When the Lord builds a house

We are so thankful for God's provision! Not only did we receive more than enough donations to re-build a home for Mkhulu Shandu, the actual building has progressed really quickly especially in light of how long everything normally takes here in Swaziland to get done.

A beautiful new roof that fits snugly on the walls!

Shandu will have a window in his house for the very first time! 

The inside of the house looks very spacious when compared to the old house. 

We showed up at the Maphiveni care point just in time to join the children for breakfast. Jenn is trying sour porridge. Sour porridge is a basic Swazi breakfast, maize meal is soaked in water overnight and it starts to ferment and then in the morning it is cooked.  It is a very thin porridge and it was different but I (Jenn) could get used to it. The sugar did help, but I don't think I will make it on a regular basis. 

Both Nchlachla and Newman have been joining us for Bible Study on Wednesday's. Nchlachla is such a good role model for Newman and patiently explains the things of God to Newman. Newman is seriously contemplating the gospel and has expressed an interest in going to church. Please pray for Newman at this time, that his heart would be drawn to knowing the One true God and that God would completely deliver him from the addiction of alcohol. Jabulane and Mary have also expressed interest in joining us on Wednesday nights. Pretty soon we will have to load up the khombi and will be bringing half the group!

Ian and Jabulani took the khombi to Manzini this week to get it checked out and were able to pick up the Rav which had been in the shop for repairs. They returned with the Rav but had to leave the khombi for a week to get fixed! It seems like we just switch the vehicles in the shop every week.

Another ministry partner, Corrine, is providing an income opportunity for some of the ladies in Section 19. They had their first meeting on Thursday of this week and will be sewing hand bags to sell. We ask that this venture would be blessed and that it would open up many doors for the women of Section 19.

The rains have come and we will soon be planting maize. The rest of the crops are all doing well. We recently have heard from several of our ministry partners back in the States and have been blessed and encouraged by the correspondence. Living here in Vuvulane can be quite isolated at times and we struggle with feeling isolated, lonely and disconnected from those we love.

P.S. - If you want to support our ministry, the fastest way is to make an Online Donation via www.WorldOutreach.org
Go to "Donate" and select our name, Stephens, Ian and Jenn SWAZILAND. The system can process USA and International cards.
Or simply mail your gift to World Outreach Ministries, PO Box B, Marietta, GA 30061 and designate for Ian and Jenn, Fund Code #97.

HIV affects Thuli's brain

Thuli, a woman in her 40's, has been in the Chips program for a while since she has HIV. She had been employed at a care point as a preschool teacher but was dismissed in January due to budget cuts. The HIV has been affecting her brain causing her to wander around Maphiveni half-dressed, filthy, and malnourished. A couple of weeks ago, she made several trips to the river to try and kill herself. Fortunately, each time she was prevented from doing so. After a Chips meeting, we were able to get her family and the church involved with her care and brought her back to her family's homestead. 

It is such a sad situation. We know that Thuli is a believer. The only thing we can do when we feel so powerless to help is lean on the Lord Jesus to work out the situation.  Please pray for Thuli, that God would continue to protect her, heal her and be her strength and comfort. 

We are seeing that HIV affecting the patient(s) mentally is an increasing problem in Swaziland and there just aren't the facilities to deal with this problem. Please continue to pray for wisdom and guidance for us as we deal with these patients. 

P.S. - If you want to support our ministry, the fastest way is to make an Online Donation via www.WorldOutreach.org
Go to "Donate" and select our name, Stephens, Ian and Jenn SWAZILAND. The system can process USA and International cards.
Or simply mail your gift to World Outreach Ministries, PO Box B, Marietta, GA 30061 and designate for Ian and Jenn, Fund Code #97.

The Pied Piper

Do you know who the Pied Piper is?  Shhh, don't tell, but it's Ian! Everywhere Ian goes, behind follows a group of kids.

Ian is gathering the kids together to sing some songs. 

Mgldzangcunu

Ian is the star player in this pick-up game of futbol. 

Maphivini Children's Program

 Please continue to pray that Ian will be a godly role model and mentor for all these kids who look up to him so much. Also pray that God will reveal His Father's heart through the love that Ian has for the children. May they come to know God because of the influence that Ian has had/is having in their lives.

Life in Swaziland: Maphiveni

In order to give you a better idea of what we do on a daily basis and a glimpse into the Swazi culture and people, we are going to start a series called Life in Swaziland. We will share photos and stories about all the communities we serve, activities and work we do, and show you the beautiful people that we interact with. Enjoy.

Maphiveni, pronounced 'map-a-vein-i' is one of the settlements nearby where we spend a lot of time. This settlement is quite special to us. It is our hope to eventually build a community clinic here at Maphiveni which would provide holistic care for people with HIV and TB; including counseling, starting and refilling ARV's. Our Chips office would also be at this location along with a center where classes and micro-industries could be held. Right now, there is one micro-industry in operation here in Maphiveni, making paw-paw jam. There is a group of people from this town who are going to receive training on successfully growing mushrooms which would become the second micro-industry project here.

Jubulane (left) is translating for us. 

Every Friday night we teach a public health education class here at the Maphiveni Mercy Care Preschool. This is a good time to connect with the community and to hand out our surplus of vegetables to those in need.  Once a month we have a quiz night and hand out prizes to those who can answer correct questions about the topics we have covered in the past few weeks. There are prizes and it is always a lot of fun. 

The children here at Maphiveni Mercy Care after-school program love action songs almost as much as we do! This is one of the sites that we have done a monthly children's program. 

This sweet baby Kwaneie is 11 months old but is the size of a 2-3 month old baby. She is malnourished and possibly HIV+. She lives on a diet of watered down corn porridge. We were able to provide some temporarily formula and are coordinating with a pediatrician at the hospital to see what type of nutritional supplement we can offer the malnourished children in our area. In August of this year we lost a HIV- baby to malnutrition. Please pray for us as we provide nutritional education and seek to raise funds for our new malnutrition program. 

Jabu#1 and Vusile (age 3) are both enrolled in the Chips program. We have been able to help provide transportation and supplement the costs for Jabu#1 recent chemotherapy sessions as well as medical care/treatment for Vulsile. It is our belief that Vulsile would really benefit  from moving to Hope House (a residential rehabilitation center in Manzini, 1 and 1/2 hours away) and we are currently talking to his father about this. Vulsile's mother died of AIDS. 

This is baby Clement, who at 9 weeks old is a butterball baby. Quite a change from being fed sugar water in his first 36 hours of life. We are thankful that there was funds available to provide adequate nutrition for this sweet baby boy. 

And people are lining up!

Chips has received the green light to set up a care point in two more settlements, Khomba and Mgldzangcunu.  We were planning to do a presentation about Chips and what Chips can provide in each of those settlements but it looks like we may not need to do that after all. Potential patients in Khomba have already been calling us and already we took the first patient to get started on ARV's this week.

Last week, when we were at the Vuvulane care point to check in and see if they will need help, there was a number of people who expressed interest in being tested at the Mgldzangcunu care point. Maybe all we need to do is just show up and God will bring people to us.

Speaking of the Vuvulane care point, they won't be needing our assistance as they already have some food sources. We will just visit once in a while to interact with the children there. Also, Mr. George, a teacher at the school in Vuvulane, wants to start/teach a Crossroads class as an after school club. We are awaiting word to see if he will need help with that class. There could potentially be 30 plus students in attendance.

The Sugar Corporation gave us permission to make use of an office in Tambankulu starting in August. Currently this office is being used by researchers who are researching the benefits of Moringa.  Having this office will be such a blessing as we have quickly outgrown the room at the church that we were using. It will also be closer to the communities that we serve. 

Something smells funny

The road from the house to the tarred main road is about 4 miles of dirt. The road was graded on Sunday and was then sprayed with this stuff.  It smelt very weird and finally we figured it out what it was; a form of molasses.  The molasses fills the holes in the road and keeps the dust down. However, the downside is that it corrodes your car if you don't clean it off. 

We are often blessed with gifts from the people.  When they have little, they love to share. Last weekend, we were given 30 green mealies (white corn on the cob) that you roast over an open fire. We never refuse any gift, it is special when given from the heart. This week we received tomatoes. When our garden has produce ready, we plan on sharing the fruits with those around us. 

There have been a couple of praises that has happened in the last couple of days. The first is that we were able to get Vusile an appointment in Mbabane for his dislocated shoulder. The appointment is set for August. 

Secondly, we (Chips) received the green light for expanding into two new settlements. We will be doing a presentation about Chips in Khumba and Mgldzangcunu in the upcoming weeks. Additionally, all the stable Chips patients will be transfered over a 4 month period to the care of the Vuvulane clinic. This will free up additional resources to address the more critical needs of new patients. There are a couple meetings that we have lined up for this next week; to see if the Vuvulane care point needs our help and how we could help, and to see if we can set up another Crossroads training in Vuvulane. 

Our new home is almost ready!

We did get the approval for our new house and have completed the paperwork. Now we are just waiting on the necessary repairs to be made. The completion date that we have been told is April 20, which would allow us to move in towards the end of the month. We are anxious to be there permanently.

• Please pray that all the repairs will go smoothly and that there will be no further delays
• Another prayer request: We are trying to get a young woman with HIV/TB and cancer into chemo treatment, but she's too sick to go. Pray that she is well enough to get treatment.

In the meantime, during the week we drive to Tshaneni and stay with Pastor La Salette. From here we make several day trips to care points and squatter camps that are in the area and do children's programs. Then on the weekends we drive back to Mbabane where we are able to catch up on emails and other business.

This past week we visited Marenjane Mercy Care Point. This care point has a preschool for 30 kids and also feeds 200-300 people Monday through Friday. There will be some long term plans to build a sister church, orphanage, and vocational tech center here at this care point. We had a great time teaching the children praise songs and watching them praising God.