Swazi 1000

The more than 20 caregivers who look after the children in Bulembu’s orphan care program dedicate their lives to these vulnerable little ones. Each of these ladies takes on the role of mother for between 6 – 8 children, who live with her in a beautifully renovated three-bedroom house. The focus of the Swazi 1000 women’s ministry is to help carry the load of these ladies for two weeks.

In the mornings they had pampering sessions where the Swazi 1000 volunteers painted the ladies’ nails, made flapjacks for them, and held arts and crafts days where the ladies could make jewellery for themselves.

There were also give-aways of sponsored luxury beauty products, including Esteé Lauder body lotion, DKNY perfume and 80 bottles of Cutex.

In the afternoons the Swazi 1000 volunteers went to the orphanages to do all the chores that the caregivers would have done. They washed the children’s clothes, cleaned the houses, and helped out with general household tasks.

“It’s amazing to use the skills of my career as a make-up artist to serve ladies who really appreciate it,” said Natalie Roos, who headed up the women’s ministry project. “Some of these ladies don’t own any make-up, and their whole lives are dedicated to serve children that aren’t even theirs. It’s great to be able to do something to make them feel special.”

“We also prayed for them to realise the worth of their work, and that the Lord would show them their beauty as women,” she added.

From scraping a wall of the soon-to-be-museum with a iron brush for four hours, to removing decomposing household refuse with your hands, to giving a small barefooted child a loving hug … The Swazi 1000 experience is made up of moments where small, positive changes are adding to a major shift in the re-weaving of the fabric of the Bulembu community.

Most of the changes are not visible on a grand scale at first.

As one walks down the hill from the tent camp there is a view of the village. From this perspective, there doesn’t seem to be much happening in the town slumbering in the blazing sun. As one comes closer you start to see dirty volunteers happily doing what is needed in whichever capacity they are functioning on the particular day. Scrubbing showers, playing soccer with the children, removing alien vegetation, breaking down walls after waking up to pray at 3am, sewing costumes for a school play, smearing peanut butter on 500 slices of bread … Just a bunch of God’s friends anonymously loving people that they haven’t met before in their lives.

We are almost at the phase of the Swazi 1000 process where the beautiful Biblical concept of perseverance is set before us as a choice, and the unseen actions that don’t seem to make a major impact initially are becoming the tests that challenge our motives.

There is however, such a sense of encouragement when one starts to notice the visible changes sprouting up. The information signs painted on the buildings, the Dvdvuzi building site that is slowly but surely transforming into a refuge for orphans, the dirt patches in the grazing fields of the dairy that are starting to turn green, a small girl feeling safe enough to make herself at home in your lap …

Transformation comes as we, through these seemingly insignificant actions, challenge our own selfish nature and a resulting culture of apathy. The unseen tasks snowball into moved mountains, and a generation is radically renewed by love.

“Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the perseverance of Christ.”
2 Thes. 3:5 (NIV)