Peace in a storm

Odd that one can feel so safe in the middle of what can be construed as chaos.  The past two days here  have brought about major strikes and protests..this time it is the Khombie drivers(public transportation bus drivers).  Lots of speculation as to why they are protesting, but they have ceased the transportation for folks to go home in the 2 largest cities(ours included).  This is a country that relies HEAVILY on forms of public transportation.  10% of the population have vehicles…walking and khombie are how everyone gets everywhere.

Protests brought police, beatings, rubber bullets, fights, stones, shouting, mobs, burning tires, etc…

FIRST OF ALL- we take NO chances, and instruct all of our staff to avoid any and every crowd.  Today we even locked  the office(locking staff inside) until everything in the community dissipated.  The reality is that they are not upset at us, but you never want to be near a mob-never know if/when they could turn.

So why would we feel so safe and comfortable?  I believe it is an inexplicable “God thing”.  Someone once told us “The safest place to be is in the center of God’s perfect will”… well, that should sum it up!

Safe, ready for bed, resting and having a nice cup of tea(afterall-Swazi was british until the 60s)

Again-we promised not to “sugar coat” missions to you.  We owe you the good, the bad, the real, and the sad.  Rest assured- we are GREAT, passionate, and focused on the ministry ahead-  GOD is doing some AMAZING things in Swaziland!

Siphelele's story

Nurse and fellow missionary Jessie recently wrote this powerful testimony of a life being changed.  Char and I have a dream of sending over 200 kids back to school with partial scholarships and school fee assistance… would you like to help?  Education changes lives here in Swaziland.  And when school fees are as much in some cases as 3 months income-many children do not get to go…

 

 

Siphelele comes from a family of ten, living together in a small one-room house. The house is in such poor condition that their front door will not close. So they've replaced the door with a sheet of plastic to help ward off the cold and critters at night. Most days the meal that Siphelele and her siblings' receive at the Children's Cup CarePoint is the only meal for that day.

Siphelele's father was in a car crash many years ago injuring his legs and now walks slowly on homemade crutches. Her mom has a greatly underdeveloped mental capacity, but lovingly does what she can to take care of the kids.

The family's income comes from collecting empty glass beer bottles for seven cents per bottle. For a time, her father was bedridden fighting a bad case of tuberculosis. To help bring in money while their father was sick, Siphelele and her siblings were found running around town late into the afternoon collecting bottles that were lying around the bars. Having to skip school to search for empty beer bottles, they often missed their daily meal from the CarePoint.

As you can imagine, Siphelele's family does not have the money to pay her school fees. Yet, she is a bright child and her heart's dream is to attend school. In fact, when she grows up, she wants to be a teacher so she can help other children do well in school.

However, without someone sponsoring her school fees, Siphelele has no hope of seeing her dream come true.

School fees to Siphelele mean the difference between an opportunity to take steps out of a life of poverty or continuing the cycle of hopelessness, teenage pregnancy, greater risk of HIV contraction, and perpetuating another generation in the cycle of poverty.

Attending school gives her the opportunity for an education that can provide a good steady job.

For Siphelele, attending school makes all the difference in the world.