Reed Mueller

As I sit now at my computer several hundred kilometers away from the beautiful people of Mhlosheni, Swaziland, I don’t know where to begin to tell the story into which we’ve all been invited. Truth be told, I don’t think I can do the story of God’s dream for the people here – and for our church – justice at all. Yet, there is a story to be told of both suffering and joy and of brokenness and hope, so though I know my words will be inadequate, I will do my best to share what I can.

As we entered Swaziland, I experienced something I did not expect to: hope.

That I felt hopeful may sound strange, but you have to realize that since last summer when God began to break my heart for the people here, I’ve not experienced any of that. Sadness and tears, yes (I’m such a wimp); hope, not in the least. The problems about which I had come to learn about seemed so insurmountable that hope was the last thing on my mind. Perhaps, I thought, the best we could do is take the edge off the suffering a little. And yet, with a peace that surpasses both understanding and human capacity, I felt hopeful. As I reflected on this, this truth came to me: Dreams – at least dreams that are given by God – do indeed come true; that’s where the hope came from. God had placed a dream in my heart to meet, in love, the people of Swaziland, and it was coming true. If he can do such a thing over a few short months, certainly he is at work to bring his greater dream, that of transformation and renewal in this land, to fruition. The lesson is clear, what God dreams up he delivers on. It may take months, or the entire history of the universe, but he is a God who dreams up the reality to come.

Our first day in Mhlosheni was marked by emotional highs and lows. On the high side of the day, I was given the opportunity to provide the morning devotions to World Vision staff, area pastors and community leaders, and some of the children of the area. Don’t worry, I didn’t speak too long! I cherish the memory of my first bilingual message being in Swaziland! After our time of worship, emotional lows were the norm for the day. Please don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t the people themselves who were emotionally low – they are so hopeful, and my hope even remained; yet, I found myself struck again and again and again by the conditions in which the whole community lived. I guess more than anything, it challenged me as a person of relative affluence living in a society of vast prosperity.

Below you’ll see a picture of those children I mentioned.

We were told that they had prepared a play for us and so I snapped this picture at the very beginning. As they sang for us, I watched with a mindset framed by every drama I’d ever seen with a cast of eight to ten year olds. In this, I expected a few blunders, some laughs, a few shy kids as well as a few “hams.” But my mindset was soon to be shaken.

Parents…if you’re reading this with your children, you may want to screen your children from the next paragraph or two.

Within the first minute of this play, it turned from innocence to the reality in which these very young boys and girls live. The first scene was of a classroom, where the teacher was drilling students on basic mathematics. After the lesson the teacher, played by one of the tallest boys, dismissed all the children except for a small girl, who was then pushed to the ground, told to remove all of her clothes, and, as the narrator then explained, raped. Even as I write these words days later I tear up, just as I did at that moment. What kind of a world do these vulnerable children live in? What kind of life must they have if this is the drama they prepared for us?

The drama continued from there. Another girl was raped, this time at gunpoint. Then, the months and years that followed appeared before our eyes: one girl became pregnant while another soon experienced the symptoms of HIV infection and eventually AIDS; she, of course died while the girl who was pregnant had to abandon her newborn baby for lack of resources to care for it. In the end the only solace that could be extracted from the sad tale was the arrest of the teacher and the moral that the students were to get in the telling of the story: this is not right, don’t let it happen to you or your friends, and if it does, tell someone who can help.

Now, please, do as I did and think of the children you know who are eight, nine, or ten. Imagine them doing this drama. Got that picture? Now imagine them doing this drama not in order to reflect some possible experience of people across the globe, but as a depiction of the reality of the land in which they live. Now imagine them going home after performing this and finding no parents who can protect them. Maybe, if they are lucky one or both parents are alive; but perhaps some in this production had none who were still around. Imagine that.

Yes, my hopefulness was challenged right away. And yet, as we interacted later with the children, that hopefulness remained in their eyes. What is more, that hope was so apparent in the hearts of the World Vision staff and community leaders. They have a picture of something else, something beyond all of this disease and injustice and they are at work. That picture is the dream of God we’ve been talking about at church. They don’t have all the resources or know how they need to accomplish the change that God has placed on their hearts, but they do indeed have a tenacity shaped by hardship, and faith that is enduring. So, I am confident that over time they will move toward that dream, if we move toward our part in the dream, as well.

I’m sorry I’ve taken so much space to describe this, our first few moments, in Mhlosheni, but I didn’t know any other way to get you here, as Erin and I have been here. It is a remarkable place, filled with both suffering and tragedy; yet hope stands over this all because our God stands over it all. Know this, as the people here do, and remember that God is calling us to be partners in his work here.

Sharing in their story,
Reed and Erin

Below, you’ll find some more pictures and a few descriptive words of some of what we experienced the rest of the first day and part of the second in the development project here. And tomorrow, look for a post devoted to Siphesihle, the child we have the privilege of loving as her sponsors! Finally a quick note for Karen and Rick Hawley as they are heading off to China to be united with their newest daughter, Kate. Please be in prayer, as we are, as Karen heads off to China tonight and throughout their journey; they will be blogging www.hawleyfamilyfive.blogspot.com. Okay…now to the pictures.

This first series of four pictures was at a very primitive water project and please, parents, read this paragraph to yourself before sharing it with your children. The people of the village (about 66 households) had worked very hard to provide clean(er) water for consumption. Getting to to the water source was very difficult, with some having to trek about .8 kilometers each way, up to four times a day. In the first picture you see an elderly woman who must still make the trek on her own even though she appears to have some potentially very painful arthritis. In the second picture, you see a small girl on her way back from getting water. One of the saddest things we heard is that community water sources have sometimes become “raping points” where innocent children are abused because of the still somewhat prevalent belief that having sex with a virgin with either cure or protect one from HIV. In the third picture you can barely see a few graves (merely rocks piled over a burial site) at the feet of those carrying the water back home. In the final picture, you’ll see the source of the village’s water.

In the next pictures you’ll see us with two groups of people. The first is a community of people learning to live with HIV/AIDS in a place where stigma is actually much stronger than in the states. These folks had a wonderful spirit and were actually doing many things for their community – even when that community shuns them. Kind of reminds me of the early church. In the second picture you’ll see Erin and I, as well as others from World Vision and two other churches, with the Prime Minister of Swaziland and his wife. It was a time I’ll never forget. We spent time with this head of state praying and singing together. Then we shared a meal, seasoned with politcal discussions, together. It was a great experience which I’ll probably share more about later!

Finally, in a moment that again only God could work out, we were reunited with Precious! Remember her? She shared in the moment when our congregation first stepped onto the land God is using to effect change in our church and in Mhlosheni! How awesome!