Gugu

Over the last decade the Children's HopeChest support network in Swaziland has grown to 35 CarePoints that support over 6,000 children, many of whom are orphans due to the AIDS/HIV epidemic that has struck Swaziland particularly hard. Our church community has made a practice of sponsoring every child who relies on the Mkhombokati CarePoint for two meals a day and a safe place to play and learn. 

Currently Mkhombokati has about 200 children, all of which are sponsored by folks from our church. Our church has the goal of sponsoring every child that comes to Mkhombokati. When new children join the Carepoint people from the Capital community take on the role as sponsors for these children. About four years ago Joel and I had the privilege of sponsoring a young girl named Gugu. Gugu is currently six years old (the same age as our niece, Sylvia) and lives a 10-15 minute walk from the Carepoint. Over the last four years we have prayed for Gugu, written her letters, and have financially supported her. Soon we will get to meet her, and we can't wait! 

The first photo is of Gugu when we first started sponsoring her (age three). The second is the most recent picture we have of her (age five). 

If you would like to learn more about this trip please see our Mkhombokati, Swaziland page. 

Rockin' and Rootin'

We had a meeting with the rest of the Swaziland 2016 team last night. We are officially in the planning stages for this trip!

At this meeting we discussed breaking up into small committees to begin planning for certain parts of the trip including (but not limited to): group travel logistics, teaching preschool classes, daily teachings/devotions for kids of all ages, planning a "fun" day (picture an elementary school field day), and physical projects such as working in the garden, work on the well, or maintaining/building structures such as homes or the CarePoint.

We will also be planning teachings/devotions to share with the field staff and bomake (boh-ma-gay). Bomake is the Swazi word meaning "mothers." Mkhombokati has a group of 5 bomake who care for and cook for the children each day. Members of previous trips have valued the interactions and relationships with these women. We are excited to meet the Mkhombokati bomake.

A bomake cooking a meal for the Mkhombokati kids. 

There are 16 of us going on this trip and 5 of our teammates have been to Mkhombokati at least once before. Last nights meeting was particularly fun as we were able to hear from these 5 people about their past experiences in Swaziland and why they feel drawn to return.

One of the aspects we discussed and that I am particularly excited about is the garden at our CarePoint. In 2014 a football field sized garden was cultivated at Mkhombokati. The garden is part of a larger effort to create sustainable food sources for the entire CarePoint system (over 6,000 kids) by 2017.

You can read a bit more about the garden here.

I spent many many days of my childhood rocking, rooting, fertilizing, planting, and weeding in the cherry orchard and pumpkin patch as a kid. Soon I will have an opportunity at getting my hands dirty in Swazi soil.  Below are pictures from the garden.

Rocking, rooting, and cultivating.

A not-so-small garden.

But ultimately there is a lot more than growing food going on at Mkhombokati and we are excited to see it for ourselves. 1 Corinthians 3:7.

Please see our Mkhombokati, Swaziland page for more information on why we are going on this trip and ways that you can support us.