There were a few
moments this month that are worth sharing.
1. Night Visitors
There was the night when a truck
full of Indians arrived escorted by government officials. They were found in a back of a truck in
a secrete compartment being smuggled across the boarder. The government didn’t
know if they were being trafficked or if they had paid someone to smuggle them
across into Swaziland- anyways, they didn’t know where to put them, so they hid
them here at El Shaddi.
The kids were freaking out because a rumor began that the
visitor were cannibals.
The adults were a little worried because of the potential
danger of housing victims of trafficked humans. If the people trafficking these people found them, we would
all be in danger. Charmain really didn’t have a say in any of this since they
came in the middle of the night, locked them inside the volunteer house then
left.
Also, the government here in Swaziland is very corrupt. There are a few members of the ruling
party who are actually involved in human trafficking. This raised the question
of ‘are they setting all of this up to traffic people through the orphanage?’
>>so messed up<<
Everything seemed to work out fine. Aftering being locked
inside for a few days, no translator, no cell phone, the visitors were carried
off to court for a court day.
Drama.
2. Siiiick
The extreme weather change from
over 100 degrees in Asia to low 30s in Africa hit my team with full force. All
of us were sick for the majority of the month. I kept track of my sickness and
realized that I didn’t feel 100% until the 22nd.
3. >>Speaking of 22, I had a bomb birthday!!!!!!<<
July 6th I woke up to happy birthdays and
home-made birthday letters from my fellow teammates.
During the day we worked like normal, then in the afternoon
I went straight for the baby house were I picked up my boy Nicholas. He didn’t
seem to want to be let down so I carried him around as I watched the other
babies slide down the slide and pushed them in the homemade tire swings. I asked Nicholas if he wanted me to
sing him a song and he sleepily nodded his head and he fell asleep as I sang .
It was so adorable.
After the baby house, I hung out by the camp fire with the
Hane’s and my girl Kristen while the rest of our team and the other team
prepared a birthday night for me!
It was so
sweet.
They decorated the walls, blared music while I walked in and
even made me a Mexican casserole since I miss Mexican food so much.
They even had cake.
thanks chelsea.
4. The day we almost burned down the
orphanage.
Annnnd then there was the day we
almost burnt down the orphanage.
See they had us burning a fire
break around the whole orphanage to prevent any damage incase a wild fire broke
out.
For some reason they had all 16 of
us helping burn little edges of fire around the whole mountain. After a day and
a half of just standing around, a group of us decided to start our own line to
help the process.
Six of us started burning in the
opposite direction of the larger group. We had things pretty under control.
To keep the fire under control, we
would spread out and beat the flames with freshly cut tree branches when the
flames got too big or when they burned too close to the fence or too far down.
Well. It doesn’t take much for
flames to get out of control.
All of a sudden, a gust of wind
blew up the mountain and breathed life into the baby flames we had control of.
The now six-foot flames leapt up over me and the girls standing next to me and
quickly consumed the long dead grass that was in perfect shape for burning.
The heat of the flames was too
great to get close to and within min the flames had crossed the barbed wire
fence and was crawling up the mountain towards the church and baby house.
We desperately needed help and the
other group was well around the mountain, out of ear shot and view. We sent Justin to run and get the other
group and sent Bri up to the baby house to make sure all the babies got out of
harms way.
All I could think about while
fighting the fire was that there was no way we could get this fire out in time,
we were going to be responsible for burning down a freaking orphanage. We were
about to become THE worst world race team in history.
We all looked up in the sky, but
there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
Praying for rain wasn’t an option.
We all fought hard and the
adrenaline in our bodies enabled us to get close enough to the flames to put
them out. After franticly beating the flames with branches and blankets soaked
in water and praying harder then any other time in my life, we somehow by the
grace of God got the flames out.
The flames stopped just six feet
from the baby house and two feet from the church.
We stood there all out of breath,
covered in ash, clothes ripped and burn.
….oops.
Luckily, this wasn’t the first
time a fire like this had broken out.
Charmain wasn’t in the least bit mad that we almost destroyed her
ministry, she simply hugged us and said, ‘there is no need to be upset. It was
Mother Nature. And this is exactly why we have fire breaks, now we are extra
protected.’
It was really hard to process,
knowing that we could have really damaged something so great for the Kingdom of
God and the nation of Swaziland.
But God is good, every building
was protected and no one got hurt. There is so much that can be taken away from
this experience.
You know, we often talk about God
as an all-consuming fire. We pray for Fire from Heaven to come down and take
over; to burn in us.
Have you ever seen an
all-consuming fire?
When I was standing under the flames of an actual
all-consuming fire, I was frozen. The feeling of total helplessness almost over
took me. To realize that I couldn’t do anything in those few moments but
physically cry out to God to save us.
“Lord!
Protect those building! Protect the children!! Give us strength to put out
these flames!”
“JESUS”
I was completely helpless. All I could do was wait on the Lord and
cry out for Him.
And He answered.
And He protected.
And He provided a way out.
I guess I’ll end with this. Know God wants to consume you like a fire.
To take you over, so you can spark the dead grass around you-
brining them, and you, to life as His wind blows.
