Reflecting on Mablauwuni Community

Older people in the community

I felt so sad after Steve and I visited a 66 year old lady and her grandchildren who are living in a make-shift room and ‘making do’ with what they have. It saddened me also when I heard of 2 funerals in the community last week. One was the death of the oldest man in the community who was said to be about 112 years. He had stomach problems and ended up dying. The other, was a lady in her 60’s. She went to the funeral of her nephew who was shot and when she saw the body, she collapsed and died. What an atmosphere of heaviness over this place!
It got me thinking about Mablauwuni village and how best to pray for this village.

1. Deaths: Majority of deaths are of people aged between 19 and 35 years. These deaths are caused by T.B or Aids related illnesses.
2. Pregnancies: Young girls aged between 14 and 17 years are getting pregnant. They sleep with men for money. The majority of these men are married and they come from South Africa, Botswana or are resident in the community. The men don’t marry the girls. The girls either stay at their family home and have their babies or if the home environment becomes hostile, they run away to a more consoling/comforting/understanding relative.
3. Marriages: They don’t seem to be healthy. I know that all marriages have their ups and downs but the impression given is that that one or both spouses are unfaithful and there is domestic violence. Sometimes ‘wives’ carry another man’s child and the husbands have to accept it. There is a ndebele saying "Whatever is born in the kraal, stays in the kraal". Families are dysfunctional and there are many broken homes.
4. Children: The positive side is that most children aged between 6 – 12 years go to school. The down side is the home environment – with so much unfaithfulness and promiscuity, the children are learning behavioural patterns which they consider to be ‘normal’. With so many aids-related deaths, there are many orphans who stay with their extended families. These children are most often times beaten or abused daily.
5. Why do men – older men, not want to go to church? They don’t believe in Jesus Christ but rather in ancestors.
6. Fear: The element of fear is rife and the ‘prophets’ bring much accusation against neighbours or family members or use ‘medicine’ to intimidate people.

As a church, we accept people as they are and pray that they will have a radical encounter with Jesus Christ. The unfortunate thing at times is that people have one foot in the church and the other in African traditional religion.

We just really got to pray for our community and believe that God can turn it around.

By Molly Manhanga