Two things I absolutely love – children and Africa. This is my 5th time to this continent and every time I return I fall in love a little more. Mozambique was a wonderful experience, but it was different than the Africa I am used to. This past week though, I felt like I came home. We spent a week in Swaziland working at a ‘care point’ set up by AIM. The care point is a place in the community where kids can come and play and be together and receive some type of meal for the day (usually this mixture of cornflour and water) as well as care from the loving gogos (grandmothers). I knew instantly that this would be a place I would love. I tried to spend as much time as I possibly could with the kids. I learned every hand-clapping game with their corresponding lyrics, I played ‘dinner’ with rocks and a torn plastic bag, I pushed kids on the swings and cheered as they rode down the slide, and I even played in a mini game of netball. Between all these activities I was able to just hold the kids, dance with them in my arms, and show them that they are loved.
Me and one of my favorite little boys…I named him ‘Trouble’, because thats exactly what he was. But, I LOVE him.
My girl Bongewe – absolutely adorable. Every day when I arrived at the care point she would climb into my arms. We would laugh and smile and dance while singing ‘I said a boom-chika-boom’.
Swaziland is an intense country. It is green and beautiful, but because of its small geographical size, the spread of AIDS has threatened its survival. We would go out into the community to take a ‘census’ of who these people are and what kind of needs they had. Every story was all to familiar- A family with a grandmother and 8 grandkids who have lost their parents; the inability to attain or pay for proper medication; everyone sitting around because there are no jobs to be found; an overwhelming cry of hunger because everyone is under governmental food distributions that come once every 3 months; a lack of clean water. The needs go on and on and on, and the situation at times felt overwhelmingly hopeless. But, small strides are being made. The presense of the carepoints and the hearts of the people who run them are slowly changing this community. There is still a huge need, but the Lord is working through His diligent followers.
Our last day at the carepoint we did a shoe distribution where we had around 500 kids from 8 different carepoints come and receive shoes that had been donated. We set up chairs around this wooden platform and had the kids sit in the chairs to get their feet washed, be prayed over, and receive a new pair of shoes. It was so beautiful to meet some sort of physical need. My job during the time was to pass out shoes to the people washing feet and praying. It was crazy and chaotic and sometimes overwhelming when we would run out of sizes, but it was incredible. Hundreds of children were able to experience the love of Jesus in a beautiful way.
Even though my time in Swazi was short, it was a huge blessing from the Lord to be able to be there. I loved every minute of being with those kids and will miss them as we travel on.
