Faith Without Action

Faith without action is dead. The Swazi people have both. I believe my teammates would agree with me when I say that we got a lot more from the Swazis than we gave to them. We went to evangelize, but instead discovered a faith that can move mountains. We went to show them Jesus, and were shown Jesus. We went to teach them songs of worship, and listened to angelic voices praising God. I believe we learned more about our faith than we could teach them any day.

If anything we were able to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ. We were able to remind them that even when life is very difficult - when there is not enough food, when the little ones are cold, when rain is leaking through the mud walls - there is still a God on the throne. A God who loves them. A God who will never leave them or forsake them (Deut 31:6). We were able to see Christ's hands and feet move by feeding the hungry, praying for the sick, building for the widows, and loving the children.

Leaving the Care Points for the last time

To know that we share the same faith as people on the other side of the world, living very different lives, was exhilarating. To know that one day we will all be in heaven with our Father, together, was encouraging - where there is no more sickness or disease. Where there will be no more tears. And where the African children will be God's choir - I think :)

I know many of you prayed for me and my teammates and I thank you! Your prayers were powerful and effective. Through your prayers not only were our 32 lives changed but multiple Swazi children, mage's, gogo's, and babe's (mothers, grandmothers and fathers). We will most likely never know the full extent of how God used us to help the people we met on this trip. But that's okay because it's not about us, it's about Jesus.

So...does your faith have actions? Lived out. When times are as tough as they can get? Do you have faith in STUFF or in GOD?

What Will I Learn?

August 11:
Three and a half weeks in foreign countries, including eight days on an epic mission trip. What have I learned? I know it's something but whether or not I'll be able to put it into understandable terms is another question. Yesterday was our last day doing home visits and being at the care points. Today we fly back.

My Bhobokazi Home Visit Team

Everyone from Bhobokazi

It cannot be said enough, the people in Swaziland have the most raw faith I have ever seen. They have SO few material things but a reliance on God that can move mountains. They know scripture inside and out - many of them without owning Bibles. When they sing to the Lord, they SING! So what are we like in North America? The Bible says to "not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be."

Leaving the Care Points for the last time

Where is our heart? Why do we say "Africans have nothing", when in reality, many of the ones we met have EVERYTHING. Everything worthwhile anyways. If we declare they have "nothing", does that not mean we are putting meaning and value into - something? And what? Material stuff? I know that I have relied on my stuff more than I realized. If I'm sick, I rely on medicine, not God. If I'm cold I rely on clothes or a thermostat, not God. If I'm hungry I rely on my fridge, not God. Oh how I desire to have that raw faith. To look to my Savior first. I am now even more grateful for the countless blessings I have in life. When I am sick, or cold, or hungry I can thank God for blessing me with ways to solve those problems. I can thank him for showering me with his love and mercy. Psalm 103 is full of verses that remind me what I should be truly thankful for. May I never forget what is truly important and put my hope in the King.

Like a Chicken With Its Head Cut Off

August 9: Only it's head wasn't cut off. Today we witnessed a pet dog chase down a chicken for its owner to cook for dinner. We were at the construction site again cutting down a tree near the house, when all of a sudden the pet dog - who was only ribs and bones - comes barreling around the yard chasing a chicken at full speed.  The chicken was SCREAMING its head off with a blood curdling scream.  The owner was then chasing the dog and we thought the dog was going to get it!  But when the dog finally pinned the chicken down in a corner with its mouth full of feathers, the owner grabbed the chicken, not the dog!!  What we found out later was that once a month they kill a chicken.  The owner gives the dog a very quiet command and it goes crazy around the yard chasing a chicken. I couldn't stand the sound of the chicken screaming for it's life. It still makes me shudder to think about it. But after the owner killed the chicken it was interesting to see it be plucked and then boiled for dinner. And yes, the dog gets a portion of it for dinner too. (Mr. or Mrs. Owen - if you're reading this, do you have the video of this?)

Kitten, dog, toddler, all waiting for dinner by their kitchen

Plucking the chicken

Boiling chicken with onions

 Was that the highlight of my day? No. I am still flabbergasted on a daily basis of the faith that these people have. How you can just FEEL the presence of God when you are around them. And when they sing...all in perfect unison and harmony, it sounds like the voices of angels. These people have taught me so much about raw faith. Matthew 9 tells three stories about how the faith of people made them well. How much do we REALLY have faith? Do we really believe that God can and will accomplish what we ask of him? Will we love him if we don't get what we think we want or need?

Some beautiful gogo's singing praises to our King

We finished all the work that was needed at the construction site by lunch, so were able to spend the remainder of Thursday at Bhobokazi.  It was wonderful listening to the children sing again.  Even the silly songs.

Thursday evening, back at Julie's house, we were given the opportunity to buy Timbali Crafts.  Timbali Crafts is an income generating project for women in Swaziland. The women who create Timbali Crafts are all volunteer cooks at feeding centres for orphans and vulnerable children in their rural communities, including Lindiwe - the widow we helped build a house for. They make and sell beautiful purses, bags, placemats, etc and can, therefore, earn an income to help feed their own families.  We went a little crazy buying gifts.  You can learn more about Timbali Crafts, or even buy products!!, here: http://timbalicrafts.org/

David going a little crazy.

 

 At Thursday debrief, you could tell the mood of the room was getting a little low as we all knew we only had one day left with the beautiful Swazi people.  God was surely breaking our heart for what breaks his.

Sawubona

Sanibonani!
Yebo.
Ninjani?
Ngiyaphila. Ninjani?
Ngiyaphila!



I see you!
Yes.
How are you?
I'm fine. How are you?
I'm fine.


The last two days have been the same, but also completely different. Yesterday we did two more home visits in the morning. We were able to be the hands and feet of Jesus by bringing food to an elderly man and his family that a group had met the day before. They were very grateful and we were able to pray for them as well. And take pictures with them of course.

The second place was a bigger house just around the corner from our Bhobokazi Care Point. There were three women here who thankfully all spoke English. It was great to be able to have a full conversation with them without needing to go through a translator. We were able to share scripture back and forth with these women and praise God for the work he is doing in Swaziland. You can really feel the presence of God in some of these homes unlike anything I've ever felt before in Canada. Even when you simply stand near some of these beautiful Swazi Gogo's (grandmothers) you can feel the presence of God around you. It's powerful and something that is not common back home.

The afternoon we prepared for our VBS lesson and waited for the children to arrive from school. It was neat to see familiar faces, especially when they light up when they see yours. We taught the children some new songs, did a lesson/skit on Moses and prayed with them. We were also taught a few Swazi games that the children loved.

 

Our debrief times at night as a group are quite powerful and people are amazingly transparent and vulnerable. It is really encouraging to see how a group of Christian brothers and sisters can trust and love each other so easily after just getting to know one another.

Today, August 8th, was a little different. Myself and two others went to a woman's homestead to help with a house addition. She has sadly lost her husband and was left with ten children. She also lives in a tiny one-room house with them. But today was also a little different because the Swazi builders seemed to have everything under control with the cement blocks so didn't really have much for us to do.

Lindewe

One room house with two half-built rooms being added

It was rather humorous actually when a truck with a large load of sand came for us to unload so I was happy to have something to do, and about five minutes in a Swazi boy came over and asked if I was tired and took my shovel. I looked at him and said 'no' and got Joseph to hand me another shovel :).

Thankfully after lunch we were able to start digging out the floor so cement could be poured smoothly. It was tough work with very hard ground, two shovels, a pick ax with no handle, and a large piece of re-bar. But, we're making progress and there is a giant pile of dirt to show what all we've done. A little more physically challenging and a little less mentally exhausting - a welcome change. I think we'll be going back to the construction site tomorrow again.

It's difficult to see children in such poverty. Many in only one pair of clothes. Almost all without shoes.  Most with just the one or two meals they receive at the care point, often having to share the one plate of food amongst three people just using their hands to eat. We have SO much in our western culture and are often SO disgustingly ungrateful. How do you help? What do you do? What can you say? Thankfully our heavenly Father is in this land and is working. As was stated nicely at debrief tonight by our project leader, Scott: "You have to see it as God was here working with these children before you arrived here on Friday and asked you if you could watch out for that little child for a week. And to love on them. And at the end of the week you have to have the faith that you can hand that child back to the Father and know that He will continue to watch over them."

God making his presence known in Swaziland

There's not a lot we can DO for these children in this week - though on a side note if you are interesting in supporting a child or want to sponsor a child so that he or she can go to school or eat regular meals etc. please contact me and I will be more than happy to hook you up with the Children's Hopechest. There is an understandable statistic between the percentage if Swazi girls who are educated and the age they become sexually active. And in a country with such a high HIV rate, education is so important.

It's very late here and I already know I'm going to be physically hurting in the morning so I have to bring today to a close.

"Whoever helps the least of these, helps me." Jesus

Never Useless

August 6:  Freshly out of the shower, that is...a bathtub with a handheld hose for a shower-head with no curtain...I have a little time before dinner. Today was our first real day for ministry and God was there. Thank you for your prayers as they are turning in to fruit over here. This morning we split into two groups going to two different care points where we'll be for the week. We split into even smaller groups, each with a translator, and started walking around the village stopping at peoples homes and visiting with them.

My group had the opportunity to stop at two homes and prayed over both households. We were also able to put faith into action and help them around their homes. At one home we swept their yard with tree branches. At another we helped fetch water from the creek.

 Our afternoon was spent at the care point where we did a very short lesson/skit on Joseph and how God turned his bad day into a good day. We finished by playing with balloons and the kids fell in love with them. Many of them deflating them so they could keep them and bring them home.

 So, what did I learn today? As 1 Corinthians 15:58 says: "always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that whatever you do for the Lord is never useless". When some of us were anxious about the day and whether we might offend someone or do something wrong, it was comforting to know that if we're doing it for God, it will not be in vain and he can bring fruit out of it.

Tengetile during dinner time

I met a beautiful 12 year old girl, Tengetile, who had nearly perfect English. It was wonderful being able to talk to a child without the use of a translator. The neatest thing was how much this girl loved God and loved learning about God. I really wish the children I taught knew as much about God or could learn about God in school. The raw faith of these people is a beautiful thing and I really wish our western culture would learn from these people and how much they rely on God instead of science or medicine. I feel today that I am in Africa to learn more about the Christian faith that I can bring back with me to Canada rather than me being here spreading the word of God.

God was at work today, whether or not we saw it. To him be the glory in all that we do here.

Beautiful Souls

August 5: Today was amazing. We had the opportunity to go to a rural Swazi church (Agape Church) with about fifteen to twenty people, most of them children. They sang a lot at the beginning and in between speeches and such and their voices and harmonies are absolutely astounding!! You could feel the presence of the Lord even though we couldn't understand a lot of what was said. Beautiful, beautiful people. A little girl sat next to me in church and gave me a HUGE smile every time I looked at her. As soon as church was over she hopped right on my lap and gave me a big hug. Such loving people. Us westerners have a LOT to learn from these people. As a friend mentioned in her blog, this church service was not constricted by time. I think we were there for 3 hours, but it felt like 30 minutes because you were so enthralled by the presence of the Lord.

Temavu - a beautiful girl with a gorgeous smile

Agape Church after service

This video doesn't do their voices justice, but this is one clip from church.

Had the opportunity to go on another safari Sunday afternoon and were able to see a male lion up super close, elephants, walked up next to rhinos who then started attacking one another and then giraffes. Very cool...again.

We had a very brief time with our teams today preparing for VBS for the week at two different locations. Thus we've split our group of 32 people into two different groups as we'll be at two different care points for the week. I'll be at Bhobokazi which includes VBS, home visits and a house construction build.

Philippians 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

The Road Less Travelled

I am currently sitting at my parents place in the Yukon as I had no internet connection while in Swaziland. But I kept up on my blogs so will be posting them over the next few days and weeks. Thank you for your prayers...



I've been in Swaziland for one full day now. We had a dinner and very quick orientation after our five hour drive from johannesburg last night and with most people fighting jetlag we were sent to bed early. There are thirty-two people total. Twenty one girls are down at the team house where I am - a little more estrogen compared to my last two weeks- and eleven people up at our meeting house those being guys or married couples.

This morning, august fourth, we had a cultural orientation and ministry orientation after breakfast then headed out to a care point. Here we had an organized chaos afternoon of carnival style stuff going on. Our main purpose was to love on the children as many of them come from orphaned families. So many of those beautiful children would just latch themselves to you and either just sit with you or want to blow bubbles or paint nails etc.  Near the end the about 350 children sang us some songs and they have to have the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. Their harmonies are amazing. We helped dish out food to groups of children and then headed back to our places to clean up for dinner.







As we learned this morning, most of the people in Swaziland would say that they believe in God so it's not so much a matter of evangelizing but of discipling. We just need to show these beautiful people what Jesus is like and although they love him, many of them may not believe that God actually loves them. So here we are - ready to love on Swaziland.

Africa....so far...

Two weeks now I've been in South Africa. As suspected, it will be completely impossible to describe my experience here in a way that will do it justice, but I figured that shouldn't stop me from writing anything for you all to read. South Africa is a gorgeous country. The rugged landscape is so primitive and the animals seem to almost be mystical as I've only ever read them in story books. Obviously my blogs will be behind some as I will not have Internet access much at all to update at a regular time.

Seeing as my mission doesn't start for two days, as it's currently August first, I will give you a super quick rundown of what I've done in this hemisphere so far.

I came here two weeks ago with my friend Shaun, after a brief stop in London to visit some good friends and see the Lion King musical. We stayed in Cape Town for about five days and did the typical tourist stuff there. We went up Table Mountain, hung out at Camps Bay, drove out to Cape Point, Kirstenbosch Gardens, and Great White Shark Diving!!! That was quite the experience!

We flew to Johannesburg and picked up Tim, and stayed with my friend Lizelle at her beautiful home for a couple of days. Then me and the boys came here to Kruger National Park to go on a five day safari - half in a private game reserve and half in the main Kruger park.  We saw so many animals and gorgeous sunsets and sunrises. Some of the favorite animas have been hyena, elephant, giraffe, penguins, and lion. God's creation is absolutely spectacular and seems to be more evident here, in the park, where everything is seemingly untouched!

I've had a wonderful time so far and it's hard to believe that the boys will be leaving me in a day and a half as my entire trip is just almost half over.

As for Swaziland, im excited to meet teammates,  and actually get to know some of the local people here. Still not exactly sure what I'll be doing, but it'll be a great experience. Thanks for the prayers. They're working!

 Until next time, God bless.

Trust

Trust.

It's the one word that has invaded my thoughts, my readings, my mind over the past month.

When I ask God something, I get one word - trust.

When I tell him my desires, I get one word - trust.

When I'm afraid, I get one word - trust.

So, trust I will. Do I get it? No. Do I need to? No.

I've gone through some Missions Training Devotions over the past couple of weeks in preparation for Swaziland and am getting more and more excited for what God has in store for us during our brief stay in this amazing country. I already feel so connected with the team that I will be going with (who I haven't even met yet) and already feel loved by the Swazi people.

Are there many things I could worry about before I head out on this trip? Absolutely! I could worry about missing flights, diseases, kidnappings, muggings, shark bites (yes, the shark cage diving is booked!), getting lost, losing money.....but am I worried? No. Why? Trust.

Psalm 91 says "Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust. 3 Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. 5 You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. 7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 8 You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. 9 If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, 10 no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. 14 “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. 15 He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. ”

How dare I worry with a promise like that. Does it mean it'll all be flawless with no hiccups? No. "In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world" John 16:33

But....trust. God loves us. He knows the desires of our heart. And he promises to never leave us or forsake us. He's the best travel companion.

So now, as I head out in less than 24 hours, I will trust.

Thank you for joining on this adventure of a lifetime with me.

Synonym for "Faithfulness": God

" What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God's faithfulness? Not at all!" Romans 3:3-4 He's gone and done it again! God surpasses my dreams and expectations. This spring I was recommended for a continuing contract with the Public School district I work for. This was encouraging, but didn't really tell me where I would be or what I would be teaching for the fall. Nonetheless, I trusted completely in God (as I have learned from so many past experiences) and knew he was capable of blowing my mind. Going into a summer of traveling (surprise surprise) I was hoping I would have an idea of what I was teaching by the end of June so that I could mull it over in my head over the summer - especially if it was something I wasn't too keen on. As the days and weeks of June spun by, and I heard nothing from downtown, I wasn't discouraged, but was still hoping that I might....just might....hear something before the end of the year. I had been told on multiple occasions from a variety of sources that there was not a very good chance that I would be back at the same school I'd been at for two years. I came to terms with this and was excited to see what other opportunities were out there - I didn't want to have a poor attitude with wherever I was sent. Well, with God being never late, but rarely early, on June 27 (two days before school was finished) I was offered a part-time continuing contract at my current school!!! I didn't think that was even a possibility! I have worked part-time the last two years (~0.8) and have loved it as I get a few more preps throughout the week and the loss in pay isn't too bad for not having to work manically. I will be teaching fewer courses than previous years (another bonus) and am obviously very familiar with the admin, staff and students of my school. I feel very blessed to have this job! No more worries, and a completely stress-free summer of wondering where I'll be come fall - praise God!

As I didn't realize this would even been an option, and preparing myself to have to go to another school, I have since realized how glad I am I don't have to move schools! I don't have to learn everyone's names, or the routines, or the school-specific rules. I am truly blessed. And on that note, I can now focus more completely on my upcoming trip to Africa! Only 15 days away (wow!). All large purchases, flights, accommodations, etc have been bought. Schedule is primarily created and now I just need to pack! With not having to focus on school anymore and having the majority of the South African stuff planned, I've been able to sit and think a little more about my mission in Swaziland (the main reason I am doing this entire trip). I want God to be able to use our team. I hope that we are all willing and open to do whatever God asks us to do and to go wherever he asks us to go. I hope that we are prepared so that we are as efficiently useful to him as possible when in Swaziland. This country breaks my heart and I haven't even been there yet - the life expectancy is 32 years old! THIRTY-TWO! That means I would be quite the elder there. Thirty-two.....

Pray for our team - that we will take the time needed now to prepare ourselves for what we'll see, what we're asked to do, and where we're asked to go. Pray for this land - that God will rejuvenate it, and that he can use this land to show the world his glory!