Shalom!
I had the privilege of seeing my Parents again in ESwatini one month ago for PVT. So, naturally I asked my parents to write a blog from their perspective and time out in the field with me 🙂 *Also I asked my Mom, but I asked my Dad too. Enjoy!
Mom –
Come to Africa! That was the invitation from our daughter, Joanna, to join her for a week on the field during month 8 of her World Race mission adventure. Adventures in Missions has created the Parent Vision Trip (PVT) opportunity where racers may invite their parents to join them at a designated location with the goal of bringing us together in ministry and sharing what God has been doing in our lives since we’ve been apart. After 4 flights, 3 layovers in airports, and 2 days of travel, we were reunited after not being together in person since the end of 2018.
We had previously been invited to a PVT by another daughter when she was on the World Race 5 years earlier but, disappointed, we had been unable to go at that time. This time, we were so thrilled to be able to go in person in addition to in our hearts and prayers. God knew that He had another opportunity ahead of us!
We read the blogs, carefully look at the online photos, and treasure every precious moment of the unpredictable facetime opportunities with our daughter. But being there in person and seeing her (and her squadmates) “in action” gave us a more in-depth and realistic understanding of what they’ve been experiencing for the past 8 months on 4 continents. How wonderful, exciting, and humbling to be with Joanna as she led a conversation with a widowed father during a homestead visit, interacted with the children at the Care Points, or hear her explain “World Race feedback” during one of the nightly worship sessions with the racers and their parents. Although we have considered her to be an adult for a number of years in terms of finishing her education, being employed fulltime, owning a car, handling her finances, and other adult responsibilities, now we have seen her traveling internationally, displaying broadening leadership skills, adapting to new cultures, as well as confidently and adeptly sharing faith in Jesus Christ. In the past she has been on several international mission trips and had a longtime passion for this type of ministry; being with her on the field helped us more clearly envision the possibilities ahead of her in this arena. She is not only our beloved daughter – she is also our sister in the Lord with individual gifts and callings from God. Since before she was born, we have prayed for God to use her life for His kingdom and now we are seeing Him answer those prayers in unique (and sometimes unexpected) ways. We rejoice with her and have told her we will always be on her support team!
Adventures in Missions Eswatini (Swaziland) Base feeds over 7,000 children a day at various Care Points. Due to the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the world, 12% of the population are children without parents. One realization while on the trip was that our presence there was to be supporters of the ministries that were already in place. We were “helping hands” to lovingly interact with the children at the Care Point, follow the lead of the coordinators, perhaps be an encouragement to the longterm missionary couples in that place, and to return home with them all in our hearts and prayers in the future. For example, one young boy named Solomon with whom we developed a special relationship over 3 days will remain in our heartfelt prayers; we told him on the last day together that we will be praying for him and counting on seeing him again in heaven (he actually referred to us as grandma and grandpa). God is at work in Eswatini and is a Father to the fatherless.
Although the cost may seem high in terms of money, time, and energy, this opportunity is priceless. We would encourage anyone who can to step into the privilege of seeing God at work in another part of the world and to be humbled as well as challenged to re-examine your own life priorities from a broader world perspective. The Lord is all about stretching us beyond our small comfort zones and deepening our connection to His Father-heart, and then allowing us to be His representatives wherever in the world He has placed us. We are all to be “on-mission” whether here or there!
Dad –
A Father’s Reflections on the Parents Vision Trip
The recent Parent Vision Trip (PVT) that we took to Manzini, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) at the beginning of September has left me with many memories and challenges. It was my first trip outside of North America and my first mission trip. Some of what we encountered on the trip was anticipated as Joanna is our second daughter to go on the World Race with Eswatini being one of their countries visited. The others were unanticipated gifts and experiences from God that, though I probably should have expected them, I hadn’t.
My wife and I love children, which should be evident in that we had nine of our own (Joanna being the ninth). So we were looking forward to being with the children at the Care Points in Eswatini. It was our goal to reflect as much of God’s love to them as possible through both service and personal interaction in our time with them. Interaction was easy and actually, unavoidable. Our reception was amazing and unconditional. I once told a coworker that one of the advantages of having a wife, nine children, a cat and a dog was that someone was always waiting to greet me when I came home, even if it was only the dog. These children met us with wonderful smiles every day, their joy in stark contrast with what we knew about their life situations. The opportunities for interaction were endless; the challenge was in how to make them personal. There were only one or two interpreters at any time, not enough to facilitate one on one discussions. I struggled to even be able catch, much less pronounce, their names. This small issue was a real disappointment for me in that I was unable to show care for them as an individual by greeting them personally even after three days. I knew before coming that time limitations are regularly a challenge with short term mission trips but experiencing it firsthand was still a struggle.
Of course, just like the Phillips children, every child at the Care Point was a unique person. The greetings and hugs were consistently sought but then there were strength challenges, games, soccer, singing, picture sharing and story telling that offered chances to interact individually or in small groups. Actually one on one time quickly evolved into a small group event as other children observed and came to join the focused interaction with an adult. Yet among all the hunger for attention, we were able to get to know Solomon, who Bev talks about further in her blog. His was not only a name I could pronounce but a quick connection in which we were able go a little deeper. Perhaps Solomon was the ground that God intended us to water or tend in our short time in Eswatini. But it has never ceased to amaze me how God can magnify even the smallest interactions in our lives to point us to His love and salvation. It is my prayer that all the hand holding, hugs, games, singing, silly dancing will create openings in the heart of those precious children to the love of God which drew each of us there.
Fathers are for the most part “fixers.” When we see a problem, we want to dive in and get it fixed. I personally have the confounding challenge in that one of the spiritual gifts that God has given me is exhortation. I am not only driven as a father to fix things but to set an example for others as encouragement to dive in and “get ‘er done.” So on my first trip to the Bheveni Care Point, I immediately began subconsciously to catalog the things that needed to be fixed such as: the children’s worn clothes and lack of shoes; the worn out brooms and broken desk chairs; the splintered wood slide and worn out soccer ball; the signs of some type of rodent living in the ceiling over the class room; the cracked concrete steps; the broken down fencing around the garden; or just the paper and plastic trash that littered the edges of the compound. I knew that I had the ability with a little help from the other PVT Dads in our group to fix these problems. But I didn’t have my tools and there was no Menards or Home Depot nearby. Yet the greatest limitation was the limited and thereby precious hours that we had available. On the second day as I stood looking at the garden fence problem that a few of us at the request of the Care Point Shepherd had tried to stabilize, God whispered to me in that still small voice of His, “Olin, you aren’t going to be able to fix these things and that’s not why I brought you here; take your eyes off the fence and focus on the people.” I left Eswatini with my Care Point problem list intact, without a single one crossed off. I didn’t like it. Eswatini can break your heart with the impact of the poverty levels, sexual exploitation of women, and the impact of HIV/Aids on its people and especially its children. Fixing those problems are beyond all of us, even billionaires like Gates and Buffet. My heart had to fall back on knowing that God has the ability to save and change people without having to first change their life situations – that He will one day personally wipe away the tears of Eswatini believers and ours with them and welcome us into life beyond what we can comprehend (Revelation 24:3-5). A life without problems! Alistair Begg preached a message on the threefold salvation of God. He said that God in our salvation has saved us from the Penalty of sin; that He is saving us from the Power of sin; and that one day He will save us from the Presence of sin. He has made Eswatini a part of my prayer list and reminded me that He is the true solution to this world’s problems.
One of the great gifts God gave to me on this trip was the opportunity to connect to my amazing brothers and sisters in Christ from across the United States and the world: the racers, the PVT parents, Care Point Shepherds, the AIM missionaries, and Christian workers Piet, Ilse, Kayla, And Benjy Pistorius in Capetown. It never ceases to amaze me the foundations and love that God builds into each of our hearts that prepares us to connect and establish relationships that span backgrounds, distances, and time. Relationships that bring encouragement, challenges, support, joy and love into our lives. All of you are indeed “living stones” creating a place of worship to God’s glory (1 Peter 2:4-10). I rejoice that, as Peter reminds us, we were not formerly a family but now we are. Thank you for our time together in Eswatini; I miss all of you (even those of you who are reading this that I have not yet met). May God fill your heart with hope and endurance until we gather together at His throne.
Thanks to everyone who prayed for us and supported us on this trip. It captured my heart and focus in so many ways to the point that I was not ready to come home.
*If you made it to the end…Thank you for reading ! It was a very special time for me to see my parents in Africa and do missions alongside them.
