Swaziland

NOTE: If you are in middle school, please have your parents preview this blog entry, in that I talk about pretty tough stuff.   

I don't know what happened, but the Internet here is unreliable.  Last night I spent an hour writing an amazing blog, quite possibly the greatest blog ever composed.  I saved it, and published it.  Yet, I just checked, and it never updated my site sorry.  It was powerful, just know that. 

Today two events stuck out.  First, I've had the song "Dancing with Orphans" stuck in my head all day, and that is what it feels like.  I feel like I've spent this entire week dancing with orphans, and what a blast it is. 

The first event, was the joy of hearing 50 orphans praying together a pray they obviously pray every day.  The prayer went something like:

Dear Jesus,
Use me.  I offer myself to you to use me.  To reach others.  I ask you to use me. 
Amen.

Think about hearing this prayer from orphans, those who are invisible in society.  They have nothing, they have no food, they have no shoes (accept for the brand new shoes we had the privilege of putting on their feet this morning), they're parents have died.  They are alone.  Yet, they cried out to be used by Jesus.  The passion in their voices and the looks on their face as they prayed this prayer brought tears to my eyes. 

The second event was meeting a man in the market who came up and started a conversation with me.  He began asking me why I was here in Swazi.  I told him I was hear to work with Orphans.  He asked if I knew about HIV/AIDS.  And then he gave me the lowdown on what is happening in Swazi.  He said the same things we have been hearing from so many places. 

The king is currently listed as the twelfth worst dictator in the world, and I can clearly see why.  It is not that he is outwardly cruel like Castro, or a war-Lord like those in the middle east.  Instead, it is because he begs the world for money for his country facing AIDS, and then uses that money on himself to buy $500,000 cars.  He has multiple mansions around this country in every city.  No one can say a bad word about him.  One of the local missionaries met his mother, the "Queen Mother" and asked her about the orphan problem in Swaziland, and she replied, "What orphan problem?"  It is like they are completely ignorant to what is going on. 

It gets worse.  There are 850,000  people now living in Swazi (Down from 1.3 million three years ago).  While a few have left for jobs in South Africa, most of that is due to AIDS deaths.  Of that 850,000 people, around 130,000 are orphans.  That number is staggering.  Now think about this.  The unemployment rate here is astronomical.  There are only 94,000 jobs in this country.  Of those 94,000 jobs, over 70% are government jobs.  In case you don't know, that's not good.  All this while the king buys $500,000 cars for himself.  The financial situation is not good here which is a main reason people are starving. 

It makes me mad in that I'm finding of the billions of dollars the US has given to African nations in the past 5 years for AIDS, less than 2% has reached the people.  There is so much corruption here.  I've discovered there are three ways to get rich in Africa illegally. 

1. Through black-market guns.
2. Through drugs.
3. Through abusing non-profit funds. 

How sad it is that people are starving and as I write this, most of the children I held today are at home without any food for dinner completely alone with a candle to light their hut.  It makes me mad. 

The man I met today, and so many others point the blame squarely at the king.  The king is the leader of this country, and the king sets the tone for this nation.  Four more things about the king:

1. He is a polygamist and has around 17 wives.  Each wife is from a different tribe in Swaziland.  This sets the tone for the nation as polygamy is a status symbol of how much money you have. 
2. Due to his lack of creating jobs in his country, most men can not live at home.  They have to move one of the two main cities, or to South Africa for jobs.  As such they sleep with prostitutes or girlfriends, getting infected by HIV.  Then they return home carrying with them HIV and infect their wives. 
3. The king and the government have been slow to acknowledge the problem.  While, this week we have noticed new HIV/AIDS Billboards and radio advertisements, it is too little too late (they already have the highest AIDS rate in the world at 46%).  As a result of a lack of governmental communication, myths have arose that are lies from this lips of Satan, such as, "If you have relations with a virgin, HIV will be removed."  This lie furthers the spread of AIDS.  I don't even want to write about what is happening as a result of this, but just use your brain to where this has led in a place where morals have been chucked out the window. 
4. The king is being entertained by Muslims and a majority of businesses in the major towns are owned by Muslims.  They have bought personal jets, and other perks for the king. It is like the country is being taken over.  The Muslims are also offering free school (which is a huge issue here because people can't afford school fees), to anyone who converts to Islam. 

The picture is pretty bleak outside of Christ.  And let me tell you, God is at work here.  I've seen him, in the eyes of these children, in the hearts of those who serve Him here.  I'll tell you this, I believe that leaders are being raised up at the care points we are serving at.  Leaders who will stand against the tide.  Young boys, who will grow to be men of God who instead of being predators of women, they become protectors of women.  God is at work and greater is He who is in me, than He who is in the world. 

God loves Swaziland far more than I do.  Pray for this nation.  Pray for the king, king Mstafi III.  Pray that God would show His power and glory here.  Let's put Swaziland, this land full of wonderful, yet so needy, people at the center of our hearts.  If you want to get close to God, get close to the things that break God's heart.