For the Least of These...

In November, we will be traveling to Africa! Isaac and I will be going to Swaziland, a small country in sub-Saharan Africa to work with the organization Heart for Africa.

Many of you know that in graduate school, I tailored all of my research, papers, projects, and presentations to HIV/AIDS in Africa.  In fact, my master's thesis was designing a multi-faceted AIDS intervention program to be implemented in the small African country of Swaziland.  I spent countless hours researching the AIDS pandemic and its effects on the Swazi people, pouring over statistics that seemed too incredulous to be reality, and learning in just a very small way how the HIV/AIDS virus can devastate an entire nation.  And now, Lord willing, in seven months months Isaac and I will travel over 8,000 miles to see Swaziland and meet its people first hand.  To gain a greater understanding of the world and how many of its people live.  To grow in the knowledge that Christ has called us to be servants.

When I wrote my thesis over four years ago, I shed tears as I slowly pieced together a picture of the situation in Swaziland.  Recently, I pulled out my thesis and examined it again.  The statistics jumped off the page:

• Forty-one perfect of Swaziland's population is under the age of 15
• The average life expectancy at birth is 32 for men and 33 for women
• The HIV prevalence rate is 33 percent, the highest of any nation in the world
• Sixty thousand orphans reside in Swaziland

According to Heart for Africa, the average life expectancy is now 29.  Twenty-nine years old.  Isaac and I both turn twenty-nine this year.  There are now 200,000 orphans in a country the size of New Jersey, and the HIV prevalence rate is now 42 percent.  Fifteen thousand households are headed by orphans, and if the trend continues as it is, there will be no adults left in Swaziland by the year 2020.  This knowledge breaks our hearts; how can we understand this information and not be moved to action?  And while these numbers bring us to tears and leave us stunned, we cling to the hope that is graciously given by our Christ.  He knows the people of Swaziland; he loves them and cares for them.  And he is calling us to show his love for them.

We will keep you updated on the entire process of preparing and going to Swaziland to serve these beautiful people.  We covet your prayers as there are many things which require preparation before we can go and learn to serve others as our Savior serves us.  We both must raise $3,550- an overwhelming amount, to be sure- but not an unattainable amount through the grace of the Lord.  To begin raising the funds necessary to travel to Africa and serve the people of Swaziland, we have created a fundraising page through Heart for Africa (it currently links to Jenny's account, but once the money for one complete trip has been raised, we will change everything to an account for Isaac's trip):

Our Swaziland Fundraising Page

There is also a permanent link on the right-hand column under the heading "For the Least of These"; simply click on the picture, and you'll be taken to our fundraising site.  We are also planning on hosting some other fundraising events; if you have any ideas or would like to help us in any way, please feel free to let us know.  Most of all, we pray that our trip would be bathed in prayer as we seek to joyfully serve whom the world as deemed "the least of these."

March Update

Well, hello there, friends and family!  We're officially into April now, so it's time for a recap on the past month.  March was interesting, to say the least, with lots of ups and downs as well.

I was selected as a member of the jury for a civil case, which lasted four full days. While the case itself was not the most interesting, the entire process of being selected for a jury and deliberating was at times fascinating. Sitting in the jury pool for days wasn't too bad- I was sure to bring along several books and other activities to keep me occupied. The worst thing about jury duty is trying to stay on top of work. I checked my email in the evenings and went in a few times to get a few things done, but in general you just have to let it go and let it explode in your face when you return to work. One thing I will say, jury duty really makes you appreciate your job...because sitting in the jury box and being talked to death by attorneys is a painful way to go.

In non-jury related news (and yes, I have plenty of ridiculous stories to share with you if you like), we celebrated Ash Wednesday with our church's annual service. It's amazing to me that even at 6:30 am on a rainy Wednesday morning, the building was packed with people excited to begin the Lenten season. We are steadily working on memorizing Romans 8, but I am a few days behind; Isaac is doing well with the memorization, as he is with his fasting of soda.  I'm surprised how much easier it is for me to give up television (i.e. Netflix) than it is to give up sweets.  Let me tell you, there have been plenty of 'grace days' as Isaac calls them.  But I haven't ingested any of those delicious little fiends known as the Cadbury Mini-Eggs, so that's a small step in the right direction.  We also started a new tradition of Lenten Lights; you can choose to do this over the seven weeks in Lent, or you can do it during Holy Week. We chose to do this over the entire season of Lent; when we have children we might opt to focus on Holy Week since seven weeks is a long time for little minds to truly grasp the content. You can find the guide to it here.

We are still leading our community group through church; we are working through some tough issues, but we are also seeing a deeper level of transparency and Gospel-centeredness.  Sometimes, it's so hard to really live in a true community, but we are finding that living in such a way is how we are created to live!

Isaac continues to be the insanely busy man that he is.  He is very much looking forward to next week, as it is Spring Break, and he'll get a little break from classes and Pastor's School.  He'll still be working most of the week and will also be reading, studying, and writing papers.  One major piece of news is that he signed up for a summer class with one of his favourite professors.  In June, he'll be taking an elective for his MDiv program while here:

That's right.  He's going to Costa Rica for two weeks.  In the morning, the team will be taking a class for seminary credit and then in the afternoon and evenings, they will be ministering in the community.  We don't know a lot of the details yet, as he just signed up and paid his deposit this week, but he is very excited about this opportunity to learn under Dr. Sills on the mission field.

 

There have been some interesting developments at my agency in the past month.  A good portion of our funding is tied directly to our new refugee clients who arrive in the United States.  Each refugee receives funds called Reception and Placement funds, or R&P funds.  The responsible agency also receives administrative funds per client and is responsible for disbursing the R&P funds.  While we have other grants and funding sources, our R&P funds are a pretty significant form of funding.  Out of nowhere, Homeland Security announced they were instituting a new security screening for all refugees coming to the United States; no refugee was allowed to travel until they completed the new screening, even if IOM (International Organization for Migration) had already scheduled their flights.  Because of this new screening, most of our arrivals were put on hold.  We received one new client in March; we normally get around 40 or 50 new clients each month.  This is a nationwide issue, so we don't feel alone by any means, but we are concerned about what the outcome could be.  Please pray this is resolved quickly and that these refugees are allowed the chance to travel to the United States to begin their new lives.

This month, I also began a second job as an Academic Assistant at an after school program.  Right now, I'm only working two of the four days, and it's only for an hour at a time; it won't add a lot of money to our income, but it will be a little bit more we can pay on our student loans (or add to our Sweden savings account).  One of the perks of this particular second job is the opportunity to take language classes at a local business for free.  I've signed up for a French class and am hoping there are enough students in the class for it to 'make'.  If not, I may be taking Italian, Arabic, Spanish...who knows?  I think French would be very useful, however, so I'm hoping it will work out.

So that was our March.  We were horrible local tourists again, but I don't even think Isaac and I had one date night the entire month, so it must have just been an extra crazy month!  Next weekend, we're headed off to Virginia for the wedding of two of our community group members.  And since we're going to be in Virginia, we decided to make the trip a little longer and spend some time with James, Clemma, Zach, and Eli.  We are beyond excited for this little reunion with our beloved friends!