While the orphan and AIDS statistics in Swaziland are beyond tragic, it affords those of us who follow Jesus an opportunity.

We've been starting up the Nsoko Project, an orphan village we've been dreaming of for awhile now.

We currently have a college-age team on the ground, and they're seeing Jesus in a new light that is both heart-breaking and inspiring. Here is what they're experiencing:

There are two carepoints that we go to, where we play with the children and do VBS with them.  The children who are at the carepoints all day do not go to school because they cannot afford it.  They go to the carepoints to be fed, as do others from the community.  Most of the children just want to be held and usually fall asleep to a comfort and warmth they have never felt before...

 

The other ministry that we are involved with full time is a school called GuGu's.  A woman name GuGu started this school when she discovered that children (9+ years old) were prostituting themselves in order to get money to pay for school... These children are so precious and full of joy, despite their innocence being robbed from them at such a tender age.  It is a blessing to work with them because they are very eager to learn! This has been such a humbling, eye-opening, and heartbreaking experience. Reality is rough!

I wrote about Gugu in a blog two years ago. Her story is a challenge to us all that God can do big things with willing hearts. Mary-Kate Martin wrote more about Gugu:

Originally, GuGu did not want to start a school, but started a Bible club for the children in the "squatter camp." She sat down with over one hundred children, ages 2-15, one day and wanted to talk to them about sex before marriage. "If you are still a virgin, please raise your hand," she told the kids. No one raised their hand. 

 

She figured they didn't understand so she asked again, "If you have not had sex before, please raise your hand." Still no hands went up. She still didn't understand so she asked the children if they understood and they said yes. GuGu's heart broke for them and she started crying. She asked the children more questions about it and they told her that there was a place many of them went to have sex, where beds and dividers were made out of plastic bags from the nearby garbage dump. 

 

Shocked by all of this, she asked the kids when they had time to do this, before or after school. They told her they didn't go to school because they could not afford it. She asked them if they went to school, would they stop having sex and they told her they would. GuGu went home that one day, and made one decision to start a school for these children.

While these kids are having to deal with issues way beyond what little ones ought to face, people like Gugu are stepping up to answer God's call to be courageous. Today may be a day of decision for you today, as it was for Gugu.

To read more about Gugu and the school, check out: River of Life School - Gugu's Story.