Information download. This month my squad is in Swaziland. My team, Ruach, is partnered with Team 2:20 in the city of Timbutini, just outside Manzini.
We have been working at 3 different care points set up by Adventures In Missions and Children’s Hope Chest, providing food and social services to the communities in the rural area where we are staying.
Twice a week, we visit the Hope House. It’s a care center for people with terminal illnesses, often AIDS or TB. Many of them have no one to spend time with during the day and are even bound to their houses due to their illnesses. We’ve been going to talk with them or read the Bible to them, play music or sing, or even just sit with them and hold their hands.
We have also been visiting a hospital. Our teams begin in the children’s ward, and then split to go into the men’s and women’s wards. The first day we went, the children’s ward was bustling with activity, children in almost every bed. After 3 weeks of going regularly and praying over the patients, we have seen dramatic healings, and yesterday we found the hospital only about 30% full.
In all honesty, my faith was small. I placed my hands on the patients, I prayed for them because I knew that that was what we were there to do. Believing I had any power from God to actually make anything happen, that was another story. It’s been a process allowing God to fill me with the faith that makes prayer a powerful force, but our teams have seen prayer be the only answer.
We’ve encountered a demon or two along the way. Not so strange for me, having had similar encounters in college during our 24-7 Prayer Room, but every encounter has built my faith and drawn me to the power that frees people from these evil spirits, the power of Jesus. It sounds cheesy, but explain to me how a woman in a hospital, eyes rolling, beating her chest, actin’ crazy is suddenly calm and completely normal as you pray HIS name over her spirit. It happened last night, it happened last week, it’s happenin’ in Africa.
Other than that, we’ve been building relationships wherever God opens the opportunity. A few of my teammates have been bringing people from the community into the church, and I have made a special friend at the market in town. Her name is Winele, and I’ve been going to visit her every day that I can get into town. She and her grandmother are delightful. They’ve been pushing me to learn more S’swati, and they’ve given me a S’swati name: Ntombie, meaning girl. The meaning is a little simple, but I won’t complain, ha.
Oh, also in the market yesterday, I met a Mormon missionary from Salt Lake City!! What?! What?!?! I was so excited to see someone from home, I almost hugged him, Ha! But of course, I simply, respectfully shook his hand. 😉 God bless you, Elder Thatcher. I pray you encounter God over and over in the remaining 6 months of your journey in Swaziland. Y’all, will you lift him up? God’s full of divine encounters, amen?
Well, that’s it for now. My health is good, as well as the health of my teammates. THANK YOU for your prayers. They are getting us through!
On Saturday, we are headed to Eastern Europe. There was a slight change of route, and we’ll be headed to Romania next on our journey.
Love and miss you all!
Current financial status: $14,095.01
Final Deadline: March 1st, only $704.99 more to go!!!!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you to Alysa, Mary Katherine, The Wiles, and The Adventure Foursquare Church!!!
