Harvesting body parts of an albino child

I am often asked how we handle pain and heartache terrible on a daily basis and my answer is that sometimes we do it better than others.  What I don’t know is how the Social Welfare officers, Child Protection Police and Sex Trafficking Police Officers continue to do their jobs day after day without having complete nervous breakdowns.

At 2:27AM on Thursday morning I received a WhatsApp message (the preferred App for communication here) from a Social Welfare officer asking for help.  A 12-year-old albino boy had been rescued by police and did not have any clothes.  You see, body parts from an albino are considered very powerful for traditional medicine doctors (we would call witch doctors) to make muti (potion).  Sometimes albino babies are sacrificed, but more often hands, feet, limbs or testicles are cut off, and used to make a powerful potion for the “patient” to drink to gain power.  This boy had been captured and was facing sheer terror before he escaped and ran to the police.  

Later that morning I was called again to be told about a 15-year-old girl who had been sex-trafficked from South Africa when she was 14-years-old and she was just rescued by the police, and only had a school uniform as clothing… could we help with some clothes while the police took her to a place of safety?

We have a storage facility where we keep all the clothes that our volunteers so graciously pack in to their second suitcase when they come to see it.  Many people even end up leaving the clothes off their back and shoes off their feet so that we have clothes to help in extreme situations like that.  We have a group of volunteers from Morrison Academy in Taiwan here this week and when I told them about these two children in need, some of the students immediately went in to their own suitcases and gave their own clothes for the two in need. Thank you!!

Morrison Academy, Taichung, Taiwan students and teachers.

These two stories hit me hard, and my only involvement with them was to provide clothing.  I am not the one who needs to face these young people, pray with them, council them, love them and help them in the days/months/years ahead.  I am just handing over emergency clothes to cover their young bodies.  But the Police and Social Welfare officers deal with these things every day. 

Please join me in praying for all of the first responders who carry the burdens of the most vulnerable people of society, often with no way of assisting in any meaningful way.  Please also pray for the albino community and for children who are being trafficked all over the world.  Lastly, please pray for protection for my heart and my mind.  This week the load seems to be too much.

Live from Swaziland … evil is very real in this world.  Come Lord Jesus.

Janine

PS.  This blog is NOT a call to send us your used clothing as we really don’t have a way to get them here (the container is basically full).  But if you are coming to Swaziland please feel free to pack your bags full of clothes to leave behind!