Return from Swaziland

Thursday, December 18th, we returned from our 10-day trek. 6 days in Bulembu, Swaziland, 1 day driving from corner to corner of Swaziland, and 2 days of vacation on the beach near Durban, South Africa.

The old mining town of Bulembu caught us all by surprise. The best analogy I can offer is a reviving old textile mill town. My readers from the South will know what I am talking about. Bulembu was built around a chrysotile mine in the late 1930s and 1940s, and consisted of about 7,000 miners (including family) and 3,000 whites (Portuguese, Germans, Scottish, South Africans, Swazis, etc) that ran the operations. At its height, it was the jewel of Swaziland…producing much of the economy that helped run the whole country. Then the global market for chrysotile crashed in the 1990s and the mine closed operations around 1996. A town of 10,000 was essentially deserted, leaving most mining equipment, medical records/x-ray machines, beds at the hospital, etc…it was an eerie feeling walking through some of the old buildings were life was just a decade before but now cows often make these buildings their habitat. Over the past few years, social developers/entrepreneurs purchased the 7,000 acre town noting its natural resources in forestry, and envisioning a redeemed community to care for orphans and raise up the future leaders of Swaziland. Bulembu Ministries Swaziland is the umbrella non-profit organization that is operating the town, rebuilding the infrastructure, and reviving the economics with businesses producing arts/crafts, honey, & bottled water. Currently around 1500-2000 people have moved back with 100-200 being orphans. We feel blessed to have seen the process a few years in to a long-term community development project. The redemption of physical buildings and education and orphan care and churches and economics that have already begun was such an amazing picture of the redemption that Scripture talks about (Isaiah 58:9-12). We filled our tanks up on the amazing life stories of faithfulness, sacrifice, and perseverance of the volunteers/missionaries. One story that rocked our world you can listen to yourself on Mamelodi Stories.

Isaiah 58:9-12
“Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”