Hey everyone, I know it has been some time since I posted on here (almost 2 years, I know!) and I'm sorry I haven't been keeping some of you updated with my life, although most of you I've seen at least a few times more than I've seen my teammates! 

I've been keeping up with what's going on in Nsoko lately and a friend of mine is there right now through the non-profit that she started with her husband (http://www.thesoundofhope.org/). Side note - you can check out her facebook page for some updated pictures of some of the kids I talked about while I was there, http://www.facebook.com/ericka.b.jackson. Including Thembelihle, the then baby that I talked about a few times. They sponsor the main carepoint in Nsoko, the one that I lived at for 6 months. Below is a post from them asking for help to buy a new container storage. 

We're at our carepoint in Swaziland right now, and our partners just shared their most pressing need with us. They have run out of storage space in the current buildings, and we are looking for a 40 foot metal storage container (the kind you would see on the back of an 18 wheeler). The picture above (click on the link at the bottom of the page to see the picture) is of a 20 foot container already in use. The container they would get is twice that size.

 The container is needed to store additional food and supplies for the children, as well as gardening tools for the Community Garden we are starting at the Center. This garden will be a source of provision and empowerment for the up to 18 families in the area, as well as a way for the children at the carepoint to get healthy vegetable in their diet. But it won't work without a safe way to store the gardening tools and supplies!

 We need $1600 total to purchase the container and have it shipped down to Nsoko. We have a matching gift of $800, so every dollar you donate will be doubled if you give to this project! Please GIVE NOW and help us meet this need!

This is a picture taken of the first harvest of the garden while 

I was there, and it's grown a lot since then! 

Now some of you might be thinking, really a container storage? That's the biggest need? Theft unfortunately can be common there especially where someone knows there will be food. It must be locked up so the children can be guaranteed a meal, as well as the tools to help the garden flourish. If the garden flourishes, the children eat healthier foods and become healthier themselves. If they are healthy they are less prone to sickness or can more likely overcome it. Not to mention if the garden produces enough, then some can be sold to earn more money for the carepoint. So yes, a larger container storage unit is a NEED. Thank you so much for all of your support while I was there and please consider helping to meet this need by donating at this link. http://www.razoo.com/story/Swaziland-Storage-Container

Thanks everyone!

A friend of mine (Ericka Jackson) posted this earlier today and in light of recent events, I thought it needed be shared with all of you. I don't mean to offend anyone but just to share my thoughts in a way that Ericka expressed better than I could.

Today, we remember September 11, 2001.

Nine years have passed since the attack on our country. Do you remember where you were that day? Where were you when the second plane hit the World Trade Center? Where were you when the towers fell?

For most of us, that day is hard to forget. We remember where we were, who we were with, how we felt. We remember the fear, the chaos, and the horror we witnessed. And every year, we take a moment to remember the lives that were changed forever that day....

The innocent lives that were taken as the towers fell. The husbands that never came home. The children left behind without parents. The firefighters, policemen, and other heroes who laid down their lives to save others. The soldiers who've been fighting ever since.

But how do we remember?

That's the question I'm asking today, after following the story of the pastor in Florida who threatened to burn the Koran. The pastor whose hate caused hysteria and riots overseas where at least three people were killed. The pastor who spurred CHRISTIANS on to act out in their hatred of Muslims.

Have we learned nothing?!

The attacks September 11th happened because of HATRED. They were planned in HATRED and carried out by hateful extremists. If we remember that day with the same HATE in our heart.... if we respond to memory with HATE.... well, then we are no better than they are.

I understand the anger. I understand the rage. I understand the injustice. I understand the loss and the tragedy that happened that day. But as Christians, we are called to love.

Jesus LOVED in the face of HATE. He himself prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do".

LOVE is the only thing that will stop this cycle of hate.

Over the past few years, the hatred and intolerance for Muslims in this country has broken my heart. Do I want to be Muslim? No, I am a Christian. But does that mean I should be hateful and intolerant towards Muslims? Absolutely not!

Somehow, our conservative politicians and christian leaders have started teaching other conservatives that our country was founded as a safe haven for CHRISTIANS, and only CHRISTIANS. That is absolutely WRONG. Our country was founded as a haven for people who wanted religious freedom. That includes freedom for every religion.... Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Muslims. That freedom is one of the things that makes us so special.

But now....because a group of Muslim extremists acted out in HATE, we want to take that freedom from all Muslims? If we want religious freedom, then we must give religious freedom. It is that simple.

Not every Muslim is hateful. Not every Muslim is a terrorist. But many Americans judge them as if they are. What if they judged us based on the actions of a few hateful Christians? What if every other religion judged all Christians based on the actions of the pastor in Florida who wanted to burn the Koran? Or the hate-mongers from Westboro Baptist Church, famous for their protests at military funerals, burning of flags, and hate and intolerance for homosexuals? Or any of the others who've committed atrocities in the name of "God"? Have we forgotten the Crusades?!

There are so many Christians who represent Christ imperfectly. If we are hoping for grace and acceptance (despite the sins and hatred of other Christians), then shouldn't we be willing to give grace and acceptance?

I'm not trying to be insensitive here, and I'm not trying to make people angry. I'm not trying to start some political debate. My only hope is that this blog helps you remember that as Christians, we are called to LOVE.

After all, Jesus loves Muslims too.

Thank you so much for all of your wonderful support for the "Protect me from HIV, Ngilikusasa"! Thanks to all of you who donated, the event was a huge success. We were joined by a vision team that has been working in Nsoko for the past week. Without them, I'm not sure I would have kept my sanity!

There were 300 - 400 children that ate a great lunch joined by about 200 adults and teenagers. Educators from the Swaziland government taught both young and old about HIV/AIDS and how important it is to be tested and know your status. Forty-two people were counseled and tested for HIV, including many of our close friends here. They were informed of their status within minutes. Those numbers come to almost 25% of the people at the event being tested, many for the first time. (Children, especially children without parents present are rarely tested so all of the numbers came from the adults.)

 

  

As we near the end of our trip I keep having so many conflicting emotions. At our last debrief in South Africa I remember one of our leaders, Jimmy, saying that this would happen.

This past week as been somewhat difficult, the firsts of many "lasts" in Swaziland. A banquet for the end of the soccer season. What I'm hoping was the last time that I will get sick. (Yes mom I'm fine now.) The last church service that none of us were able to attend, due to sickness and the last soccer game. In addition to seeing close friends affected by the death of a loved one.

I'm so ready to see first my teammates (from Uganda, Mozambique, and Nicaragua) and leaders from AIM then a few days later, my family and boyfriend. But another part of me is sad to leave here, and then have to leave the people I've spent the last 8 months with. We've literally spent almost every waking hour together and I feel as if I'm leaving a part of me behind thinking about having to say goodbye to them. It's getting more and more difficult to be present here as our departure looms ever closer.

As I think about what my life has been like it's difficult to put it into words. I know I'll get the question, "How was your trip?" when I get home. I have no idea how to answer that. At times, it was easy, hard, sad, happy, beautiful, ugly, depressing, joyful, full of anguish, peaceful, irritating, refreshing....you get the idea. At this point I have no idea how much this trip has or hasn't changed me and how I look at the world. Part of me hopes that I'll never look at the world the same way and another selfish part hopes that it isn't that drastic so that I can once again feel at home in the US.

When I begin to think of feeling at home though my thoughts to go these few verses in Hebrews:

¹³These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. ¹⁴For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. ¹⁵If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. 

- Hebrews 11:13-16

A few announcements:

The event, "Protect me from HIV" has now moved to this Wednesday (May 5^th) and thanks to all of you will be taking place. It has changed somewhat from its original intent to more of a community wide event but there will still be plenty of games for the kids, education on HIV/AIDS, and a cow will be butchered for the feast that afternoon. Since we are leaving two days later, it will also serve as our goodbye party of sorts. I will try to get back to the internet one last time to post a blog (and maybe pictures) before we leave Swaziland.

For those of you in the Austin area, Joe has planned a welcome back get-together for me on May 19^th at Rudy's (the 183 location). Right now I'm not sure of the time but 7 is always a good guess. :) If it's supposed to be another time then hopefully he will correct me on the comments part of this blog.

Even though this country is ravaged by HIV/AIDS and death is seen often, it doesn't stop the grief that comes with it or the shock of a violent death. I tried to keep this as least graphic as possible but I understand if some of you don't want to read it. I am writing to ask for your prayers for his family and to process what happened.

At first I thought he was kidding. Majabane, one of our translators and close friends, came knocking on our door after dark on Thursday. I was in the middle of showing pictures of Kruger NP to my teammates. "A man has just been killed. Is there a sheet or tarp that we can use to cover the body?" All of us sat there for half a second then sprang into action. "Yeah there should be something in the closet," one of us said. "What happened? And who was killed?" Lila asked as we locked our door and hurried out of the house. "He was hit by a car while crossing the road. It's Dadada's father." Dadada, and his sisters' Siphe (pronounced Spay) and Tembelihle are some of the kids that regularly hang around the center and some of our favorites. As we approached we could see the commotion and the lights on the road in front of us. Some of the kids from his homestead came rushing towards us sobbing. Lila and I stopped to comfort them while Bry, Jon, and Jess went towards the small crowd on the side of the road.

A little later I was with 7 of the kids from his homestead. In an effort to get them away from trauma we had taken them to the center. Mattresses and blankets were laid out and some of the kids had fallen asleep. I sat with Tembelihle (about 9 months) rocking her to sleep as she clutched my shirt and necklace. Dadada (about 7 years) was laying down staring straight ahead, stone faced. As I thought about what they were about to and already had gone through I began to cry. I prayed that they would let God be their father, that somehow he would wrap them in comfort and peace in those moments.

Later on I was by the road with some of the young women from the area. The police had arrived by this point and were making preparations to move the body. His mother and some nieces and nephews had not moved from the road the entire time we had been outside. I was expecting a cry of grief from the crowd when the police began to move him but it didn't stop the knot in my stomach from tightening when I heard it. About a minute later I found myself holding a 24 year old girl, Spunky, crying with her in her grief and trying to shield her from looking at the body. I know she won't want to remember her uncle like that.

A death is never easy and shocking or violent ones are especially difficult on the family. The funeral will be sometime this week. Please be in prayer for his family, it seems as if everyone that we are close to is related to him somehow.  

I'm not really sure where to begin...in a good way. =) Sorry for the lack of communication this past week, read below and you'll find out what I've been up to.

[It' Tuesday night] I find myself sitting in a hotel room in Nelspruit, South Africa typing on an AIM laptop right now. This past week was crazy, triple what normally happens during an average week and you might get the idea. We had two different vision teams come to the Nsoko area. (Vision teams can be anything from AIM staff to NFL wives. This week one of them was the latter.)

Last Monday was our day off as usual, Tuesday we had women's group and got a call that one of the vision teams really wanted come to the women's meeting that afternoon. Wednesday we met up with Liz and Neal the real life leaders in Manzini. They are leaving this part of the world on Saturday and it would be the last time we would see them here. A trip to Manzini when you don't have a car of your own is an all day event so we got on the bus at 8 AM and were there by 10:15. We stopped by the office, then went to the market and afterwards met up with Liz and Neal at a nice restaurant/hotel. We talked and ate for 3 hours! Liz and Neal have almost been substitute "parents" for us when we need them to be. Earlier in the trip it was their team that prayed through the night for us when we hadn't been sleeping very much if at all. This time we talked, prayed, and they helped debrief some of the struggles we've had as a team. We definitely all still love each other but issues come up when 5 random people live together, it's going to happen, it's inevitable and unavoidable. While we were praying to close our time together, I literally felt God light a fire in me! And things have been so different since then!

Thursday we had an all day women's retreat with the two vision teams. It started at 8 AM and we didn't get home until 6 PM. It was a wonderful day, full of messages from the vision teams, a lot of things that were given to the women (shirts, shoes, journal, etc.) and praise and worship. During this time, Lila and Jess found out that one of the teams was going to go to a safari the next week. They know me and that if at all possible I didn't want to leave Africa without going on a safari. So without my knowing about it, they asked if there was any way I could go. It turns out that one of the women had to go home early because of business and her spot was already paid for in full and as their team leader put it, they were trying to figure out who to bless with that spot. So the plans went through and I now find myself back in Nelspruit, SA having gone on a quite successful safari!

This morning, the first thing we saw were two different sets of lion couples! It's not every day, even in Kruger National Park that you are 10 feet away from lions (safely in a safari vehicle I might add). We then continued on and saw rhinos, buffalo, giraffes, elephants, monkeys, chameleons and many birds! It was a glorious and beautiful day! (I tried to upload some of the photos to facebook but no such luck, I'll try again next time I have internet)

[It's Thursday morning] Yesterday after waking, we traveled to Johannesburg, SA to go to the apartheid museum and to drop off the team at the airport. I remember watching a show, years ago, about the apartheid but to see this museum and realize that much of the movement happened while I was alive was overwhelming and eye opening. South Africa ended the apartheid in 1994 and the country elected its first black president, Nelson Mandela. I didn't know much about the history before the museum but now I want to learn a lot more. Here's a link to wikipedia's article on the apartheid in South Africa*

I'm now back in Manzini, Swaziland and making my way back to Nsoko later this afternoon. We are still raising funds for our event, "Protect me from HIV - Ngilikusasa"*. It has now changed somewhat and is more of a community wide event for both the children and young people of the community but still focusing on HIV/AIDS. Please help us in continuing to raise funds for it. As of now we are about a fifth of the way there! Thank you so much to those who have already supported our efforts!

*If the links aren't working through email please go to my blog page and try the links from there.

To close out our time in here in Nsoko, we want to have a big event, an anti HIV/AIDS campaign tentatively on May 1st. The theme will be "Protect me from HIV, Ngilikusasa" (or I am the future). It will be an event mainly for children, similar to old elementary school style field days, with Swazi flair. There will be races and games for the kids. A puppet show and drama will prepared in advance to teach the kids about the ways they can avoid HIV/AIDS and how to protect themselves. We are hoping to have four different care points coming together to take part in the event, about 400 kids in all. We are also hoping to buy a cow for the community and have a feast that night.

Unfortunately this all requires money. All of us on the team are asking our sponsors, friends and families for a little bit more to be able to host this event. We need to raise about $500 (that's US dollars) to pull this off. The money will go to transporting the kids to and from the center, food, and other supplies. I know some of you told me that you didn't have money to give to me before I left but that if needs came up along the way to let you know...well I'm letting you know.

This leaves each me individually to raise about $100. Because this needs to happen fast (the event is less than a month away!) we are choosing not to fundraise through AIM and therefore nothing that you give will be tax deductible, sorry! If you want to help, please either give my parents money (at church or if you see them sometime) or mail a check (made out to either me or my parents) to my home address -

230 Antlers Trail  

Leander, TX 78641

Even $5 will help tremendously. If you are in Texas Wesley, contact Sarah Jenkins. She has agreed to collect money for me there and will then mail a check to my parents on April 23^rd.

Thank you all so much for all of your support!

Katie Graves

"What was that?" Jess asked me, slight concern in her voice. "I'm pretty sure it was the tire" I replied as I pulled to the side of the two lane highway. Yep, we stepped out of the car to see that the tire on Pastor Gift's SUV was completely flat. "Have you ever done this before?" "Never changed one by myself but I've seen it done more than a few times." Then the jack wouldn't work, apparently it was a hydraulic jack and had to have a little screw at the bottom turned so that there would be pressure for it work, but neither Jessica and I, nor a random guy passing by we asked to help us, knew this. Great what to do next? We had no cell phone with us, typical as we only have two between the five of us. A woman and a man ended up stopping by to help us. The guy tried to use his jack but it wasn't big enough as he was in a tiny car and we were in an SUV. He sent his girlfriend down to the next garage to get a bigger jack and in the meantime he got ours to work but it only lifted the car part of the way. When she brought back a bigger jack, we finally got the tire changed and continued on our way.  

A little ways down the road, I kept seeing cars flashing their lights at me...couldn't mean the same thing in Swazi as it does in the states could it? I thought about it and reduced my speed some but completely missed a sign I knew was there that the speed limit reduced down to 60 km from 80 km. Apparently I was going 85. (60 km = 37mph, 80 km =  49mph, 85 km = 52mph) The policeman came up to our vehicle and told me "we were conducting a speed trap, and you were caught speeding.  Please come pay your fine." Although I was slightly refreshed by his honesty, I've never had a speeding ticket before and wasn't thrilled that my first came in a foreign country doing mission work. I paid the E60 fine (about $8.5) and Jess and I continued on our way to the store to get our groceries for the boys living near the center and for a few other homesteads that Jess was buying food for because they had almost nothing left.

On our way back we dropped off some of the food at one of the homesteads. One of the little boys came running up to us to help carry the mealy-meal (crushed maize), beans and other food to the house and showed us his room where they all sleep. Its beginning to get cold at night here and winter is approaching, he explained to us as best he could that the house has holes in it and he is getting pretty cold at night. I thought of the blankets that the ambassador team left and vowed to bring him one in my mind. One of the younger little boys had a herniated navel, a big pot belly, and nothing on his lower half; he just continued to stare at me as I tried to greet him. I heard whimpering from corner near the house, there was a little puppy, maybe three weeks old trying to crawl into a mat to get out of the wind. The puppy was the final straw and I began to have to bite back tears. Despite the despair I saw and felt the family was celebrating that they had food and wanted to take pictures with us as Jess was the one who paid for their food.

Sometimes I ask myself a question I know I'll get when I get back home. Was it worth it? Was it worth the time away from people that I love? That day, was it worth it to change a flat tire, get a speeding ticket, use my own money to buy some food for people? You bet.

I remember reading The Shack by William Young recently and in it Jesus/God is asked was it worth it? Oh yes, he fiercely whispers, it was worth every second.