This part of Africa and the people in it will always hold a dear place in my heart. It has been a difficult 2 months but all in all I have learned a ton. Learned that God is a redeeming God, and it’s when I let Him do His thing. It’s a never ending lesson though; when does God call you to wait on Him and when does He want you to use the sense and gifts He has given you? Each situation calls for a different answer. God can’t be limited, and I am just learning all the different forms that can take.
This last week as been a week of goodbyes, and who really likes those? I dicipled a wonderful lady named Choosy who wants to start a Care Point and feed orphaned children in here area. I got her connected with a lady who had started a Care Point 10 years earlier and had some amazing advice for Choosy, this lady also agreed to be Choosy business mentor. God confirmed His working in Choosy starting a Care Point in many ways, she knows that He has called her
to work with her own people, the Swazis. She has flown to London and been turned back in Heathrow airport, she has been arrested for overstaying her South African traveling visa, God keeps bringing her back to Swaziland. She brought me to a Nigerian wedding, I enjoyed traditional food and dance. We went over the basics of starting a Care Point and took notes of what Choosy’s mentor said. What an awesome thing to empower someone. To let them know that they CAN do it!
I went to a friend, Maphoyisa’s, house again this week. He works for World Vision and has his own ministry of supporting older students through High School when World Vision stops support. God let me build into him and train him. I also got to go to a town where the children had never seen a white person, I taught them a crazy song and by the end they weren’t staring anymore. Maphoyisa also thought that I would not want to come to his little home in the middle of nowhere, I told him that I sleep outside in a tent on many occasions, even here in Swaziland when our house was full. In fact his bed (he gave up his bed for me) was a lot more comfortable then the ones AIM provided us with!
I got to say goodbye to the ladies that I built into at Thembeni, I got to let them know that they can do in the business if they just start small. God really showed me that it’s also not only about business either, he laid on my heart to pray with the ladies for different spiritual gifts. God’s confirmation came through very clearly. I was not looking forward to going back to Thembeni after my project was shut down, because I knew the situation had supposedly gone sour. The ladies put all these cares to rest, they were so thankful that I was there to talk to them and help them in the process of starting or expanding their businesses.
What a great God we serve, His redemption isn’t deserved but it comes at the perfect time. What a great note to leave on, goodbye Swaziland, it’s been a rough ride but would I want a boring predictable journey? Heck no!
Side note, we are in Cape Town now! Team YETI decided to take a few days off before debrief and go to arguably the most beautiful city in the world… we’ll see if it beats Vancouver.
