A day in Sweetwaters...

Yesterday we went back into the community of Sweetwaters to assemble food parcels for the month of December. These food parcels are given to the home-bound, sickest patients that Tabitha ministries is involved with as well as to the child-headed households. If you are not familiar with the term child-headed household it is when children, mainly due to the death of their parents, are forced to take over as head of the household and take care of the remaining siblings. It is not uncommon for the oldest sibling to still be under the age of 10 themselves. These children do not live with relatives or in any type of shelter. They literally in an instant are unfathomably catapulted from a child to a parent. It is estimated that there are close to 6000 children living in this situation in the community of Sweetwaters alone. This is a photo of the typical food parcel that Tabitha distributes...because it is Christmas though they wanted the people and children to have something special so we added a bag of candy, package of cookies and jelly. The monthly food parcel generally includes a bag of rice, maize meal, soup mix, sugar, salt, tea, 5 bouillon cubes, soap, candles, 2 cans of beans and 1 can of sardines.

Packing the parcels...

Some of the sweet caregivers that helped pack the parcels...

These caregivers are considered mobile moms and hospice caretakers...they check in with the child-headed households at least once a week and make weekly visits to check on AIDS patients.

After hours of packing this was the reward of our labor...over a thousand bags filled with food to be distributed the day before Christmas!

We then came home to prepare for a much anticipated grand event...

Four of the children from the orphanage take gymnastics classes and their program was last night. They were so cute and did such a fantastic job! Introducing Lulu, Becky, Timmy and Nellie...

We went back out into the community again this morning to do a program for some of the child-headed household children at the community center. When we were last here back in August only one room of the community center had been built. Since we have been back home, God has graciously provided Tabitha with the funds to complete the center and so far a good portion of it has been built...

Zanele's house, the shelter and the community center are all inside a small little compound. This is a photo of Zanele's house...

And this is the shelter that is right next door where the 26 children I mentioned yesterday live...

The children that came for the program today...

Sandwiches and kool-aid for the children...

This sweet little guy made me smile...during prayer he squeezed his eyes shut as hard as he could and kept them that way the entire time...

The harsh reality of a child-headed household...

This sweet little girl is only eight years old and is responsible for her one year old sister. I took the baby to give the little girl a break so she could enjoy the program. After about 30 minutes the child started to cry and myself or the other women weren't able to console her. It broke my heart to see this young girl only a child herself, step away from the program to come and comfort her sister. She did it without a second thought the minute she heard the baby crying. It is unfathomable to comprehend, but the way of life here...to watch the children still only children themselves taking care of their siblings and putting their younger brothers and sisters needs ahead of their own...

I'll leave you with some final images...it was a great day and I am so thankful for the opportunity to love on these children and to speak to them of a God who loves and cares for them.

"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8