Encounter Humanity

Every couple of weeks we receive a letter from Tskane Pheko.  He is our point man in Lesotho.  I thought I would share our lastest letter with you.  Lesotho is in the southern hemisphere so it is winter.

Also, I have attached an update on Zimbabwe.  You may have heard that Mugabe has strong armed his way into leadership.  International leaders are crying foul; because, his win was not exactly a great example of democracy.

Letter from Tskane

Dear Mr and Mrs Roe,

Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is good to be children of the living God.  Thank you so much for your support and prayers.  The churches are growing and pastors are encouraged.  We do pray for your child.  We also pray for the whole family.  We thank the Lord so much.  Thank you so much for everything you do for the work here.  We really love you.

It is winter here.  There are some orphans who do not have blankets and shoes to wear.  There are others who really need warm clothes.  It is our time to harvest the fields.  We have to hire people and transport.  We have started pig project for the orphans.  Our Lord Jesus Christ is changing the hearts of people here.  May God bless you richly.

Yours In Christ,

Tsikane Pheko

(Si-KA-Nee Pay-ko)

Zimbabwe links

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7479853.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7483060.stm

Welcome to the Encounter Humanity (EH) blog.  Africa will be our primary focus.  Most of EH’s efforts are concentrated in Lesotho, but my heart is for everyone suffering from poverty, neglect, crimes of humanity and political unrest/oppression.  I will be sharing articles and ideas.  I hope that this blog expands your knowledge and your heart for those in need.

I hope to post updates at least weekly.  But, I will be honest in the fact that there will be some weeks that just will not happen.  Baby Andrew manages my Daytimer! LOL!

Please subscribe if you would like to get updates of all of the posts. To subscribe click on “RSS” and then subscribe.  I will be emailing out a link to help remind you in the beginning.

FIRST POST

Rape

The first articles I want to share with you are hard hitting.  They are about rape.  Rape, particularly in Africa, is a subject that I have wanted to share about for a while.  Rape is used as a weapon of war in so many places.  It intimidates and destroys.  It is one of the most crafty and truly depraved weapons against humanity.

Let me walk you through an example.  In Sudan the Janjaweed are using rape to try to eliminate an entire ethnic group.  They raid villages, raping the women, especially young girls, and then they mark them.  They will cut them or put some other mark on them so that when they go back to the village everyone knows (for the rest of that girl’s life) that she has been raped.  Because, she is no longer a virgin she is no longer wanted as a wife.  The Janjaweed have accomplished two things.  No man will marry her so she will not have a baby of that ethnic group, and they may have impregnated her so she will have a baby of mixed ethnicity.  It is better than any bomb or any burning of a village; because, it will affect many generations of the Sudanese.

Below I have attached two articles.  Both are from the BBC.  The first one is good news on this front.  It talks about the UN finally recognizing rape as a war tactic.  Which recognition is always a good first step.  The second one is just another example of how rape is being used for intimidation.  It is a story from Zimbabwe.  Zimbabwe has spiraled over the last year into a serious state of crisis.  Their inflation is 66,000%. No that is not a typo! To be honest I did not even know a number like that was possible. Plus, they are having a political crisis.  People are losing all access to basic humanitarian needs.

< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7464462.stm >

< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7465101.stm >

I know this isn’t a pleasant subject, but people are hurting.  Thank you for reading, subscribing, and caring.