Father's Day with Dr. Samuel "Babe" Hynd

On Saturday we were honored to spend much of the day with Babe (pronounced bah-bay) (father in Siswati) Hynd on the day before Father's Day. First we went to a celebration commemorating the continued work of his dream HIV clinic, the ACTS II clinic here in Manzini.

The King’s man walked everyone there around the property to show the boundaries. After that there was prayer and than we had meeli meal and some grilled pork. We would not learn until much later today the signifigance of what happened there in the blazing sun!

Later that evening we went to a restaurant for a Father's Day celebration with Babe Hynd. There was a pretty large group of about 15, many of which were from Dr. Elizabeth Hynd's New Hope Centre, and Dr. Tom Noble from NTS (who is here researching his book on Dr. David Hynd) and Dr. Margaret Hynd (Samuel's sister). We went around the table and talked about each of our stories as an introduction, which was wonderful to hear God’s call on so many people and his miraculous work that is going on here in Swaziland and across so many continents. At the table were people from South Africa, Swaziland, Korea, Australia, UK, Scotland, Canada and the USA.

Doctor Hynd shared more about the ACTS II clinic and the long story of having the Hospital give him the land, having construction start, then getting miraculous funding from even the Canadian government. Several months into construction, one of the King’s men stopped the work due to conflicting desires for the land. Now, two years later, the work could finally continue. Dr. Hynd had said he was ready to write to his donors this very weekend to tell them that the work could not continue and send his apologies. Yet this past Wednesday he received a call to come to the King's palace, where he learned that the work could commence again.

Apparently about two years ago Doctor Hynd and Elizabeth had a conversation with one of the wives of the previous King (Sobuhza), and she was finally able to sit down with King Mswati this Tuesday in a private audience and ask that he allow the work to go on. Dr. Samuel Hynd has been in Swaziland his whole life and has been very involved with the royal family. Yet he told us that this was the first time he had ever heard of someone being allowed to speak to the King in private, as this woman had done. All Glory to God and thank you Jesus that we were able to see the mighty hand of God move in ways that could not have been dreamed!

The story of Esther in the Bible ringing in our ears, we learned that the King's man who led the ceremony that morning was the very man who had the project halted two years ago! We delighted in the Lord's sense of irony and were glad for the King's man's sake that his end was better than Hamaan's.

It was an honor and blessing to spend the day in such company and in the presence of God's work. Babe Hynd kept saying that night, "You know people say God is dead... well I just don't see it!"