Dear Friends,
I’m typing quickly, so please excuse erratic thoughts and bad spelling. Internet access is extremely limited and there’s so much information to process and so much to think about. But where can you possibly start to tackle the problems in Swaziland, the country with the highest rate of HIV/AIDS?
Later on I’ll tell you about a 5 year old girl, whose face is burned into my memory: an image of all that HIV/AIDS has done to devastate this beautiful country. I’m not ashamed to tell she caused me to cry tonight! Stay with me… because I also want to ask you to pray for a few things.
You see we were at a feeding station: a place where young people, poor, orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS are fed most days. I say most days because they get a meal here on schools days, their one meal of the day. The school breaks up for holidays today and no one seems quite sure how meals will fare out over the next three weeks.
A group of about 25 young people, probably aged between 10 and 15 gathered. They raised their hands when asked who had both parents still living. 7 hands were raised. The other 18 are what are known as Orphaned or Vulnerable Children. (I hate it when this abbreviated to calling them OVCs) Orphaned is straightforward enough. Vulnerable means they may have lost one parent. Some of these kids may have contracted the disease themselves. Others who may still have one parent may be watching that mother or father in the closing days of an unimaginable struggle. Many of them are the mainstay of the household, looking after an ill parent, eking out a meagre existence, maybe for a family of 6 or 7.
The nation is dying! Only 1 in 10 of these teenagers we mat can expect to live beyond the age of 30. Last year we were working with figures that said there were 100,000 orphans in the country. That’s 10% of the 1 million population. Now we’re told it could be as high as 200,000, or 20%. I’m trying to imagine how that translates into a measurable indicator back in Ireland, where I come from. It would mean 800,000 orphans amongst our 4 million population! There would be uproar! The international community simply wouldn’t tolerate it. But Swaziland’s plight goes unnoticed. I’ll blog about that next week. For now, let the enormity of the problem sink in.
We move to the next feeding station and there she is! I can’t load her photo because the signal here is too weak, but let me tell you this little girl’s story. She is a little girl of 5 with a long, unpronounceable name. She’s holding her 2 year old sister. Cuddling her with all the love you could imagine. Just as well. They only have each other. At 5 years of age is the head of her household! She’s responsible for her sister. She’s only a baby herself, but HIV/AIDS has robbed her of her parents and shouldered her with the most enormous burden you could imagine. Chances are she and or her sister also have the infection! Realistically neither of them will reach teenage years, let alone adulthood. My heart aches, but crying’s no good. These kids need help. They need it now. And kids like them need to be saved from the consequences of this outrageous disease.
We have a group of Irish Young people here with us. Fair play to them for getting up and doing something about this. Tomorrow we start work on a youth camp organised in partnership with the Anglican Church of Swaziland. It’ll be fun but serious! The reflective sessions will focus on issue like self identity, values, lifestyle and sexuality. In a country where most, we are told, are sexually active by age 12 or 13 there are enormous challenges for the church. Perhaps you’d pray for great wisdom for us and for the church. For example, the Church, as you’d expect seeks to promote abstinence as the standard. But we need to be pragmatic, most of these kids live in a culture where that is not the norm. The second best options must be discussed if we are to prevent this awful suffering. But how do we do this with out being misinterpreted. Your prayers would be appreciated.
Then there’s the other work of the Anglican Church in Swaziland’s HIV/AIDS department. A significant project, likely to impact on 15000 lives has been presented to a funder. The funder’s decision is due in the next few weeks. Your prayers are needed!
And pray for Gregory, my friend and colleague. He’s the Anglican minister with responsibility for these feeding stations. He needs our prayers as he faces the challenges on a daily basis.
And of course those who suffer. It’s difficult to look around here without seeing the image of God reflected in the suffering. God himself suffers where humanity suffers! Pray that. By God’s grace their they would be comforted.
I’ll try to blog over the weekend, internet permitting…
Yours in Christ,
Ken.
Looking Out For Number One: The Banquet
Dear Friend,
Robert Ringer published a book in the 1970’s entitled “Looking out for Number One”. It’s still on sale. At heart it’s a guide to putting yourself first and getting every aspect of life to serve your needs.
Several months after its publication, Ringer’s wife apparently sued him for divorce and claimed a large sum of money in compensation. When an interviewer asked her why, she is reported to have said “I read the book!”
The world tells us that we are the centre of our own universe. We ought to get everybody and everything around us to serve our needs, even if that’s at their cost. We should gather around us as much power, influence, money or satisfaction as we can. We should put ourselves number one!
Christ and the scriptures call us to a radically different lifestyle. Right from the very first pages of scripture we are reminded that mankind is created in the image of God. When, therefore, we interact with fellow humans, how we treat them is a measure of how we treat God. It’s helpful to remember that in every interaction we have the opportunity to honour or dishonour the dignity of the other person (and God).
This has huge implications as we look at and engage with the world around us. How then can we, with our mouths praise God, but with our actions put ourselves above others and dishonour His image?
For those who follow the Common Lectionary, last Sunday’s gospel reading was from Luke 14. It’s a familiar passage where Jesus was a guest at the home of a Pharisee. His lesson on humility comes in 2 parts.
First, noticing how the guest look for the best seats, He comments on the seating plan. It is better not to take the seat of honour in case someone more important has been invited and you are embarrassed by being moved. Better to take a low place and be moved up! He rounds it off with the amazing statement “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” V11 © New International Version
Then comes the second instruction: 12Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. V12 © New International Version
Perhaps this second instruction is more powerful but it can only be understood properly in the context of the first. He’s not really saying we shouldn’t invite our friends to our parties: rather the emphasis, like the first instruction, is on the on the motive of repayment or reward. (While I like and normally use the NIV translation, on this occasion the Conetmporary English Version is more helpful. When you give a dinner or a banquet, don’t invite your friends and family and relatives and rich neighbors. If you do, they will invite you in return, and you will be paid back.)
Both instructions have to do with reward or repayment. They also have to do with the long and the short term. In the first, short term reward comes from the honour and dignity bestowed by other guests. In the second, it comes from the reciprocal invitation. These are the rewards the world, where we are told to look after number one, seeks.
Those who follow Christ, however, have a longer term view. His people are long term investors.13But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” The rewards of eternity are far greater than any praise our contemporaries can offer and far greater than any party invitation! Luke’s gospel makes it quite clear there will be no double payment: it’s man’s reward or God’s reward!
We may not, literally, invite the poor and the lame to our banquet. But as Christ’s people we are called to ensure their inclusion in society. Whatever we give, whatever we do in their service, we do in His service.
Christ’s people are called to give sacrificially. The world laughs and calls us stupid. But we follow Christ, reminded of His sacrificial love:
6Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross! Philippians 2
Even a cursory glance at our world highlights a whole range of opportunities to serve. The deciding question is to put ourselves first or put Christ and His kingdom first.
Please come back Friday, and bring a friend,
Yours in Christ,
Ken.