What are you doing June 4th?

On Wednesday, June 4, Live in Love is returning to Swaziland. This begins a year-long mission there with the children in a rural area called Mapa Veni. Despite the poverty and illness, we believe in the power of love. We are excited about this amazing and humbling opportunity.

So, on June 4, wherever you and whatever you are doing, if you have a moment, please send thoughts and prayers for the year ahead. 

Thank you for continuing this journey with Live in Love and keep an eye on the blog for updates from Africa!

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Thank you for supporting our mission in Africa!

Live in Love is Growing!

As the international division of Heartworks Photogrpahy, Inc., Live in Love is taking the next step in its growth. Beginning in June 2008, Live in Love will be esatablished in Africa as Lori is moving there to continue the work of this non-profit. Please read below as Lori shares this mission.

It is a joy to share with you I am taking my experience and passion for helping children to a new place: Africa. With the prayers of many people and following God’s guidance, I am going to Africa to serve full-time. I cannot deny what God has put in my heart. God has made it quite clear that Africa is where He wants me. It is amazing how He has grown His will and purpose into such a desire that I am unable to imagine doing anything else.

My home and work will be in Mapa Veni, Swaziland, beginning the first of June. The country of Swaziland is located in the far southeastern part of Africa, bordered by South Africa and Mozambique. Mapa Veni is a rural area in the northeastern part of the country and marked by great poverty and illness. Swaziland has the highest rate of AIDS of any country in the world. Physical and sexual abuse of children is rampant. Death and dying are an all too familiar experience. As the average life expectancy continues to decrease, the number of children orphaned by AIDS and the number of child-headed households is increasing. Children not only experience the loss of parents, siblings, and other family, they often face the same future as they, too, are infected. There is extremely minimal alternative housing for children who are abused, who are orphaned, who are pregnant, who are dying. The government provides no support and actually discourages it. There is little food, no clean water, and unsafe shelter.

While these facts and the lives of these children may be overwhelming, I believe there is hope. I believe hope’s name is Jesus. The goal is to glorify God through sharing and explaining His love and the hope of eternal life with Christ to children who do not understand the concept of love or the meaning of hope. With the love of Jesus, aspects of the ministry will include
· helping children understand and cope with illness, loss, death, and grief
· encouraging children to express themselves
· supporting children to see themselves as the beautiful people they are, that they do exist, that they do matter, and that they are loved
· assisting children to create remembrance items and experiences at the end of their lives or family members’ lives to aid with grieving

I will work closely with Pastor LaSalette Duarte who has lived in Mapa Veni for more than 25 years. She started and runs a church, Christian Family Church, and school. She also partners with Children’s Cup missionaries (www.childrenscup.org) to oversee their Care Points where children in this area receive a meal each day. Together we will serve and care for the children in this community through the church, school, care points, and monthly medical clinics. We will meet needs as they arise, as we can, and as God leads. We are planning and building a home for orphans, abused children, and young girls who are pregnant as a result of sexual abuse/rape.

I am going to Africa with Live in Love, the international division of Heartworks Photography, Inc., a 501c3 non-profit corporation established in 2002 (www.heartworksphoto.org). The founders of Heartworks are professional photographers dedicated to serving vulnerable children locally and around the world. The fundamental need for photography in this region to remember the children who are lost and die each year, as well as the therapeutic opportunities it provides, makes us a well-rounded team. To read more and see pictures about Live in Love, Swaziland, our previous trips, and some of the people we have and will continue to work with, please visit www.supportlil.blogspot.com.

How may you help?
· Prayer
· Financially with a tax-deductible donation
· Share this with others
· Purchase or donate needed equipment and supplies (list is included with this mailing)
· Purchase a shirt (or 2 or 3!)

If you would like to support and contribute financially, your donation is tax deductible. One time, annual, and on-going monthly funding is needed. Startup costs to support the ministry are $20,000, which is primarily for the purchase of a vehicle. On-going costs are currently estimated at $1,300 per month. At this writing 30% of startup costs and 40% of on-going monthly costs have been met. You may write a check payable to Heartworks Photography, include Live in Love on the memo line, and mail to Heartworks Photography, 150 St. Charles Rd., Carol Stream, IL 60188.

Thank you for joining me, for partnering with me to give children a voice, to show them and help them know love and hope exist and can be theirs. If you would like to receive correspondence and updates by e-mail, please send me your e-mail address.

The Power of Love

Is there anything stronger than the love of a parent for a child? Team Hoyt would argue “no way”. Who is Team Hoyt? Just a father and son, Dick and Rick Hoyt. They compete together almost continuously in marathon races. When they’re not running marathons they are doing triathlons — the daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.

So, what makes them so special? “Nothing” would most likely be their reply but if you saw them running, swimming, or biking you would beg to differ. You see, Rick can’t talk or walk. When Rick was born the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and cut off oxygen to his brain. While the doctors told his parents there was “no hope for their child’s development,” and that they “should just put him away — he’d be a vegetable all his life,” Dick and Judy Hoyt brought their son home and were “determined to raise him as ‘normally’ as possible.”

As Rick grew “the Hoy’ts were convinced Rick was just as intelligent as his siblings. Dick remembers the struggle to get the local school authorities to agree: "Because he couldn’t talk they thought he wouldn’t be able to understand, but that wasn’t true." The dedicated parents taught Rick the alphabet. "We always wanted Rick included in everything," Dick said. "That’s why we wanted to get him into public school."

A group of Tufts University engineers came to the rescue, once they had seen some clear, empirical evidence of Rick’s comprehension skills. "They told him a joke," said Dick. "Rick just cracked up. They knew then that he could communicate!" The engineers went on to build — using $5,000 the family managed to raise in 1972 - an interactive computer that would allow Rick to write out his thoughts using the slight head-movements that he could manage. Rick came to call it "my communicator." A cursor would move across a screen filled with rows of letters, and when the cursor highlighted a letter that Rick wanted, he would click a switch with the side of his head.

Rick told his father he wanted to participate in a five-mile benefit run for a local lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Dick, far from being a long-distance runner, agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair. They finished next to last, but they felt they had achieved a triumph. That night, Dick remembers, "Rick told us he just didn’t feel handicapped when we were competing." Rick’s realization turned into a whole new set of horizons that opened up for him and his family, as "Team Hoyt" began to compete in more and more events.”

More events meant Dick would have to become a long-distance runner. When Team Hoyt began competing in triathlons Dick not only had to become a long-distance biker but he also had to learn how to swim. "I sank like a stone at first" Dick recalled with a laugh "and I hadn’t been on a bike since I was six years old."

As they continue to compete nationally and around the world, Rick experiences success in other areas. He graduated from Boston University with a degree in special education and works at Boston College’s computer laboratory assisting in the development of “Eagle Eyes”, mechanical aides that can be controlled by the eye movements of a person who is paralyzed.

Team Hoyt’s message is simple, “Everybody should be included in everyday life.”

Thank you, Team Hoyt, for showing us 1 more way to Live in Love.

The text in italics is from the web-site http://www.teamhoyt.com/.

To view an inspirational video about Team Hoy, visit http://www.sermonspice.com/ Don't be surprised if you need a tissue.

Pepe's Art

Be thankful everyday, Live in Love, and pass it on.

Love in Action: Simply Teresa

A mother of 4, a nurse, a missionary, and the medical director for Children’s Cup in Africa. Compassionate, generous, loving, fun, intelligent, strong, humble, courageous. So many ways to attempt to describe a woman who seems to be all things to everyone she meets.

Teresa Rehmeyer lived a comfortable, and what most would call successful, life in Louisiana with her husband and 4 children. Contentment would seem obvious but not for Teresa and her family.
They knew there was more and in 2005 they made the change of a lifetime. Teresa and her husband moved their family to Swaziland in the south eastern part of Africa to serve orphaned and vulnerable children.

Teresa now runs a clinic, providing medical care to the 4000 children currently involved in Children’s Cup Care Points throughout Swaziland and Mozambique. Teresa cares for children with everything from fevers to cuts and wounds to complications of HIV/AIDS to severe physical and sexual abuse. She does home visits in the poverty stricken areas where the children live. She visits the children when they are hospitalized to follow their care, providing them with a familiar face, support, and love in the dirty and frightening institutions.

Abuse, violence, disease, neglect, and death are rampant here. Teresa values and loves the children when their own families, their own communities, and their own society do not. The children look to her to relieve their pain and suffering. The children look to her for healing and for hope. She is their light in a dark world and she always provides.

Lara Logan: The Real Lara Croft?

Meet award-winning journalist Lara Logan, who has been reporting from war zones for the past 15 years. Fictional woman Lara Croft intentionally puts herself in dangerous situations to save the world. Real woman Lara Logan also puts herself in dangerous situations, but to share the world, not to save it. That is until she and soldiers with the 82nd Airborne literally stumbled upon an orphanage in Iraq. They just happened to peer over a wall. What they saw on the other side was like nothing they had previously seen during their time in Iraq. Lara was determined to share the horrific conditions of an orphanage for boys with special needs and their rescue by these soldiers. So how does Lara Live in Love? Through her dedication to the truth - in war, danger, terror, and the hope that exists and persists in the midst of it all.

Lara was named one of Glamour Magazines 2007 Women of the Year. The publication's article is below.

The Truth Teller
Lara Logan, war correspondent

“When we both covered the war between Israel and Hezbollah, I’d get to the scene of an attack, and invariably Lara would already be there. ‘What took you so long?’ she’d ask.” —Anderson Cooper, anchor of Anderson Cooper 360° on CNN and host of Planet in Peril, just out on DVD
By Susan Dominus

Pinned down during an attack by insurgents in Ramadi, Iraq, Lara Logan asked herself two questions as bullets whizzed by her head: “Where can I get the best pictures?” and “Where can I stay alive?” Logan, 36, chief foreign correspondent for CBS News, has been having those thoughts—in that order—ever since she was a 17-year-old reporter in her native South Africa. On the job, she’s dodged gunfire everywhere from Angola to Afghanistan and in 2003 covered the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, where she’s been almost nonstop ever since, even as the number of foreign reporters there has dwindled.
A bundle of energy who gets by on “three or four hours of sleep a night,” Snickers and Red Bull, Logan is fueled by one urgent mission: to tell it like it is. “If journalists weren’t in Iraq, any politician could say what he liked and no one would be the wiser,” she says. During the past year, the deadliest since the invasion, she saved children’s lives with her expose of horrific abuse at an Iraqi orphanage. “Lara shoots video herself when she doesn’t want to put the crew at risk,” says CBS anchor Katie Couric. Says Logan: “How can you show people reality if you don’t go see it yourself?” Bearing personal witness to “the cruel reality” of war is, she says, “what I was put on earth to do.”

For Lara’s reports and photographs about the children and their rescue soldiers, follow this link, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/18/notebook/main2946477.shtml

"Love and being loved is the greatest of human joys, the ultimate human experience. We can exist without love; but we are not living fully as human beings without it."
Edward E. Ford

Love in Action: La'Salette, Superwoman

She may not be faster than a speeding bullet nor be able to leap a tall building in a single bound, but La'Salette Duarte is a super woman. Portuguese by birth, La'Salette has lived in Swaziland for more than 25 years. She can not contain the love, joy, and hope that is within her so it naturally overflows to those around her. It is contagious. La'Salette currently runs the Children’s Cup Care Point in Mapa Veni in Swaziland. Although this care point is relatively new, there are already 250 children from the surrounding communities who come here every day for a meal, often their only meal.In addition to the care point, La'Salette continues to lead the church and school she started many years ago in the same community. This region is 1 of the most devastated areas in Swaziland. (On a recent medical mission trip, the physicians, highly experienced with health care in rural and underdeveloped areas, said the children and adults were much more sick than other areas of Swaziland.) The church is located in an old machine shed on the edge of the sugar cane fields. La'Salette has been converting it into a church and school complete with 4 small classrooms and a teen room where the teens in the community can spend time, find refuge, experience comfort, compassion, and love, and know they are not alone. La'Salette adds her own personal touch throughout the building, ensuring that what some may consider “minor” or “unnecessary” details are present. These include pretty decorations in the women’s bathroom, murals on the walls of the school, a fountain, and brightly painted wheelbarrows with colorful flowers planted inside. La'Salette knows that love, to Live in Love, is in the details. La'Salette will keep going, keep growing the care and services she provides and supports.

Love in Action: Susan and PePe

Sub-Saharan Africa is more heavily affected by HIV and AIDS than any other region of the world. An estimated 24.5 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2005 and approximately 2.7 million additional people were infected with HIV during that year. In just the past year, the AIDS epidemic in Africa has claimed the lives of an estimated 2 million people in this region. More than twelve million children have been orphaned by AIDS.
UNAIDS, '2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic'

When you learn of the statistics of AIDS in Africa, the numbers are staggering. It is difficult to comprehend, to fully grasp what 24.5 million people really looks like. It may help to put a face or 2 to this epidemic, to get to know someone living it. Meet Susan and PePe…

Susan (Sisana) and PePe are bound together by life, by death, by sickness, by poverty, by hope, and by love. At first glance one may assume Susan and PePe to be mother and daughter. At first glance one may assume PePe to be 5 or 6 years old. At first glance you may not even notice them at all. The reality is they are not mother and daughter, PePe turned 10 this year, and they often go unnoticed. In October 2006, PePe was very sick as a result of having AIDS. She was not expected to live much longer. Susan, who was a cook at the Children’s Cup Care Point where PePe came for a meal each day, provided for most of her care. PePe’s mother had died of AIDS 5 years prior and PePe’s father was suffering from the same illness. In a sense, Susan rescued PePe. She took PePe to the clinic, fed her, cared for her, and brought PePe into her home. Susan gave PePe things she hadn’t known in many years, things she possibly never knew. Susan showed her love and gave her hope. The amazing part? Susan was also dying of AIDS.

The end of PePe’s life was drawing close, or so everyone thought. PePe’s strength, though, along with the love and hope Susan fostered in her, put up a tremendous fight. A year later, October 2007, the unimaginable is reality. PePe is still alive. And not just alive but thriving. Today she is taller, has gained weight, attends school daily, likes to jump rope and color, and smiles every chance she gets. Oh, yes, the smile… something that did not in exist 1 year ago. No, her AIDS is not cured and she will still die, but not today, not this year.

While PePe grew stronger, Susan’s health deteriorated. On May 19 of this year, Susan lost her battle with AIDS and was finally able to rest and be at peace. Below is a brief note from the Daran and Teresa Rehmeyer’s blog (rehmeyers.blogspot.com), missionaries with Children’s Cup, who know both Susan and PePe:

Sisana Nxumalo
A product of a hard life. She still had a heart for her community and the children there who no one else cared for. She will be sorely missed. I pray for a hundred more who have a heart to care for those who have no hope. Sisana knew hope's name is Jesus.1965.......19 May 2007

How does something as ugly as AIDS bring about the beauty of hope and love? How does something that tears people apart also bring some people together? The only answer I have is to truly Live in Love…

A spot of good news: Look at PePe today - Oh, what a difference a year makes!

Last Full Day in Africa.... For Now

Tuesday, October 16, is our last full day in Swaziland and 1 of our busiest days of the trip.

We started early with a 1.5 hour drive back to Mapa Veni near the border of Mozambique to visit the church/school and the Children's Cup Care Point. Mapa Veni is 1 of the poorest areas in Swaziland. It is covered with sugar cane fields and many of the people who live here are "cane workers". Christian Family Church and school was started by La'Salete, a Portuguese woman who has been living in Swaziland for over 25 years. She is one of the most beautiful women we have ever met and we have "reserved" a post space just for her. The school has 59 students in grades 1-7 sharing 4 small classrooms. The church is attended each week by hundreds of people from the surrounding communities and La'Salette continues to lead and grow the church as pastor.

During our visit to the church and school, Syndy photographed each class, the teachers, and then the whole school together. At the Care Point, also lead by La'Salette, we had the honor of distributing more shoes from the "Share A Pair" project. Syndy photographed all the children and staff at this Care Point, which was much more work than at the school due to the presence of 200+ children! What a blessing for all these children. Because of La'Salette, Children's Cup, and the women who volunteer their time, energy, and love, more than 200 children now have a meal everyday.

We spent the afternoon at Makholweni Care Point and Clinic. Teresa runs the clinic every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon with children coming from all the care points to receive medical care. Lauren, a psychologist, works with Teresa at the clinic providing counseling for specific children who have experienced severe trauma and abuse. The care Teresa and Lauren provide is invaluable. They are filled to overflowing with love and compassion for the children. They are Living in Love.

Our day concluded with a brief stop at Gabby's soccer practice. Gabby is Teresa's and Daran's eldest daughter. She is an avid soccer player, hoping to receive a scholarship and play for university. Syndy was behind the camera again, photographing the players as they warmed up and a team photo. As the sun began to set, we left the girls to their training.

Quite a variety in our day. From churches to schools to care points to cooks with new shoes. From clinics to children waiting in line for their food to an organized soccer practice. Just a few of the many faces, the many sides of life in Swaziland.

Share a Pair: Stylin' and Smilin'

Zombodze Care Point Distribution



Mapa Veni Care Point Distribution



Mahkoweni Care Point Distribution

By the sea, By the sea, By the beauitful sea

Mozambique is a country located in south eastern Africa on the coast of the Indian Ocean. We stayed in the capitol city of Maputo Saturday night and attended church with Carol and Issac Williams at the Children's Cup Care Point they lead on Sunday morning. With 70 adults and 250 kids attending the chruch service, Carol and Issac have their work cut out for them! They are young, vibrant, and have a glowing heart for God.

5 Things To Do When You're Stuck at a Border Crossing in Africa

Ah, yes, the Mozambique border... Hot, humid, no place to sit, and did I mention the guard at the gate with the uzi? Ok, I'll cease the drama, and while the former sentence is all true it was just a really, really long wait. No pain and suffering, no problems, no close-calls or near-misses. Just heat and waiting and sweat and sweaty tired kids and are we there yet?....

1. Bring a snack
2. Bring water
3. Wear comfortable shoes and clothes
4. Have a sense of humor
5. Don't be in a hurry

Lions and Tigers and Bears - Oh, My!

Ok, well, not tigers and bears, but definitely lions! We took a short break from the busy schedule Friday night and Saturday morning to visit the Hlane Royal Game Park with the Rehmeyer clan (missionaries with Children's Cup, reymeyers.blogspot.com). A game drive Friday night followed by impala stew and traditional African dance around a large fire and a second game drive Saturday morning provided a nice get-away. While we did not see large numbers of animals we did have amazing close encounters with the lions. We watched in awe a lion pride with 1 male lion, 3 female lions, and 2 young male lions, getting as close as 20 feet to the "Lion King". Of course, we were in our Land Rover safari vehicle so we had some protection. They are beautiful and look so cute and cuddly... then they yawn and you are quickly reminded of their wild side. You don't want to get any closer to those teeth.

At noon on Saturday we bid farewell to our game guide, Johannes, and headed for the Swaziland/Mozambique border. Leaving Swaziland was quick, easy and painless. Entering Mozambique was another story....

To see more of Syndy's wildlife pictures from Hlane, visit her personal blog: www.SynthiaBAfrica.blogspot.com

Love Comes In All Shapes and Sizes

Friday morning began with sun shining through the windows for the first time since we’ve been here. We knew it was going to be a memorable day.
Kristen and Charles are Children’s Cup missionaries and friends we have come to know. Charles has already returned to the states for a new ministry opportunity and Kristen is joining him later this month – hopefully with their new baby girl they are in the difficult process of adopting here in Swaziland. “Jules”, the current favorite in the name category, is 1 month old and in the abandoned baby ward at a government hospital. Friday morning Syndy and I had the honor of meeting Jules and sharing bath and feeding time with her and Kristen. A beautiful baby, a beautiful woman, wrapped up in love. Everyday brings new challenges as the adoption process is filled with red tape and poor communication. Despite the difficulties, the emotional ups and downs, and an unknown outcome and future, Kristen and Charles choose to Live in Love and are committed to bringing Jules home.



Our next stop was a return to the RFM Hospital's children's ward to deliver the photos Syndy took the previous day. The smiles from the children and the mothers began the moment we walked in the door. With their memories of the day before, the pleasant surprise was apparent in their expressions and reminded me of how often they have been let down and no longer expect people to follow through with what they say. Mother's faces glowed, children's eyes lit up, and God brought joy to a despair-filled place.

The morning continued with the first "Share A Pair" shoe distribution. Old, dirty, worn-out shoes were quickly shed as the cooks at the Makheweni Care Point picked out their new shoes, courtesy of the kind giving of our friends and family. The women showed off their new shoes to each other and 1 women even started dancing. Smiles, hugs, thank you's, and happy soles rounded out our visit to these beautiful women.

Love. It comes in all shapes and sizes. A family, a photo, a pair of shoes... It doesn't take much, just a little love.

Much To Share...

We are back to Swaziland and back on-line! Friday afternoon through Sunday evening was spent traveling in Swaziland and Mozambique. There are several posts below to catch you up on the past few days. Thank you for reading and sharing the experiences with us!

Say Cheese

Thursday morning was spent in the children's ward at RMF hospital. While the children don't know the phrase "say cheese" to help smile for a picture, there were still plenty of smiles for Syndy's cameras. There were 35 kids there, ranging in age from 1 week old to 12 years old. It is more different than we can even try to explain from any hospital in the US. It is not possible to not be deeply affected by the conditions. And, yet, the children still smile. What a lesson...

Survivor every day here

Tonight, Thursday night, is "Survivor night" on TV in the US. Here in Swaziland it's Survivor every day. Yesterday we visited 1 of the Children's Cup Care Points for a few hours. While there we talked with the women cooks who were making the children's 1 daily meal in a large black caldron over a fire. It was foggy, damp, raining, cold, and yet they faithfully provide for the children. We also attended a portion of the school day. Ndombia and Prudence are the 2 teachers at this care point, teaching the children and this poor community through 3rd grade. Ndombia and Prudence live in this same poor community as do the cooks. Among the may highlights of the day was our visit with PePe, a 10 year old girl with AIDS. We met PePe during our visit last year when she was brought to our Medical Mercy clinic with a high fever, mouth sores, TB, and going into septic shock. Even with the quick response of the lead physicain and pediatric ICU doctor, Dr. David Beyda and a pediatric ICU nurse, Aimee Franken, we did not think PePe would live much longer. By the grace of God and through much prayer, we saw a healthier and happy PePe yesterday. Still only the size of a 6 year old, PePe was full of smiles even coloring a picture for us. She still has AIDS and she will still die, but not today or tomorrow. She has more time in this world to know Jesus, Her Lord and Savior, to not fear death when it does come, and minister to others through her more than difficult journey in this life on earth. She is a true Survivor, each and every moment of each and every day. She is a living example of Living in Love.

First Morning in Swaziland

AFter a 2.5 hour delay in Jo-burg we finally made it to Swaziland at 8:00 last night. This morning we woke to rain and fog but it doesn't dampen our spirits our the work we're here to do. Today we're headed to a hospice organization in the morning and a pediatric ward at one of the hopitals in the afternoon. Our ride is here so we will add more later. Have a great day and Live in Love

On our way... FINALLY!

We left Chicago this morning with over 300lbs of luggage and lots of hugs and prayers from family and friends. This is our departure at Chicago O'Hare. With the help of Durrell and 'Tom' our skycap, we managed to get all our luggage checked thru with no extra charges and we're now en route. A short layover here in Washington Dulles then on to Jo-burg before we reach our final destination tomorrow evening in Manzini Swaziland. Next blog from the southern hemisphere on the other side of the Pacific!

Shoes Shoes Shoes

The Shoe Project... Share a Pair

Yesterday we began the strategic task of packing for Africa. With weight and dimension restrictions as well as a small plane from Johannesburg to Manzini, “strategic” is a nice way of saying, “Oh, my gosh, how are we going to do this?” We had hoped for 75 pairs of shoes, not sure if we would get that many. To our joyful surprise, our friends and family spread the word about the "Share a Pair" Shoe Project to their friends and families and the generosity has been more than we ever expected. Current count as of last night is 111 pairs of women’s shoes and more are being donated each day. I have a feeling we will be packing shoes up until the day we leave! Of course, we’re not sure how we’re going to get our own stuff there, like clothes to wear and Syndy’s camera gear. Ah, another strategic packing challenge for another day. We look forward to sharing photos and stories on this blog as the "Share a Pair" Shoe Project continues, from final packing and count to distribution to the women cooks in need. Stay tuned…

As always...Live in Love, share a pair, and give someone in need the opportunity to walk a mile in your shoes.

Swazi Thoughts - October, 2006

As we prepare to return to Swaziland, the memories of previous mission trips come flooding back and we anxiously look forward to another opportunity to Live in Love in a country that so badly needs our love and compassion. I thought I'd share a journal entry I wrote just weeks after we returned from Africa last October. I hope that in sharing it, you can get a better idea of what my personal motivation and passion are for this vast mission field.

"It’s now been two weeks since our medical mission team left Swaziland Africa, a Kingdom smaller than the state of New Jersey, embedded in the northeast quadrant of southern Africa. Upon returning home from any mission trip, I am always forced to succumb to the routine of my ‘normal’ life, leaving behind the sights and sounds of people less fortunate than us. Incredibly, after two weeks, my mind is still racing with thoughts of the amazing people I met, the miracles that were accomplished and the lives that were affected.

As I reflect on our trip, I am continually astounded by the compassion of the Children’s Cup missionaries. A team of 7 Americans, they minister daily to the basic human needs of abandoned, orphaned and vulnerable children. Never before have I witnessed such commitment to a cause that is so worthwhile. These missionaries don’t give lip service to their plan of action; they give their hearts, their sweat and their tears!

During our first prayer gathering on Monday morning, one of the missionaries asked us a thought-provoking question: “Why do we do what we do?” He then went on to say, “If lives don’t change because of what we’re doing, life is pointless.” This really made me think. Not just about our mission trip and why we were there in Swaziland but about life in general. How many of us can say that we are changing lives by doing what we do? Are we living a personal life that exemplifies God’s love? Have we followed God’s calling in our professional lives? Do we find time to donate our energy to a worthy cause in His name? Are we changing lives? The good news is, as long as we have life to live, we can make changes and change lives!

When asked about my trip to Africa, I’m still speechless. It’s hard to sum up our trip in a few words. I guess in one sentence I can say that my heart was touched and I’m anxious to return! The children of Africa need our help and Children’s Cup needs our support. It’s easy to become focused and overwhelmed by the amount of need. I choose to stay focused on the nearly 1,800 people we saw in Clinics and in knowing that we met some of their needs. I focus on the thousands of children that the Cup Missionaries feed each day through the Care Points. And finally, I focus on the ongoing ministry that Ben, Suzie, Daran, Teresa, Charles, Kristen, Patrick and all those on their Swazi Team are accomplishing one child at a time. Thanks to them, these children are no longer forgotten." - Originally written October 2006 by Syndy