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Timbali Crafts

The book of James instructs us “to look after widows and orphans in their distress.” In Swaziland, that’s a big, big job. With a population of 1.2 million, this landlocked African country has the highest AIDS rate in the world at 39%; widows and orphans abound. 

According to UNICEF there are 97,000 orphans. You might expect to find the Swazi waiting for help to come from outside. After all, the country is over 60% Christian.  They know the verse.  But the 90 women of Timbali Crafts aren’t waiting for help from the outside. They are determined to help themselves and to help their communities, both the Christian and the Muslim, Jews and Baha’i.  Just how these women are helping their communities may seem small, but it adds up.   

Each of these 90 women has agreed to fix a special meal one day a week.  These meals are prepared at care points, Swaziland feeding stations for orphaned or otherwise at-risk children.  Often, this free meal is the only food these children get each day. 

What makes it doubly important is the number of children served each day – over 2,600.  One meal a week may not sound like much, but when combined with the meals prepared by 89 other women, it adds up to something big. These women, many widowed or abandoned by their husbands, bring hope to their community.

You too can help as a Prayables reader.  Buy your next purse from Timbali crafts.  A Timbali purse can cost as little as $12.00 for a girl’s purse to $22.00 for a woman’s shoulder bag.  Table mats are $25.00.  You can also host a purse party, bringing together a group of your friends, or you can even sponsor a seamstress by donating the money needed to purchase a special sewing machine powered by hand. 

A little or a lot, our decision to help will add up as other women also step forward to help a community as religiously diverse as the one here at Prayables.

Pray in Many Ways

I pray when I am fearful.
I pray when I am in need.
I sing praise to You.
I lift up my hands, my heart, my soul.

Please take me beyond myself
and help me recognize the prayers of others,
from eyes raised skyward
to heads humbly bowed,
from whispers in quiet corners
to voices spiraling upward in song.

Our words may not be the same,
but our concerns and worries
and joys are so very alike,
expressed in songs, requests,
and silent cries to You.

-SueBE

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