It’s been a few weeks since my last blog. It’s been a very busy but amazing time in Swaziland! We left Lesotho and headed to Durban in South Africa for debrief. Debriefs location was in a small city called Winklespruit. We were right on the Indian ocean #Blessed! I found a beautiful place on the beach that was an old structure kind of crumbled and still had this one wall standing that waves would crash up around. I would sit up on the tallest point of the wall to do my devotions and Bible reading in the mornings with Becks one of my previous team members. It was such a powerful place because I could sit on the walls tallest peak and watch the waves just crash around me. I definitely miss that spot.
As I said in my last blog we had team changes. They told us our teams the first day so that we could spend time together at debrief getting to know our new teams before sending us off. My new team is pretty darn great! My new team is Ashley Hewitt our team leader, TL Chamberlin, Marah Larahmore, Monica Elder, and Melissa Jordan. I got to keep TL and Melissa from my last team, Yay! Our team name is, Fellowship A Blaze. FAB for short and Fabulous with acronyms for each letter. Fellowship A Blaze Uniting Lost On Untouched Soil. I am very happy to be a part of this team. It has been a great few weeks with them already. I feel at home with them.
My role did not change I am still the treasurer. I had high hopes to be able to not have a role for a little while and be care free�. God had other plans apparently. Don’t tell them but I’ve just been pretending I know what I’m doing. So far so good.
I am absolutely loving ministry Here in Manzini, Swaziland! I can’t believe it, but our time here is already coming to an end today. I want to stay, I’m not ready to say goodbye. Ministry this month has been with girls that were involved in trafficking and sexual abuse and need a safe place. Mary Kate an amazing woman came to Swaziland over 10 years ago. She came with a group and she was drawn to one of the girls they worked with and she actually came back to Swaziland to help this girl. In the process God put it upon her heart to help other girls in similar situations. She now has a home for girls to help them get away from the life of trafficking and abuse. They named the ministry Hosea’s Heart. They currently have 16 girls in the home. Anywhere from 10 to 20 years old. They had a vision to buy land and build more houses, so they can take more women in and even their children. That project is in progress now. The first house is almost finished on the land, we were actually able to help prime the outside this week. Once all the buildings are finished they’ll be able to take in 56 women. I’m so excited for them! This ministry is very needed here. Mary Kate’s heart is so pure and selfless. She is so passionate about getting women off the streets and loves them just like Jesus does. She is following God’s plan for her without question. Her faith astounds me. I want to be like her when I grow up.
We have become such good friends with the girls and staff that leaving is going to be so hard. Our host is actually a previous World Racer. Her name is Brittine. She came back here after her race to stay long term. Her passion for the ministry is also amazing. She is so much fun! Getting to know her has been a joy.
Our ministry has looked a lot like relationship building this month. We have gone to hang out with the girls every day almost. We play cards, have one on ones, teach life skills, teach Bible studies, worship, and pray. One of the things we helped with was Street Night. Street Night is an event they do for the prostitutes on the streets. They have someone speak at the event decorate it pretty to make the ladies feel special and welcome. They have dinner for the ladies, and they have a dance party. They invite the ladies a couple nights before the event. We were able to make the invitations and help distribute them. To distribute them we left the house at 9pm and supposed to get back by 10pm. We would ride in the car with Mary Kate and 2 other staff members of Hosea’s Heart. They would drive to the corners where they’ve seen the women standing.
Half of our team went on Valentines Day to distribute invitations and 2 days later the other half of us went. The night I went was Valentine’s Day, so they also handed out candy and chips.
The night was going well there was so many women out. I was by the window, so I would hand the invitations to the ladies. At first, I was in a little shock to see so many of them. I was trying to process why their lives have to be so hard that they end up on the streets selling themselves for the night. One of the ladies we invited look to be very sad. She struck us all with how she looked like that was the last place she wanted to be. Mary Kate asked if she wanted to get in the car with us and talk for a little while. She said no but looked like she wanted to say yes. We drove off but all of us wanted to know more about this woman so we all decided to circle back around and if she was still there we would ask her again. She was still there, Mary Kate told her we came back for her and she looked touched by that and Mary Kate asked her again and this time she said yes. A friend of hers also came. We then drove to a grocery store parking lot to talk with them. Before they got in the car her friend was very talkative and asking questions like why are you here, Why do you care about us so much?. She asked all kinds of questions. One thing they wanted to make clear to us was that they didn’t want to be on the streets. But they have children and they need to eat. They asked us if we could find them jobs, so they wouldn’t have to do this anymore. We had given them each a little bag of chips. As the lady we went back for was eating hers she said, I could eat this, and it be fine for the whole day, but a child can’t do that.� They said there is no man we have to provide for our kids, the hardest thing is going home and telling your kids you don’t have any food or any money to buy any. Mary Kate asked, why do you think men are more willing to buy women instead of marrying them and provide for their families. They asked, Do men do that back in the states too?? They were so shocked they thought it only happened in Africa. We continued to talk for 2 hours with them. They talked about their children, their children’s fathers, and how they were shunned by their families because they got pregnant. So, their families want nothing to do with them or their children. The friend new so much about the Bible it was astounding. She probably knows more than me. And she said she used to pray and hear from God. But they feel too dirty to talk to God or go to church because they know what they do is dirty. They asked also if the money helps provide food for their kids is it God providing or is it money from Satan. They asked a lot of good questions. They really think there is no other way. It is heart breaking to see them feel so trapped in this life. We talked a while about all their questions. Then we prayed with them. I prayed Jeremiah 29:11 over them. After praying I looked up and the friend had tears running down her face. Mary Kate looked at them and said I don’t give money out that’s not what this is about but since you weren’t able to make money tonight because you talked with us I want to give you guys a little money and take you home if you want to go home. They accepted the offer to be taken home.
 We try to start the car and the battery had died. It’s like midnight, and we are trying to make a plan. Well this cars pulls up. Mary Kate walks over to it and asks if they can jump the car. These nice men drive their car over and get the car started. Yay! The car is up and running and we’re off. We take them back to get their things off the street. And head to the neighborhoods that are pretty far from town. Driving down the dirt road into their neighborhood they say roll your windows up this is a dangerous area. So we do that. As we are driving to the friends house first she calls the people she left her son with to tell them she is on her way home. She is told on the phone that her son hadn’t eaten since she left a day in a half ago. She hangs up and begins to sob and tell us if it weren’t for her son she would have killed herself a long time ago. It was so heartbreaking to see her pain knowing her son hadn’t eaten. We continue down this narrow pot hole road. I prayed the entire time that the mini van would not get stuck or die again. Because we were in unfriendly territory for sure. We get her son and head to her place and then we continue to the other woman’s home. She said roll your windows up and lock the doors please. Then we take her to the top of the hill where her house is down below. She says to us be careful driving out and watch me run to my house before you leave to make sure I get in. She takes off sprinting down the hill and we see her get in the gate. Mary Kate says we need to turn around and drive out. She saw a couple guys walking up the hill towards us. So, we turn around and head out of that neighborhood asap! God had a hedge of protection around us that night for sure. I’ll never forget those ladies and getting to know their story. It was heart breaking and eye opening. A lot of women in these situations don’t want to be there but think it’s their only option. And the need for this ministry is so crucial. Mary Kate made sure to get their numbers so that she could follow up with them.
Something very heart breaking is a lot of girls are born into that lifestyle or sold into it by their own parents. A lot of girls have children before they’re 15 and then they have no one to help them. A few of the girls at Hosea’s Heart have children but their children are in a different home because they were so young when they had them.
When they had street night we went to stay with the girls. They pray every hour on the hour during street night. We were asked to lead that this time. So, we did worship in between prayer from 10pm to 1am. The girls were good about praying for the event and the women that come. It was a great thing to be a part of. 2 women gave their lives to Christ at the event.
Something else we got to be a part of is prayer and worship on the new land. That was amazing the girls lead half the worship songs and we lead half. During singing it was chilly but at one point I felt a warm breeze blow on me and it felt like the presence of God. He was very pleased and present that day. This ministry is definitely God breathed. You can feel Him moving through all of it.
Something I think is awesome and amazing the girls at the home are homeschooled. There are only a few that are public schooled. They do better with their schooling and mannerisms through homeschooling. I think it’s fantastic!
I taught one of the life skills lessons on budgeting. It was terrifying to me at first, but I actually enjoyed it after all. I also had the opportunity to teach on identity a huge part of my journey on the race. I really enjoyed leading that lesson.
We’ve experienced spiritual warfare here pretty strongly within the team. A few of us have had terrible dreams every night. A few of the girls are struggling with battling with following Satan in their lives before Hosea’s Heart and Satan still having a hold on their lives because they’ve yet to give their lives to Christ because the evil spirits inside of them threaten them about their children or abusing them in their sleep if they try to leave the cult as they call it. So, we have seen one of the girls taken over by the evil spirit inside her this past Sunday at church. We prayed at the church for a few hours in a room with the pastor and the girls trying to cast the demon out as her body. Her body fought the whole time. When we would ask her name not her but whatever is in her said I don’t know that name. So, this thing resides in her body. They call it a cult but it’s really just any individual that decides to worship Satan is in this cult. And there is this evil spirit world they go to where they get a card and a code. The code is given to them by Beyonce the singer in a dream. There are a bunch of famous people in this dark world. The only way to leave and be freed is to speak your code out loud. But if you try to do that they threaten you or torture you in your sleep. Your job from this world is to torment people in their sleep and try to get more people to join the cult aka worship Satan. It’s really messed up. But the fact that this thing was manifesting itself inside her is because she is close to accepting Jesus and Satan is doing everything in his power to keep her. It was so hard to watch. Please pray with me that she would be able to fight the power of Satan and give her life to the Lord. I’ve never seen something like it. She was not responding to us at all at one point her body was limp like she was in a comma and then we started singing a worship song and her body started moving like it was agitated then we would sing louder, and she looked upset and would hold her ears and squirm on the floor and then she tried to run out of the room. But it wasn’t her it was the thing that lives in her. She didn’t remember anything except something covering her ears at one point. It’s just awful to see her be so controlled and the power Satan has over his followers. I know that God can break through and save her, and I believe she is close to giving her life to God. Satan is shaking in his boots because he knows God is more powerful than he is. Witnessing this though just made me so confused as to why anyone would worship Satan. He doesn’t care about them he simply wants to use people to destroy others. Please pray that God would breakthrough all the strongholds here in Swaziland. And send Satan running with his tail between his legs.
I love all the girls here at Hosea’s Heart and I’m not ready to leave. I have made so many good friendships and memories, one of those memories is a sleep over with them at the girl’s home. And Angel teaching me how to dance. I honestly just love being with them. I will miss, our card games, dance parties, worshipping together, all their great questions and insights about God. I feel so blessed for the opportunity to build relationships with all the amazing girls and the ability to plant seeds. And so, blessed to be able to be a part of Hosea’s Heart for this past month. I wasn’t long enough.
I could say so much more but I have to go for now. I’m sorry I haven’t updated all month. Wifi has been scarce and when I had it I was using it to do receipts for treasury. I hope to be able to update more frequently next month. I am also sorry I have no photos my phone drowned in a toilet at debrief, very unfortunate story. I hope to buy one in South Africa.
Until next time,
God Bless =)
