Make A Joyful Noise To The Lord, All The Earth

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.(Psalm 100:1) The flowers of the field cry to be heard, the trees of the forest are singing, and all of creation with one voice, will join in the chorus of this world.”

I remember the first time I walked into a church service overseas. I had no idea what people were saying or singing, but as soon as they sang, tears welled up in my eyes. The passion in their voices reminded me that God has created EVERYTHING and EVERYONE to worship Him, and that one day all will uninhibitedly worship Him.
This morning, as I sit here with my coffee, I am once again overwhelmed by the voices of the school kids down the road singing in their morning assembly. It's not even 8am, but I am challenged as to how God is calling me to make a joyful noise to Him today, especially as I listen further to the ways that this part of the earth is making a joyful noise to the Lord, this is what I hear:
~chickens, donkeys, turkeys, birds making their noises
~cows & donkeys walking down the dirt road
~the school bell ringing at weird intervals
~preschoolers playing and saying good morning
~people walking and running through the gravel outside of my door
~a kid who found a whistle out on the playground
~wheelbarrows being pushed across the gravel to the spigot to fill up containers with water
~trucks full of sugar cane turning on the road
~tractors going up & down the dirt road
~the door & gate squeaking in the wind
~people talking on homesteads quite a ways away
~workers loading things onto trailers across the road
~laughter of kids playing outside
~preschoolers singing "Jesus Loves The Little Children" at the preschool

“Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.”
(Psalm 100:3-4, 102:18)

As You Are Going

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
~Matthew 28:19-20

There have been many commentaries that spend a lot of time talking about the form of the verb “to go” in the Great Commission, focusing on the “go” or translating it “as you are going” but God has impressed it on my heart in a new way these last few weeks as I have been in Swaziland. In this new ministry context, I have had to be creative about discipleship and conversations with people as I am going.
In the US, our discipleship is centered around food...think about it - you meet at a coffee shop for Bible study, you have people over for prayer & dessert, you invite people over for dinner to invest in their lives. But how do you do discipleship in a culture where many of the people only eat one meal a day? And where people don't have money for those types of things, let alone transportation or even coffee shops?!
I have had to get creative about the ways I am pouring into people, being intentional about who I invite with me as I run an errand, being intentional about what we talk about while carrying out mundane tasks. And God is stretching me to grow in this way.
Last week, a few of my most significant spiritual conversations with people were while waiting at the hospital, while driving 30 minutes to a care point, while ringing out laundry, while waiting for glass to be cut at the hardware store, while shopping for groceries.
Who are you taking time to pour in to as you are going?

A Day In The Life

It’s been amazing to me how quickly I readjusted to life here in Swaziland. At times, it seemed like the transition from the US to Africa was easier than the transition from urban to rural! I wish I could upload pictures to walk you through the day, but words will have to do.
Usually a few minutes before my alarm goes off, I wake up to the sound of roosters and donkeys outside. I get up & get dressed, and head outside to open the gate and then burn the trash out back before the preschoolers start arriving. School aged kids in uniforms are walking to school, tractors & buses are passing by, and uniformed preschoolers start coming onto the center’s property....and it’s now about 6:45. There are some mornings where there isn’t water so I have to go over and flip the switch on the pump to fill the storage tank. I sit & drink coffee & have my quiet time with the door open while the preschoolers walk by, waving and saying hello.
About 9:15 all of the ministry partners arrive & we have our prayer & meeting time to talk about what ministry looks like for that day. It would be great to plan ahead, but nearly impossible because of all of the things going on! Mornings are usually spent at a care point or two, where they cook & feed many children, teach a preschool lesson, and a Bible lesson. We come back to the center for lunch, followed by afternoon work on projects, doing kids club, or doing home visits. Throughout the day, it’s not unusual to chase goats away from the garden & donkeys off the property (and sometimes chickens out of the team house). After school, many people come to the center - to play soccer, volleyball, or to hang out. A couple of the girls have come over to hang out and start teaching me some Siswati (which is entertaining for all of us!) Usually a couple of the high school students (ranging in age up into their mid 20’s) come by to get help with their school work, stretching my memory and my math skills to remember back to what I learned in 8th grade. As it gets dark, we herd the donkeys out one last time (or else they will be the alarm clock again in the morning), lock the gate & shut the windows before the bugs start coming in toward the lights.

Born: Alive Male

That’s what the papers said when she & her baby were being discharged from the hospital on Thursday. Most important thing first - alive, and secondary to that, "it's a boy!" It struck me as odd at first, but with all of the poverty issues in rural Swaziland, I don’t even want to imagine how many babies are stillborn. I continued to read through the paperwork as the hospital administrator calculated the costs for this new mom, who had spent one night in the hospital. I was wondering if they would charge more since a white person was there to pick her up, and I was thinking about friends of mine who have recently had babies in the US and how many thousands of dollars that had cost. I knew that it probably wasn’t going to cost over 100 Rand (about 13 US Dollars), but was completely shocked when the administrator told me it would be 30 Rand (just over 4 US Dollars). Granted, she did have to pay the admittance fee the day before (about $2) and we were stopping by the pharmacy next to get a few types of pills for her to take (about $.50 worth)...which still only brings us up to a total of about $6.50 for this woman to deliver her baby in a hospital and stay the night! We got all of the pills, picked up her bag, and found she and her brand new baby boy (wrapped in the towel/diaper & blanket she brought with her from home). As she got in the back seat of my car, holding her newborn baby, I buckled my seatbelt (which seemed wrong if a newborn wasn’t going to be in a car seat!), and reflected back on how I had gotten to be in this situation.
On Tuesday morning, a couple of ministry partners & I were going up to the carepoint to give the teacher her lessons for the week. As we pulled into through the gate, we could see this young pregnant woman laying on her side in the shade. She was laying on a woven grass mat in the dirt, up against the corrugated tin sided cooking shelter. She looked uncomfortable, obviously towards the end of her pregnancy. As we asked questions, we found out that she is 26 years old and this would be her fourth child. Leaving the carepoint later that morning, we wished her well during these last weeks of pregnancy.
The next morning, we got word that she had gone into labor during the night & wanted to go to the hospital to deliver. As we went to pick her up, I followed a rough dirt road until it wasn’t really a road anymore, but just well-worn foot paths. I turned into the gate of her property, and saw in front of me a humble (to say the least) homestead. Her house was made of mud and sticks and about 10 feet by 10 feet, and not quite tall enough for me to stand up straight in. On the left side of it, was an outdoor cooking structure. We drove up closer to her house, and there were about 4 or 5 women around, some sitting, some working. As they were getting her up off the bed, we asked if she had money for the hospital, and the neighbor lady replied that she had enough to take care of it. This 26 year old woman had lost both of her parents, and the baby’s father wasn’t taking care of her, but her neighbor was.
We pulled away from her homestead, trying to go slowly enough that the bumpy dirt road wouldn’t bother her, but her moaning continued. I decided that I could multitask & started timing her contractions (based on her moans) while driving down the dirt road. From what I could tell, they were about 3 minutes apart, which led me to start thinking of how we could deliver a baby on the side of the road using only what I had in the car!
Thankfully, we made it to the paved road and then were able to drive to the hospital about 45 minutes from her homestead. We got her into the matenity (yep, that’s how they spell it) ward, and her son was born less than 45 minutes later!
They admitted her for the night, so first thing the next morning, we went back to pick her up & take her home. She had named her son Lindane, which means “taken care of”. Thankfully that’s how he entered this world - taken care of by his mother, who was taken care of by her neighbor. And God willing, that’s how he will continue to live and grow in a nation which seems to have been abandoned, he will be a reminder that God has and will bring people alongside of he & his mom to take care of him.

Day 1

It’s taken me a few days to get over jet-lag & to get used to being back in Africa, but the first day made me jump right into the deep end instead of wading in over a few days! Here’s just an abbreviated time line:

2:30am - wake up from jet lag & have a great early prayer time
4:30am - get up
6:30am - leave Johannesburg
8:30am - stop for breakfast at a wild west/Indian themed restaurant in a gas station with rhinos out back
11:34am - see billboard that advertises fencing that is made by 97% Swazi men
11:45am - get a little too close to a bus as we head into Manzini
11:46am - realize the driver in the other bus was coming close to try to warn us of the protests downtown (it’s bad, it’s bad, it’s bad)
11:47am - hold on as our large van & FULL trailer make a u-turn on a 4 lane highway over a raised median
11:55am - praise God for the bus driver who warned us about the protests as we see another bus with its windshield smashed in
12:20pm - stop at an Italian restaurant for lunch & to find out what’s going on
1:45pm - run into a guy from California who tries to sell us the fencing that’s made by 97% Swazis - I guess he’s the other 3%?
2:15pm - go around town & enter on the back roads to avoid downtown
2:45pm - drop of team of no-longer strangers that I traveled with from Atlanta
3:15pm - go with Elliott to drop off the van & pick up the car I will be driving (and say a prayer that I remember how to drive in Swaziland...& find myself quoting Home Alone “This is it, don’t get scared now!”)
3:30pm - take car downtown (it was safe for those who aren’t in vans) to get fixed tire back on & put spare in trunk
3:45pm - watch several grown Swazi men stand in a pick up truck to see the protests going on over a wall in the next block
4:10pm - Elliott says “you’re in Africa now, you must check the car often” and shows me the quirks of the car I will be driving
4:34pm - fill car with petrol & drive the back way out of town & down to Nsoko (dodging people, cows, goats & sugar cane trucks along the way)
5:19pm - saw hand pedaled tricycle on side of the road
5:45pm - drove through police checkpoint, thankful that I didn’t have to stop
6:02pm - arrive at the team house to meet the 6 strangers I will be living with for the next week
6:45pm - joined them to eat breakfast for dinner
7:45pm - went to room to journal & read before bed
8:05pm - new roommate comes to talk
8:30pm - back to journaling
9:15pm - fall asleep convincing myself that I really am in Africa & everything did just happen in less than 24 hours

Same Planet, Different World

Before I left, my 4 year old nephew & I were talking about the long plane ride I would take & how far away I would be. At one point, he asked me if I was going to fly close by the moon on my way to Africa. While it seems like an absurd question, it really isn’t that far off....for as different as some things about the cultures are, we might as well be on different planets! As I was flying over the Atlantic ocean, I was praying for the Swazi people & thinking about several who I want to spend time with while I’m here. I was imagining them walking to get water, standing over a fire cooking, sleeping on the mats on the floors of their houses....and at the same time I overheard two flight attendants telling each other the football scores that they had just gotten text messages about. I can’t even comprehend the technology that makes airplanes fly, let alone what all is involved behind international text messaging....and knew I was going to a different world!

Forgotten People

Recently, I was blessed to be able to spend some time in Juarez with some very special kids at an orphanage. These kids, who have been abandoned by their families, are living very tough lives in a city that is known for it's violence and evil. The atrocities that are happening in this town are at times hard to comprehend, and so often when we can't comprehend something, we ignore it. Or we hear the statistics so often that we become too familiar with them and can become numb to them. But as I spent time with these forgotten kids, I was convicted.Convicted because one of the comments I heard from several people in Juarez was that they felt like the church just over the border in the US had become so numb to the deadly statistics that they just forgot about their brothers and sisters who were suffering just miles from where they are living in comfort and safety.
And I am among the guilty! Juarez isn't that far from where I am, yet I haven't even consistently prayed for what is going on there. I confess that I am not prompted to pray enough - even as I read more stories on the killings in Juarez or hear another story on the news.
Not only was I convicted about Juarez, but it also spurred me on to ask what my Juarez is here in Denver. Who are the people who are suffering that I am often overlooking? Who are the people who are suffering that I have become numb to as I hear their stories?
Lord, let me be more like the Samaritan who has compassionate eyes to see those in need, and less like the man who asked "Who is my neighbor?" as he tried to avoid the messiness and danger of getting involved in serving those in need.

Glorifying God in Daily Life

What is life about? Some have answered that "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever"(Westminster Catechism). I can imagine what it is like to enjoy God, but what does it look like to glorify Him? Is it something we can only do in worship on Sunday mornings, or can it happen other times and other places too? What does this look like in between running errands, meeting with people, going to class, cleaning the house, taking care of kids, etc.? The key to glorifying God is to remember that it isn't something we can do on our own, but rather something the Holy Spirit does through us as we are connected to God through Christ. It isn't something else to add to our to do list, but rather a lifestyle that should overflow out of our relationship with the Lord. Kevin DeYoung offers 20 biblical ways that we can glorify God in our everyday life:

1. Give God verbal declarations of praise (Rev. 4:8-9).
2. Live a life of noticeable piety (Matt. 5:16; James 1:27; 1 Peter 2:12)
3. Ask God for things in Jesus' name (John 14:13).
4. Bear fruit and show yourself to be a disciple of Jesus (John 15:8).
5. Declare the truth about Jesus (John 16:14).
6. Love your life less than God (John 21:19; 1 Peter 1:7, 4:16).
7. Worship God as God (Rom. 1:21).
8. Life a life of sexual purity (1 Cor. 6:20).
9. Live a life of generosity (2 Cor. 9:13).
10. Rejoice in God's glory displayed in creation (Psalm 19:1).
11. Do the works of faith (2 Thess. 1:12).
12. Use your gifts in God's strength (1 Peter 4:11).
13. Make sure everyone knows you're not God (Acts 12:23).
14. Live a life of gratitude (Psalm 50:23; 2 Cor. 4:15).
15. In matters of liberty, seek the good of others (1 Cor. 10:31).
16. Extend grace to sinners (2 Cor. 8:19).
17. Be a part of a local church (2 Cor. 8:23; Eph. 3:20-21).
18. Tell God you are wrong and he is right (Josh. 7:19; Jer. 13:16; Rev. 16:9).
19. Obey God (Lev. 10:3; Mal. 2:2).
20. Go from a Christ-despiser to a Christ-worshiper (Gal. 1:24).

What Am I Doing?

I started this blog focused around sharing what God was doing through my trip to Swaziland, and now that I've finally posted so many that I wrote during and about that trip, it's going to be changing a little to various topics. I have found that I really agree with the quote "I write when I learn, I learn when I write" and God is using this blog to continue that pattern. Some days, I continue to ask myself "What am I doing?" and trying to convince myself that it would be ok to quit blogging since I haven't done that much, but I know that God is challenging me through this process & discipline. Writing and journaling helps me to pray through things, process things, gain perspective on things, give things to God, and so much more. So for this next season, these are some of the themes that are on my heart that you can expect me to be writing about:
~ attempting to live life daily surrendered to God...resting in the reality of the Gospel...trying to comprehend that I am more sinful than I can ever fear, but more loved than I can ever imagine. There have been many things/people/quotes that God has used to spur me on in my relationship with Him, and the best thing I can do is to pass those on!
~ wrestling through the call that God has put on my life as a full time missionary - here in Denver and to the ends of the earth. During this season of in betweens where I haven't found the right fit with what God is calling me to do with missions, I know that He has called me to keep serving Him each and every day.
~ reluctantly letting go of our family farm and all of the lovely emotional baggage & crap that comes with sorting through and packing lots of family items. As I have begun to dig through the attic, there have been so many memories coming already, that I hope to write & share some of them here.

I know that through God's sovereignty, He puts specific topics on my heart for me to write about...for His glory, for my joy, and hopefully for your benefit, so know that I am praying for that as I write & share these blogs!

What's In A Name?

One of my favorite things about the Siswati language is the depth of meaning in their words. Each person knows the meaning of their name, and often there are words that are so unique and specific in meaning that they carry a special significance. In church, our pastor used “basatwani”(I have no idea how to spell it, but this is what it sounds like) at the end of almost every sentence...and it is a word specifically for the people of God/family of God. It is more that just saying my brothers and sisters in Christ, but implies a deeper community and a sanctified people, set apart for the Lord. Last year when I was in Swaziland, we met a young woman who was unexpectedly pregnant and gave birth while we were still in the country. As I visited with her when her baby was a couple of weeks old, I asked her what her new daughter’s name meant...and wasn’t surprised when she said “God knew her in the womb”.
It is amazing to me how someone’s name isn’t merely their present identity, but is many times prophetic over their lives...the teacher who works endlessly to cook for the kids, teach the kids, make Timbali purses, as well as care for her own family is named Gcobile...meaning “one who does good works.” So I was excited and convicted as I met my special friend, a little 3 year old boy who my nephew and I will support, write to, and pray for over the next 15 years...and found out his name is Kuhlakani, which means “he prays.”
Praise God that He knows how He will wire us, gift us, burden us, and use us for His glory...and how He can move the hearts of parents to name their children in a way that declares this!

“Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:16

Pictures I Didn't Take...

One of my traditions I have started doing on the plane ride home from anywhere is making a list of "Pictures I Didn't Take" on each trip. Most of the times, these are moments when it would just be impersonal and awkward to pull out a camera to take a picture during these special times; others I simply didn't have my camera with me...but for most of them, a camera wouldn't begin to capture the moment! Here are just a few from this trip:

• getting out of the van our last morning at the care point to have a little boy that I had been building relationship with all week walk over to me to pick him up
• knocking that same little boy over later that same day...I was standing at our van talking to our driver, and didn't realize this little boy had walked around the van to follow me, and was about to grab onto my leg, but I didn't see him and turned to walk away from the van and walked right into him.
  
• seeing the red sun set every afternoon over the hills as we drove on the bumpy, dusty, dirt road back to our hotel
• having random strangers and children wave to us as we drove past
  
• talking to myself, to remind myself I was driving in Africa on the left side of the road, as I drove one of the missionary's car to run an errand
• watching the women of the church give gifts to the pastor & his wife (for pastor appreciation Sunday) and pray for a long time over he & his wife
• seeing elementary aged kids caring for their younger brothers & sisters as if they were their parents
• watching a high school girl's eyes light up over the dress she was given
• having the kids allow us as complete strangers wash their faces and give them new & clean clothes to wear
• watching my teammates gently & tenderly wash children's feet
• hearing about the children laying hands on one of the missionaries to pray for her headache to go away
• talking with a hotel employee as I sat outside drinking coffee & reading my Bible one morning
• going on a home-visit where all of the logs holding up the corners of the house were completely missing the bottom 2 feet of the log, and wondering to myself how the house was staying up
• seeing random flowers & signs of life in fields that looked full of dead grass & weeds
• seeing kids play soccer barefoot, stopping every so often to pull a 2 inch long thorn out of their foot
  

A Hard Walk Down A Dusty Road

I write this hesitantly because one of the things I hate about blogs, blogging, bloggers, etc. is that they/we often put things out there that are not our stories to tell. But I am going to go ahead and post this story of one of our home visits in Swaziland for 3 reasons: 1. It is one example of what I've seen now in so many situations...it could be one of many kids in Swaziland or around the world, there's nothing unique about this story, just that it's fresh on my mind. 2. It is a story that needs to be told to a numb, apathetic, affluent, American Christian - to bring reality to life. 3. It is a story that I (as a numb, apathetic, affluent, American Christian) am apt to forget as I leave this culture where poverty is all around me and I head back to my comfortable life...and I don't want to forget it or be numb!

We walked with the boy for several minutes before he pointed and said his homestead was right there. The road we were on was so dusty, and the air so still, that we would all turn away for several minutes until the dust settled when a truck went by. We walked through the opening in the stick and thornbush fence as several cattle lay near by and chickens ran about. The boy ran and got a grass-woven mat and a chair, and brought them over to spread out under the tree several yards from the house. The homestead consisted of a few buildings - a loose stick hut that served as a kitchen, two concrete buildings (about 8 x 10 feet) that were where the adults slept, and a mud & stick hut with a thatched roof where several children slept. The thatched roof had several places where it had fallen apart, leaving it with several holes that were over 6 inches in diameter.
As we women maneuvered to take our shoes off before stepping on the mat to sit down on the ground, the men sat on the chairs, and the boy ran to the field to get his gogo (grandmother). She quickly and quietly came back, followed closely by a 4 year old girl wearing only a sun bleached piece of fabric wrapped around her like a skirt.
When we shared with the woman and talked, she told about how we could pray for her. She shared her health struggles - mostly common ailments of a hard life of a poverty-stricken, hungry, water deprived person in a third world country - sore feet, legs, headache, backache. She couldn't have been over 60, yet her eyes looked much older because of her experiences, and she was still taking care of so many others!
Before we laid hands on her to pray, she had her grandson fetch a coat so she could cover herself as we prayed. I held her hand - weathered by years of hard work outside & caked with dirt in every possible crack. After we prayed with her, we blessed her with a gift of a bag of food and supplies. She sat quietly as we laid out the corn meal, sardines, soap, candles, sugar, tea, matches, beans, and oil. What would cost about $30, and last us Americans less than a week would last this woman and her entire family from two weeks to a month...and she wiped away tears at this gift from strangers.
As we walked along the road back toward where we had come from, "Siyabonga kakuhlu" was what she repeated - "Thank you so much!" And we told her the same thing we had been teaching the children all day...we love because He first loved us.

Not In Kansas Anymore

I had big plans and ambitions to blog almost every day while we were in Africa...but obviously that didn't happen. It shouldn't have surprised me that we didn't have internet access after the first two days...after all, TIA (This is Africa). So I will spend the next several days catching you up on blogs I would have posted from Swaziland...had I had internet!

Whenever people ask me for a word to describe myself I have a hard time, but one of my teammates used one this past week that I thought fit well...adaptable. God has wired me to be pretty flexible and adapt to various situations, and for that I am thankful. But even so, whenever I enter a different setting, I have to redefine "normal" and remind myself that I'm "not in Kansas anymore!" Here are a few examples of that different kind of normal in Swaziland, things that made me take a second look or think twice...
- everyone calls you "sisi" (sister) even if they haven't ever met you
- when a cell phone rings, it's not surprising to turn and see someone in traditional tribal clothing pull their phone out of a hidden spot and start talking on it
- many people in Swaziland who have facebook on their phones don't have indoor plumbing and may have never used a toilet or shower in their lives
- when you see men walking cows in the road, it's not as unusual as the fact that they are possibly taking them to pay a bride's father her "bola" (dowry - 17 cows for first and last born daughters, 13 cows for the rest)
- in cultures where people drive on the left side of the road, they walk on the left side of the sidewalk, use the left door, walk up the left staircase, etc.
- it's not surprising for women of all ages, and even men, to have hot flashes because it is so hot!
- visitors often walk around a car once before getting in...because they have forgotten which side of the van the door is on
- when ordering water, you have to specify between tap, still bottled, and sparkling bottled...with or without ice
- it's not uncommon for a 2 lane road to often be driven on as if it has 5 lanes
- chips are fries, crisps are chips, and ketchup is tomato sauce
- it's not uncommon to see a huge baboon on the side of the road as you are driving

There are just a few to give you a glimpse into the last two weeks of my life...much more on Swaziland to come over the next several days!

God is Faithful

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."
Lamentations 3:22-23

That verse was fresh on my mind this morning as we were driving to the carepoint, and I prayed for our day. Just a few minutes later as we were driving down a bumpy dirt road - and I was trying not to fall on the person on either side of me, and praying for no flat tires - God illustrated that verse for me in a way that reminded me of His hope and that carried me through the rest of a humbling and hard day...and it will be on my heart and mind as I go to bed in a few minutes.
We were being driven down the dirt road by a friend, who reached over at one point and grabbed Mike's knee, saying "Let me tell you a story about how God is faithful." He proceeded to tell us - in a deep accent - how he and his wife had wanted a baby very badly from early on in their marriage. They prayed for one for a few years, and he said that they felt like Hannah in the Bible...and that they echoed Hannah's promise to the Lord. They told the Lord that when He blessed them with a child, they would offer him up to His service. A few years later they were pregnant, and raised their son to love and fear the Lord, never telling him of the promise they had made over his life.
After he graduated from school, he went on to do business work, planning in the near future to do a year "in Christ's service." All the while, his parents were watching closely, as they knew the plan the Lord had for their son. They watched as that son - and his new wife - served for a year "in Christ's service" that then turned in to two years. This father and son had a conversation soon after that second year where the son told his father that he had found what he was created to do and that he and his wife would be serving the Lord in missions in Swaziland.
This father is now the father of one of the lead missionaries that we are working with this week...in ministries that feed over 3000 children each day all over Swaziland. He and his wife have been faithfully and selflessly serving here in the country for over 4 years, and now this missionaries father comes to celebrate the Lord's faithfulness on the call of his son's life.
Yet as I go to bed tonight, one of the things that stands out to me the most about that story and today is the juxtaposition of God's faithfulness alongside the world's brokenness because of sin. That man who told the story recently lost his wife to an unexpected death, has lived through the apartheid in South Africa, has seen all kinds of poverty and heard all kinds of heartbreaking stories about what is going on in Swaziland...yet the story he told us this morning was about the faithfulness of God.
So as I look back on today with humbling realities, faces, names, and pictures stuck in my mind from the carepoint and a few home visits...I will also always look back on today refreshed by the promise that though the fallen nature of the world can be overwhelming...the Lord's mercies are new every morning....and God is faithful.

We Love Because He First Loved Us

Good morning from Swaziland! After a few busy days, I am finally able to get a spot at the 1 computer for our whole hotel, so there is more to tell you than I could fit in one blog!
Praise God, all of our flights, baggage, and transportation went smoothly - which is huge when you consider we flew for over 8000 miles, checked 28 bags, drove across the country of South Africa, and had 2 border crossings! But the Lord prepared the way for us and we were able to relax and begin to prepare for what is ahead!
It has been so surreal being back here - getting used to Swaziland without 15 girls with me, getting used to staying in a hotel in Swaziland instead of in my sleeping bag in a community center, getting used to only being here for a week, getting used to riding in a bus and not driving, etc. But it feels like I was just here last week, not last year!
Swaziland is a beautiful country, with beautiful people, and I have been blessed to be able to see so many familiar faces already! From being picked up by Marius at the airport to getting to spend time already with Jodi, Kriek, Elliot, Julie, Ellie, the D-team (Discipleship team made up of 8 20something Swazis) and many others, I continue to be humbled by the servant hearts of these people whose ministry touches many Americans and Swazis.
We had our first day at the Bheveni carepoint yesterday, where they feed over 100 children every day. We were able to do 2 sessions of Bible school (one for pre-school & one for school aged). This care point is one that I came to only one day last year...to fit 27 of the kids in our 8 passenger van to take them to a Christmas party! It was one near where my co-leader and I commented to each other "some days your paychecks come in dollars, and some days God pays us in sweet songs from Swazi kids!" The joy on these children's faces is evident always, despite the hard things they are living through! We were able to bless each of the 113 kids yesterday with a whole new outfit. Each of our team members were humbled to be the ones to wash these children's faces, help them out of their old, dirty clothes, and into a new pair of underwear, a new shirt, new skirts, shorts, and dresses. Many of them had been wearing their only clothes that they possess...meaning they wear them 6 days a week all day, so you can imagine the looks on their faces as they were able to show their new clothes to their friends!
Well, since I'm paying for internet by the minute (after being shown to this weird room with a tiny desk by a man who let me in with a key and then handed me the key and told me to lock it from the inside), I am going to head out to get some breakfast and then head to day 2 of ministry! We continue to covet your prayers for our time with the kids - today we are focusing on 1 John 4:19 - look it up and pray it with us and for us this morning! Love you all!

P.S. Maddison, as you read this, tell Sam "Happy Birthday" for me and give him a big hug for me!

Reality Check...A Closer Look at Swaziland Statistics

I recently read that if you are a 15 year old in Swaziland, your chances of living to the age of 32 are 6%! SIX PERCENT!!! Translated...that means your chances of dying before you turn 32 are 94%. You are probably more likely to be struck by lightning or attacked by a hippo than live to be 32 if you live in Swaziland...all because of the AIDS crisis. Of the 900,000 people in the country, the orphan population is closing in on 200,000. And half of all 20 somethings have AIDS already. But the one that hits me hardest is the first statistic....6 %!
To put this into perspective, I have just finished packing 140 bags full of school supplies and vitamins. God has provided enough money, through so many generous people, for our team to also be able to buy each child a pair of shoes for school, have a party with a cooked meal for them while we're there, and give out a ton of clothing...but reality is still there. According to that first statistic, only 8 or 9 of those kids will live to be 32...meaning that 132 of the kids I will meet next week will probably die of AIDS (or some disease like TB resulting from a weakened immune system) before they are my age! God, have mercy!
So what has God called us to do in this seemingly hopeless situation? Without wanting to be too morbid or a Debbie-downer, the thing that I keep coming back to is that we must prepare them for eternity. Yes, we can encourage them in school, help them set goals, encourage them to dream about their future, provide them with food, clothes, and school supplies...but we must balance that with the reality that some experts have said that with the current birth/death rates the way they are, Swaziland won't exist by 2050 because AIDS will have ravaged it beyond repair. And James' words come ringing true to my ears....

"What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes"
(James 4:14).

And for children in Swaziland, this verse describes the frailty of life all around them, that they will be looking at death and eternity all too soon.
So as we go next week...prepared to bless the socks off of the kids and the gogos ("grandmas" that cook, teach, and care for the kids at the carepoints), as well as those we will meet through house visits...in the back of my mind I will be thinking about the best gift that I can give them...the gift of the Gospel that we have been entrusted with. As much as I anticipate seeing their joyful faces when they receive clothes, shoes, and school supplies, the look on their faces when they realize they can have eternal peace and be with the Lord beyond this world is beyond description. To look in the face of a 28 year old woman who has "the peace that passes understanding" as she prepares for her death, to sit with a grieving gogo as she realizes her new responsibility of parenting her orphaned grandchildren...the only thing that can get anyone through those times is trusting in the sovereignty of God and the eternal hope that we have in Christ.
As we go to teach VBS and love on these kids, I hope to be used by God to pour into them, pray for them, teach them, and encourage them as if they were a terminally ill child in the hospital...because they are...statistics have given them only 25 more years to live at most. Yet I go hopeful, because as we trust in what Christ did for us on the cross, we can cling to the promise that

"the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away...for He is making all things new."
(Revelation 21:3-5)

This world is temporary because we were created for another world with unhindered intimacy with the God of the universe...and we can begin to live in that now!