Ocotber 22 - Bishop Alan Scarfe

Wednesday, October 22 – Bishop Alan Scarfe

Today we met our third Archdeacon. The Swaziland diocese is divided into three parts. And the Archdeacon Michael oversees the southern deanery. We traveled into the hotter and poorest area of the country. The drought of recent years has badly affected the people here. There’s little work in the rural areas we visited. Even the plantings possible a couple of years ago now yield next to nothing and people are showing signs of malnutrition. Mary Jane would pinch the children’s arms to test for fat presence while we were standing watching the chlorinator demonstration. She also pointed out signs of protein deficiency. Any future visit needs to be accompanied with food supplements. Our candy brought joy but helped little toward their real health needs.

I have lost count of the number of chlorinator demonstrations we have done. The team has been great. I never thought that the evangelism would come as we go through the talk, but the good news is there at the end. “This gift is free and may save lives, but there is a great and wonderful free gift from God that saves us forever in His Son Jesus Christ,” are the closing words of the script.
What struck me today - as powerful and emotional day as any I have experienced – was how we give the same chlorinator demonstration, the very same script, and yet every context, every location has been profoundly different.
We have faced cynical representatives of a local chief and the water board, wondering if we were trying to poison people slowly and questioning the science of it all. And we have been embraced by open hearted Christian and community people sitting on rocks over against gorgeous hillsides and mountains. We have joined communities under the trees and in their small churches that are spaces for worship, feeding orphans, health checks, and education.

Today, we began by meeting children – OVC’s: orphaned and vulnerable children – at St. Mary’s Church, Hlatakulu. There are no words to express their impact upon you. Then we were taken to a primary school with 340 children grades 1-7. They gathered in assembly, sang to us, and greeted us. Teachers and parents attended the demonstration as we sat again under a tree overlooking the mountains.
I was given a tour of the Headmaster’s house - foundation cracked, walls coming apart. It is condemned but he must live there as he has to give his better accommodation to his teachers. To replace it costs $6,000. Half for a new roof and then they rebuild walls and foundation.

Finally we went into the dustbowl the deeper South. They have dreams for a school, learning to grow drought resistant crops, and a church able to accommodate more people than their tree.

This was our most emotional encounter. Such humility and poverty combined with laughter and smiles and sense of gratitude to God and any of God’s servants who remembered them.

I am sure others will blog about this gathering. Everything was summed up by one woman who in thanking said, “Thank you for your gift. I know it will be very helpful to us. ONCE WE HAVE RAIN.”

I went out back to the 5,000 liter water tank by the small church. It was empty and has been for a long time. Just 20 minutes away is a government dam shared with South Africa. All that water, only minutes away from desperately barren fields.
This is the contrast of the situation of the Swazi people, facing such poverty in a land so scenic it takes your breath away. There again there’s little that doesn’t catch your breath in this journey. It really is God’s gift to us to share life with this part of God’s world.