a grant proposal, since we have some experience in that. Charmagne has such a heart for these people and has a lot that she wants to do, but not enough hands. Please pray for some volunteers to be provided.
This place is beyond beautiful! I wish i could show you. But here are some excerpts from my journal that are rather feeble attempts at describing the beauty in this country I wake up to every morning:
“As I sit and watch the sun rise, I eagerly anticipate the first piercing ray reaching over the horizon. I’m on the edge of my rock, waiting, with bated breath. I watched the sky chage colors for the last hour, surely it would come soon. And then, there it was. It pierced into the misty valley as it rose over the mountain ridge. And in just a few minutes, it was up in all its glory, beckoning the earth to come alive for yet another day. The streaks of sunlight dissolved the mist in the valley. I watched it lift, and as it lifted more of the valley’s glory was visible.”
“In the morning, I watch the sunrise. And all through the day, it tracks across the sky. And in the evenings, I watch it set out my ktichen window as I cook dinner for this army of 19.”
“As I look over the valley tonight, the lights are just a small reflection of the heavenly stars above.”
“There is a carpet of stars laid out every night. A garland is stretched across the sky – The Milky Way – our galaxy. Our home. Another reminder of just how small we are.”
