{"id":744,"date":"2010-10-21T14:30:22","date_gmt":"2010-10-21T14:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2010\/10\/swaziland-gifts-good-naps-and-gangrene.html"},"modified":"2010-10-21T14:30:22","modified_gmt":"2010-10-21T14:30:22","slug":"swaziland-gifts-good-naps-and-gangrene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/10\/swaziland-gifts-good-naps-and-gangrene.html","title":{"rendered":"Swaziland: Gifts, Good Naps, and Gangrene"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Another amazing day here in Swaziland with our team. We spent time visiting CarePoints where HopeChest has funded wells, classroom construction, and new kitchen projects. <\/p>\n<p>We had the chace to hand out some of our gifts, and spend time in activities (from reading to naptime) with our CarePoint kids. All of those you can see in the photos below.<\/p>\n<p>But one moment stole the day. <\/p>\n<p>As you may know from reading my blog, Swaziland is one of the hardest places on earth to live. The HIV infection rate is the highest in the world, and many people suffer from malnutrition.<\/p>\n<p>Today we helped one woman whose ankle was filled with gangrene&#8211;an infection that would slowly invade her flesh,&nbsp;bones, blood, and then kill her.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately we got her to a clinic in time. But as the doctor dressed the wound, you could see how the gangrene had eaten a whole directly into her bone. Tomorrow we&#8217;re working on getting her to a hospital for further treatment to prevent the spread of this throughout more of her leg.<\/p>\n<p>In many ways it is a small version of what our ministry is trying to accomplish. Identify problems that are eating away at communities and killing children. Stop the damage. And work toward a permanent long-term solution. My heart broke for this woman&#8211;in a country where life is already so difficult. <\/p>\n<p>Join me as we pray for the remainder of our trip together. I&#8217;ll keep posting stories and photos. Let me know if you have any questions you want, and enjoy today&#8217;s pics.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<embed height=\"400\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" pluginspage=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/go\/getflashplayer\" width=\"600\" src=\"http:\/\/picasaweb.google.com\/s\/c\/bin\/slideshow.swf\" flashvars=\"host=picasaweb.google.com&amp;captions=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;feat=flashalbum&amp;RGB=0x000000&amp;feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fcharlesthomasdavis%2Falbumid%2F5530562452864525857%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26hl%3Den_US\"><\/p>\n<p><\/embed><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another amazing day here in Swaziland with our team. We spent time visiting CarePoints where HopeChest has funded wells, classroom construction, and new kitchen projects. We had the chace to hand out some of our gifts, and spend time in activities (from reading to naptime) with our CarePoint kids. All of those you can see&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,3,1,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-orphans","category-swaziland","category-the-poor"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Swaziland: Gifts, Good Naps, and Gangrene - Red Letters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/10\/swaziland-gifts-good-naps-and-gangrene.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Swaziland: Gifts, Good Naps, and Gangrene - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Another amazing day here in Swaziland with our team. We spent time visiting CarePoints where HopeChest has funded wells, classroom construction, and new kitchen projects. We had the chace to hand out some of our gifts, and spend time in activities (from reading to naptime) with our CarePoint kids. All of those you can see&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/10\/swaziland-gifts-good-naps-and-gangrene.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-21T14:30:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Davis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Swaziland: Gifts, Good Naps, and Gangrene - Red Letters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/10\/swaziland-gifts-good-naps-and-gangrene.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Swaziland: Gifts, Good Naps, and Gangrene - Red Letters","og_description":"Another amazing day here in Swaziland with our team. We spent time visiting CarePoints where HopeChest has funded wells, classroom construction, and new kitchen projects. We had the chace to hand out some of our gifts, and spend time in activities (from reading to naptime) with our CarePoint kids. All of those you can see&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/10\/swaziland-gifts-good-naps-and-gangrene.html","og_site_name":"Red Letters","article_published_time":"2010-10-21T14:30:22+00:00","author":"Tom Davis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/10\/swaziland-gifts-good-naps-and-gangrene.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/10\/swaziland-gifts-good-naps-and-gangrene.html","name":"Swaziland: Gifts, Good Naps, and Gangrene - Red Letters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-10-21T14:30:22+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-21T14:30:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/10\/swaziland-gifts-good-naps-and-gangrene.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/10\/swaziland-gifts-good-naps-and-gangrene.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/10\/swaziland-gifts-good-naps-and-gangrene.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Swaziland: Gifts, Good Naps, and Gangrene"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/","name":"Red Letters","description":"Christian, Christian Inspiration, Christian News, Christian Activism News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92","name":"Tom Davis","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","caption":"Tom Davis"},"description":"Tom Davis currently serves as CEO of Children's HopeChest (www.hopechest.org), a global orphan care ministry headquartered in Colorado Springs. A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}