Friday, May 09, 2008
It’s been several days now since the team left and for some reason I had the misconception that things would slow down here a bit once they were gone. Not really the case. I do miss them a lot, especially in the evenings, but there’s more than enough going on around here to keep one’s mind occupied, or spinning I should say. Monday, after seeing the guys off at the airport, I was invited to Kevin and Helen’s for dinner. I hadn’t really had much of a chance to get to know Helen yet, as she had taken the children to the shore for a few days while they were on holiday from school. Fried chicken, sweet potatoes, broccoli and fresh fruit….could someone please let my mother know I’m eating very well? Anyway, I felt quite comfortable with them as we shared details and stories about our families and our lives on opposite sides of the world.
Tuesday was very busy. Kevin has been spending time with me every day discussing ways I might best use my gifts to assist the ministry here and helping me to prioritize my tasks. There are four main things I am focusing on here at this point. My primary role is to be the key point of communication with CLC; keeping the church informed of everything that is going on here related to our teams and our project, and brainstorming ideas to streamline the processes. Secondly, I am collecting and recording all expenses related to the travel teams as well as the construction project. Thirdly, I am working directly with Kevin to develop a comprehensive marketing piece that will include a bit of history on Teen Challenge Swaziland, detailed stories of the children that have been brought into the homes here and also descriptions and costs for a wide variety of projects which can be sponsored by churches like our own. I have spent several days now just studying detailed materials Kevin has provided to me about the various ministries here and reading dozens and dozens of newspaper clippings about the horror that these people are faced with daily. I would have to say that when I try to think about the adversity and challenges that we as Christians are faced with in the US verses what they are up against here, it couldn’t be more different. In the US some of our biggest battles seem to be with materialism, greed and pride; we live in a physical world where our possessions can own us and our careers can take priority over our families and even our relationship with God. Here, however, the battle is completely in the spiritual realm. The witchcraft and ancestral worship are such an everyday part of this culture, and combined with the overwhelming death due to HIV/Aids and the abuse, addition and abandonment of the children, it is amazing to me how these people can keep going from one day to the next. It’s so obvious why God has brought our church here to help. There is so much we can do and every little thing we do really matters so much. I asked Emma one night, “How can you stay here month-after-month and year-after-year and not let it get the best of you?” She basically explained that she just has to focus on helping one child at a time. If she starts thinking about the whole picture, she absolutely can’t function. I somehow understand that already.
Emma and I left the office a little early on Tuesday, as we had to rush home and move all of our things up to another house to make room for another team that will be arriving on Saturday. It didn’t take too long to get moved, and we’ve settled in quite well already. The nights are starting to get colder, but I am still doing okay in my sleeping bag. We have a bathtub at our new place and plenty of hot water for right now, so we like that. The cost of electricity here is going up 200% next week, so we will have to drastically limit the use of the hot water heater (I think they call it a geezer). It was about 40 degrees F this morning, but the days have been sunny, so it’s still hitting about 70 in the afternoons.
I was invited to a cell group at the farm on Tuesday and another one in town on Wed night. Pastor Kevin has been preaching the last couple of weeks on submission to authority, so at the cell groups we have been watching a great DVD series by John Bevere where he teaches about the authority figures in our lives and how and why we must be submissive, even when they are wrong. It’s really a great series and I have had the opportunity to hear some really great testimonies from the group.
Its now Friday afternoon and I’m sitting here in the sun behind the house trying to catch up a bit on my journaling. A tiny little boy named Piwa and and another little boy, not sure of his name….(these Swazi names are really tough), have hunted me down so my time is up. It’s really difficult to tell how old any of these kids are because many of them are so physically underdeveloped at birth due to illness. Many of them literally appear to be half their age. One of the guys on the first team, I think it was Joe Pamer, was teaching them how to whistle by putting a blade of grass between his thumbs. (you know, like we all did when we were kids). Now every time the little ones see me outside, they come over and want me to show them how again….. so I need to go and shut down my laptop for a while and find the perfect blade of grass……
Hello everyone... After 4 days in Africa, its good to be sending you an email. There is so much that I want to share, but only have a minute because there are 6 other guys waiting to use the computer. 
