Checking our Expectation Level

The Swazi Observer - January 23, 2012

It is another Monday morning, but I hope, and trust, that it will not be a manic one for you. I will do my part to try and make it a positive and good experience for you, and to accomplish this minor miracle, I will share with you an inspirational and true happening, that has brought a huge amount of joy into the hearts of some people, and I hope, as you read this true story, it will help to lighten your mood today. I promise this is worth reading!

There is a very special work going on in the area of our needy kingdom. It is conducted by a ministry called CHIPS which is an acronym for Childhood HIV Intervention Program, for Swaziland. It has been in place for four years, and through this organisation with its small, but dedicated team, literally thousands of people have been helped. They are encouraged to see their need to know their status in terms of HIV infection or otherwise, offered counselling, and then helped to get tested. Depending on their results, where necessary they are enrolled in a ART program through one of the major regional hospitals.

Assistance with transport both for the initial and subsequent visits is given, and the quality of compassion and practical support offered to those who become registered clients is exceptional.

As the CHIPS work has developed it has involved building up a relationship with the communities that are served, and having gained acceptance, the people who are serving are welcomed into the very basic homes occupied by many of their clients.

In one of the homes, they met a man who has a number of wives and several children. Among the children is one boy of five years, who has been in a very desperate and difficult condition. He was one of twin boys, but the other one died at three months. The boy’s mother also died, and now this boy, the remaining child, known to have contracted the dreaded virus, and also suffering from other complications was in a sorry state. He could neither walk nor talk, and most days he simply lay on the floor.

If the absolute truth be told, he has not been shown much consideration or compassion by the other wives of his father, who feel that they have troubles enough of their own.

The boy’s father has been genuinely distressed about the condition of his son, but had pretty well resigned himself to the fact that the child would probably not survive infancy.

Now it happened, as it often does, that the father has yet another lady who has come into his life, and quite unexpectedly this lady has shown and is showing a genuine interest in this little boy. She has no medical skill or training of her own to do anything about his core condition, but she has a warm and loving heart and she has begun to work with this little boy. She has done basic things. She has made sure he is clean and fed. She has been generous with the time she has spent with him. She has caressed him and shown him tender loving care.

She saw his limbs looking powerless and wasted as they have been and she started to massage them, to stimulate the muscles that had atrophied, and the most incredible change has occurred. This little boy, who seemed to have little prospect of any quality of life, indeed whose life hung in the balance, has gradually, but amazingly, responded to the attention he has been receiving each and every day.

This homestead has been regularly visited by the CHIPS team, but it happened that the leader of the team a highly trained health professional was overseas for several weeks. When she left she knew nothing about the changed domestic arrangements in this home, and therefore nothing about the interest that this new lady had started to show.

On her return, she went to make the first visit for this new year, and she literally could not believe what she saw. This five year old child, whom she had never seen walk or talk came running and smiling toward her, and as he did so he was chatting in siSwati.

Now as I said the team leader for CHIPS is a highly trained health professional, and having got over her total surprise at seeing this transformation in the child, she wanted to know what had happened. When she asked her questions, the young lady who had been caring for him said, ‘ I just started to work with him and as I did so he seemed to start responding and we quickly bonded together. I came to see caring for this boy as my priority and I thought that with God’s help his situation can be changed, and what has happened is not what I have done but what God has done.’

Hearing this simple and humble testimony was a complete inspiration, exactly the kind of inspiration that the team leader was needing a she returned to her work. A woman of great faith herself, she was moved beyond words and to tears, as this little one ran alongside her as she visited the home and then was standing waving as later she left to visit elsewhere.

The team leader left the situation with her heart full of praise to God, absolutely sure that what she had seen was nothing less than a miracle, a miracle of God using human hands, to demonstrate that His hand was upon the life of this little boy for blessing and healing. This was a miracle of one life that seemed to be going nowhere, that now can go somewhere, because although the boy will need continuing medication, and other interventions, his body will be able to cope with them, and there is every possibility that he will be able to go to school.

Such a possibility just didn’t seem to exist, but now as his health improves, and his abilities are developing it is judged highly probable that he can make it to the next level.

As she drove along the road, she started to chastise herself, because she realised that in her work she often asks God for His direct and immediate intervention in people’s lives. She knows God can do the impossible and she asks Him to change people and situations on a daily basis, but she became aware that although she asks for this to happen, and believes that it can happen, so often she is not anticipating that it will happen, and it seemed to her that God had given her a wake up call. She found herself not only inspired, not only challenged, but hugely encouraged, and aware that she too needed to move to another level, the level of attempting great things for God, because she should be expecting great things from God.

In this frame of heart and mind she continued on her way, making more visits, and as she did so, much sooner than she could have imagined, there was something just a special to be encountered.

Her next call was a call on a lady whom she had always seen in a bed ridden state. It was said that the lady had not walked for a long time, as the result of a stroke, and that her health was deteriorating very rapidly. Her own assessment of the situation, in so far as it could be made, gave her no reason to suppose that the things were other than she had been told, and if she was completely frank, she had doubted whether the lady would be still living when she went to visit the home after a gap of some three months.

What did she discover? As she entered the homestead, the woman whom she had last seen in such a hopeless state, came walking toward her. She was warm and welcoming, and the CHIPS team leader just stood and stared in amazement.

“What has happened to you?’ She asked immediately, “ Jesus has healed me!” was the reply she received.

Now if she had not been entirely expecting the first encounter with the child and his changed condition, she certainly had not been expecting the second. It was almost too much to take on board immediately, but as she listened to the woman, it was as obvious as it could possibly be that here was another life that had been totally turned around, and it was even more obvious that there had been no other intervention, but the intervention of faith.

This woman who had been genuinely sick, who had received medical treatment for her condition, but who had retreated into her sickness becoming defeated and depressed by it, had reached a point when she had done the one thing that was essential. In weakness but summoning up the mustard seed faith she had, she had issued a desperate cry to the Lord, and He had heard that cry and had helped her, turning her weakness into strength and her sickness into new found health.

There was no spirit of boasting in this lady. She was offering a simple but sincere statement of fact. There was no magic and no muti involved. She had turned to Christ and He had turned to her and changed her. It was not more complicated or sophisticated than this. She did not know why she was healed and other people were sick, but she wanted just to give thanks to the Lord for everything.

As she celebrated this complete contrast in the woman’s condition which could not be denied, but which could be verified, the team leader just felt moved in the very depth of her soul. It was almost as if the Lord was showing her in a new way a truth that she knows very well, the truth that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever. His living power and His healing presence are as much at work right now, as they have ever been in human lives, with total transforming ability.

I think this is the kind of wake up call many of us need. We talk of miracles, and we pray for miracles, genuine observable and verifiable miracles, not things that are the product of our over fertile religious inclinations, but our expectation that we will actually see them present and enduring is sometimes far too low is it not? There is, as they say, none so blind as those who will not see, and none so slow to glorify God for what He is doing, as those who have no expectation.

Pastor Ken Jefferson

Mbabane Chapel

Mbabane Swaziland

No CD4, No Initiation

 Sithembile Matsenjwa is 47 this year and lives in Maphiveni with her husband.  She and her husband were tested by CHIPS in February 2009 and both are HIV+.  Blood was drawn in 2009 to check their CD4 counts.  Both of their CD4 counts were above the threshold for being initiated on ART.  Every 4-6 months CHIPS would re-draw blood to check their CD4 counts.  The threshold for starting ART in Swaziland is 350 now.
In November our staff began relaying instances where the government labs refused to take blood samples for follow up tests due to lack of reagents.  Follow up CD4 counts are performed for people like Sithembile who are still above the threshold to begin ART and for people who are on ART to check that the drugs are effective.  The Swazi Times reported on the situation in November as well.

Sithembile with Mary dos Santos, CHIPS HIV Counselor

What does this mean for Sithembile and her husband?  It means even though they know they are HIV+, they will have no way of knowing when their CD4 count has dropped beneath the threshold so they will not be able to begin ART.  The natural progression of HIV from infection to onset of AIDS is typically 5 to 10 years.  Sithembile, her husband, and many more know they are living with a clock that is ticking down.  Their only hope for delaying or stopping that clock is access to anti-retrovirals.
CHIPS tries to lend encouragement (and slip in blood samples for recounts when we can).   
Sithembile and so many like her and her husband are casualties of the financial crisis gripping the Kingdom of Swaziland.  So while the government had stated that health care would remain untouched, it is in fact already affected in a very real way.  While we can't support the entire country, we are looking for a way to source the reagents needed if only for the Good Shepherd Hospital in Siteki that we work directly with.  If you can help with this specific need or want additional information, please contact us. 
We know with your help we can continue to make a real difference in the lives of the marginalized and forgotten in Maphiveni.

"Give justice to the poor and the orphan; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute. Rescue the poor and helpless; deliver them from the grasp of evil people." Psalm 82:3 & 4

A CHIPS Story

Simphiwe M. - 10 years old

Simphiwe has been on ARV’s since 2009.  Her health has always been frail.  In August 2010 she suffered a right stroke and was transported by CHIPS in a critical condition to Good Shepherd Hospital in Siteki.  She was in a coma for two weeks and spent an additional six weeks slowly recovering.  She is now able to walk and talk but it has left her with some deficits in learning and mobility.

CHIPS sustains Simphiwe through providing transport to the hospital for her ART Refills and doctors’ visits to GSH.  She has recently had a hearing screen because it was noted she was very hard of hearing; perhaps due to ART.

The long term future for her is uncertain as she is unable to attend government primary school:  it is a long distance to walk and she tires easily, she has fallen far behind the other children of her age.  Her hearing problems also make it difficult to attend school.  Her family are looking into the possibility of placing her in a special residential school here in Swaziland.

CHIPS makes regular visits to the homestead to encourage the family to continue the physiotherapy and to assess any new problems while offering encouragement and praying with them.

There are nine other children living at the homestead.  The father works as a casual labourer for the sugar corporation.

            Simphiwe M.'s CHIPS History

Visit Date	Site Name	Service Offered
20-Jul-09	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	HIV Test
30-Jul-09	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	Chemistry
19-Aug-09	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Initiation
25-Aug-09	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Initiation
09-Sep-09	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Refill
23-Sep-09	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Refill
21-Oct-09	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Refill
18-Nov-09	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Refill
16-Dec-09	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Refill, CD4
10-Feb-10	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Refill
07-Apr-10	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Refill
05-May-10	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Refill
30-Jun-10	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Refill
12-Aug-10	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	CD4
25-Aug-10	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Refill
20-Oct-10	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Refill
13-Dec-10	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Refill
12-Jan-11	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	CD4
09-Feb-11	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Refill
10-Feb-11	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Refill
10-Mar-11	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Refill
07-Apr-11	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Refill
04-May-11	Good Shepherd ART Clinic	ART Refill

A Missionary's Prayer

He might ask the same of you
(Kendall Payne)

He gave us plenty, plenty to share, and the good sense to know what’s fair.
He gave us power, the knowledge of right. He gave us strength to brave a fight.

So we have no excuse and no defense.
There is not one that can plead innocent.
We have a shameful state of tolerance.

So you pray to God asking Him to intervene,
To set it right, to stand up for the weak and the unseen.
And still you pray to God ask Him what He’s gonna do?
But He might ask the same of you.

He gave us riches, more than enough to fill both hearts and hunger up.
He gave us Jesus who died to proclaim, “As you have seen in me do the same”.

We are all connected,
We are all affected,
When one loves their brothers,
There’s no “us” and “others”.

So we pray to God with our days from dust to dust.
Is there a better world to have? It seems there must be.
And still we pray to God, when will He make it just?
But He might ask the same of us.
Yes, He might ask the same of us.

© 2010 Kendall Payne

Called to Serve, Baton Rouge Advocate

In today's Baton Rouge Advocate! Called to Serve
Former BR residents work to build health-care center in Swaziland

Emily Kern Hebert Advocate staff writer

photo: Richard Alan Hannon / The Advocate

The Rehmeyer family left Baton Rouge the same weekend Hurricane Katrina was churning off the Louisiana coast, but they were not fleeing the mighty storm.

The family — Daran, his wife, Teresa, and their four children ages 7 to 14 — were headed to Swaziland to do missionary work. Swaziland is Africa’s smallest country and the country with the world’s highest known HIV/AIDS prevalence rate, Daran Rehmeyer said.

Daran and Teresa Rehmeyer, who have been living in Swaziland since 2005, hope to establish a community health center in a remote area of the country.

Donations from the Peace One Day Musical Window to the World concert, a free event planned for Tuesday at First United Methodist Church of Baton Rouge, will go toward establishing the center, as well as to a local organization, the Capital Area Family Violence Intervention Center.

Prior to moving to Swaziland, Daran and Teresa Rehmeyer were living in Baton Rouge, raising their four children.

Teresa Rehmeyer was working as a nurse, and Daran Rehmeyer had a successful engineering services company, he said.

He had worked in ministry in Baton Rouge’s inner city, but as his children grew older, he started to devote more time to their activities, Daran Rehmeyer said.

In late 2004, he said, he felt he needed to return to ministry work, so he became involved with Healing Place Church.

Rehmeyer said he imagined stuffing envelopes, but instead, the late Dave Ohlerking, founder of Children’s Cup International Relief, invited him to visit Swaziland.

Teresa Rehmeyer agreed to visit the country, but she made it clear she had no intention of leaving Baton Rouge permanently, Daran Rehmeyer said.

Daran Rehmeyer felt differently.

“My heart was already set on ‘this is where I want to be,’” Daran Rehmeyer said.

He chose to keep his mouth shut and let God do the talking.

“You could really hear God’s voice and the direction he wanted you to go,” Daran Rehmeyer said of the trip.

At the end of two weeks, Teresa Rehmeyer agreed with her husband that the people of Swaziland needed them, but she still had reservations about uprooting their family.

When the couple was hardly home, their oldest daughter came to them and said, “We need to move to Africa and work with the orphans,” Daran Rehmeyer said.

“We took that as close to confirmation (from God) as we could get,” Daran Rehmeyer said.

He sold his business and started raising money for their mission work.

After a short trip to visit family in Baltimore in late August 2005, the family was headed to Swaziland.

Daran and Teresa Rehmeyer work with the Children’s HIV Intervention Programme in Swaziland, or CHIPS, which makes it possible for hundreds of children and caregivers to access lifesaving anti-retroviral treatment for HIV and many of the other associated diseases.

Their current proposal is to establish a local clinic in Maphiveni that would allow CHIPS patients nearby access to health care and eventually could be expanded to provide most health-care services to the entire area’s population.

Rehmeyer said he has located a site available for purchase, which includes several existing buildings. One is in fairly good shape, and with renovations, could house the clinic.

Another large building could be renovated and leased out commercially to provide income that would support the long-term operational costs of the clinic.

The purchase price is approximately $483,000, and another $129,000 is being sought for renovation of the commercial development, he said.

The problem with building a stand-alone clinic, Rehmeyer said, is “someone will always be begging for operational funds for that clinic.”

“We feel like we’re getting a fairly good deal,” Daran Rehmeyer said. “Sustainability is the big factor right now.”

Kudvumisa Clinic

This is an exciting time!  We have been pursuing a vision for a clinic in Maphiveni for the past year.  We feel we are in the right place at the right time. 

Daran will be in the US between 5 September and 19 October to raise funds to purchase about 4 acres with close to 30,000 sq. ft. under roof.  What makes this project exciting is the possibility of actually developing a clinic and outreach that could be sustainable in the long term from local income.  Please check out the proposal for the clinic outreach at Kudvumisa Clinic Proposal.  Kudvumisa means to praise in siSwati.  This clinic and community outreach will give people hope in their future and in the God who loves them even in their desperate circumstances.

We need to raise a significant sum.  If you have any contacts or introductions you could possibly make to that end please contact us.

We pray God’s richest blessings!

New NGO Formed in Lubombo

Although not 100% accurate in some of the details, here is an article in today's (16 August 2011) Swazi Observer about CHIPS

New NGO Formed in Lubombo

We Were Being Used in a Scam

We received a note on our blog and someone Google'd us and found our real email addresses to alert us. We are NOT trying to rent an apartment in Philadelphia. While, yes we are always looking for donations to continue our projects here in Swaziland (via our Missionary organization) we would never ask you to send any money via Western Union.

I think the ad has been removed from Craigslist now.

So thanks to the people who took the time to research it and notify us. I hope no one actually sent money to them.

Rural Homestead Birth

Just got back from Mbabane Gov Hospital, took our friend Thokozani and his wife and brand new baby in. We tried to get to the homestead in time to take her for delivery. It takes a little over an hour to get to this homestead from town and the roads are really bad. Sometimes there really isn't a road or the road is washing away down the side of the hill! When we arrived Tabile, Thokozani's wife, was up walking around, cleaning up, but obviously in pain. I started asking her about the pains and when they started and how often they were occurring. She looked at me and said, "I already delivered." I felt really stupid! We are so spoiled! I am used to delivery in the hospital and being in bed and having nurses or family help with everything. She was up trying to get cleaned up with blood running down her leg, bending over in pain at intervals.

Anyway, we arrived too late, the baby girl, Bakazile had been born 2 hours earlier. Thokozani's sister helped deliver the baby. I asked what she used to cut the cord and she said a sharp piece of glass and tied the cord off with a piece of thread. The baby was having some difficulty breathing, lots of mucous. I felt really helpless, I had nothing to suction her with or anything. I prayed for her all the way to the hospital as I was holding her. We tried to get her to breast feed and she was not interested. I am very glad we took them, the nurses suctioned the baby to get the mucous out and Tabile had a very bad tear and had to have many internal and external stitches. They will stay overnight at the hospital. We got food for her and a packet of nappies (diapers) for mom and baby to share. They use the baby nappies for mom as a pad for the first 24 hours.

Praise God, mom and baby are safe and well. I am very happy that we were able to be of assistance to this precious family! Pictures of beautiful Bakazile to follow. They asked us what her English name could be and we said Becky.

A Hope in Swaziland?

Going out in the communities in the eastern part of Swaziland where our CHIPS program is working makes me think of how I might cope living the way these people live. They have no electricity, no water, no toilets, tubs or showers. They literally have nothing, including enough food or clothes. We do give them clothes and blankets as we have them, but we think that sometimes they sell them for money for food or alcohol. We do help some of them with food also, if they don’t have anything to take their HIV meds with.
Many of the adults and teenagers sit around all day and drink home brew made from whatever fruit they can get and ferment. Currently it is grapefruit. Many of them drink to fill the emptiness in their stomach, and/or the emptiness in their soul. Yes, some are lazy and don’t want or are unable to motivate themselves to move forward. Many of them are happy just to lie around and live on handouts and their home brew. I do get very frustrated at them, but then I think, what would I do? How would I react in the same situation? I really can’t answer that, because I don’t know. We received word from Jabulani yesterday that he received a call about one of our patients: she was found on her way down to the river to drown herself. They went and found her and tried to help her by clothing, feeding, counseling and praying for her as well as getting her back on her medication. Would I be the one that was feeling so helpless and hopeless that I would go to the river to drown myself? Without God, I might be. These people need good medical care, but most of all they need God. You can literally feel the oppression in these communities. These places are Satan’s playground, and the children are the ones that suffer the most at the abuse and/or neglect of drunken parents and caregivers.
The missionaries that help us with this program told me not long ago about a young boy about 8, who was locked in his house (mud and stick hut) by his drunk Gogo (grandma). As she lay outside, passed out drunk, there was a fire and he couldn’t get out. Some neighbors heard him screaming and rescued him. He suffered severe burns and was hospitalized. Only the Lord can protect these little ones! Please help us continue to pray for and help these communities as much as we can!
We do what we can through CHIPS, but have the desire to move forward and offer a beacon of hope in these communities. In our last letter we spoke of our vision to build a clinic and community center. We currently have $10 000 of the $50 000 we need to secure the property. Please help if you can.

Maphiveni Clinic: Close to a Reality

In the 6 years we have been working in Swaziland, we have made few “urgent” ministry appeals. God, through our supporters has made sure we have always had our needs supplied.
We communicated with many of you while we were in the States last that God had laid a future ministry plan and direction on our hearts for the communities we have been actively working in eastern Swaziland. The Children’s HIV Intervention Programme in Swaziland (CHIPS) has been a tremendous benefit to the hundreds of HIV+ clients we have been able to literally bring lifesaving medical care while opening doors to share the Gospel in the CHIPS communities. The vision we shared for CHIPS included developing a community health centre in Maphiveni. A health centre in this isolated community could serve thousands vs. the hundreds we are able to help now.
Sustainability of a clinic dependent entirely on donor funds will always be at the mercy of the continued generosity and ability of donors to continue to give. We have the opportunity to develop a different model. We have been looking at a property in Maphiveni for some time now. The property has significant commercial development potential. The clinic sustainability will derive from lease income from the current and future commercial tenants. In other words, the commercial tenants on the property will pay for the operation, maintenance and expansion of the clinic.
We approached the owner in February and subsequently made an offer based on the valuation we had performed. It was rejected. Everyone involved in CHIPS felt God saying ‘just wait.’ Waiting is not something any of us do well. Last week, the owner of the property called us and made a counter offer, which was still below the valuation and not significantly higher than our original offer. We accepted the counter offer.
Our plea now is to raise the monies necessary to purchase the property outright (we want to avoid paying interest to a bank). Our goal is to raise 10% in the next thirty days with the balance in six months. The agreed upon purchase price is 2 900 000 Emalangeni (the current exchange rate is not in our favor and moving in the wrong direction at 6.55 Emalangeni to the U.S. dollar today). In U.S Dollars that is $442 748 (10% is $44 275).
We are trusting God has given the vision and opened doors that just a week ago were firmly closed for moving forward. As well, we trust that He will move on hearts to make this clinic a reality in a community accustomed to being marginalized and passed by.
All donations towards the clinic need to be designated “Maphiveni Clinic.” We have detailed plans and budgets developed for this project. If you would like a copy, please email me and I will forward a copy.
Blessings,
Daran & Teresa Rehmeyer
African Leadership Partners
P.O. Box 994044
Redding, CA 96099


Maphiveni Property Details
1.7078 hectares (4.22 acres)

Existing structures on site:
• Two buildings to house the Health Centre, Community Education Centre and commercial development.
• A home to be developed for Mission Team housing (medical teams for the Health Centre, outreach teams for work in the community, teaching teams for the Community Education Centre).
• Several residential flats.

Statistics are Meaningless

I lost another one of my friends and co-workers to the ravages of HIV. She found out she was positive only after she was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with fungal meningitis. At that time, her CD4 count was found to be 3, when it should be 800 to 1000 normally. People are started on Anti Retro viral drugs here in Swaziland when their CD4 count reaches below 350. All of that detail to say, she was very sick and I was afraid that she would die before I returned from our visit to the States in January. When we returned, I was happy to see that she was back at work and doing much better! The next thing I heard was that she had gone to South Africa to visit her grandfather, who was sick, and then he passed away. The next news I heard was that she had died as well, after her grandfather’s funeral. Her parents said that she was not taking her medicine like she was supposed to, and that is why she got sick again. I am not sure if she just didn’t bring enough medicine with her, or she was not taking it. I am so sad for this loss.
While she was working with me at Breast Cancer Network for the past 2 years, I tried my best to help her see Jesus and let her know that He loved her and had good plans for her. As her boss, I tried to discipline her and still let her know that I loved her and most of all Christ loved her. She also had some mental health issues, and I invited her to attend the monthly mental health group with me. This group meets at the church that I attend and I believe that she and her brother, who came with her a couple of times, received help from this group as well.
I believe that she was placed in my life so that I could be an example to her. Although I was not always a perfect example, I pray that I was able to influence her short life for the good and that she was able to see and know Jesus a little better because of the time that we spent together.