Join me for a Christmas Timbali party!

~Starting at 6:30 pm.

~On Wednesday, 19, 2012

~At the Wilcox Center.

~Timbali crafts will be for sale, helping support women in Swaziland and enable them to take care of their families.

~Michaela Horton will also give a short presentation about her trip at 7:00 pm.

We are home and almost caught up on sleep! Thank you so much for your prayers!

7 Christmas parties down, 3 more to go!!!

   This week has been very busy, as we have been getting ready for Christmas parties for all 10 carepoints! We did the first three on Friday and Saturday which made for very busy days! Three more to come next weekend!

Nombali and I moving the fresh beef from the trash bag to another container. :)

   Today for the first time in a while I was able to sit down and process everything that has happened recently and realized I only have two more weeks left. This brought on so many different thoughts and feelings to my mind of great sadness, excitement and prayer. As my time is drawing to a close here, I am wondering and praying about what will happen next, where in Africa will I end up and when? But as I was reading Esther this morning, I realized she had total faith in her God even when her future was uncertain. She readily obeyed Mordecai and walked by faith during trying times. So as I finish up in Swaziland, I look forward in anticipation to what God has in store for me.

This weekend we were blessed with a two day get away to St. Lucia, South Africa. We got to sit out on the beach and be refreshed by God's overwhlemingly beautiful creation, the beach.

 

 The sunrise at five in the morning.

 Monkeys everwhere!

 Uh-Oh :)

Carrying on the family tradition!

Hippos in the yard last night!

 

Pictures from the last week....

Our greeting party at the team house :)

One cool girl!

Going back home after a long day of work.

Havesting with the Joyela and Mahlabeneni gogos!

Hanging out with the girls at Mahogany.

Oct. 25

Today Sanele, Nombali and I went to the Mahlabeneni carepoint. While they were working with the older children I sat and played with the younger ones. It was a cool, rainy day. One little boy came into the building sobbing and soaked; his face was muddy from where he had fallen in the dirt, so I scooped him up and cuddled him against me under my jacket. His shivering stopped and he fell fast asleep.

It was the perfect opportunity to pray for this little boy and his family; his mom or gogo out working and providing a shelter for him and his siblings, his sister who was not much older than he and for his future, no matter how short or long it might be. It was so amazing being able to poor into this little boy’s life and love on him. I thank God so much that I have two parents, I have warm clothes, food three times a day and always have a weather-proof house to sleep in unlike this handsome little boy who probably has never even slept in a bed before.

   In 1996 a young woman, Ntombi, who is mentally handicapped stepped into the fire, burning her foot, while her family was out working in the fields. Slowly that burn healed on her foot but a small spot the size of a dime remained unhealed. For many years it grew more and more infected, but what could her family do? They barely have enough to live on much less carry her all the way down the mountain, pay for transport and spend a whole day at the hospital.


   In 2011 Erica Zeiler went with her team to visit families in that area and saw her infected foot. By this time it had started rotting and maggots filled it. With great compassion and love, Erica went up every week to clean and bandage Ntombi’s foot. Then, after Erica went home, for another year her foot went unnoticed and she went unloved, up in the mountains.


   In spring of 2012 Erica came back to stay and in her first week here, the Lord reminded her of Ntombi and back up the mountain she went to check on her. The wound had again become badly infected and had spread to more area in her foot. Again, overflowing with compassion, Erica cleaned out her foot once a week and left bandages for her father to re-apply. However, it still got worse and worse, so in June Erica took her up to the hospital were they took some flesh to run tests on it, but the results would not be ready for three months. It has been almost four months since the tests and still no answer. So Erica and the Discipleship team have been faithfully driving thirty minutes up into the mountains to bring her and her father down to the clinic three times a week to clean it out and put more bandages on it. For the last 16 years her father has shown his great love for her by carrying her on his back down the long path to the car, holding her hand while her foot is cleaned and then carrying her back up the path to their small house.

 
   Last week I was privileged to go with two members of the D-team to bring down and take back Ntombi and watch as they re-bandaged her foot. On the way back down the mountain after we took Ntombi home I noticed this beautiful flower, rather out of place among the thorn bushes and rocks. It gave me such an amazing picture of how the Lord used one woman through many years to bring a ray of hope to this family, how in Ntombi’s pain filled life, someone has cared enough for her to wash her maggot infested foot and to tell her she is loved not only by her earthly father, but by her Father in heaven.

 

I got to hang out with the precious, shy little girl for an hour the other day. So sweet and beautiful!

Passion Conference in Durban, South Africa

This week the "D" Team, Erica, Morgan and I were blessed to attend the Passion Conference in Durban, South Africa. 

The D Team - Nombali, Celimpelo (Pelo), Sanele, Thondi (H is silent) and me.

The "D" Team is made up of four college-age Swazi's who are the spiritual leaders for the children's carepoints.  Morgan and I are the 2 interns spending three months in Swaziland, and Erica is one of only two full-time staff workers in Nsoko, Swaziland.  A benefactor in the United States donated the total cost of sending the seven of us for a spiritual overnight retreat to hear Louie Giglio and Chris Tomlin at Passion International in Durban, South Africa. 

Enjoying a real Mocha at the Mug and Bean in Durban

The conference was spiritually encouraging for all of us, and the first time most of the "D" team had every been out of Swaziland.

On our drive back to Swaziland we stopped at a South Africa beach for a few hours.  I was sitting on the beach in South Africa while my parents and sisters were at the beach thousands of miles away in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  And our God is the God over us all!  Pretty awesome to think about.

On the beach in Durban, South Africa

The "D" team marveled at seeing the ocean for the first time.  It was a testimony to the power of the Lord!

So many stories...

I've heard so many stories in the last month...so many stories of people in unimaginable circumstances. 

Gogo Maria who has back problems and can barely walk, but manages to provide for her two grandchildren.  Sadly she cannot pay for their school anymore.  (In Swaziland children can only attend school if they pay school fees.  These fees are very difficult to pay for a population who barely has enough for food.)  Despite these setbacks she still told us, "It is well with my soul."

The young woman with four young children who's husband will not allow her to go to church, yet has such strong faith in God.

And finally, in my last post I mentioned spending the day in the hospital with a 19 year old young man, Linda.  The hospital didn't admit him but sent him home with a handful of medicine.  Tragically, he passed away yesterday from HIV.  Please pray for his mom, grandma and sister.  He came to know Christ through the ministry team here.  They rushed him to the hospital and spent hours praying with and for him but he succumbed to the ravages of the disease which is so prevalent in this country. 

And the stories continue day by day...walking by faith.

This is a photo of a little boy at Mahlabaneni carepoint.  He posed for the camera after he sat in my lap and dozed on and off during the Bible lesson.  The children are hungry for love and affectionate.

   This last week has been crazy busy, but amazingly, I am learning that the normal week here is anything but normal.

On Monday Morgan and I found out what it is like to go to the hospital when we took a 16 year old mother and her twin 1 month old boys to get a check up. We got there at 8am. and they waited until about 3:30 to be seen by the doctor. Then again on Thursday, we unexpectedly took a 19 year old with HIV to the hospital after he collasped at school and waited most of the day.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we harvested more spinach and visited carepoints. I am thanking God for this wonderful opportunity to serve His people in Swaziland!

Sept. 16^th & 17^th

On Monday and Tuesday we harvested spinach from the gardens and then delivered and handed them out at four of the carepoints. Nisela Farms has many small farms and three of them have given AIM small plots on which they plant and take care of the vegtables for us. The only thing we have to do is come and harvest them. This is a huge blessing for the children who only eat a bean and pap (similar to dry grits) meal every day.
 

Morgan, my teammate, in Swaziland. 

Sept. 14^th

I am in Nsoko and we are all settled in! Morgan and I are staying on a small Nisela Farm. We have a real toilet and a shower, so we are doing great! The power is iffy here and we have no internet. The missionary that we are working with, Erica, lives about five minutes away and she is kindly letting us use her internet.

 

So far we have toured all ten carepoints and met the D-team. The discipleship team in Nsoko is made up of four amazing people, Nombali, Thandi, Sanele, and Celimpilo. I can’t wait to work along side of them! Hopefully, if it does not rain, on Monday we will start our “job,” which I will be able to detail once we’ve done it. It is the very end of the winter here and it has rained most of the time we have been here, which makes carepoint visits challenging with all the mud.

 

 

 

 

 

  Well....I kind of forgot my password and couldn't get into blogger to post, sorry about the silence. Hehe :) The family leaves tomorrow for Alanta, Georgia, where we will be staying with my aunt. We will have some time to visit together before I fly out from there Monday evening. Can't wait to leave!

I am so excited!! God has blessed this trip in so many ways and I am so relieved to say that all my support has not only come in but it has exceeded the original amount! Thank you family and friends so much!!  Since there is extra, I am planning on buying medical supplies to take over. They will form individual kits for each carepoint in the Nsoko area with basic things like bandaids, neosporin and gloves.

 

 Psalm 55:22

Cast you cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.

In one month I will be stepping foot in my beloved Africa!!! I am counting down the minutes until I get there.

   I realized the other day after riding my horse, how little patience I have. I get so impatient when my horse does not understand what she is supposed to do or when my sisters bug me about stuff. Going to Swaziland I can not choose the days on which I will be patient or be able to make excuses for my behavior.

   Yet I remember that in 2 Corinthians Paul is given a thorn in his side to show him that he has great weaknesses but through them God is glorified. In a similar way I have so little patience and yet I hope that God's power will be greatly evident in my life while in Swazi.

2 Corinthians 12:9 & 10

  But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Only 46 days left until I arrive in my Africa!!

 For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.

Psalm 100:5

Thank you!!! Bob and Elaine Morris, my uncle's parents gave me the first step towards Africa!! Thank you for giving me such encouragment! $4,925 left to go!!

Soon I will be off to Africa! Counting down the minutes until I board the plane for Swaziland on Sept. 10th :)