January is a tough time of the year for us as it is the neverending flow of people asking us to assist them or their family with school fees. School officially opens tomorrow for all the government schools, although some private schools and preschools opened last week. For any age of school children, preschool to form 5 (grade 12), school is not free. There are costs for school fees, uniforms, school supplies, extra activities (sports, arts, etc) for each child. I cannot imagine what it is like for families that have many kids. Most of the time, boys are kept in school longer because girls can help out at home more and also help to watch the younger children still at home. Education is needed to further someone in life here through a job or going onto university. I just wish it was not so difficult for any child that wanted to attend school to be able to do so.
Monday is typically the day we try as a family to be our "day of rest" as Friday, Saturday and Sunday are quite busy for our family, especially Steve, with ministry opportunities. Lacie does attend school on Monday mornings but we attempt to keep our gate closed, cell phones on silent and not work on business items all day long.
Well, this morning, we had visitors at our gate by 9am, which is not too bad because folks have stopped by much earlier in the past. We knew that it would be about school fees and it was. Fortunately, this issue has been a huge matter of prayer for Steve and I in recent months and we felt the Lord leading us to a solution that fits our situation as well as our finances. Unfortunately, we had to tell the people sitting in our lounge (living room) that we could not help them with school fees. If we helped every person that asked us for help, we would have run out of money in our second week of our time in Swaziland! The needs are overwhelming in many ways but we also know that we have to teach our Swazi brothers and sisters how to save their own money, look for resources that are available to them, build within the church support and on and on. It broke my heart to see this young girl, probably age 15, starting to weep in my home because she is not sure how she will attend school this year. In the past much jealousy and tension arose in many of our churches when folks would find out that so and so was helped by this missionary or so and so was helped by that missionary and so on. We know that for now we cannot give to direct individuals because this cycle of dependency has to be broken. God has blessed us with different resources and we are being led to give through our Baptist churches.
This youth girl also has been ill and somehow we are looked upon as medical folks sometimes, too. We are comfortable in sharing Tylenol with people but we are not doctors and nurses. How I wish we had a bank account that never ran out of money but that is just not reality! For the orphans, there is supposed to be money that they can attend school for free due to outside contributions and government scholarships. However, corruption gets in the way and the funds are not available to all those that desire to attend school. The process is ongoing and a solution does not seem to be one that can be "fixed" with our own hands.
God, give us wisdom to know how to deal with this stressful time of the year and to wisely share resources and finances you have provided for our family to those in need.
This is by no means a blog post asking for folks to contribute but rather a window into the daily happenings of our family during January and part of February. Thank you for your prayers!
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