Seeds for Swaziland Team Begins the Journey Home

Extended stay traveler Micah Hill and the four members of the Seeds 4 Swaziland team have begin their journey back to Dayton. They have been gone for 2 full weeks now and their families and friends are looking forward to having them home once again!

The final act of service of this team was to go to Lavumisa yesterday and do some work at the new Lavumisa Church site. As of today, all four walls of the church are up to within a couple feet of the roof line. Work has now begun on the building of the home for Pastor Sabelo.



These men have had a very busy couple of weeks. They provided a men's discipleship retreat for close to 50 men from the Hawane region. They planted 10 vegetable gardens at local homesteads, they partipated in a medical clinic with The Luke Commission and they assisted with construction at Lavumisa. We are grateful for their service and ask God's blessing on them.

We look forward to having them safely home 24 hours from now.

Medical Team and Seeds for Swaziland Team Join Forces

Our medical team participated in it's first Luke Commission bush clinic on Monday and they were joined by members of the Seeds for Swaziland Team. Everyone had to get up very early on Monday morning so that they could drive to the upper north-east corner of Swaziland. The clinic was being held east of the city of Mhlume, near the boarder with Mozambique. (see map below)



On the drive from Manzini to the clinic site, the team saw gazelles and giraffe. As they pulled into their destination they were greeted with cheers and waves from more than 250 people who were waiting to be treated. In addition to providing medical care and distributing glasses and wheelchairs, the team also had the opportunity to pass out gift boxes to all the children. The boxes were part of the Operation Christmas Child program sponsored by Samaritan's purse (http://www.samaritanspurse.org/). As people waited to be seen in the clinic, they were able to view "The Passion of the Christ". Team member set up a viewing tent and were on hand to answer questions and pray with people.

Many lives were impacted through that clinic. How humbling it is to be the hands and feet of Jesus; addressing the spiritual and physicial needs of our brothers and sisters in Swaziland. Please continue to pray for the medical team as they will most likely be conducting clinics again today and on Friday of this week.

Safe Arrival

We received word this morning that our medical team arrived safely and on time in Swaziland. After a good nights rest in Johannesburg, the team took the 1 hour flight to Manzini, where they were met by members of the Luke Commission. They will spend today resting, fellowshipping with the local TLC team members and learning about how the bush clinics will run. We are grateful for the traveling mercies.

Welcome Home Chris

Yesterday morning - August 12, 2010- Chris Kavcsak returned from a 4-week stint in Africa. The first two weeks of his trip were spent at Hawane CLC where he helped tutor kids and worked on a construction project (the 3rd children's home?). He then traveled to the country of Namibia where he joined a group from Miami University to study the conservation of large cats. He camped at Etosha National Park and a Cheetah Conservation reserve. What a combination of activities. We trust that he had an awesome time and look forward to hearing about his adventures. He promised there are stories to share. Thank you God for watching over Chris while he was away and for allowing him to touch lives in Your name!

Sowing Seeds

In Matthew 13:1-9, Jesus tells the parable of the Sower and the seeds. Our Seeds for Swaziland (S4S) Team has been busy sewing seeds (real and spritual) this week. In fact on Wednesday, they planted 10.... that's right 10...... vegetable gardens. But wait, there is more! The tiller they were using broke, and so many of the plots had to be prepared by hand! Luckily, our guys have been joined by young men from the Swaziland Teen Challenge Life Skills School. This has been an immense help in getting the gardens planted. But more importantly, it has provided opportunities for our men to pour into the lives of the TCMI guys and model a servant's heart for them. These are the types of seeds that ultimately produce the greatest fruit. We ask for God's blessings on all the workers.

In addition to planting the gardens, our S4S teeam is leading a men's discipleship retreat. Last weekend there were 45 men who attended the first day of the retreat and 30 men (8 of them new) who attended on Sunday afternoon. The retreat will conclude this weekend. It is our hope that those who came last weekend will be able to return and that they will bring other men with them. What a blessing CLC Hawane has been to the community it serves. Lives are being changed. Praise God!

Medical Team Partners with The Luke Commission

On Thursday, August 12, a 7-member team from CLC departed Dayton, headed for Swaziland. The team will be working with The Luke Commission (www.lukecommission.org) as they conduct mobile medical clinics through out the bush of Swaziland. During their trip they will have the opportunity to provide free medical care, free medications, free HIV testing and counseling, free vision care, free eyeglasses, free wheelchairs/carts and free Bibles to people in remote villages in all parts of the country.

This mission team is unique in that all the members have participated in previous mission work.

Jodi is an RN who has done medical missions in Mozambique and Honduras.
Phyllis is an RN who traveled to Swaziland last year to work with TLC.
Clark is a dentist who has done mission work in Guyana, Zambia, Guatamala and South Africa.
Erica, is married to Clark and has served in Zambia, Guatemala, South Africa and most recently in El Salvador this June with the CLC Sr. High Mission team.
Andrew is an EMT. He was a part of the soccer camp team that went to Hawane in January of this year.
Sarah is returning to Swaziland for her second "tour of duty" with the Luke Commission, after traveling with our medical team in 2009.
Megan graduated this summer from Wright State University with a degree in Nursing. She successfully passed her RN licensing exam a couple weeks before leaving. Megan has served in misions in several parts of Central/South America.

At the writing of this post, the team is still enroute to Johannesburg, South Africa. They have been on the plane since about 7:30 last evening and should land about about 11:30 am (5:30 pm Johannesburg/Swaziland time). They will spend the night in Johannesburg on Friday night and will depart for Swaziland on Saturday morning. They should touch down about 11:00 am Swazi time.

We ask that you keep this team of people in your prayers in the coming days. Medical missions can be overwhelming as you see patients that present with extreme medical conditions. Further more, several hundred people will show up for a clinic, and the team is committed to staying until every one is seen. This makes for very long days. Yet, despite the challenges, God uses these situations to share His love for people and there is nothing more fulfilling then knowing you are being the hands and feet of Jesus.

Seeds for Swaziland Team Puts Down Roots

Danny Cain, Gary Miller, Kevin Rutledge and Kaleb Rutledge arrived in Swaziland this morning after leaving Dayton on Wednesday afternoon. They were greated at Hawane, by Pastor Augustine and his wife Elizabeth, as well as by Micah Hill, a CLC attender who is currently completing and extended stay assignment.

This team will spend the next 11 days at Hawane CLC. Monday through Friday of next week the team will plant gardens in neighboring homesteads. Saturday and Sunday of this weekend and next weekend, they will conduct a Men's Discipleship retreat at Hawane CLC, where more than 125 men have already registered for the event! On Monday, August 16th, they will travel to Lavumisa CLC where they hope to offer a 1/2 day workshop of what it means to be a man of God.

Please keep these men in your prayers as they set out to not only plant physical seeds that should yield produce to nurture physicial bodies, but more importantly, spiritual seeds that could lead to salvations and cultivation of the fruits of the spirit. May God bless their efforts.

We hope to have a few updates during this trip, so be sure to check back.