Guest Blogger Spot -- here's Steph!
(Just a note -- our internet has been so intermittent, so we've just had the chance to get this posted. Sorry for the delay -- this was written last Friday. Be sure to click on the images to enlarge them!)
March 18, 2011
Today I had the opportunity to take a road trip to the eastern side of the country to visit some of the more remote locations where Children’s Cup is ministering to the people of Swaziland. We put on many, many kilometers today, half of which were on dirt roads, or no roads at all. Let's just say that Mitch Hildebrant may be in need of a new paint job on his Toyota Rav after the trip. Mitch and I spent the day escorting two gentlemen from Swazi Water, which is the governmental water division. Children’s Cup and the men from Swazi Water have connected with an organization from the States whose purpose is to provide clean drinking water solutions to remote locations of the world. This was a vision trip of sorts, as the two men from Swazi Water have never visited these parts of Swaziland, even though both of them have lived within a two hour drive for their entire lives. We thought that our job was to demonstrate the need to these men, but it turns out the need revealed itself as these two nationals were shocked and devastated to find that their own Swazi brothers and sisters were living in unbelievable conditions.
To give you and idea of the process, before Children’s Cup will build a CarePoint, the community must demonstrate its commitment by cooking and feeding the local children for an extended period of time. Today we had the unique opportunity to see feeding sites and CarePoints in various states.
Our first visit was the Lomahasha CarePoint, which is extremely remote and difficult to get to. The CarePoint is doing well, but it does not have a nearby clean water source. Many in the community will travel for three or four kilometers to fetch water that is dirty and disease ridden, as it has been used by all of the communities (and their cattle) upstream. Children’s Cup was provided satellite imaging of a location within just fifty meters of the CarePoint that has 80% probability to produce a clean water source. The CarePoint is pretty special to us -- one of our sponsored children through Mission of Mercy is from Lomahasha.
"Section 19" was our second stop (above), which is a feeding site that has been operating for less than two months. Section 19 is a small community smack dab in the middle of the sugar cane fields, and is by far the poorest community I have ever seen. It is an odd place as you literally have to travel the sugar cane trails to get to the community, and this is where the Swazi Water representatives were shocked by the reality that faced them. The people in Section 19 also do not have a clean water source, and use the runoff from the sugar cane irrigation systems for their drinking water. Without even an outhouse, these people relieve themselves in the cane fields next to their communities. Hopeless and helpless, they brew their own alcohol to numb the pain, which is sometimes spiked with battery acid to speed the fermentation process.
Our last stop was Mayenjane, which is a special place to Krista and me. We were traveling to this same CarePoint the morning Krista broke the news to me in 2009 that she was feeling the “tug” to return to Swaziland as full time missionaries. As we spent our day at Mayenjane and I pondered what Krista said to me, there was a little boy who captured both of our hearts, and we’ve shared his photo on the blog and in our newsletters in the past. As I was approaching the CarePoint, I thought to myself, “I wonder if that boy will be here?” Less than a minute later, there he was with a group of his friends. My heart skipped a beat for a second, then we got down to business and started wrestling and giving high-fives.
Mayenjane is an awesome example of what God can do in the middle of terrible conditions and circumstances. Four years ago Mayenjane was in the same condition as Section 19. But with some love, food, water, and a whole lot of Jesus, this CarePoint is a thriving, life-giving hub to its community.
I had an incredible opportunity today to see a community at its worst, alongside another at its best. I look forward to the day that I can return to Section 19 to tap into a clean water source for them, return to build them a kitchen, return to build them a CarePoint, and then return again to see them thrive -- all in Jesus’ name.