Thaudeka

Thaudeka was a precious 12 year old Swazi girl we have gotten word that she has died. Thaudeka died of complications related to AIDS. She contracted AIDS from her own Dad. He raped her because he had believed the lie that if you raped a virgin you would be cured from the Aids virus. It is very hard to understand how a Dad can do such a horrible thing to his own child, but sin does horrible things. I would like to say this is a rare occurrence here in Swaziland but I cannot because this happens frequently. It is very hard sometimes not to become very angry and judge mental but I am reminded of what God says in His word that vengeance is His and we are to Love our neighbor. My anger and sadness turns to gladness when now I think of the splendor and happiness that Thaudeka is feeling right now as she rests in the arms of Jesus. No more pain, no one abusing her, no one touching her in ways no one and especially a 12 year old girl should be touched. But now feeling the tender loving touch of our Lord and savior Jesus. Thaudeka’s dad died of Aids sometime ago, I also hope he is feeling the same as his daughter but chances are he never understood the terrible sinful thing he had done and never repented, and now he is felling pain that has been increased a thousand times over to last throughout all eternity. Please pray for the vulnerable children her in Swaziland and for us to show them the Love of Jesus. On a brighter note God is at work, lives are being changed, people are being saved spiritual and physically, we conducted two community clinics a few weeks ago with a visiting medical team from South Carolina (man it was good to hear some southern slang) 410 patients were seen in just over four hours and all that agreed to be tested for AIDS were HIV negative! To God is the glory. The odds are one in three people here are HIV positive so this tells us God is honoring the work that is being done. Thank you for your prayers and for your support that helps us help others. Until our next post uNkulunkulu Busisa (God Bless).

AHH...

Well, finally get some time to write. There is so much to write about since the last posting for which I appologise. The last couple of weeks have really been busy. As I mentioned before we had around 84 people which came from the US to help Healing Place Church put on a conference for the pastors here in Swaziland. The focus of the conference was to minister to and help the pastors. The culture here is different from in the U.S. Pastors here do not come together anytime as a group, they do not have an ongoing relationship with their congregation or the community. This conference was to help empower them and bring them together so that maybe in the long term they will also help with the issues in the communities. During the conference I was in charge of the budgets for the groups and making sure they had accommodations each night and dinners. It was fun..but there was a lot to do, and Thank the Lord it came off without many problems. I have finally wrapped up all the receipts and other items to where today is a rest day for me. Kristin Evans and I were responsible for the costumes for around 20 CarePoint teenagers to do a dance each night. ( I made the skirts) I am going to try to post the video on this blog..(hopefully it will work) We were fortunate enough to go with Greg & Kristin’s group when they visited a game park so we were able to see the animals up close and personal. Thanks to TLC church in Memphis Tenn. For their hospitality ! The sun is shining today; we have had about 3 days of rain and cold temperatures. We have burnt a lot of wood trying to keep the dampness out of the house. We have not been having any heat at all until now. It has just been 2 pairs of sox, 2 shirts, flannel pj bottoms and a scarf. Reminds me kind of like frosty the snowman...ha ha. Soon we will be back on a normal routine and visiting our CarePoint more in the coming weeks so I will have much more to write about. This coming Wednesday, June 17th will be our 30th wedding anniversary and how blessed we will be to be spending it in Swaziland. Time sure does fly...and I know I am getting older when you read this you will know also. I finally caught my sister-in-law on face book the other night and she said “ just read that Leslie had her baby” well, I thought and then responded “Leslie who?” and she came back with “ ha ha very funny, your cousin Leslie” well, I had totally forgotten .. When we received the news she was expecting we were in the middle of trying to sell everything and wrap everything up to move here and I totally forgot. So, maybe it wasn’t totally old age...ha ha . Congratulations Leslie.. Going to say bye for now. Will write again soon. Oh, wanted to tell The AWANA class at Piney Grove Chapel thank you for all your cards. We will write and mail you some replies, I know AWANA is over for the summer but wanted to let you know we got them..Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers and thanks to our good friends Tracy and Daniel for the Potato soup recipe..um um good..and try to post a picture of a friend we had visit…yuck..I hate spiders.. Love you all.. Diane