A bit of an update:
My team and one other team are located in Emkhuzweni, near Buhleni Swaziland. We are involved at the local clinic, the school, and the church. We also have a ministry we made up called getting d.i.r.t.y (developing intentional relationships with today’s youth).
While at the clinic, we take turns preaching in their 7am devotional time and we pray for the people who are there to visit the doctor. We also spend time in the ward anytime between 10 and 1 praying with the people in the clinic. One highlight was holding a four month premature baby weighing 3.7 pounds. I want to see the Spirit come in a new measure and the people walk out of there healed.
The school kids all assemble on Fridays for a prayer time and so we get to sing for them and do a skit. The children are beautiful, several of them sing for us too! Some of the world racers were teachers back home and so they go to the school to grade tests and proctor the exams.
We attended a Nazarene church our first Sunday here and Sara and I preached. (Dad, I know that you love that we were at a Nazarene church! I took the picture with the sign just for you pops!) She shared some of her testimony and I gave a little encouragement. The pastor basically handed church over to us as soon as she knew we were in their community.
Getting dirty has been interesting. Some people go to the surrounding homesteads during the day and after school the kids just come straight to us. They are a little wild—throwing things at the mango trees so that they can have something to eat, sliding across our slick floor, and singing at the top of their lungs.
A few random things:
On our day off we traveled to Manzini for internet and grocery shopping. We fit 15 people in a two-seater-pick-up truck for super cheap. It should have cost us 40 rand per person but this man let us squish in and ride for 15 rand each! While in the grocery store we found out we had until 5pm to get down to the bus station, which left us twenty minutes to finish shopping for everyone. Our grocery run turned into super market sweep and then we rushed back to the bus station with not even ten minutes to get there. On the five block run, bags were breaking and we were shoving the groceries in our backpacks and purses. Cheese was falling out into the middle of the street. At one point I came up to an abandoned grocery cart and everyone put their bags in and we pushed it through a dirt market all the way to the bus. Pulling away I could see the cart on its side. I wish you could have witnessed the madness and all the people laughing at us with the cart we found.
Chef Ashli changed an atmosphere one night when she created Club Sassy for a dinner extravaganza. Angela and Ceena served as hostesses and I was the waitress. Oh the things we do to entertain ourselves and spice things up. People were seated and could choose “how sassy they wanted their eggs.” We had music and Angela and Ceena also played as our sassy dancers. People took it upon themselves to be in character and it really just filled us all with joy.
Our first night in the hut, the mosquitos almost ate us alive. When we began tenting at 1am, because of how bad the bugs were, it starting raining, and rained for the next three days. So I moved my tent inside the hut, preventing from mosquitos and rain. Some might think I am a diva for that but a majority of us girls are tenting in the hut, even though we sweat so bad at night it is better than getting eaten alive.
The night before it was my turn to preach at the clinic, I asked God to speak to me in a dream about what He wanted me to preach on. I trusted He would and I woke up in the morning knowing I had seen pages in my bible and certain scriptures highlighted. I was excited that God had spoken to me in that way but I couldn’t recall the scripture until I was about five minutes from the clinic. You wouldn’t believe that those scriptures were already actually highlighted, but by someone other than me. So I read the scriptures and God expanded the message for His people as I stepped out in faith with the verses He wanted me to read. I want to thank all of those who highlighted and wrote notes in my bible because they are being used by Him here to speak truth loudly and to encourage me. (Hebrews 10:23-25 was highlighted in orange—Aunt Lori—and Hebrews 12:1-2 & 12 was highlighted in blue with a note from mama d.)
