Sawubona from Swaziland

Dear Ones back Home,

Today is pay day for the translators and they're excited. Every day here is pay day for us North Americans, and we're excited. God works; we watch in wonder.

Sibusiso and Kalvin pray with patients in small groups before they see Harry or Echo. Here's what Sibusiso said yesterday:

"Oh God, we are sick and want to be healed, but we don't have the medicine. When we want to go to a clinic or a hospital, the cost is very high. We want to read, but our eyes have big problems, too."

"God was deputized by our prayers," Sibusiso reasonde. "He assembled some Christians in America and in Canada to donate funds. The funds were given to the doctors, and the doctors took the funds straight to Swaziland where they buy all the medication you will be getting free today."

"It's all a gift from God Himself. He is the One who has sent the doctors to treat us first in the spirit and then in the flesh. That's why we start by praying."

Medical patients receive 5 to 10 medications. Long lines form at the pharmacy "window," where each Swazi is greeted and told how and when to use the medicines. The Luke Commission labels all medications with directions in SiSwati.

Each patient is given intestinal worm medicine for the whole family, as well as a month's supply of vitamins and extra Tylenol, in addition to the medications prescribed by Harry and Echo.

Older persons receive sunglasses from the pharmacy. Little girls with tattered clothes are given dresses made by ladies in Canada. Diapers, slippers, wraps and other handmade items from ladies in Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina, and Idaho are distributed. Yes, the pharmacy is a busy place, where laughter and gratitude abound.

Mothers have new hope when they walk away with antibiotics for their sick babies. Harry treated a 5-year-old girl this week who had scabies for 4 years.

Men and women walk away with bags of medicine and smiles on their faces. One woman treated this week had suffered 10 years from a fungal infection, covering her breasts, stomach, and buttocks. "I think we had the right medicine to treat the infection," Harry said. "She probably feels better already."

Echo took a critically sick baby girl to the mission hospital yesterday. Her father walked miles with the 15-month-old who only weighed 15 pounds. The baby was too sick to cry. She squeaked like a newborn kitten. Her mother died in January. The baby was alive this morning when Kal and I visited the hospital.

Today also is vehicle repair day. In April we have experienced four flat tires, depleted brakes, a broken axle on the larger trailer, and a bent hitch on the smaller trailer. We've had to disembark from our vehicles to get up mountain roads. We've had to build bridges with rocks and branches to cross washed out gullies. But we have arrived at every scheduled clinic and returned safely to Manzini every evening. Thank you, Jesus!

It rains almost every day. Sometimes it catches us unawares; sometimes it just cools us off. God speaks in Isaiah 43:19, when He says "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a new way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." In more ways than one, we see Swaziland turning green.

Thank you for your prayers and your participation in The Luke Commission from across the seas.

Love in Jesus,
Jan for Harry and Echo, the boys, Grace, and Kalvin