Love One Another

We received a message this morning from Kylee, updating us on the work of the team and sharing some of what they have been experiencing:

Hello! The last few days has been very eventful.

Let's see Saturday the team and I went to Makaya, a game reserve, and we saw the beautiful animals God has created. We were able to see elephants, giraffes, rhinoceroses, and zebras up close. We even had an elephant's trunk touching the front of our vehicle. It was amazing to see the beauty and wonder of what God has made.

On Sunday we went to both church services (at Potter's Wheel and Hawane CLC). At the end of the Hawane CLC service the whole congregation walked down the road to the new site that the CLC teams have been building. The church structure is there and the brick walls just need to be put up. The pastor's home is very close to being finished as it is getting the final coats of colored paint. The orphan home that team 3 has been diligently working on is very close to being finished as well. The rooms are in place, the tile is there, and the walls are being painted. Exciting stuff! The widow and her children who will be living in this home on the Hawane CLC property have just recently come to stay at Hawane Farm until they are able to move in. It should not be too much longer. It was a great site to see the whole Hawane CLC congregation walk down to the new site and pray with Pastor Kevin to dedicate the new church to the Lord.

Sunday after the service we went to have lunch and visit with Pastor Stan Drew and his wife, Sue. It was wonderful! They are also from the States and with the Assemblies of God. Afterwards the team went out to fit in some shopping. There were some interesting shops and the Lord lead me to pray with one of the ladies working at a shop. She explained that her husband left her 12 years ago to go work in South Africa and she has been alone with her children ever since. She shared she was a Christian and asked if I would like to share a Scripture with her. She handed me a copy of her New Testament and I read 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 to her to encourage her that all that we see in this world is temporary. Eternity is what matters in life. May we all have an eternal perspective each day in the midst of whatever circumstance we find ourselves.

For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.


Yesterday evening we were able to visit the Mbabane hospital and it was a moving experience for each of us. We went to the childrens' ward and loved on the kids and their families and prayed for them. There is such need there. I found myself in a room with children in cribs who had been abandoned and left in horrible places. They are now in the hospital and this does not give them any opportunity to play or receive much affection. It is heartbreaking and I believe the very heart of God can be found by loving on these kids. May God's love shine through each and every aspect of the body of Christ here in Swaziland.

On the way back from the hospital some of the men from the team saw a fire about to overtake a house alongside the road. We stopped and God used the team to put out the fire and protect this widow's house. She shared she has a lot of trouble walking and has no children. She was very concerned about what she was going to do. I believe God prompted the men to help this woman as they did not even know the whole situation. God is amazing….

While this team, as well as our previous construction teams, has been sent to Swaziland to build structures, their most important work has been to be the hands and feet of Christ to the people of Swaziland and to share God's love through word and action. Visiting homesteads, worshipping with local citizens, working along side community residents, spending time with children in the hospital, stopping on the ride home to put out a fire - these are acts that manifest our love for God and His love for His people. Praise God that these men have had the chance to do more than just build a house!

I John 4:7-11

My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.

My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!