For about a month out of every year, “peace on earth, good will to men” escapes our lips and our wallets with an almost unconscious ease. Christmas and New Year charity resolutions. It’s just what we do. The New Year’s resolution may lead us to open doors, to pay for the guy behind us at Starbucks, to hand a sandwich to the lady on the corner that we pass catatonically by every other day of the year. The truth of what we’re actually doing when we “help” is often overshadowed by the vague and superficial feeling of “helping.” It’s easy to forget that we’re changing life stories, that we’re ever doing something real.

I want to give you an opportunity to not only “help” someone this year, but to completely rewrite their story. I want to give you the chance to see this year’s giving for what it is – it is tangible love that turns real people’s worlds 180 degrees closer to knowing the love of God with us.

JOIN ME IN SUPPORTING MABANTENENI CAREPOINT HERE: The Kids of Mabanteneni

In the African nation of Swaziland, there is a community called Mabanteneni, a Children’s HopeChest CarePoint that I help sponsor. The need in Swaziland is almost paralyzing. It’s a nation if 150,000 orphans, 69,000 of those due to AIDS. As a child born in Swaziland, one can expect to die around the age of 46. Poverty, disease, despair…these things follow the children of Swaziland through their short lives, speaking all the wrong messages and giving no hope. Then HopeChest steps in, and takes authorship back from the enemy.  God rewrites the stories of children otherwise resigned to defeat. You can be a part of that! [Read more...]

Some of you will know that Jesus Creed supports the orphaned children in Swaziland at Mabanteneni Carepoint. We would encourage you to begin 2012 thinking about if maybe you might be prompted to help these poor children. The following post is written by the good folks at HopeChest … and we thank them for administrating care for those in need. If you are interested, here is the place to submit your interest.

It is a great privilege and honor to serve the orphaned and vulnerable children in Swaziland. As we live among them, love on them, and share the truth of Jesus Christ with them, we often wonder if they know the treasure that is within each one of them? Will these precious little ones realize the potential and promise that their Father in heaven has placed on their lives? Will they grow in their understanding that the same Lord of all creation who gave the gift of His only Son also cherishes them with a love that knows no limits? That is truly our hope and prayer and is the reason we join together in this work of ministering to the beautiful people of Swaziland!

CAREPOINT UPDATE

The children at the CarePoint were blessed with a Christmas party! Our ministry partners (the six Swazi young people with whom we partner) helped to plan and to organize a very fun and festive day for the kids! There was singing and dancing. The exciting games included a dress up relay and “donut on a string,” where three kids raced to see who could devour a delicious donut dangling from a string the fastest…without using their hands! The Christmas story was told through a narration and a skit, acted out by our ministry partners and a visiting AIM Real Life team. The children also surprised us with a Christmas pageant of their own! A few of the kids acted out the Christmas story, and they shared some special music they had prepared. The bomake/gogos also shared a special song they were happy to perform for us!  A special meal was served: stewed beef, vegetables, potato salad, and rice.  The meal was topped off with some sweets and a refreshing ice lolly (Swazi popsicle). [Read more...]

We want to thank the good folks out there who are sponsoring children at Mabanteneni in Swaziland through HopeChest. Wow, we’ve got only one child left, and through the Jesus Creed community we have sponsored 24 children!

Will you consider supporting Mabanteneni’s community of orphans and pastors and Go-Gos who care for the local kids? (Please click and check out the kids.) If you click on the link, you will see just one child who remains to be sponsored.

I am waiting word from Tom Davis as to what the next steps will be as far as meeting some more needs in Mabanteneni.

I’ve been thinking about school starting up this year, and I’m reading about school in news stories, and we’ve heard of kids getting ready for school … and it made me think about our kids in Mabateneni, a small village in Swaziland where we support orphan kids. The needs, as you may know, are desperate but one thing we can do is offer help fund ministries like those of Hope Chest that work with orphans physically, economically, spiritually and educationally. 

So, once again, I hope you will ponder and pray over sponsoring a child at only 34 dollars per month. Kris and I are committed to use this blog space to urge readers to consider sponsoring a child in Swaziland, a land in desperate need of services like Hope Chest.  As of the writing of this post, we are so proud that 20 children have been “adopted” and there are 5 more in need of adoption (but Tom Davis at Hope Chest will find more if we can sponsor them).  Please think if this is a ministry of which you would like to be a part.

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Whether you look to the laws of Deuteronomy on caring for the poor and widows and orphans, or to the prophets criticizing the leaders for oppressing the marginalized, or to Jesus’ blessing of those who were otherwise overlooked and oppressed, or to James’ powerful statement that pure and uncontaminated religion is to care for widows and orphans, one message comes through clear:

Many of you know the Jesus Creed blog is working to support a poor village filled with orphans in Mabanteneni, in Swaziland. We are doing this through HopeChest, a Christian relief organization in Colorado Springs. Tom Davis, CEO of HopeChest, wrote this post for our blog… and we’re encouraging you to join Kris and me in sponsoring children. There is much need, and we are asking you to pray and consider sponsoring one of these children. Kris and I both check the site often to see if any new kids are being sponsored, and they number continues to grow. Thanks.

Swaziland is Dying — by Tom Davis, CEO of HopeChest

This week I’m leaving for Swaziland, Africa. A place, according to UN statistics, will literally die by the year 2050. Why you ask?  Because it’s the epicenter of a disease so deadly, without the proper medication, you don’t stand a chance at survival – HIV/AIDS.

Nearly 42 percent of the population is suffering from HIV-infection rate. The unemployment rate is at least 40%. The sadness is overwhelming and the hopelessness is suffocating. When I close my eyes and think of some of the worst places I’ve been in my travels, Swaziland is at the top of the list. How would you survive in a place like this? What would you do to find food? How would you find the courage to keep hoping for a better life? 

This is what I wrote in my journal after being in Swaziland, for only two days. It’s not pretty, but it’s reality:

“From where I stand in my humanness, there are no answers for a place like this. There is no hope, darkness pervades, and though the light of the sun attempts to break across the horizon, this country dwells in darkness. In many ways it is darkness. It is heavy, sobering, unreal. I want to run, to hide, and never come back. I want to pretend like I never came to hear of their plight and hope the memories flee and never return. I don’t want to face the truth of what this side of the world faces every single day.”

What do our Swazi brothers and sisters face every day?

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