Malaysia was I Squad's introduction to Asia, and what an
introduction it was. Everything about it
was amazing, especially the FOOD!!! After being in Africa for three months and surviving on rice and beans,
Malaysian cuisine was a welcome change.
Right before going to Malaysia, we had a debrief in South
Africa, where we underwent yet more team changes. This time we started from scratch, and we
worked as a squad to make completely new teams. My team ended up being Kelly R., Trish, Hannah, Amanda, Scott, William
and myself. We called ourselves The
Mighty Ducks, fulfilling Kel's lifelong dream to be on a team called The Mighty Ducks.
While in Malaysia, The Mighty Ducks got to experience many
different ministry opportunities. We
worked with an amazing organization and had an amazing contact. Him and his wife's dedication to what they do
and obvious love for God and doing His work was inspiring. He spent the first week introducing us to
Malaysian culture and getting us acquainted with Kuala Lumpur, the capital city
of Malaysia. We got to live with two
sisters and their families, and we grew to love them all very much. They treated us very well, and they were
willing to do anything to help us out, especially if it meant feeding us.
Week two was my favourite. For this week, we moved in with a group of college students that our
contact and his wife disciple. We spent
our days prayer walking and visiting the college campus to connect with
different students. We spent time with our
students, talking, praying, and having fun. Each member of our team grew to love these students a great deal, and it
was very hard saying goodbye at week's end.
The jungle was our next stop. We moved into a house that the organization
has in a jungle community, and we ran children's programs and sent out a
medical team, going to a different village every day. This was a challenging ministry. The odds were not in our favour. In our base village, there are 25
families. Out of those families, 5 know
the Lord. The government bribes people
to convert to Muslimism by giving them nicer homes and brand new cars, and unfortunately,
a lot of people fall for these bribes. The government is planning on spending billions of dollars to send out
200 Muslim missionaries to sweep the jungle communities. With these odds, our job seemed hopeless. But one thing I was reminded of is that we
serve a big God. He is bigger than
anything in this world, and He has ultimate control. God can work on hearts and speak to people,
and He is the One who truly saves, not me or you or anyone else. And we did get to see God work in amazing
ways during this week with connections we made and people we met.
Week four The Mighty Ducks moved into an apartment owned by
some missionaries who work with the same organization we were working with. The place was fully furnished, including our
very own washing machine! It's safe to
say that at least three loads of laundry were done every day that we were
there. Our ministry that week was going
into a Muslim village and prayer walking. We met a few different families and built relationships with them. We poured prayers into that place, and even
though we didn't see any walls falling or masses coming to know the Lord, we can
trust that God heard our prayers, and our faith allowed Him to do something in
the Spiritual that is way bigger than any of us can even imagine.
Malaysia was a growing month for me. I was challenged in my faith, and I learned
that I can never settle for a mediocre Christian life. Opportunities are all around me every day,
and I need to be proactive in taking advantage of those opportunities and doing
something about them. I am not called to
live a boring Christian life, where I never take any risks or step out of my
comfort zone. I am called to live a life
of faith in a God who is always, always there, who will never leave me or forsake
me.
Our last ministry stop in Africa was Beira, Mozambique. The whole squad, minus Cori, Tiffany and
William, who stayed behind in Malawi because Cori and Tiffany came down with
Malaria the day before we were to leave Malawi, went to Beira to spend our last
two weeks with a woman by the name of Mama Rita, an incredible woman with an
incredible story.
After Malawi, I was tired. I felt physically, spiritually and emotionally drained. I felt like I had nothing more to give, and I
did not want to go back to Mozambique. This
being said, I was sad that we only had a couple weeks left in Africa. I LOVE Africa. My heart was breaking at the thought of
leaving, and I decided that I would enjoy the people and culture while I still
could.
When we got to Mama Rita's, our squad quickly found out that
it was going to be a challenging couple weeks. The living conditions were definitely rougher than anywhere else we had
been. Mama Rita's house is quite small,
with three small bedrooms, a common area and a small kitchen, yet Mama Rita's extremely
large family all live in the house. When
we came, the family moved outside, and we somehow squeezed 19 people inside. The heat made it hard to sleep at night, and
even if there weren't bugs actually biting you, you could still hear a constant
hum in your ears from the zillions that lived with us. If the heat and bugs didn't bother you, the
rats would. Rats could be seen and heard
running through the rafters and all over our stuff. Some people were even lucky enough to have
our house mates run over them during the night. And if that wasn't enough, the guys creeping around at night trying to
kill the rats were just as nerve wracking.
Despite the "roughness" of the situation, I was determined
to love it and enjoy what time I had left in "real" Africa before heading to
South Africa for debrief. However, two
days after arriving, I started feeling sick. I had no energy, no appetite, a very high fever, and I spent most of my
time sleeping. After two days of this and
no change, it was decided that I would go see a doctor.
I went to a private clinic in the city where it was confirmed
that I had Malaria. I was immediately checked
in and put on an I.V. That is where I stayed
for the next five days. Two of my squad
mates, Hannah and Scottie, stayed with me the entire time. I'm not sure how they spent their days
because I was asleep AT LEAST 22 hours out of every 24. I would wake up to go to the bathroom and
throw up, then go right back to sleep. I
got a lot of visitors, whether it was to see me or to enjoy the air conditioning,
I'm not sure. I would do my very best to
stay awake while my visitors were there, even though I couldn't hear anything
that was going on. The medication I was
on made it feel like I had cotton stuffed in my ears. People would talk to me, and I would just
stare at them.
After leaving the hospital, I went to stay in an inexpensive
hotel, where I was for the rest of our time in Mozambique. Honestly, this was a little frustrating for
me. I really wanted to be with the
people back at Mama Rita's, but instead I was stuck in a boring hotel room with
two other people and a squeaky air conditioner that scared Kimi. I did not understand why God had allowed this
to happen. I wanted to be with the
people, but instead I was isolated. My
squad was amazing, and they came around me and loved me and took care of me,
yet I still felt very alone and cut off from God during this time. I couldn't help but wonder where He was in
the whole situation.
After getting to South Africa for squad debrief, my
questions were answered. I got all kinds
of e-mails from family and friends back home telling me how everyone was
praying for me, and about amazing things that were happening within my church
family. It left me speechless. I could not believe that so many people
actually cared that much and were praying for me. I saw very clearly how those prayers had
lifted me up. My Malaria could have been so much worse than it was. I could have gotten a lot sicker, possibly even died. But God was with me the whole time (still is), and had carried me through it all.
I'm sure that people outside of The World Race never
consider this, but a significant amount of our time is spent travelling,
whether it be on a plane, train, bus, taxi, coombie, bike or flat bed truck. Whether it is from country to country, or
within a country, strange things always seem to happen. My wonderful squad mate, Kelly Rampmeyer, was
kind enough to put a travel log together documenting our trip from Malawi back
to Mozambique. I encourage you to check
it out and see just what actually happens on a typical World Race travel day!
Malawi was our third stop in Africa. In true World Race fashion, we travelled to
the Mozambique/Malawi border from Vilanculos, Mozambique, in the back of a flat
bed truck. Talk about a good time! It was a very long, uncomfortable, bumpy, 35
or so hours, but we got to see Santa Clause, put Scottie in a box, and make a friend!
Once in Malawi, our squad partnered with an organization called
Harvester's International Ministries, an organization focused on evangelizing
and church-planting throughout Malawi and surrounding countries. The squad was split up into three groups to
go to the different regions of Malawi. My team went to the Northern region, and our main contact was a man
named Pastor Anthony. Within the
Northern region, we travelled around to three different villages to work with
three different pastors, doing basically the same thing in each village.
In two of the three villages, we were able to attend a
Sunday service. In each of the services,
we were in charge of teaching Sunday school to the adults and children, as well
as preaching the Sunday morning message. One or two days were devoted to going out in surrounding communities and
evangelizing or sharing encouragement with the people of that community. We would have a new believer's service the
following morning, and a pastor's teaching time in the afternoon.
Initially, I was terrified to go out and evangelize to people. More accurately, I was terrified every time
we went out to evangelize, but God worked in amazing ways during these
times. He definitely spoke through all
of us to the people we were sharing with. He gave us different words for all the
different people. On our first day of
evangelizing, Hannah and I went out together. At every house, we would both share with the people there. Every time we spoke, the words we had went
hand in hand. During these times,
different members of our team were able to share with people who had never
heard the name of Jesus before! What an
amazing experience! It was crazy to "introduce"
people to Jesus.
At one point or another, every single team member had to
either preach or teach on a Sunday morning. Some members of my team love doing it, and did it willingly. For me, it is very hard to do, and my turn
came the very last day we were doing ministry. I was scared to death, but God gave me the words and the confidence I
needed, even after almost losing my sarong in front of the whole church.
The biggest thing I learned while in Malawi was how
important prayer is. Prayer was a huge
focus for team S'more while we were in Malawi. I believe we saw our prayers at work. It is really hard to go out and evangelize to people and then leave, not
knowing who is going to continue discipling them after we leave. In a way it felt silly to go out and share
Jesus with people, then leave them to fend for themselves. But we covered all the areas we were in with
prayer, and I believe that those prayers started a supernatural work that
cannot be stopped. We stepped out in faith
and believed, and when we did that, it gave God room to move. We can trust that even though we are gone,
God is always with those people, and he will speak to them and bring people to
teach them.
As one last side note, Malawi is where we spent
Christmas. It was definitely a Christmas
that I will never forget. It was very
simple and quiet. No bright lights,
Christmas trees, or snow. No electricity
or running water for that matter. The
village we were in had a Christmas service in the morning, but besides that
nothing special was done to celebrate Christmas. It was just another day in Africa. For me, the best part of Christmas was being
able to give our translator money so that he could go home and see his wife and
young daughter. Our team could not bear
the thought of him being so close to home, yet not being able to be with his
family on Christmas.
Another thing that really hit home for me was something I
saw while there. The pastor we were with
over Christmas had a plastic container in his house that he would serve us food
in everyday. On top of the container was
an Operation Christmas Child tag. I got
to see first-hand how far the boxes we pack at Christmas go. Being there for Christmas this year and
seeing how Christmas is celebrated, I know that that was most likely one of the
only gifts the pastor's children had ever received. Wow.
Overall, I would say our time in Malawi was challenging, and
it forced us to step out of our comfort zones and walk in faith more than once. But it was an amazing month, and we got to
see amazing things happen. It was also a
time when our team got to know each other better, and really support and
encourage one another. It brought us
closer together, and it definitely brought us closer to God.
A few months ago I wrote a blog on how some of us girls helped deliver a baby in the back of a van. Luckily, we had the presence of mind to document the event, and here is a chance for all of you to share in the excitement of that day!
My team mate Hannah and I put a video together on where we were staying in Vilanculos, Mozambique, so that we could give the whole world a glimpse into our lives on The World Race. Enjoy!
I know it's been awhile since I last posted a blog. My apologies, but the internet isn't really
reliable (or even existent for that matter) everywhere in Africa. I will do my best to catch you up on the last
three and a half months.
After our last debrief in South Africa, we headed to Vilanculos,
Mozambique, where we spent the rest of November and the first part of
December. We lived and worked with a
missionary couple originally from South Africa named Jaco and Maria Rudolph,
and their two children, Maggie and Rudo.
While in Mozambique, we had many different ministry
opportunities. We were able to go on
home visits, go prayer walking, work with the church Jaco pastor's, show The
Passion of the Christ movie on several different occasions, go to an orphanage, and go to the
prison and the hospital to do ministry there. The hospital and prison ministry are the ones that stuck out to me the
most.
Twice a week we were able to go to the local hospital for an
hour at a time, going around to the different patients to visit and pray with
them. This hospital was not like any
hospital I had ever been to before. Most
of the patients were in Unicef tents, and supplies and care were limited. The first day I went to the hospital, me and
a few other people stumbled across a man and his wife as we were leaving. The man had suffered severe burns when his
shirt caught fire from an oil lamp. His
entire back had been burned, both his arms, and his right ear. There were bandages on his arms, but his
entire back was exposed, so his wife had covered it with a light shawl to keep
the bugs off. It looked horrible and
extremely painful. I felt very drawn to
this man. Our group took a few minutes
to pray for him and offer what encouragement we could with our limited
communication skills. I started to cry
as we walked away because the situation seemed so horrible, and I felt
hopeless.
The next time I was able to go to the hospital was about a
week and a half later. While there, I
got to see the same man. It was
incredible! His burns had healed
noticeably, and his skin was growing back very nicely, despite the nasty burns
he had gotten. God had definitely
touched him and was healing him, despite my feelings of hopelessness and doubt
after our first visit.
I also had quite an experience at the prison. I was able to visit there on two different
occasions, and God taught me a lot through those visits. The first day people from our group went, I
did not go, but I heard that all the people in the prison who listened to the
Gospel message our group shared gave their lives to the Lord. The next time we were able to visit, I went,
and I sat staring at 60 some in-mates while a couple of my team mates shared
with them. It was another situation
where I felt hopeless. I just didn't see
any future for any of the men or two women who were there. I didn't see any joy in them, but I did
notice that they really held onto the words that were being spoken.
The next time I went, I arrived with the same feelings, but
I left feeling completely different. We
started our time by singing some songs with the same men and two women. It was amazing to see the smiles and joy on
their faces. As we were singing, I felt
like God gave me something he wanted me to share with them. Being the chicken that I am, I did not want
to. Hannah had had a vision the last
time she was there that she wanted to share, so after the singing, she shared
her vision. After that it was open for
someone else to share. I looked around,
hoping someone else would volunteer, and Warren did, making me feel very
relieved. As I sat there listening to
Warren speak, I still felt like I was supposed to share. I battled with myself the whole time Warren
was talking, going back and forth over whether I had to share or not. As I listened to Warren, he said similar
things to what I felt I was supposed to share. I reasoned that because Warren was saying those things, I didn't have
to. But the feeling that I needed to
speak would not go away.
All of a sudden a very clear thought came to me. God had given me something He wanted me to
share, and by choosing not to, I was being disobedient. I had a choice to make. I could either step out and be obedient to
God and trust that he would give me the courage and words I needed to share
with a bunch of people that I will never see again, or I could choose to keep
my mouth shut and sit there in disobedience. This was a humbling revelation. I thought of all the times I had done just that. I said, "Okay God, if you want me to share,
then make it happen. Give me the time I
need." Warren did end up finishing with
a few minutes to spare. Our translator
was going to sing another song, but I told one of my team mates that I felt I
was supposed to say something. She immediately
announced that I had something to share.
I got up and started talking, and I know that God spoke
through me because I really had no idea what I was saying. It was really amazing. In all likelihood, I will never be back in
that place or see any of those people again, and that was my one chance to
share with those men and women words that God wanted them to hear. I chose to walk in obedience and share those
words, and it didn't do any damage to me, but it did give those men and women
hope.
I realized that God prompts us to do things every day. There are opportunities all around us to step
out in faith and bless people. We can choose
to listen to God and walk in it, or we can choose to ignore God's prompting and
disobey.
My favourite part of Swaziland was the people that we got to
build relationships with during our time there. Pastor Gift was a HUGE blessing to all of us. He taught us so much by the example he gives
in the way he lives. Three different translators
worked with us every day, and we got to know them and love them. But I would have to say that the people who
captured my heart the most were the children, six in particular. I would like to take this opportunity to
introduce you to them.
Abigail is 15-years-old. She was raped, is now pregnant, and her baby is due to be born in a
couple weeks. I got a few opportunities
to talk to her, and one of the questions I asked is what her dreams are. One of her dreams is to go to school to
become a social worker. Another of her dreams
is to get married and have a family, but she thinks that because she's not a
virgin anymore, no man will ever want to marry her. Abigail is beautiful. She is loving and kind, talented, and very
patient. She was a huge source of encouragement
to me. During one of our Friday
afternoon girl's meetings, a few of us girls shared about how much God loves us,
and that he has a purpose and a plan for everyone. We spoke life over the girls and prayed for
them each individually. Abigail told us
that she is afraid to give birth, and she asked that we would pray for that,
which we were more than happy to do. We
also prayed that she would find her purpose, and that she would not give up on
the dreams God has given her.
Clive is a 14-year-old runaway. He was living with an aunt and uncle, but he
wanted to be close to the G42 center, so he ran back. He doesn't really have a place to stay. He and his sister were left a tiny, one-room
cement house when their parents died, but he is not welcome there. Clive's sister is a prostitute and has a
different man over every night, which means that Clive gets kicked out. Clive is incredibly sweet. He has an amazing smile, and he squeals when
he gets excited. He loves to sing, and he
is always up for a hug. Clive even took
the time to teach me how to properly hand wash my clothes.
Sabelo is an 11-year-old sweetheart. He is responsible and trustworthy, and he
always helps to keep the other boys in line. He longs to be loved by people. He goes to school, and he can speak fairly good English. Sabelo would always help me out with
translating when I needed him to. He is
a very smart kid, and he has so much potential.
Manza, Cebusiso and Musa are three brothers. Manza is 11 and the oldest, though Cebusiso
is the biggest. Manza is a little
charmer. He has the most entertaining
mannerisms and expressions, and he always makes me laugh. He is a good boy who loves to cause trouble. He is very caring, and he is always willing
to share what little he has. Manza is really
good at listening (usually), and he is a very good older brother, always
looking out for his younger brothers.
Cebusiso is just Cebusiso. He is 9-years-old, and you can't help but love the kid. He is definitely the most sensitive of the
brothers and takes things the hardest. He is also very entertaining. It is
really funny to watch his reactions to things when he experiences something for
the first time or when something surprises him. I let him listen to my I-pod one day, and it fascinated him, especially
when it was Michael Jackson who was singing.
5-year-old Musa is so cute that it hurts. He loves to sit with you and be loved,
especially at the end of a long day. He
also loves to be tickled, even though he says he's not actually ticklish. I would always tell him I loved him, and he
would just look at me and say, "Yes," in that way that only Musa could. I will never forget the first day I saw
Musa. He was wearing an open jacket with
no t-shirt underneath, and he had on his rock star shades. It was definitely love at first sight.
All six of these children are orphans, all because their
parents died from AIDS. Our group would
make supper for them every night, and then someone would walk them back to the
one-room house they all sleep in because they were too scared to walk alone. Every night before walking back from their house,
we got to pray with them and receive multiple good night hugs and kisses. This was one of my favourite parts of every
day.
On our last night in Swaziland, our World Race group took
them out to a restaurant. It was one of
the highlights of Swaziland to be able to watch them experience eating at a
restaurant for what was most likely their first time ever. They had a wonderful time, and they were
fascinated with everything. There was a
water wall, and they were all on their hands and knees looking up to see where
the water was coming from. When they got
their food, they were very proper and used good manners. They used every piece of the seven pieces of
cutlery they were given, and they even cut up their French fries and ate them
with a fork.
God gave me a lot of love for these children. I loved to sit and spend time with them,
communicating the best I could despite the language barrier. Leaving them was one of the hardest things I
have ever had to do. It does not seem
fair to me. They are so precious and
lovable, and I don't get how God could leave them without parents to love them
and take care of them. Part of why it
was so hard for me to leave is because I don't know what is going to happen to
them. I don't know who will step in and
take our place watching out for them. I wrestled
with this for a few days, and then one day I stumbled upon Isaiah 17.10 which
says:
"You have forgotten
God your Saviour; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress."
Something about this verse resonated within me. I sat thinking about it for a long time, and
I realized that I was forgetting God. I
was forgetting how big and how great He is. I was forgetting how incredibly much He loves
those kids. He loves them a lot more than
I ever will, and He desires great things for each and every one of them. They are His
children. Our team loved them and poured
into them, we prayed over them and for them, and now God will take what we gave
and use it.
It was just another day in Swaziland. A bunch of us girls were sitting around,
doing a whole lot of nothing, when Pastor Gift drove up with a couple of our
boys. They casually walked in and extended
an invitation to us girls to accompany Pastor Gift to take a lady in labour to
the hospital, which was an hour away. At
first nothing happened. We all kind of
looked at them, not sure if we understood correctly. Then everyone started moving at once, and six
of us ended up going: Kelly R., Kimi, Hannah, Cori, Tiffany and me.
We all hopped in White Chocolate (Pastor Gift's van), and
were off to pick up the star of our show. On the way, Pastor Gift gave us a little background information on the
situation. The lady we were picking up
is around 25 years old. She is a
prostitute, and she does not know who the father of her child is. We also found out that this was her fifth
child, and all the others had been given up for adoption. She is HIV positive. Her mother used to live the same kind of
lifestyle, but then she came to know the Lord and is very judgemental of her
daughter, who took the same path as her.
Let me set up the scene for you. Not one of us had any idea of what we were
doing, obviously. After Pastor Gift
debriefed us on the situation, we did the one thing we do know how to do; we
started praying. We prayed for the
mother, for the baby, and for safety and protection.
When we got to the house, a blanket was laid down in the
back seat and our "patient," who was in A LOT of pain, got in the van. We all turned professional and started
drawing knowledge from every movie or T.V. show we have ever seen where there
has been a similar situation. We asked
the lady her name (which I forget, or really never knew. I am really bad at pronouncing Saswati names)
and a few general questions to get to know her a little, then introduced ourselves. There was a pink rag tied around her stomach,
and we asked her cousin, who also came with us, what it was for. She didn't know, so we assume it was to try
and keep the baby in. With that over, we
tried to decide what to do.
A contraction hit, so we all started breathing with
her. Kimi was kind enough to start
singing "We Will Rock You" as we all were breathing. A couple of us gave her our hands to squeeze,
and Tiff started singing. That lucky
woman. Not many ladies get to experience
the joy of labour in the back seat of a van with six complete strangers who
have no idea what they're doing hovering over her, laughing and joking and
giggling and saying over and over again what a crazy situation this is.
We continued on, waiting for the contractions to come so we
could "help" her through them. During
the second one, we decided that it would be a good idea to time how far apart
they were. We soon realized that there
was less than two minutes between the contractions. Not good. The poor woman was in A LOT of pain. Kimi was sitting at her feet, and we asked if she could see
anything. Kimi said not really, there
was just a lot of fluid. We worked
through a couple more contractions, and then the mother said that she wanted to
push. We did not want her to push. About half an hour after we started driving,
a massive contraction hit. Kimi said
that there was still nothing down there, and she didn't look dilated. I watched as the mother's stomach moved in a
crazy way and tightened up, and then she started to push. Her cousin basically jumped on top of her and
started pushing on her stomach. We all
started yelling "push!" because we didn't know what else to do, and a little
baby girl came into the world! Right
there in the back seat of White Chocolate, with all of us watching. Wow. Talk about a miracle!
Everyone started talking at once and exclaiming over the baby
as the poor mother and cousin worked to deliver the afterbirth. Tiff was also recruited to push on the mother's
stomach to try and get it out. Pastor
Gift, who had been yelling instructions to us while driving, ordered us to
close all the windows and keep the baby warm. We literally had nothing to wrap the baby in, so Hannah kindly took off
the t-shirt she had thrown on over her tank top before leaving and gave it to
the baby to be wrapped in.
Us girls were all still excited and talking when Pastor Gift
pulled over the side of the road, saying that we had a flat tire. He pulled out the spare and went to work
changing the tire, only to discover that the spare tire was flatter than the
first one. During this process, we asked
the mother what she was going to name her baby. She said that she didn't know, and she told us that we could name her
baby for her. The word that had been
rolling around in my head since we left the house was "Hope." We all agreed that it was the perfect name
for this new little life.
Pastor Gift tried flagging down someone to help us with the
tire, but no one would stop. We could
actually see the hospital from where we were on the road, so he decided to drive
there on his rim. We pulled right up to
the maternity unit door of the hospital and then sat waiting for someone to
come help us. We sat there for quite
awhile before a nurse finally came out. The first thing she did was chastise us for only having a t-shirt to
wrap the baby in. Sorry lady. We weren't actually expecting that the baby
would be born on the way to the hospital. Then the nurse cut the umbilical cord, pulled out the rest of the
afterbirth, and took the baby inside, leaving us to help the poor mother in.
What will happen to baby Hope? I don't really know. Pastor Gift had a potential family set up to
adopt her, but it wasn't official. He said
that if Hope stays with her mother, she won't make it. Her mother literally has nothing and cannot
afford to keep her baby. Pastor Gift
told us about a center the baby could go to until a family is found to adopt
her. The situation seems pretty grim,
but I honestly felt none of that. I
believe that there is hope for our little Hope, and that the situation will
work out. We prayed life and freedom
over that baby, and we believe that she will bring Hope to Swaziland. It was so easy for me to see how incredibly
much God loves that baby, and I know without a doubt that God is going to take
care of her.
I just spent the most incredible two weeks of my life in
Swaziland.I absolutely loved it!The people are so amazing and loving.I didn't even mind the bucket baths, the cold
water, hand washing my laundry, and when our electricity was out for almost two
days because of a massive storm that blew through.
Swaziland is a country crying out for help.More than 50% of the people are infected with
HIV or AIDS, and it is believed that by the year 2050, without some kind of
miracle, Swaziland will cease to exist.One day at the grocery store, I read a poster that said, "There are two
kinds of people in Swaziland: those who are infected with AIDS and those who
are affected by AIDS."This is very
evident by the alarming number of orphans in Swaziland.
During our time in Swaziland, my team, along with Team
Bamboo, worked with a ministry called G42.Our contact's name was Pastor Gift, and he truly is a gift to the people
of Swaziland.We were all constantly
amazed at how much Pastor Gift does.He
was always on the move, helping people, taking things to people, or taking someone
(or more accurately a lot of someone's) somewhere.
Looking at the situation in Swaziland from a worldly point
of view, a lot of people would give up because of the obvious hopelessness of
it all, but Pastor Gift believes with all his heart in the power of prayer and that
God is bigger than anything else. He
believes that God can bring change to his country and transform the lives of
his people.He loves having teams come
in and believes in what we pour into his ministry.He gets excited by how the network of people
who know about his ministry is constantly growing, and how the number of people
praying for Swaziland will grow with it.Now most people in Pastor Gift's position would go crazy, and honestly,
I don't understand how he hasn't already gone crazy.He shared a little bit about how he keeps his
sanity.Pastor Gift gets up at 4:00
every morning and spends an hour praying.He does not take offence or let bitterness build up inside him.He is quick to forgive and forget.He makes himself available to anyone who needs
his help.He looks at every situation as
an opportunity to help and pour into people's lives, not as a burden.Fridays he gets away from it all and takes
some time to rest.
One of our ministries while in Swaziland was working with
children at various care points in the area.Care points are points set up in the area where children can go to get
food and help with education.Every day
Go-Go's ( grandmothers, or sometimes younger women who care) prepare lunch for
the children in the surrounding area.Many of these children are orphans, and for many it is the only meal
they get in the day.We went out in teams
to visit the various care points every morning and spend time loving the
precious children that were there.We
would tell them Bible stories, sing, do different crafts, play games and give
hugs.
Some afternoons we would do home visits with people dying
from AIDS.I was really nervous about doing
this.It was so hard to know what to do
or say, or how to really help these people and bring them hope.But God always came through.He spoke through us and used us in these
people's lives.We would visit with them
through a translator.We would sing for
them and share stories from the Bible.The last visit we did in particular, I could see a total change in the
man we were visiting with and his Go-Go, who takes care of him, when we left.
The girls had the opportunity to be a part of the women's
ministry.On Tuesday afternoons we would
meet with the older women.It was a time
of talking and sharing and praying together.And they would sing, which was always my favourite part of the
afternoon.On Friday afternoons we would
meet with the teenage girls and young women.This was a time of us sharing with them about purity, and purpose for
their lives.
The boys had the chance to be a part of Pastor Gift's soccer
ministry.Pastor Gift coaches a soccer
team of guys aged 17 to 25.The love he
has for his players is obvious, and he invests a lot into their lives.Our guys would practice with them three days
a week, and the warm ups they had to endure did not look fun.Us girls would sit and watch and thank God
that we were girls.Our guys had the opportunity
to build relationships with the players, talk to them, and lead by example.
Swaziland is the sixth country we have visited, and it was
the hardest one for me to leave by far.God
captured my heart for the people of Swaziland.I have never felt such a strong sense of love for any group of people
before.My heart feels a little bit
broken, and I don't think that I can fix it.I believe that God gave me this love for Swaziland, and I hope and pray
and trust that He will bring me back one day.
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
