Swaziland!!!

This month we are in the nation of Swaziland. It has been a great change of atmosphere to move from the Middle East into the southern parts of Africa. I am not fully sure what I expected Africa to be like, but it was not this. I think in my mind, I was expecting desert area, walking a mile for get clean water, and some of the most intense heat on the planet. It has not been that on any level. Being here has been amazing. We are working in Nsoko with the G42 church plant here. Pastor Gift is amazing and a humble man of God.

We are teamed up with Matt Ruple’s team for the next two weeks here in Nsoko. The days have been starting out fairly early. We travel to our care points in the community. These are places in the community (somewhat middle of no where) where the local people do have very little food, have to walk a few miles with water jugs to have water, and most have HIV. It is estimated that about 70% of the surrounding area has been infected with HIV. If you are 30 years old here, you are considered a senior citizen basically. Middle age is around 15. There are virtually no men over 30 in the area. Most have died from AIDS. Right now the United Nations has estimated that the nation of Swaziland will be extinct by 2050 because of AIDS. Some estimates have shows that Swaziland has the highest AIDS crisis in all of Africa, that there are 120,000 orphans here, and about 70% of the nation in poverty. It is a very serious crisis. And it is against this darkness that we are seeking to shine the light of the Kingdom.

At the care points, the majority of the focus is on showing love and care to the orphans of the community. There are normally around 25 orphans for every one adult. We play games with the children, tell them stories about Jesus, and just hold them for a few hours. They are sponsored through Kids Against Hunger so they children are getting a meal a single day with rice and a tiny bit of chicken and vegetables in it. Yet this is not a lot of food.

One of the care points we were at actually did have about 7 teenagers at it. Most of whom were believers, one who was not. Kaleb and I had a chance to play football with them and then share Christ with them. It was awesome to see their hearts and at the same time make a deposit in the one who did not want anything to do with Jesus. After beatboxing some for the teenagers (in Africa..this has been gold for relationship building), they asked us to sing for them. If any of you have heard me sing, lets just say it was good that I had two good singers with me. After we sang “Mighty to Save” they broke out in one of their songs singing “Africa will be saved when the Holy Spirit comes!” and they were amazing singers. We had a chance to pray with them for the nation and for God to save it. It was a powerful moment.

After our morning time with the care points, we do home visits. A new friend of mine Ceboseso is now going to go to heaven because he responded to awakening of the Holy Spirit when we had the opportunity to share Christ with him. It was so cool!!!!

Another part of our ministry has been partnering with the G42 church in their outreach soccer league. The church has an amazing guys soccer team as a way to reach out into the lost community here. They are not quite as good as the team I played against when I was in Brazil. But needless to say, we are getting schooled once more. But the guys have some amazing hearts and it has been cool to share Christ with them.

There is a huge cloud of darkness surrounding the nation of Swaziland. Please be praying that the Holy Spirit would empower us shine a bright light here that would overcome the darkness of the area we are in. Please pray that a generation with a heart for the Kingdom would be birthed here and that this generation would carry the Gospel all over this land that this nation may be saved not only spiritually but physically.