You may have heard, or may soon hear, reports of rioting and other problems in Eswatini. Some of the reports are true; although there is, as always, a degree of exaggeration in these things. I am not going to try to sort the truth from the fiction for you. I cannot do that because we can only see what we can see from our own neighborhood (which is not much). Rather, I want you to consider this.
We are trying to exercise good judgment. While we believe in praying and locking the doors (Neh 4:9), we all live with a degree of uncertainty. The current unrest in Eswatini is no fun for us, but it does have two side effects for which we can (try) to be thankful.
1. Life has been so stable for so long in Eswatini that the level of interest in eternity has not been as great here as it tends to be in the rest of Africa. Like folks in North America and Western Europe, people in Eswatini have begun to be very this-worldly. Perhaps recent events will help to shake them out of that. Receptivity to the gospel often increases in times of economic and social stress. That does not make us like those things. But we should be ready to take advantage of them.
2. I am supposed to be writing for Africans. Most Africans have to live with this kind of instability all of the time. Admittedly, we chose Eswatini over Nigeria and Zambia partly because it has always been more stable. Maybe that was a mistake. Maybe to write well, I need to experience more of what they experience.
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