Yesterday, we awoke to a gushing rainstorm. It rained all morning, so our ministry at the care point got rained out. Care points are dispersed all throughout Swaziland totaling to a little bit more than 30. At care points, young children and high school students come to be fed. The younger kids come in the morning around 10ish and the older kids come after they get out of school around 2ish. Our job is to go these care points and connect with the children and simply love on them.
Laylo, one of our contacts at our homestead agreed to drive us to the care point we were supposed to go to, to at least show us where it was. So, Marian and me hopped in the front of the truck and Kev and Tim hopped in the bed of the truck in the pouring rain. They were troopers.
Upon arriving back to our homestead, we decided since we couldn’t do our scheduled ministry, we would go on a prayer walk. The rain had lightened up a lot and the sun even started to peak through a bit. As we began to walk, Marian spoke, “Jesus, we pray for divine appointments, put people in our path”.
We walked forever. And by forever, I mean forever. The journey accumulated many stops along the way. As a team, we came up with the idea to buy some of our food from local vendors to develop relationships with them in a way that a door to the gospel could be opened. So, we stopped at a small veggie and fruit stand. Betuseelay was behind the counter. She was a precious woman of about 20-24 years old. She was a bit shy and didn’t talk much, but you could tell she was happy to see us. We bought some plums and bananas from her and then carried on our way. Next we stopped by a house. It’s common for Swazi’s to make food, and set it outside their house to sell. This house belonged to Cepreyen. He was so full of life and too was excited to see us. He was selling cake balls, which many of us had at our ministry last month, so we bought some from him. Then we carried on to the bigger grocery store that some of the team had seen a few days before. Joyce and Victoria were working there. They also were very quiet spoken but definitely showed waves of excitement to have us in their store. The purpose in stopping by these places was simply to see what they had and if buying from them would be feasible.
After we left the store, we had completed all the stops we had hoped to, but we decided to keep walking a little bit more to get a better “feel” for the community.
The three girls, Amanda, Marian, and Me had backed away from the men a bit and were listening to Mare’s life story. As we walked and listened to how the Lord captured her heart a little over a year ago, we had no idea what the Lord was orchestrating ahead of us. We continued to walk, talk, and listen. In the distance a small, frail woman appeared. The men noticed her and approached her and asked her name. We women were still chatting, so we stayed back a few steps while the men engaged her in conversation. The next time we looked up, they were praying for her. We quieted our conversation, and as the men backed away to keep walking, we approached her, shook hands, and said, “It was nice to meet you”. The women decided to start walking back home, and the men decided to keep pressing on in their journey.
We thought that would be the end of the conversation with this dear woman, but it wasn’t. She turned to us as we were walking away and started asking us questions. Next thing we knew she was reaching in her tiny pocket and handing us mangoes. She gave us 5, and we begged her to keep some and eat them with us, but she refused. She led us to a faucet that was sticking out of the ground to wash them. She was watching cows throughout all this, so sometimes she was would skid away to reign them back in and keep them from eating things they shouldn’t like people’s crops.
The more we talked to her, the bigger her smile got. She told us that she was 38 years old. That she has no kids, her parents are dead, and she lives with her brother. Her job is to watch the cows every day. We told her that we were missionaries and would be in Swazi until the beginning of February. She told us she wants to teach us S’swati, which is the language they speak here. She was really excited by our enthusiasm to learn. It was about this time in the conversation when she lifted her head, looked us in the eyes, and through precious giggles said, “I am so happy right now”.
We all had a hard time catching her name from the beginning, so we asked her again, and she wrote “Adelaide” in the dirt with a stick. It was beautiful. I was fighting back tears at this point. This woman was incredible. She glided along the dirt almost like she was levitating. She had a glow about her that looked like angels were hovering over her. When she smiled, she shined brighter than the sun.
As the conversation came to a close, she asked when she could see us again. We chatted amongst ourselves and agreed to Friday at 10am. She invited us to her house. Marian had mentioned wanting to learn how to milk a cow and she responded enthusiastically, “I’d love to teach you”.
God sent us Adelaide to fulfill our prayers of connecting with someone on our prayer walk. He brought her to us to open our eyes: there still IS life in Swaziland. Adelaide is full of life. Please be praying that the Lord would break down all barriers of language. That He would capture her heart and draw her into a right relationship with Him. That we can simply love on her in a way she’s never experienced love. Pray for our visit with her on Friday. Pray for Adelaide.
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Today we went to the Hospital to visit the Children's Ward. We visited burn victims first, followed by babies and young toddlers suffering from TB and then various other children. We visited during the visiting hours so many of the children's parents were there. We prayed with them and sang various songs. My heart beat is that place. We currently can only visit there 2 days a week because we don't have enough money for transportation. Pray for this place. Pray for our ministry there.
