A week of betrayal

Working in Africa is hard, whether it's the extreme heat, disease, poverty,  or the myriad of other challenges that seem to be never ending, but the betrayal of the people we are here to serve is the hardest part. We were hurt deeply this past week, once again by people whom we trusted, nurtured, trained and loved for many many years.

 

While we were away on holiday one of our department supervisors was caught committing fraud and stealing. This is a person in authority and one who has been loved, trained and nurtured by many of our long-term volunteers. A second person, also a department supervisor who has been here for almost 10 years, was caught lying and stealing with complete disregard for me, for our family, her employees or the ministry. And for those of you who have had to fire employees, you know that once the employee is gone, the behind the scene stories start to pour out of the people who worked with them. You have to be careful not to believe everything you hear, but also need to consider what you hear and who you hear it from. It appears that this behavior has gone on for years unknown to us. How did that happen? I couldn’t understand it. I work directly with both of these people and didn’t sense anything like this was going on?

 

I had to break this news to Spencer and Chloe who have known and trusted these people for years. Sadly, this is not the first (or second or third) time that senior leadership have betrayed us and broken our hearts. You never get used to it, but you do learn how to deal with it and move on, but it still hurts deeply. Spencer and Chloe were shattered by the news, and their hurt quickly turned to anger at how these trusted people could do such things to the very people who are trying to help them and their families.

 

Next we had to notify our Board members, which is always a challenge because the question will always be asked how we didn’t know these things were happening? But our Board members were so very encouraging and supportive. They too have been betrayed and know how much it hurts. Here are a few words of encouragement that were shared with us this week;

 

·      “The human heart is indeed evil and sick and satan prowls around looking for someone to devour. Greed and selfishness don't breed contentment and gratitude. Jesus has to do the work inside the human heart. Behavior modification is just a white wash. You deal with that in very tangible ways as the Lord has set you with the Gospel in the midst of a culture where mixing the power of darkness with the power of light is thought to be acceptable.” 

 

·      “Be the example, and just carry on and trust in God - not sure there is much of a better option - and I believe as these things are exposed and confronted that it will make a difference.”

 

·      “So sad and so many examples of this kind of hurt and deceit in the Bible.  But when we put our full trust and faith in the Lord...no one can hurt us. Stay strong and continue to put your trust in the Lord.”

 

·      “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9 NIV

 

 

My friend, Sandy Mune, made a sign with that scripture on it and it has been sitting on our bookshelf, right above our TV for years. I see it every single day.

As I was sobbing, I had a thought.  Is this how Jesus feels every time I betray him? Is this how he felt when Peter denied even knowing him? Is this how he felt on the cross when people mocked and jeered at him? He was human so can only assume that his heart hurt the way my heart was hurting, and my betrayal was nothing compared to his, and yet he forgave during his pain. Ian and I have chosen to forgive these two people. We will not employ them again, as there are consequences for their actions, but we do forgive, and encourage everyone who was hurt by them to forgive them too.

 

Many days have passed since this all began and our hearts are healing. The outside adjudicator completed our human resource process of a fair hearing, assessment of their actions against our very extensive employee handbook resulting in both employees being fired. Ian and I were not involved in any of this, as it is handled by our human resource department, who are eternally grateful for. We have a policy of posting the photos of people who have been convicted of a crime against the with the crime conviction notice, so those photos were posted around the farm yesterday, notifying our own community of the crimes and criminals. I will not post those photos here, nor will I mention their names to you. The people who need to know, know who they are.

 

For my Swazi friends reading this please know that I will continue to trust you until you break my trust. I do not see all Swazi’s as being the same, nor to I see all Africans as being the same. These crimes come from issues of the heart, not culture. I love living here, I love serving here and am thankful that the Lord has given us the strength to endure, willingness to forgive and ability to move on. I am also thankful for having so many Swazi’s (Kenyans and Zimbabweans) that we can trust and do trust and I look forward to serving alongside you for many years to come. I learned a new Swazi expression this week, which will only make sense to you … “the umutsi has expired”.  And it never did have power over me.

 

Live from Eswatini … moving on.

 

Janine