Hello Everyone! We pray this letter finds you and your family safe and well! We had prepared an update earlier but before we could get it out all of the information in it was obsolete. The Corona virus is affecting eSwatini just like the rest of the World and it changes life here on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. We will update things as they are currently and know that by the time you read this, things will have most likely changed. It is currently 30 March 2020 at 1:30pm local time. We are 7 hours ahead of Central time in the US currently.
Adventures eSwatini:
Two weeks ago from today, while still feeling the pain of oral surgery the previous Thursday, Steve and the rest of the leadership team started meeting to make plans on how to go forward with the ministry. AIM had made the decision to pull all of their short term teams home since travel was closing all across the World. We had three teams in eSwatini at that time. There was talk of closing schools in eSwatini which meant our care points would be affected. It was decided that we would suspend all staff gatherings for a period of six weeks. We further decided that if schools were closed that we would need to close our care points as well in an effort to keep our cooks and kids safe. We made a plan of getting Feed My Starving Children rice boxes to care point families that would not eat during the care point closure. The biggest problem we had at that point was that we didn’t have enough rice boxes on hand to meet the need. We were expecting a container any day and had a container that had been “lost”. Our import agent had finally tracked down the “lost” container in Johannesburg but the freight company wanted to ship it back to the port city of Durban and then back here to us. He was fighting to have it shipped directly to his freight yard and save several days of it riding the rails. We had plans put in place that we could have all the rice delivered to the needed care points in three days instead of the normal eight days. We were praying we would get one of the containers by the end of the week so we could start deliveries the following Monday. We left the planning meeting disheartened but knowing we had a workable plan in place as long as we got a food shipment. We awoke the next morning to news that school had been canceled at the end of the day Tuesday! Thankfully one of the containers also arrived the very same day and we started deliveries! By the time deliveries were finished and care points were closed the “lost” container had also arrived and we were set with food for now.
eSwatini:
The government here has really responded as well as could have been expected. South Africa had been hit pretty hard and closed borders which meant we were not able to leave the country unless we went through Mozambique. Easter is a very big thing here in Eswatini with most churches having camps from Thursday through the end of Monday. The King cancelled all Easter gatherings, cancelled his Birthday party and ordered the money for that be spent fighting Corona virus. The large Bushfire event at the end of May was cancelled, and a plan was made for those that became infected. All of these things were done at the time that there was only one confirmed case in the country. We are up to nine confirmed cases here with no deaths so far. Early last week it was announced that we would follow the lead of South Africa with a partial “lockdown” for twenty days. Police and military will be out ensuring this is taking place. There is a list of “essential” businesses that will be allowed to remain open. We were a bit surprised that liquor stores were considered “essential”!
McAdams Family:
In the beginning there was a lot of scrambling trying to decide if we should stay or come home to the States. We were mostly leaning towards staying put but with South Africa closing its borders to those with Corona virus that meant not much access to medical care. The decision was made for us when South Africa closed its borders to Americans. There was still the option of trying to come through Mozambique. It seemed more risky to travel at that point because of all of the airports we would have to travel through. We have high risk family in the States as well so we would have to self quarantine for two weeks. The US Embassy had a meeting and said they may charter a flight for Americans to travel back to the States in the future. We heard today that if that does happen it could cost $3200. per person for the one way flight to the East coast and we would still have to get ourselves “home” from wherever the plane lands. In addition it is only for American citizens meaning Mumu may not be able to come with us. We had talked earlier to family members and told them that we have a peace about staying here. We can’t imagine leaving those we have gotten so close to here at a time of crisis. We are trusting God in all of this and take great comfort in knowing that He is in control! We are in day five of our lockdown and are getting some things accomplished around the house. We are still keeping in touch through social media with our friends and co-workers here. It is an amazing time to be able to draw near to the Lord with so many giving free access to training and media. Makes me wonder why things intended to expand the Kingdom aren’t always free?
Adventures In Missions:
Most of you probably got an email from AIM in the past week. Please know that this email was sent to you by mistake. It was meant for those supporting AIM’s short term missionaries. It was a little unclear and looked like AIM had brought all of its missionaries home. They only brought home all of their short-term missionaries. We are still here in eSwatini in lockdown! We would love to hear from any of you! We will try to do better updating during this time, internet permitting!
