Maybe it's just me and maybe I'm just that naïve, but I feel the need let you in on a little secret I discovered while here in Africa. NOT EVERYONE IN AFRICA IS STARVING! Yes, there are some very poor people who struggle to put food on the table, just as some American families do. But there are also people who drive cars, live in western style houses and go to work in dress clothes. Coming to Africa, I had this romanticized view that I'd be holding the orphans, feeding the hungry and clothing the poor 24/7. Yes, I have done some of that, but even this month in the bush of Swaziland I find myself frustrated and arriving at a different conclusion..
Disclaimer: this is MY opinion and MY observation of Swaziland and may not be true of what others have experienced.
I have found that a great majority of people here are just like people back home in America. Many are greedy, corrupt, drunkards, selfish, lazy, lustful and idolatrous. Here it is more obvious than in America, largely in part because in America, people have material things to hide behind. Here the sin is outright. A little girl is raped while gathering firewood, but no one says or does anything about it. A local man is brutally hacked in the head with a butcher knife in the middle of the night because he has been helping build a house for a wealthy family. The perpetrators are known but nothing is done. Men cheat on their wives as a “cultural norm.” Girls ages 8-16 are required to dance around naked at the Umhlanga Reed Dance festival for the king as another “cultural norm.” If a family fails to send their daughter, they are fined. Local women who volunteer for a food aid organization pick up bags of donated food and hoard it for themselves, rather than feeding the village. WHERE IS THE JUSTICE?!
The root of all these problems: lack of a true relationship with Jesus and knowledge that there is a BETTER way. The people of Swaziland, as well as the people back home and all over the world, need to know that there is a Savior who loves them so much; who DIED in their place and who, if they are willing to accept Him, can RESTORE and heal their land. Earlier this month, God brought me to these verses:
“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” – 2 Chronicles 7:14
“Then the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on His people” – Joel 2:18
Every time I went for a run this month and overlooked the beautiful mountians and valleys of Swaziland, I prayed those verses over this broken country. Please join me in praying that God would heal this land of all the physical diseases such as HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, malnutrition as well as the spiritual sickness, darkness and oppression that has overtaken this nation. I believe that it is God's will to heal and restore His land and to redeem His children from this land to rise up and change the trajectory and fate of Swaziland.
