HIV Test

About a month ago we arranged for there to be HIV testing at one of our Carepoints. Sitting there as we set up for it I decided that I wanted to be tested as well. Not because I thought I might have been exposed but really just to see what it was like. I figured if I was going to encourage people to get tested, I’d better do it myself and be able to share what the experience would be like. There are a lot of misconceptions of what is involved in an HIV test and I wanted to see for myself what was involved; needles, amount of blood they actually take…you know discover things like that.
What can I say, the experience shook me. I sat there listening to the pre-counseling session in SiSwati…I’m not sure if that made me more nervous or less. He was telling the group about the disease and then explained the options involved after one is found to be positive. So I didn’t really understand what was said…so basically had a lot of time to think before the test. It was crazy the emotions, feelings, doubt, fear that came over me while I waited. The crazy thing is I really had nothing to fear or be worried about but still the experience freaked me out. I then tried to put myself in the shoes of someone who did have something to fear. Imagine sitting there waiting for an HIV test going over in your mind all the people you’ve had sex with…thinking to yourself, I wonder about her, or her…I wonder if its possible…what will my life be like…what will I tell my pastor…what will I tell my family…what will I tell my wife…I was going to get married but…I have kids, do they have it…so much goes through ones head, so much fear…so much doubt. I sat there like that for awhile and it was thick, it was rough, just trying to experience what millions are going through…I think I understand why people do not go for HIV tests here…it is scary and for a lot of them it’s a 50% chance their life will be hit by a freight train….HIV (Charles, came up with that train comparison).
Then something happened inside of me. I realized that for me, or someone like me, a Christian, someone with a relationship with Christ, we have nothing to fear. In Galatians it says that Christ has conquered everything, everywhere…that means disease & death. Jesus Christ is hope even when you are looking death straight in the eyes.
Another realization I had is that by getting an HIV test you get to know where you stand. If you do not go for the test it just means you are ignorant of your status…you either have it or you do not…if you never get a test, the disease will still be there whether you know about it or not. The test does not change anything; it just changes what you can do about your situation.
Here are some pics of me getting my test -





- Yes, I was negative...yes, they double check, and yes I was still negative 

AIMers

- so yeah, wrote this a long time ago, but figured I’d post it anyway

There has been another AIM Team that has come and left…here are some pics of them. My good friend Kara, a leader for AIM who has been here for 1 and a half years just left. There are 4 of the leaders that are sticking around still and I think one of the girls, Kristy, is coming back at some point. It’s hard to see people go but I thank God for the opportunity to get to know and hang out with these AIMers. God be with you guys as you return home. Pillow Palooza was fun!!



 

Christy & Animals

Christy, a first grade teacher from North Carolina, came to Swaziland a couple of months ago to visit the Carepoints. She’s been a faithful partner of Children’s Cup and been a big time prayer soldier for us. Well she got to help with our teachers during a couple teacher in-service days. It was cool to have a teacher input into our teachers but more especially our education coordinator Queeneth. She is most likely coming back for a year to volunteer with Children’s Cup but that is another discussion all together (check out her blog http://deepthoughtsandrandomramblings.blogspot.com/)…I got to go to a game park with them and I wanted to show y’all some cool pictures of the animals. It’s weird to think of how close these animals & game parks are to where I live. Enjoy the pics:





 

Pics from Camp

Haha, flour relay
Oh, no...Swazi Dancers beware
look at the leg extension
Just kids we are able to help smile...worthwhile 

Day in the life of Soweto Patrick Jabulani Kuhlwayo Conti

In italics are thoughts throughout the day

7:00 – woke up around 6:30, prayed for 30 or 45 mins

8:00 – Ate breakfast

- Lifted weights à thinking bout Dave Crowder song, “Revolutionary Love” hmm… Christ’s love is so radical, so big, so revolutionary…how can I better receive & reflect such a love
- Showered

9:00 – Drove to Office at Cooper Center in Mbabane…bout 7 minute drive

-In Office:
- Prepped for staff meeting
- Talked with Roger & Nathi about upcoming camp
- Their upcoming schedules
- ministering in schools around Mbabane

10:00 – Staff Meeting

- Worship
- Prayer
- Talked about what it means to truly seek God with all your heart
o Takes humility, dependence on God, listening to God’s voice, it takes honesty, centrality of Jesus, surrendering all, a journey of radical love, trust and faith…God wants our heart
- We then talked about what’s going on with all the different Carepoints & programs
11:00 – Staff Meeting

- We are rolling out a new strategic plan in order to make the Carepoints run with excellence. It involves having an ex-pat missionary, Nathi or Roger over 1 or 2 Carepoints as a site liaison or coordinator. This is to ensure accountability and to build depth into the relationships instead of trying to have true relationship with 10 different Carepoints. It will help us to go deeper, build into the teachers, cooks & children’s lives more effectively and help the Carepoint to truly be what we want it to be. Its exciting but it’ll take a lot of work and prayers to make the change
12:00 – Kids Club Meeting

- Gugu, Charles & I met to talk about the direction and goals for our kids clubs.
- We talked about performance indicators for evaluation, monitoring & improvement
- We also talked about reconciling Mbabane to what is happening in Manzini

1:00 – Organized my desk, checked email, wrote something up for Roger, went to Lunch
With Van Rensburgs

2:00 – Lunch with Dave (Beano) & Sharon Van Rensburg

- Conversation Topics
o My parents
o My camping trip over the past weekend
o Tyrone
o Rwanda
o My Future
o Restaurants & food
o Mozambique
o Hiking

3:00 – Finished up Lunch

- went to Standard Bank (saw Wayne Wilson, another missionary from NYC)
- Returned to office

4:00 – Office

- Print Preliminery schedule for camp
- Think about camp budget
- Make a list of questions we need to ask ourselves as we are preparing for camp
- Drive home: the Rodgers house ( I live in a granny flat)

5:00 – Siswati Lesson

- “Sawubona” (Hi, or literally I saw you)
- “Yebo” (Yes)
- “Unjani” (How are you)
- Ngiyaphila (I’m good or literally I am having life)

6:00 – Siswati Lesson

- Usebentaphi? (where do you work?)
- Ngisebenta Ka Children’s Cup (I work at Children’s Cup)

7:00 – Dinner with Ben, Susan, Charles & Kristen

- Jambalaya, green beans, butternut, salad & rolls
- Coversation topics
o Siswati lesson
o Young’s car purchase
o Todd n Jen
o How Susan chose Levi’s name

8:00 - Finishing up dinner

- went to my room to write some thoughts on theme à “God’s plan for your life”

9:00 – Writing more & playing guitar

10:00 – still playing guitar, Read, “Jesus Style”

11:00 – Thinking about tomorrow

- What is revolutionary love, how can I personally show that, do I understand it?
- Tired, thinking about taking a trip, and about the upcoming World Cup
- Sleep

1:30 – I know, I know my day is up but got to put this in there

- I wake up hearing water flowing…is someone in my shower, did I leave the water on, is Miss Joyce taking a shower??? …I walk into my bathroom from my room only to step into about 2 inches of water … not good, this is a bad sign…so I continue on through the bathroom to the lounge area of my granny flat. I am greeted by smoke (note* I don’t have my contacts in)…oh great, I have a flood & fire going on at 1:30 in the morning, is that my ceiling on the floor, what is going on here…So a pipe burst and there was hot, hot water coming down through the ceiling which eventually brought down the ceiling itself, the smoke I thought I had seen was in fact steam, I then busied myself scurrying around the house to turn off the water…Miss Joyce woke up and helped me to clean up. I went to bed again around 3:00 in the morning, not that everything was cleaned up but I had defeated the floodwaters and taken everything outside to dry…I woke up to a lil personal African Katrina…not to say I went through anything like those people in NOLA but my much disoriented mind made that connection…

Check out Charles Blog for tomorrow’s “A Day in the Life Of”…he’s the most crazy, cool cat in Swaziland with a big heart for Jesus…he’s bound to have stories and crazy thoughts to share

http://charlesandkristen.blogspot.com/

Here are pics of the girl

She already looks better than she did when we first saw here. Teresa Rehmeyer gave her some medicines and there is a little more weight in her face than before. I need to show a picture of someone standing next to her for y'all to really understand how small she is...pray for her. Hopefully we can help her have a fighting chance