I (Tommy) was taking a look back at some old journal entries from the first time I was in Swaziland in 2006. My entries were filled with amusing stories--and almost all were overly dramatic.
I get pretty excited about spending a significant amount of time interacting with the children "on the farm.” Unlike last time we were there, many of the kids are now entering their teen years. Previously, one of the boys that had just turned 13 began to ask me some challenging questions, such as “When are boys old enough to start having babies?” My initial reaction was to respond with a “well… never,” but I assumed he knew which gender actually delivers babies.
I stopped, took a deep breath, and began to wander into the weeds...talking about marriage and God’s plan. As I began to think that I was in the clear, he came back at me with a, “when…exactly?”
Oh boy. Sometimes silence is good. This challenging conversation reminds me how the young men of Swaziland need positive male influences in their life-- and that is one statement in my journal that is not overly dramatized in the least.
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