Waheedah Begins Her Extended Stay Assignment

The soccer camp team not only left a part of our hearts in Swaziland, we left a member of our team! As we departed, Waheedah began an 11-week extended stay assignment with CLC Hawane and Teen Challenge. She moved her belongs from the temporary living quarters at Hawane CLC across the street to Hawane Farm. During her time there, Waheedah will:

*Assit Pastor Augustine with outreach visits to the community and food packet
distributions
*Help Pastor Augustine organize his weekly tasks
*Assist in leading the women's Bible Study and teen girls cell groups
*Tutor kids at Hawane Farm
*Assist Nurse Jane with community health clinics
*Other duties as assigned (This is always the biggest responsibility and the
chance for the greatest growth!)

During the camp, Waheedah became friends with Musa and Jared from Potter's Wheel Church. We are grateful they are there to continue to support her and encourage her. She also connected with several of the teen girls from the community. We know she will be a great source of strength and encouragement to them.... not to mention some one to have fun with!

Please keep Waheedah in your prayers as seen begins this spiritual journey, and be sure to check back with the blog for updates from her.

Soccer Camp Reflections

The Soccer Camp team arrived home safely in Dayton on Wednesday morning, January 13th. We were greeted at the airport by family, members of the CLC pastoral staff and friends. It was a blessing to see so many smiling and welcoming faces, especially after a 20.5 hours of airline travel!

Ask anyone who participates in a mission experience and they will most likely tell you that, while it's great to be back with loved ones, it's hard to return home. It's amazing how quickly you can develop relationships with and an affinity for a people you have never known before. Each member of this team knew with certainty that God had called them to serve at this specific time and for this specific purpose. We spent 10 full days living in the center of His will. We were not distracted by cell phones, job demands, family issues, television, the internet or any of the other things that can interfere with our daily interactions with God. As a result, we could be focused on discerning what God wanted us to accomplish on any given day and at any given moment. He used us to share His love, His compassion, His mercy and grace, His joy, His forgiveness, His gift of salvation and His gift of hope. When you have the privilege to be used in this way, it's hard to return home. The fear is that you will somehow loose this connection with God. The realization is that God is always there, ready to interact with us; we are the ones who must become disciplined enough to continually seek Him despite our busy lives.
We covet your prayers that each member of the team would not loose site of this as we adjust to being back at home.

As we reflect back on our soccer camp expereince, one of the things we will remember most is the joy we experienced with the kids. We interacted with more than 300 kids over the course of the week. If the statistics are correct, 150 of them are HIV positive; 90 of them come from child-led households; half of the boys who participated in the 18+ bracket of the tournament will not live to age 30. Several of the young girls have, most likely, already been sexually abused. Those figures are staggering and depressing. Yet, that is not what we experienced. What we saw in the campers was joy! There was singing, dancing, praising and worshipping. There was teaching, discussions, words of encouragement, words of gratitude, promises of hope and forgiveness. There were first-time dedications to Christ and rededications. There were hugs, good touches, pats on the back and snuggles. We spent an entire week focusing all our attention on the youth of the Hawane CLC region and they responded by returning day after day and bringing new kids to the camp. For this brief period of time, they had a place where they felt loved; where they were safe; a place that fed them physically and spiritually; a place where they could have fun; a place where people listened to them and valued them; a place where they mattered; a place that literally changed lives - theirs and ours!

We ask that you continue to pray for Hawane CLC and the children and youth it serves. The soccer camp team sowed seeds during our time with them. We now ask that God would equip the church there to water and nurture those seeds so that they may bring forth fruits. May God be glorified!

Wrapping Up - Monday

Today is our last full day in Swaziland. It will be a team day. We have to sort through all of the equipment we brought with us that we will be leaving behind with Teen Challenge so that they can hold future soccer camps and tournaments at Hawane CLC. The leadership here was impressed with a program that combined Bible teaching with sports. Their goal is to organize at least a couple of camps for the coming year. It was helpful for them to see how to organize a camp. They realized it requires a lot of manpower and preparation time. We are confident that they will be able to replicate the model.

We will also be leaving rice meals behind for distribution to the community when Pastor Stan and Pastor Rich arrive in February.

We will end our day at the Ward's home where we will share a simple meal with Kevin and Helen, Pastor Augustine and Elizabeth, Pastor Wafuka and Lilly and Pastor Tim and Tcincle. We look forward to a time of fellowship and prayer.

In between, we will be tourists as we visit some of the local shops in order to pick up remembrances of our time here. We realize, however, that nothing that we purchase here will have has much meaning to us as the memories of the children whose lives were touched by our being here.

Meeting the Community

This morning was another beautiful day in Swaziland. Our morning began with worship at Potter’s Wheel Church. Pastor Kevin shared an inspiring message and we heard a testimony from a woman in the church that Tracy could really connect with. Joe greeted the congregation on behalf of CLC Dayton and he gave an update on the week of camp. We also received an urgent prayer request from a women names Hester. Her daughter, who was raised in the church, went off to boarding school in South Africa. While she was there she became connected with a Satanist group who has now “abducted” her. Hester is trying desperately to get her back home. Please pray for both Hester and her daughter Simone.

After attending Potter’s Wheel, we headed to Hawane CLC for a second round of worship. The electricity to the church went out just before we arrived, but that didn’t stop the service from moving forward. To be in the midst of people who have so little in terms of material possession, but so much in terms of their faith, joy and dependence on God is inspiring. At one point in the service, the congregants, under Pastor Augustine’s leadership, prayer for the team. Here we had come to Swaziland to serve them and they were praying God’s blessing upon us. It was humbling.

After a simple lunch, we headed out to visit some homesteads. It was a beautiful day for a walk and to visit. At the first homestead, we prayed for a Gogo who was bedridden following a stroke. One of the previous teams donated money so that an additional building could be built on her property. The Gogo is currently staying in that building.

We then went on to visit 3 additional homesteads. At each place we were able to leave several of the Kids Against Hunger food packets. This was a special and humbling experience for Christina, since she organized the entire packaging process at CLC Dayton. The recipients at each homestead were so grateful and so appreciative for this small gift. It many ways it was heartbreaking to see the joy on their faces after receive something so simple. To those who participated in the packing of the meals, please know that you work was not in vain and that lives were changed today because of your efforts.

We were also able to visit one of the homesteads where the Seeds for Swaziland team planted gardens. The seeds had taken root and the harvest was bountiful. We saw full ears of corn, green peppers, pumpkins, beets and more. Not only is CLC providing spiritual food for the community, in this instance, they are providing physical food as well – both of which are needed in Swaziland.

It was good to have a day where we could get a bit of rest and team time. Camp and the tournament took a lot out of us, but it was worth every minute of it and more. This mission trip has been a blessing to us all.

And the Winner Is.....

Today Hawane CLC held it's second soccer tournment. Thirt-five teams competed in three age brackets, with the 18+ age group having the largest number of teams. It was a warm and sunny day. Close to 500 people turned out for the event. David, Brandon, Joe, John, Charles and Andrew officiated all of the matches while the other members of team assisted with preparing teams to enter the pitch, took pictures and video, bagged and packaged meals and provided general support to the Teen Challenge staff.

All of the games were played on sand pitches with 4-6 players on the field at any given time. Each game consisted of two, five minutes halves with a one minute half-time. The skill level of these kids, with any training would handily beat any U.S. team - children or adults. We would love to bring some home with us and form our own teams, but we're not sure we can get them through customs.

The day ended with a message from Pastor Augustine and an altar call. About 15 people responded.

Once again it was a long day for the team, yet we were energized by our interactions with the Hawane CLC community. It has been such a blessing to spend time at our ICBC and it gives us a renewed passions to fulfill the church's mission of changing our world. We look forward to the opportunity to share with all of you about our experiences.

We shared dinner with Kevin, Helen, Ashar and Joshua Ward. It was a great time of fellowship and relaxation. Tomorrow following services at both Potter's Wheel and Hawane CLC, we will visit some homesteads. We look forward to meeting some of the adult members of the Hawane region and hope to distribute some of the rice meals that were packaged by the church just one month ago.

Two members of the Potter's Wheel staff, Jared and Musa, have been with us all week. Jared works with the youth of Potter's Wheel and Musa leads worship. They are both tremendous guys and it has been awesome to have them as a part of our team. Jared will be coming to spend a month at CLC Dayton in August to learn more about youth ministries. We look forward to meeting him again. Musa, well we might just stick him in one of our suitcases, but he would probably be detected by the customs folks because he is always singing and praising GOd. He has been a wonderful example to us.

We have been tremendously blessed by our participation on this team and God has taught us so much. In the couple of days we have remaining, we anticipate more revelations and growth!

Camp Victory Day 5

It doesn’t seem possible that camp came to a close today. We were just starting to personally connect with so many of the kids. It’s amazing how quickly you can become attached to people you’ve only known for a few days. Perhaps it’s the way they look at you with eyes that are searching for love; perhaps it’s the way they cuddle against you and hold onto your hand as you walk; perhaps it’s the sincerity with which they ask for prayer; perhaps it’s the smile they give you just because you sang a song with them or you played a game; perhaps it’s a combination of all of things. But to be sure, the attachment comes because we have had the opportunity to see them as God seems them. When that happens, the love that springs up within in you is fierce. To leave this place will be hard for each of us.

Before we came, we would have measured the success of this camp on how well we executed our plan. Now that it has come to a close, we have realized that success has come in ways that has nothing to do with our plan.

• We had close to 300 kids on our final day of camp – 25 of which were first time attenders (keep in mind we originally wanted to limit the camp to 180 registrants and planned for such…. apparently God had other ideas!)
• We had about 40 kids come forward for the altar call and prayer – half of whom we believe were first time conversions
• The majority of our campers were able to recite the life verse and complete the corresponding hand gestures by the camp’s end
• After camp today, we walked to the top of a nearby mountain where we held devotions. Along the way, we passed many kids from camp. During devotions, Pastor Augustine talked to us about the parable of the seed sower. He told us that this was a week of planting seeds in the hearts of children throughout the Hawane region. He reminded us that our work was now through and we needed to trust God and Hawane CLC to begin to nurture and grow those seeds. As we stood in a prayer circle, interceding for the community we realized we have visitors. About 10 kids had followed us to the top of the mountain (no small task in bare feet) and joined in our prayer circle. It was in that moment that God showed us that the seeds we sowed, were already taking root.

Tomorrow is the Hawane CLC Soccer tournament. It is expected that we will have between 700 and 1,000 people on hand to play and watch the matches. The day will culminate with championship matches, followed by a message from Pastor Augustine, an altar call and then the awards ceremony. It is sure to be a full day, but we look forward to what God will accomplish. It has been amazing to see what has been accomplished thus far and it has been an honor to be a part of it.

Thanks for your continued prayers on behalf of our team. God has been faithful in giving us more than we could ask!

PS…… we’re sorry to hear about the several inches of snow and sub-zero temperatures. It was sunny, breezy and warm (mid-eighties and low humidity) here today. We’ll do our best to suffer through it again for the next three days.

Camp Victory Day 4

God continues to amaze and challenge us. The theme for today was “teamwork”. To have victory in our lives, we must help others and we must allow others to help us. As the week has unfolded, it has been interesting to see the unique gifts and abilities of each of member of our coaching staff. While we have all had to be flexible, there have been times when each of us has been called upon, at different times, to use the gifts and abilities that God gave us. It is clear that He brought us together for a purpose.

Today we had 217 kids at camp; 50 of those were new today. Each day we have seen new children come. It is exciting for us because it means that the kids who have been here are telling their friends. Our format today was a mix of worship, teaching, prayer, soccer drills and games a movie and dancing. We ended the day with a time of worship and a time of prayer. We had 47 kids come forward for the altar call. Some wanted to receive Christ and others had specific requests for prayer. They have so many stories and life experiences. We rejoice that they do not have to face those things alone any longer!

Donna had the chance to pray with a teenage girl who lost both of her parents to sickness. She is currently living with her uncle and aunt –who has TB and is currently in poor health. This young girl is afraid of facing another loss in her life. She is frightened and afraid of ending up alone. Donna was able to talk with her about God’s love for us – no matter what the circumstances. They prayed for healing for the aunt and for a sense of comfort and peace for the young girl. It was an emotional time for both of them.

Today was our second full day of sunshine. The temperatures got up into the mid 80’s (we understand you have snow!) We are thankful for sunscreen! (it will be easy to pick out the team at the airport on Tuesday….just look for the sunburns).

It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is the last day of camp. In many ways we are just connecting with many of these kids; yet it will be hard to leave them. We are so thankful that Hawane CLC is here to continue the discipleship and training of these children of God. It is an important place to this community. May God continue to bless this place.