Swaziland is dying.
Literally.
I am sitting in one of the most beautiful places I have seen all year….. mountain after mountain after mountain chased by the changing colors as the sun rises and sets. Blankets of green in the midst of winter, with a sparkling clear river weaving through. The water here is so pure and natural it is pumped from the ground cleaner than bottled water.
But the people are dying. 75% have HIV or AIDS. Men rape children as instructed by their leaders because sleeping with a virgin is thought to cure AIDS. Professing Christians have Animism and the Occult laced into their daily lives. An owl hooting on your roof means someone in your life will die. This seems to hold true because every week, the staff here attend 1-2 funerals for their family members. Women leave church and bring their babies to the Witch Doctors who put slices all over their bodies and rub in a toxic salve that claim many babies lives.
The people are dying faster than they can be born.
Government officials are found with children’s body parts in their freezer and nothing is done because it is a part of the culture for this reason or that. Children are expected to participate in ‘cultural dances’ whereby demonic spirits are conjured up and they fall into sadistic trances, dancing wildly. To venture off the grounds here means you will encounter witchcraft alters and sacrifice locations as well as abundant pot fields. I commented once on how nice the cars seem to be here and was reminded that the only cars on the road other than the ministry vehicle belong to drug dealers. The locals are too poor for cars.
What do we do here? We are working and living at a Children’s Home called El Shaddai Ministries where 68 kids from High School and under live. Charmain and her daughter are from South Africa and run the place. All the other staff are locals. This has proven a great challenge because of the harmful beliefs so deeply engrained. The locals think it is ridiculous to talk to a child. One of the women who work here brought her child to work one day and Charmain required her to leave the child here. The baby girl was completely unresponsive to interaction because she was strapped to the back and ignored all day, every day for over a year. While the baby is making good improvement, she is far behind developmentally. Another mom brought her baby to Charmain near death because of the Witch Doctor ritual described above. The mom was distraught but felt trapped because her own mother demanded she bring the child to the Witch Doctor in the first place. After extensive hospitalization, the baby now lives here. This is the type of story that holds true for most of the babies in the baby house (my favorite place to work). Either a parent, or a tribal chief or the government come to Charmain asking her to take in a child that is so severely neglected or abused there is no other hope.
We talk to, sing to, interact with, and just do life with 20 or so toddlers and babies. We do Physical Therapy with those who need it, strictly enforce the ‘no biting’ policy (kids who bite catch HIV), and whispering sweet truths into their ears every chance we get. I love walking by and whispering about Gods love, or the joy that Jesus brings like a precious secret and having children call out from across the room…. ‘AND ME’ asking me to share a truth with them too. Getting truth embedded in them is one of the most important things we can do here. I will talk more about that in a later blog. Every day we hold a short Chapel service for all the kids (minus the High Schoolers who live far away). We help tutor them in subjects they are struggling with, and are helping to construct a new house to replace one of the structures that has become unsafe for the children to live in.
I could go on and on about this powerful, beautiful place, but I will put it in another blog……
