Week 31 In A Few Pictures

Tearing up the floor at the Anchor Center;
Phiwa hanging out after preschool;
unloading 800 blocks for the building at the Anchor Center;
the sticker on my window for my 5 hour bus ride.

Giraffes on the way;
Nombali & Thandi enjoying Thanksgiving;
Phindile & I eating our Thanksgiving meal;
Pamela & I at our second Thanksgiving in Swaziland.

Decorating for the party at Ngunya;
Pamela & I at the Ngunya Christmas party;
kids reviewing the Christmas story at Ngunya;
Mxolisi & I meeting with a 17 year old mom of 4 month old twins

The world race team that successfully dug the footing;
green maize coming up in the Anchor Center garden;
hauling water & firewood to a carepoint for a Christmas party;
Sufiso with his mask & drum at Joyela.

Kids listening attentively to the Christmas story;
Mbutfu Christmas party;
a rainbow reminding me of God's promises.

  

Week 30 In A Few Pictures

Capturing the story of a grandmother who struggles to cares for her grandson after his parents died & she has no income;
the 3 year old boy that we have been praying for to be able to walk came walking up the trail to the carepoint on his own!;
the meat being butchered for our carepoint Christmas parties;
a 1 year old helper for washing laundry.

The hot part of the week - while we were outside working;
the world race team (and Nombali & Mxolisi) as we hiked the mountain;
community members planting in the Anchor Center garden;
the cross that we put on the mountain for the kids to see as they walk to school each day.

Handing out gifts at the Mabantaneni 1 Christmas party;
preparing rice for 150 people over the fire;
kids arriving at Esikhaleni 5 hours before the party;
the amazing gogos that cook at the Anchor center.

Saulina & I having our daily hug;
Mxolisi narrating the Christmas story for the kids;
Okuhle taking it all in at the party;
Nokwanda showing off her Christmas present.

The Christmas party in the new building at Esikhaleni;
dishing food for the kids at Esikhaleni;
my view from where I stood (for the second week in a row) at church because there weren't enough chairs;
the hut where a woman with severe TB sleeps...with several other family members because their roof blew off another house.

Catching Up - Mbutfu Time Lapse

  

We broke ground in May for one of our carepoints that has been around the longest.  With the community working hard & two of our teams helping alongside of them, we were able to get the carepoint finished in a few months & the gogos have been cooking there since October 1st.  The kids love this building & the classroom has been used for various community meetings as well as for the kids.  

Before & After Mbutfu

Watch Where You Walk

As I got up early yesterday to hike, I thought it was going to be like any other hot, Swazi morning for a hike.  But the Lord had something more in store for me.  As we started hiking up the trail with the group, I decided to bring up the rear so that I could make sure that no one was left behind at any point (yep, the old youth pastor in me).  What I didn't realize is that the guy carrying the cross we would plant on the mountain was walking directly in front of me.  I like to talk while I hike, but realized early on in the hike that I couldn't walk too close to him as we were talking.  This guy is already a big guy - over 6 feet tall & walking on an overgrown trail - but even he didn't realize how much more difficult it was going to be carrying the cross.  It wasn't that the cross was heavy, but it was cumbersome.  After the cross knocked leaves off of the first few branches he walked by so that they fell on my head, I lengthened the distance between us.  And more than concentrating on where to take my next step, I began to look up more frequently to watch for branches that would get caught on the cross & then catapult back to hit me (very important with all of the thorn trees)! I kept thinking about Jesus calling us to take up our cross, but never realized how much there is to learn about living among others who are taking up their cross as well until I literally had to follow someone who was taking up a cross & walking.

 "Then Jesus told his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.' " 

~Matthew 16:24

It's hard enough to take up my own cross & follow Jesus, but I've been reminded lately that walking alongside others as they take up their cross is messy & difficult too.  I've been walking with a couple of friends for a while through the consequences of their choices they made before following Christ.  Praying for God to give me the wisdom to speak into their lives as they seek to walk obediently as new creations, while still bearing the scars of their old lives.  Praying for others to give me grace because I know that I am being judged by walking alongside these with visible consequences of their sin.  Keeping my distance at times to watch out for the messiness that comes with learning to walk while carrying your cross.  And realizing that they may unintentionally hurt me as they learn to walk with a cross & things snap back at me without them even knowing.  
Life is messy.  Following God is messy.  Living in community with other Christians is messy.  But God gives us new mercies each morning to walk in Him & take up our own cross...and to walk humbly before others, encouraging them as they continue to take up their own cross & walk obediently every day with that for God's glory.

So Much To Say...So Little Time

The list on my phone of things to blog about keeps growing, while the number of blogs I actually write doesn't change.  I thought that life & ministry in Nsoko would slow down in September after the busy season of teams was past, but that's not the case.  I feel like now that teams are coming less frequently, ministry with & among & to the Swazis has really begun.  Balancing the administration work of the ministry, as well as the relationships in this area is very time consuming!  There are always more people I want to visit, more prayers to pray, more kids to hold, more carepoints to visit & more things to learn.  I could spend a lifetime at each of our ten carepoints & the communities surrounding them.  But each day I am taking things one step at a time, trying to keep up on processing all that is going on in my heart through each day, and occasionally making a note of what God is calling me to share with a broader audience through this blog. 

I have great intentions of blogging to catch up, but just in case I don't - here are the things that are on my heart to share.  And if I do end up blogging about them all....consider this a preview!

~ My one job no matter where I am is to abide in Christ & love people - I strive to do this here in Swaziland just as I tried to do it in Colorado.  The environment may look different, but the goal is the same.

~ How do we describe & explain God's extravagant, abundant, unending love in a culture so steeped in poverty & scarcity with that as the perspective that shapes their worldview?

~ Bittersweet juxtaposition - the flowers on the thorn trees, the flowers on the cactus...all around me are pictures of the harsh reality of total depravity, yet also the beauty of the redemption & restoration process that began at the cross & will be fulfilled someday when Christ comes back.

~ Gancane, gancane (bit by bit, small small)...there's a children's song that says "Inch by inch & row by row, we're gonna make this garden grow.  All we need is a rake & hoe."  As we tediously work to begin the garden at the Anchor Center for people from homesteads to have a place to grow vegetables, I am reminded daily of the spiritual parallels - and overwhelmed by how much work it takes to keep the weeds down!  

~How do incarnational ministry & development mix?  We read "don't do for them what they can do themselves" but when comes the time to live incarnationally & join them in the work?  How do we balance this?

 

~ In a culture where many people are illiterate and many people are super-spiritual, what does it look like to love the Bible & think theologically?

~ Swazi's national deficit:  The reality of fatherless nation...

~ What song is in your heart?  As Swazis are always dancing & singing, it makes me wonder what song would be bursting out of my mouth & heart each day?

Week 29 In Two Pictures

A couple of the young girls walking with me as I left from a home visit;
my encouragement from my Dove chocolate wrapper - and a good reminder;
the candles that lasted me through the week - with no electricity from Monday to Friday.

The inside of the completed Esikhaleni community building/church;
Bongani standing proudly in front of the community building/church that just needs a little more paint to be completed;
my Bible & journal that I have spent a lot of time with this week as I wrestled through some stuff & spent a lot of time waiting this week;
the powdered creamer I got in a package from back home this week that made my day.

The Third Rail

As the superstorm Sandy hit the US a couple of weeks ago, I noticed a topic of conversation that I hadn't ever seen before.  As the floodwaters took over New York City, there was a lot of talk about the damage they would do to the subway system as the salt in the water would ruin the electrical system.  Many of the articles talked about the potential damage to the "third rail" that carries the power for the trains.  I had never really thought about how trains get power, but this idea of a third rail intrigued me.  As I looked up more information, I realized that the third rail systems are used all over, and placed alongside the tracks to carry the power to keep the trains moving.  While they go unnoticed most of the time, they are vital to the actual work of the train.  When they stop working, the trains stop working & it comes to a halt.

And it hit me that I have a third rail as well, and that is what has kept me going as I serve & live here in Swaziland.  As I have entered this season of life & ministry, I knew that it was going to be an uphill battle the whole way as I began life in another country, in a difficult ministry setting, with many things going against me.  And so I intentionally sought to raise my prayer support from what it was before.  Ever since seminary, I have noticed how much stronger satan attacks as we step out in faith and ministry, and so I have tried to be intentional about having people pray for me as I serve in the front lines of ministry.  And thankfully I learned early on that the wise ask for prayer, not the foolish.  

I have a broad base of church & family support that pray for me frequently, but I am eternally grateful for the 12 good friends that accepted the call to intentionally & specifically pray for me throughout one day each week.   While I serve & live in this foreign culture, seeking to walk intimately with God as He leads me through life & ministry, I walk confidently knowing that I have these friends who are lifting me up in prayer throughout the week - as they go through their everyday lives as:

~ missionaries

~ wives

~ counselors

~ mothers

~ secretaries

~ sisters

~ teachers

~ daughters

~ friends

As they lift me up in prayer throughout their week, I honestly feel like Moses as he is described in the battle between Joshua & Amalek.

"But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side.  So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun."

(Exodus 17:12)

I know that there are more people praying for me than I could even imagine and I trust the Lord to burden your hearts with specific ways to pray for life & ministry & people here in Nsoko.  But I am thankful for this "third rail" of people in my life that are continually bringing me before the Lord & praying on my behalf.

Week 28 In A Few Pictures

Celimpilo sharing his headphones;
the Nsoko ministry team;
heading to a child-led homestead to visit on the top of a hill;
crossing the river before the truck to see how deep it is.

 

Checking out the size of a plot in the Anchor Center garden;
Garden policies in Siswati;
Painting has begun on the Esikhaleni church;
the hut where we went to join a family mourning the loss of a young father from a sudden death.

Saulina and the warthog on the Timbali retreat;
the women watching the crocodile in the water;
the view from the road across the dam;
Nelly with the statue that she named Ntombi (little girl)