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With These Hands
by Cameron Stark
Liv Fun: Vol 3 – Issue 4
Land locked between Mozambique and South Africa sits Swaziland, a country about the size of New Jersey, where more than 60 percent of the population lives in poverty, the average life expectancy is 46 years old, and one in six children under the age of 15 are parentless from HIV/AIDS.
My first real impression of this country were the stories of women who sacrificed by taking in orphans, sometimes standing all night in their homes holding a tree branch to secure a wall of their one-room home to protect the children from vicious storms. Later I heard about substandard medical care from lack of supplies and doctors and yet was shown images of children who celebrate every day of life as a blessing.
Thanduxolo is one of those children; and he stole my heart long before I ever ventured to Swaziland. I first learned about Thanduxolo in May 2013, when this young boy was rushed to the hospital with a distended abdomen. At the government hospital, he was given medication to ease his pain and sent home to die. Fortunately, the staff at The Mkhombokati Care Point, a community center primarily for local children, didn’t give up without a fight. They took Thanduxolo to the Women and Children’s private hospital, where he was rushed into surgery and pleas for financial aid and prayers were sent out.
One of my friends had just returned from Swaziland and shared Thanduxolo’s story with me. Without hesitation, I logged onto Children Hope Chest’s website and donated to a special fund that had been set up for Thanduxolo.
It was with similar eagerness that I accepted an invitation to join a trip to Swaziland shortly afterwards. At the time, I was in a season of transition in my life. I had left my job of 13 years to find a better work-life balance. A peace came over me after I had accepted, and I knew this experience would help me find that balance. But as luck would have it, shortly after signing up for the mission trip, I landed a new job with Leisure Care as Connections Manager for their new Treeo community in Orem, Utah. And even better, when learning of my trip, they were excited I was already working toward a three-thirds lifestyle of family, philanthropy and work.
Liv Fun
by Leisure Care
Winter 2014
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With These Hands
by Cameron StarkLand locked between Mozambique and South Africa sits Swaziland, a country about the size of New Jersey, where more than 60 percent of the population lives in poverty, the average life expectancy is 46 years old, and one in six children under the age of 15 are parentless from HIV/AIDS.
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Tales From Lickskillet
by Sally MacDonald
My mother’s family homestead is at the leafy green intersection of Johns Road and Johns Gin Road, named for her people who farmed cotton and ginned it there. They called it a plantation. But even in its heyday it wasn’t one of those gracious Gone With the Wind plantations that sprawled across the Civil War landscape of the South.
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How to Cope When Mental Illness Hits Home
by Evan Kimble
My daughter-in-law hates me and has said vile things to me. She thinks I’m evil, and she’s stolen my son from me. When they first started dating, she adored my son and was very good to me. After they got married, she somehow decided I was the enemy.