Sometimes...

I apologize to anyone who noticed about the late post. The reason is pretty simple. I was distracted throughout Friday checking news updates. Thursday afternoon (US time), a small plane crashed in central Indiana, killing two young men. They were engineering students at Purdue. I knew the pilot, and although we were not close friends, we knew some of the same people and had shared some very interesting conversations. My thoughts and prayers are with his friends, family and community as they mourn the loss of a good young man. Earth has become a little poorer and heaven a little richer.

One of the strangest things about life is that it keeps going, either in indifference or in defiance of pain and loss. This morning I got up and walked down to Healing Place Church (where I've been attending). A small group gathered and we drove out into the rural areas to a small homestead with probably around a dozen children (although counting small children is never easy and it seemed like 20+). If I understood correctly, the woman there cared for all of these children, but I'm pretty sure they were not all hers (judging by their ages). They had a shelter (3 half-walls and a tin roof) where they met for Bible classes on Sundays, but it was not very suitable shelter from rain, and as the rainy season enters Swaziland, they needed something a bit more suitable. So for 3-4 hours, I hammered nails, sawed logs, shoveled cement, and tried to be useful.

6 20-27 year-old male interns from the Global Leadership Academy (a ministry connected with Healing Place Church and Children's Cup Ministries) came to work with Paster Roger, Stephan (Children's Cup's construction manager), Mitch (Children's Cup's Director), myself, and two guys that Pastor Roger knew (Gifts and Mohammed). Gifts and Mohammed pretty clearly knew what they were doing, but they mostly kept quiet in the face of the raw and untrained enthusiasm displayed by the rest of us. I tried to find a balance between "the white guy who stands around watching" and "the white guy who gets in everybody's way". It definitely was not easy.

So now the entire structure is expanded and enclosed. It was a joy to exert effort to do something with an immediate and clear result (although I was also reminded that I work in an office and am not conditioned for construction). Still, as the Children's Cup guys talked about making this a new "Care Point" (Children's Cup locations where they distribute food, take care of kids, and do some preschooling), I couldn't help but appreciate what I'm doing with AfricaWorks and Partners. While Care Points are great, they require a significant and uninterrupted flow of funds from donors (mostly in the US). I'll explain our model further on Monday, but the money that we get from donors is invested in farmers who pay us back the money and keep the profits when they sell their chickens.

May God be with you,
-Ben