Purity, Knowing You Were Bought At a Price

This past Thursday evening was an experience I will not soon forget.
The cell group for the teenage girls at Hawane is held at my place as I have been leading the girls through Scriptures about who we are in Christ. This week we had the privilege of having a Teen Challenge team of women from the UK share about purity and we heard some of their personal testimonies of how sex outside of God's will negatively affects lives. Genuinely sharing from their hearts, the team created an open atmosphere for the precious girls at Hawane to ask questions and share their struggles in this area. Each girl submitted a question anonymously and then each of us helped to answer their questions, pointing to God's Word as the Truth. As sexual abuse seems to be prevalent here, the people of Swaziland are in need of God's healing and restoration. He alone is the Healer of broken hearts (Isaiah 61:1).

God's love for every person on the face of the earth is so deep and indescribable- despite what you have done and no matter what may have been done to you. That means He loves you. God Himself is Love and He is holy. Our sins, things we do against God's Word, separate us from Him. Yet He longs to have a relationship with you and the depth of His love is seen on the cross where Jesus, God's one and only Son, died as He took the sins of every person upon Himself. He who was perfect received the consequences of our wrongdoings in order for us to come into a real relationship with God. The Creator of the universe and the Former of your heart invites you to accept what Jesus has done, inviting Him into your life. "That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). So, not only did Jesus die for our sins but He rose from the dead in order that we might have eternal life. This great news should transform our lives! We cannot be the same or live in the same way. All Christians have been bought at a price and we are called to honor God with our bodies which are temples of the Holy Spirit because we know He lives inside of us (1 Cor.6:19-20). It is a challenging truth to hear that we are accountable for before God. Let us choose Him who loves us unconditionally. "And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again" (2 Cor. 5:15).

Please pray for God to continue the work He has begun in each of the girls' lives here at Hawane. May He raise them up to be godly women who live out purity, respect themselves, and who rely on God for everything.

-- A Posting by Kylee

Life for Kylee in Swaziland

Time is flying by so quickly here in Swaziland! Each day is different and contains its own unique blessings from God. This morning I was asked by the nurse on Hawane to pick up a man in the community who is very sick with AIDS and TB and take him to the hospital. She said if he does not get treatment he would very well die before the week is over. Praise God that he should be able to receive treatment now and he has shared that he wants to read the Word of God. I wanted to post some pictures of different things going on here:

Friday night youth group praise and worship in our living room. We were singing and dancing about the freedom we have in Christ.




Quality time with the family we have in the body of Christ at Hawane Farm. This is one of the house mothers and some of her children.



Holding a precious 3 month old who was seen at the community clinic held weekly on Thursdays



Playing with kids out in the community with the guy who teaches about HIV/AIDS during the clinic held weekly on Thursdays



Visiting my special friend at the hospital in Manzini



Please continue to pray for me and the people of Swaziland. May God be glorified through our work here.

Thanks so much,

Kylee

God's Priorities

Another post from Kylee


I recently realized that my priorities, my goals, and even my standards for myself may not be God's. Here, there are many things to do and I have been praying for God to give me clear guidance in order that I may do each thing He has called me to do. I found myself thinking "I needed a schedule, an 8am-5pm work load of specific tasks that I could immerse myself in daily". The thing is, God does not create "to-do lists" for us to complete each day. He does not necessarily value our completion of the goals we set for each day or week or month or year. Only those actions that honor Him, the ones that prioritize what He speaks of in His Word are in accordance for His will for each of us. He says:



"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… and love your neighbor as yourself'" (Matthew 22:37.38)



"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." >(James 1:27)



"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." (Philippians 2:3-4)



" 'For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'" >(Matthew 25:35-36)



"'Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.'"

(Luke 14:27)



"'Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'"( Matthew 28:18-20)



God prioritizes love, service, and sacrifice. He commands that we serve Him by serving others and by sharing the good news of Christ in order to make disciples of all nations. God's Word tells of His desire for us to care for orphans and widows.



Lord, You are Ruler of the universe and Ruler of my heart. Change my priorities, my goals, and my ambitions to Yours and help me to rejoice in the righteousness of Christ that has been given to me through Christ's death of the cross for my sins. I am completely forgiven and I am fully pleasing to You Lord. It is all about You. Guide me and direct me through Your Spirit to live out Your Words in the Bible. May my life- the way I spend my time, my energy, and my resources- honor and glorify You My King. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Kylee

God is in control

Here's a recent posting from Kylee

Today, accompanied by two student nurses and Hawane's nurse, I went back to visit the children's ward in the Mbabane Hospital. Just being able to love on the children there is indescribable. We were able to pray with many people, pass out balloons, pencils, crayons, coloring paper, play with bubbles, and just spend time with kids.

My heart had been captured by a certain little boy who I last saw during the 3rd team's trip to the hospital. After visiting all of the rooms I could not find him. So, with sadness in my heart, I praised God and thought he may just be somewhere better now. Then, I found him in a small room at the end of the hallway! Big, beautiful brown eyes and chubby cheeks looked up at me from his crib in a room with kids who have various disabilities. His name is Jabulu and he is thought to be 18 months old. "He was dumped as a baby in a pit latrine" I was told by one of the nurses. Praise God for the opportunity to love on him, tell him God loves him, hold him, and play with him. He is so precious and I found myself thinking of what a great God we have as our Heavenly Father. His promises are true and He will never leave us or forsake us. Even though it was difficult to leave little Jabulu, I know God is always with him and He has a plan for his life.



Be encouraged that our God is El Elyon, God Most High, the sovereign Ruler of the universe. He is in full control of all things and nothing can happen without His permission. When we do not understand why certain events happen, we can trust in the name of the Lord. His love for us is perfect and His plan will come to pass."The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The righteous run into it and is safe." (Proverbs 18:10)



Kylee

Photos of the Church at Hawane Christian Life Community Center

These photos depict the progress that has occurred in the building of the church at Hawane Christian Life Community Center. The first construction team initiated the buidling project during their trip in April. They faced several challenges with the quality of the steel, but they persevered in the face of adversity! After Team 1 returned home, work continued on the site using local labor.

As you can see, the church frame has now been erected, the floor has been poured and the roof has been put on. The church was dedicated on September 14th, while our third construction team was in Swaziland.

You will notice that the church is still missing an important component! The church structure needs walls and the leadership has decided that the congregation should participate in funding this and working to put up the walls. Pastor Kevin and Pastor Augustin believe this will help instill in the congregation a sense of ownership and pride in their church. Until the walls are up the plan is to hang roll-up canvases so that services can start to be held there.

Please continue to hold up this church building project in your prayers. God is doing amazing things.

Let Us Look to God

Here is a new posting from Kylee

Where do you receive your sense of self-worth? Is your self-worth, your value, built on your ability to please others or on the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ? So often we can find ourselves looking for our significance in our accomplishments, relationships, or our work instead of in God alone. Looking into the Bible we find so much about who we are according to God and we can begin to truly see ourselves as God sees us. As believers in Christ we read that we are God's children (1 John 3:1), Christ's friend (John 15:14-15), part of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27), chosen by God (Eph.1:4), forgiven and justified by God (Rom. 5:1), and totally accepted by God (Rom. 15:7) just to name a few. How great is God's love for us that He loved us while we were still sinners! He created us in His image and His love for us is indisputable. Our value, our true identity, is found in Him. No relationship or occupation or hobby or amount of wealth or type of achievement or ministry involvement can satisfy us or determine our real self-worth. It is Christ alone.

This past Wednesday evening I started to lead the house mothers in their cell group at Hawane through an excellent Christian book called The Search For Significance by Robert McGee. I'm so excited about what God is going to teach us during the next several weeks as we look into God's Word to study His answers- justification, reconciliation, propitiation, and regeneration- to the false beliefs we often hold about ourselves. Some lies from the enemy we believe are:

- I must meet certain standards in order to feel good about myself.
- I must be approved (accepted) by certain others to feel good about myself.
- Those who fail are unworthy of love and deserve to be punished.
- I am what I am. I cannot change. I am hopeless.

May we all saturate ourselves with God's truth so we might accept and live according to who we truly are in Him. Then we can serve Him with confidence and lead others in living the abundant life Christ came to give us (John 10:10).

The mothers and aunts here pour themselves out to love the children in their homes. I am learning much about a real life of faith and sacrifice by interacting with them. A couple weeks ago, Pastor Kevin directed them to submit suggestions of topics for me to teach them about as he wanted us to implement a training session on Monday mornings after the staff's regular meeting. Although many different ideas came forth from the group, the #1 desired topic to learn about was spiritual growth. I just smiled as I realized the most important thing to them is growing in the Lord.

May we allow their desire to be a challenge to us and may we lay aside whatever needs to be in order to first seek to know God so we can grow in Him. " 'You are my witnesses,' declares the LORD, 'and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.'" (Isa. 43:10).