Our Story

Julie Anderson went to Swaziland in September of 2005 to start the First Year Missionary Program. The team lived outside of the city of Mbabane for two semesters (seven months) and continued in this same location the following fall for the first part of the FYM year.

After much prayer, the leadership team felt led to move to a more rural area with fewer resources. In January of 2006, the team relocated to the rural area of Timbutini to work with a Pastor Walter Malazo. AIM has partnered with him on several smaller projects. He has a unique vision and ability to reach his community.

Our Vision

Swaziland Staff Blog
The vision of the Swaziland staff is to focus in on one community and invest in their future. Through building relationships that give the opportunity to share the reality of Christ and raise up disciples, as well as meeting the felt needs of the community, we hope to make this vision a reality. With the overwhelming needs that come as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, we are constantly seeking God as to how to be His hands and feet to His people. There is a huge need for more orphanages, hospitals, schools, and Bible-teaching churches. It is the desire of many staff members in Swaziland to meet these needs within the community God has placed them in.

The intent of the ministry initiatives that the staff are making is allow the Swazi people to step up into leadership within the various ministries. The goal is for things to be Swazi run and initiated, so as to create self-sustaining ministries.

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Staff

Ministry

Women’s Ministry

Julie Anderson is heading up the women’s ministry in Swaziland. Currently, she has a bible study every Monday night with women from the various care points in the area. They are going through a Wycliffe study that is contextualized to Swazi culture. A major part of her ministry is relationship building and discipling. There is significant need for community and fellowship to provide emotional and spiritual support among women.

Orphans

The orphan population is overwhelming. HIV/AIDS is tearing through the middle generation (ages 18-30) and wiping out the parents of children. These orphaned children are left to fend for themselves, and many times the eldest sibling becomes the parental figure in the household.

The FYM team and staff members have been investing time in the care points and hospitals. They offer the love of their Father to the fatherless (and motherless) children of the community. The vision of the base staff is not only to meet the emotional needs, but the physical needs as well. As God leads and provides, they would like to see an orphanage and a school built for these children.

More about our Swazi orphans

Local Partners

Pastor Walter Malazo is our local partner in Swaziland. He has a unique vision and passion for reaching out to his community and mobilizing people to help make his vision a reality. He runs 9 “care points” that feed hundreds of orphans each day. These facilities are run by about 50 volunteers, many being grandmas raising up their grandchildren because the middle generation is dying off due to HIV/AIDS.

Swaziland and the Swazi Culture

About the size of New Jersey, Swaziland is home to beautiful mountain ranges, valleys dotted with mud huts and small villages, and luscious sugarcane fields. Tourism is a significant source of revenue for the kingdom as game parks and the vibrant, beautiful culture draw the attention of travelers.

The Kingdom of Swaziland is a nation that has struggled to preserve cultural traditions while undergoing recent modernization efforts. Many of the traditional ceremonies have been successfully sustained. These include annual festivals and many of the dances; others have been adapted with less success. For instance, in traditional Swazi culture, virginity was long respected as a highly desirable and valuable trait for unmarried men and women. In today’s society, little value is placed on a decision to abstain until marriage.

Polygamy is practiced among much of the population, contributing to the spread of HIV\AIDS. Marital infidelity is generally expected, and remaining faithful to one’s spouse is a foreign concept to many.

The family and the local community are highly regarded institutions, but as HIV/AIDS devastates families, these establishments are crumbling. Most orphans are no longer raised within their villages, but are forced out into the street or into institutions not rooted within a community. Grandparents who had expected to be taken care of in their old age find themselves raising another generation of children.

Although Christianity is the dominant religion statistically, many who claim to follow Christ are still involved in various forms of syncretism and witchcraft. Some pastors still consult witchdoctors rather than Scripture. About one-fifth of the people practice African Traditional Religion, which is incorporated into every aspect of their lives.