Swaziland – Kevin and Christi Bowman’s story

Christi Bowman and her husband Kevin went to Swaziland a few months ago and it wrecked
her. The ministry there does that to a lot of people. She went
reluctantly and got ambushed by God. While visiting the Nsoko carepoint
she felt God saying, “Pick up that little girl over there.” And for an
hour she resisted the Lord. Read what happened next from Christi:

About an hour later, Jumbo showed up with
some water, and Kreik mixed some drink mix in with it. We helped line
the kids up to get their drinks. I noticed the little girl again. She
had gotten her drink, and was aimlessly, almost deliriously, walking
through the crowd. She had no one to go to it seemed like, but it
looked like she needed a place to rest. So I picked her up and sat her
on my lap. It was then that I felt how feverish she was, and the
walking around delirious, made sense. She didn’t feel good. It was the
middle of their summer, and she had this nagging cough. She was also
sneezing a lot, and there was green stuff caked around her nose.

Purplish OPEN sores COVERED her body, and fluid was oozing out of
most of them. Bugs were on the sores, and flies were swarming around
her. The meal at the care point had been served, and all the kids were
eating. She was on my lap so she hadn’t gotten her bowl of food. These
kids walk MILES a day for one meal, so I didn’t want her to miss it. I
pointed to someone else’s bowl, and asked her if she wanted a bowl. She
shook her head no, and laid it on my chest. My motherly instincts
kicked in, and I began asking around to see where this little girl’s
mother was, so that maybe her mother could make sure she ate something.
The adults told me she didn’t have a mother. It was safe to assume that
she has no father either…so she was completely orphaned.

She had to walk there; it must have been hard for her, given the
condition she was in. And then once she was there, she was forced to
walk around deliriously in her feverish condition, as there was no
shade, no shelter, no adult to rest on. It was then that I began to
regret not picking her up when I first arrived in this God-forsaken
place. She could have had another hour to just rest.

As I held her, with her head on my chest, tears came flooding down
my face. I turned away from her, because I didn’t want her to see them.
I couldn’t help but think of my own children at home. When they are
sick, they become a prince or a princess for the day or for how ever
long they need to be. I put them on the couch, and I prop a pillow or
two up, just right, behind their sick head, and I cover their bodies
with a warm blanket. They get a bell, or a noise maker that they can
ring to get my attention whenever they want it.

I send my husband to the store to get sprite, and whatever else I
feel might be good for them, and their condition.. I cried because
their was no one to do that for this little girl. I wanted to, but the
sad reality was I was going to be taken back, in an air conditioned
vehicle, to one of the nicest hotels in Swaziland. I was going to get a
hot shower, and be taken to a nice restaurant for a hot meal. After I
was done with my hot meal, I had the option of swimming in a nice pool,
and I had a comfortable bed to get a good nights sleep in.

I have never been more ashamed of how I take my blessings for
granted. At that moment, I could have given all that up to stay there
with her. I didn’t have that choice though. As they called me to the
car, I had to give her up, I had to let her go, and again she just
stared at me…she stared into my very soul, and all I could do was
kiss her and tell her I was so sorry. I was sorry for a lot of things.
I was sorry I hadn’t listened to God’s spirit in me telling me to pick
her up earlier. I was sorry I had wealth, and she didn’t. I was sorry
she had to continue living in God forsaken country, while I got to
return home to America. I was just sorry.

I wanted to be so much more than just sorry. It was there that God
told me He would bring us back, and that I would be able to do so much
more than just be sorry. I was going to step in where there was no mom,
and be a mom. I was going to be able, one day, to bring hope into a
hopeless situation.

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Now that she’s returned, she
and Kevin feel God calling them to go back. Christi can’t sit still –
she has to respond. And so should some of the rest of us. If you’re not
doing widows and orphans somewhere else, join us in caring for the
nation that is dying of AIDS faster than any other in the world.

The
sacrifices required in leaving America behind are many, but as this
video about our ministry in Swaziland makes clear, something must be
done. Someone must go.