A Month in Swaziland

Bethany Ruth Brown

I need to change my lifestyle! There are people in other parts of the world starving to death and dying of disease.
Oftentimes an individual returning home from a mission's trip might
make this general statement. However, after arriving back to America
from a monthlong trip to Swaziland, Africa, my mindset was vastly
different than I contemplated it would be.

Swaziland is known around the world; yet not for something that any
country would want to be known for. This country has the highest AIDS
rate in the world. One of the villages we visited struggled with an
AIDS rate of one in three. This experience broke my heart. Due to the
immense AIDS problem, the orphan number increases on a daily basis.
Walking down the street, I saw a 13-year-old girl carrying an infant.
But the teenage girl no longer played the role of "big sister." After
the loss of their parents, the girl became mother to the child, and
poverty only made the situation worse.

A typical Swazi home in a village consisted of sticks, of all sizes,
plastered together by mud. Straw pieces made up the roof, and nothing
more than a slab of cold cement made up the floor. This round, one-room
hut housed a family of five. Young children ran around with filthy,
torn clothes, if they had clothes on at all. The smell of rice cooking
in a large pot wafted past us while we walked through a village.
However, in the midst of poverty and AIDS, the children came out to
greet us, always with smiles on their faces.

"Faith like a child," I repeated over and over in my head. Happiness
and joy overwhelmed these children. Many of the older Swazi locals had
a broader understanding of life and knew that if they did not get a
meal within the next week, there was a possibility that they may not be
alive to experience the following week. Seeing the darkness in their
eyes broke my heart even more. After spending a month in Swaziland
doing missions work, it became more than just a missions trip. The trip
removed the blinders that had been covering my eyes for too long.

After just stepping into the lives of people in an AIDS-stricken,
impoverished country, I came back from Swaziland expecting that I would
say,

I have to change my lifestyle;
however, that was not so. When I came home, I did change my eating
habits by only eating what my stomach could handle instead of being
gluttonous. I also learned to express more gratitude for all of the
ways the Lord had blessed me. Yet, sitting in my room one night
journaling, the Lord spoke to me. He reminded me that He blessed me
with the life I have for a reason.

If God planned for me to live in Africa or any other country where
poverty and disease ran the nation, then that is exactly where I would
be. He has blessed me with a life that consists of three meals a day,
clothes on my back and a very well-structured home. It would be wrong
of me to try to change the life He has given me; instead, I need to be
more grateful and maintain a larger sense of willingness to share what
I have with those who do not possess the same. I realized that my view
should not be focused on changing my lifestyle, but rather on changing
the way I view the life that God has given me. If I choose to live this
life of abundance without thanking Him for the opportunity and
blessing, then I would be mistaken.

There are many people dying of AIDS and other diseases, and people are
starving to death. Stepping out and making a difference in a small way
such as giving bread to a homeless man on the side of the road, or
going to the extreme of visiting a country like Swaziland and
ministering to the orphans, the sick and the homeless is what I can do
to share the life God has granted.

This life is not about what one can do to make his or her bank account
larger, or even beating yourself over the head for having a privileged
life. It is, however, about making a difference in the lives of those
who do not have hope. I have been blessed with a life of abundance, and
it is now my job to go out and share that abundance with those who do
not have it.