Day 4. Working on 44 miles… we hope. You would think that by now we’d be a well oiled machine, walking quickly and in sync, but let’s be honest, none of us trained. At least I didn’t. That may be why right now at this moment I am sitting in the Quantum watching Team SOS walk by with a sore hamstring, a huge blister on the bottom of my pinky toe, and a wounded pride. But here’s the thing. If I didn’t listen to my body when it was hurting and take a little break then I wouldn’t be able to make it to the finish line. And maybe, if you think about it, that is what has happened here in Swazi. Nobody listened to the cry of the hungry and the hopeless. Nobody took the time to take a break from their own lives and act, so Swaziland is not expected to make it to the finish line. That could mean tomorrow, next year, many years from now… take your pick. The only hope for Swaziland, a land that has the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the world, is for us to take a break just for a moment. To look around and appreciate what we have, to walk alongside the voiceless, to pray and ask Jesus to heal. So even when the journey seems long and the circumstances seem penetrating, just take a little break. That is the only way you can make it, and finish strong. That is how we will bring life back into Swaziland. (Aubrea)
Day four. To be honest I don’t know where to begin. Where do you start to tell a story with a hundred beginnings and a thousand endings? How do you tell a story of hope in sadness? How can you explain the things people do for good or ill? How do you explain? How can you fathom the depth and breadth of a good story? You know, I have no idea, but you aren’t surprised at that answer, because my words are all swimming in my head, I don’t even know how to put on paper all the thoughts swarming inside my head. I wish I could be profound, I wish I could explain my deepest prayer for this walk, for this country. For all these beautiful people, on the team and in Swaziland. But the best way I have ever been to even begin to get anywhere with my thoughts is by writing, writing until something comes out something not from my striving and yearning but something from the peace and quiet. From the light through the trees, the sun from the clouds. Here in this place, in Swaziland are lions among men. there are shadows among the trees. There is darkness and there is a great light. There are those who would build and those who would destroy. My heart aches for the beautiful rose that is Swaziland. But hope is kindled. Hope is evidence of things unseen. Though we walk and do not yet see the end in sight, we hold to the hope that one day we will finfish this walk, Swaziland will be restored and the sun will shine and it will shine brighter than any of us have ever seen. If we do not see an end to the evil of this world then we must be the end of it. Or die trying. If there is no answer, we must be the answer, or give our breath trying. We must see it through to the end. For we are lions walking. Walking knowing that the end is not yet here but that it will come. And when it does we will sing and dance and shout for joy and then move on to the next adventure, the next journey, the next walk for hope and we will cry no more.
(Ian)
