Warning: If you are a middle school student, please have your parents preview this before you read it in that I talk about really hard things.
Where did you get your food today? Today I played soccer with Children who live off the food they find in the dump.
This is no ordinary dump, this is the dump in a third-world nation. These were the poor of the poor. This dump is less than half-a-mile from the hotel I am staying in. One of the nicer hotels in all of Swaziland. We have a pool, and Air Conditioning and plenty of food. Yet, as I write this at 10:45pm Swazi time, the children I played with are at home. Many are being abused and experiencing the nightmares we cannot imagine.
80% of these children ages 5-17 are sexually active, and most of it is forced. Their parents are thieves and prostitutes and beyond these illegal activities, their entire existence is based upon spending all day in the garbage dump, searching for food and garbage that the rich, including this hotel, throw away.
Last night they served us fried mushrooms, and one of our teammates commented didn't like it. He didn't eat a bite of it. He commented today as we saw the desperation that likely someone would be eating his mushrooms for a meal.
This was a dark place. But in the midst of the darkness shines a light. The light of Jesus Christ. I met an amazing woman named GuGu. GuGu is a GoGo (Grandma). 12 years ago she moved to the squatters camp near the dump to care for children. She created a school for the squatters children where she loved them, fed them, and taught them to read. Her entire goal is to love them with the love of Christ, teach them, and help them to find their way into the public schools. She is being extremely successful.
We met one of her original students from 12 years ago. Today, this lady has gone from being a child living off the dump, to becoming a teacher herself in a pre-school. She is carrying on the legacy GuGu has established.
GuGu runs a care-point in this squatters camp sponsored by Children's Hope Chest. I can not express how important these care-points are. Let me share one more story that blew us away.
At the hotel we are staying at we ran into a security guard. This man said, "Thank you so much." It turns out this 22 year-old security guard had a brother and a sister. His siblings are 5 and 6 years old. Each day this man walks 15-20 minutes to and from work where he lives with his brother and sister and his mother. His father is gone. I don't know if his father is dead, or absent. But due to the fact that his mother is a single-mother, his brother and sister attend a Children's Hope Chest care point.
Guess what. The other day his brother and sister came home wearing underwear on their heads. "Underwear?" you may ask? Why? Because they received the underwear at the care point. The same underwear that they were given because all of the SouledOut middle school students at Woodmen Valley Chapel donated over 1300 pairs of underwear for Rob and I to take to Africa. This security guard's 5 year-old brother and 6-year-old sister wore it on their heads as they ran home because they wanted to show their 22-year-old security guard brother and their mother that they had received a treasure at the care point--underwear.
What we take for granted, is a treasure to a 5 or 6 year-old who likely has never received a new pair of underwear in their life. Thank you SouledOut!!! And thank you God for providing the way for Rob and I and 1300 pairs of underwear to get here!!!
We will be traveling the next couple of days and this is our last day at this hotel. I can't guarantee that I will have Internet access, but I will try. So, I will try to check in tomorrow night and the next night. On Friday we get a treat of going to Krueger National Park. This is one of the best Safari experiences in Africa and we get the treat of seeing Lions, Elephants, Giraffes, and all of the African animals in their national habitat. I can't wait. It will be a great end to an amazing time. God bless you, and God bless these children in Swaziland!
Hey dad how are you? We all miss you ssssssssssssssoooooooooooooooooooo much have fun in Kruger
Posted by: Kevin | January 30, 2008 at 03:17 PM
What a powerful story! thanks for sharing, trusting that the rest of your trip is safe and God will continue to inspire you by breaking your heart. We wanted to give you a glimpse what SouledOut was like with you gone...check out WVC's YouTube Channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/wvchapel Hopefully, we will have our video posted tomorrow (Thursday) Looking forward to your safe return
Matt
Posted by: Matt Ferrell | January 30, 2008 at 08:32 PM
What a powerful story! thanks for sharing, trusting that the rest of your trip is safe and God will continue to inspire you by breaking your heart. We wanted to give you a glimpse what SouledOut was like with you gone...check out WVC's YouTube Channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/wvchapel Hopefully, we will have our video posted tomorrow (Thursday) Looking forward to your safe return
Matt
Posted by: Matt Ferrell | January 30, 2008 at 08:32 PM