Hands to Hold Us

Day Three

As you know Internet access was spotty, copied a post from another member of our travel group - Bob Mudd, COO of Children’s Hope Chest.

A Picture of ‘What is’ and ‘What can be’

It is Thursday afternoon in Swaziland and we have had two days with a great team taking a look at currently sponsored Carepoints in the region along with emerging locations that desperately desire to be sponsored. Before I dive in to provide existing sponsors updates, I first want to reiterate what anyone who preceeded already knows which is that the staff on the ground is top notch. We have spent the last two days with Jumbo, Kriek, Scott and the D-Team. Three words come to mind – Committed, Capable and Joyful.

We arrived in Johannesburg on Tuesday afternoon and made the drive to Swaziland, arriving around lunch on Wednesday. Our first stop was the Balekane Carepoint sponsored by Vanguard church in Colorado Springs. The progress over the past three years includes well over 100 children being fed and discipled daily, a kitchen, loads of picnic tables, clean water, an agriculture based microenterprise, a set of fruit trees, a church plant and school through 4th grade with 5th grade being added in January. It is a pleasure to see the incredible commitment and sense of urgency by our friends at Vanguard. You guys walk the walk.

Our first stop this morning was Thembeni, which is sponsored by our friends at Capo Beach Calvary Church. Again, an incredible picture of hope, commitment and progress. In addition to also feeding and discipling over 100 children each day they have a pre-school and what has to be the most impressive playground in Swaziland. I will add some photos as soon as I get a sufficient internet connection. They have a large multipurpose building, a storage depot and two smaller multi-purpose buildings. The children at both of these Carepoints have a springboard to a future with possibilities rather than despair.

It was critical that the team was able to see these progressive locations first as our next visit was to Ludlati. Ludlati is a field in a remote area serviced by roads that run through dry creeks. It was started approximately one year ago by a compassionate mother serving children from her home. It quickly outgrew her capacity and she has secured a large field that I would estimate at approximately 30 acres from the local chief. A large tree in the field is currently the only protection from the elements and marks the spot for a daily fire started in bush wood collected by the group of 4 women who assist her. There were no children in the field when we arrived but as soon as smoke from the fire became evident they walked through the thick covering of trees and bushes. In no time nearly 30 children arrived. They shared that there are a number of children 3 and below that walk up to 2 miles each day to come to the feeding. The most important element is in place, a Christ follower who wants to serve the children of her community and it is going to be another success story, I feel certain.

In all, we will visit 5 new targeted Carepoint locations and I am confident that this vision team will not rest until we are able to develop the base of support needed to have each of them sponsored. A number of these will be ‘Connect Communities’ which will provide YOU the opportunity to become a part of the solution. Be back in touch soon.

God is Good!

PSS we also had another stop where a go-go was feeding children. Here are some photos of that stop and "the tree CP" where children are fed.

It was the second day~

Hello from Africa. I have one more day before we drive back to Jo-Burg for my flight home. There is sooo much to get caught up on with the blog. The second day of the trip after breakfast we drove from Johannesburg into Swaziland (about 4.5 hour trip). Close to the border between South Africa and Swaziland, the terrain changed quickly from rolling hills to mountainous. Outside of Jo-Burg were very few tress, mostly red clay farm land and cattle country. At one point we crest a hill and suddenly there were miles of huge pine and eucalyptus trees.

As soon as we arrived to Manzini Swaziland we were taken to our first CP called BaleKane. This care point has been developed from nothing but a 20 acre plot of land to a location where about 100 kids come for food and school over the past three years. Some of the children walk for 2.5 hrs to get there. Most are orphans, but the primary objective is feeding, education and Swaziland led spiritual discipleship for the children. There are about 10 Go-Go’s (Grandmother aged women) that rotate through cooking and feeding duties. And there are teachers on site for grades pre-4th. These children are relatively well nourished and are receiving love and hope at this care point. I can give more details later, but significant progress has been made to date. They plan to add a 5th grade class room in January of next year.

From the moment I stepped out of the van, the children were on us with bright faces and greetings. We spent time interacting by taking pictures and showing them the screens. At any point in time there was one or two little ones riding on my arms or legs depending on if I was standing or sitting. They were hungry for the attention and love. I was happy to give hugs to these children. The reaction was once they got a hug, they pressed in and soaked it up. I didn’t want to leave, but the children had to start their walk back to their ‘homes’, and we left for dinner and a culture training meeting. Tomorrow we will visit 3 or 4 CP. One or two are starting from what is called a ‘green field’.

The Thembeni Care Point

The Thembeni Care Point has 220 kids coming for one meal per day. This Care Point (CP) is sponsored by a Calvary Chapel church in California called Capital Beach. The church shipped over a container with food, a few bikes, soccer balls and the equipment for a new playground. Shipping time was about six weeks. The container sits on the on the CP property with Thembeni and Capital Point inscribed. There were only five kids at the CP when we arrived. The Discipleship team was also waiting on what turned out to be a cool rainy morning. The Discipleship Team (deemed the D-Team) are 3 men and 5 women who have grown up in the Manzini area and have come to know Jesus through the ministry of Pastor Tom. The D-Team travels to each CP once a week to teach and disciple the children, etc.

When we first arrived a little boy in a light jacket and shorts stood on the playground next to the monkey bars. He had wet himself. His sister sat beside him in the sand. The team leader explained that most likely he had never seen a white person or he may be new to the CP. I ached seeing him stand there with his shorts dripping wet and no one to pick him up and clean him. Yet I am told this is the best CP in the area.

The Bheveni Carepoint

The second Care point we visited was four-tenths of a mile away This is a Connect Community CP. This CP is sponsored by a community of individuals with the same passion to help Swazis. They get connected through the internet. There are 180 kids who come to eat once a day at this CP.

Photos from The Bheveni CP

Photos of the The Bheveni CP