"Jesus Come" - August 2013

Oh my goodness, how much do I love these kiddos! Sweet memories with Londiwe and Marilyn leading them as they sing:

LaShea - My first day at Lesibovu

LaShea's entry is powerful. Our first day at the CarePoint, from her perspective:

A lot of this is straight out of my journal, so I apologize in advance if some parts aren't so pretty. The reality is a lot of it wasn't. Most days were hard and emotionally draining. There were lots of tears and lots of laughter. So here we go...

Wednesday, August 7th.
Today has shaken my world. We have seen so much today and it hit me in the face what we take for granted. On the way to Lesibovu we saw kids (small kids - some younger than my own) walking alone. There wasn't an adult or a home in sight. Just a dusty road. As we neared the carepoint, we drove through the river. It was nearly dried up. Mud remained. There were women washing clothes and kids playing in it. There was cow manure all around. This is where a lot of the people get their water.

We arrived at the carepoint and were immediately told it had been under spiritual attack. Three children had died recently at other carepoints. We prayed and went to meet the two bomake (pronounced bo-MAH-gay) that work all day to prepare food for the children.

There were a few kids around and slowly more came. They seemed a bit scared and timid. We tried to talk to them, but we talk too fast and are hard to understand. If you add our Southern drawl then it's no where near the English they've learned in school! Some of us got our cameras out and started taking pictures, and they loved it! We'd take their picture and show it to them and they would laugh at themselves, which made us laugh! We started making silly faces and some sang for us. We played dancing games with the girls, and the boys played soccer with Isaac. He was a big hit! He always had a group of kids following him everywhere!

I noticed a young girl carrying a toddler on her back. She was probably eight. The same age as my son. I was later told that was her responsibility. She leaves her at the carepoint so she can go to school. That broke my heart. I imagined my child caring for his sister. It turns out that's fairly common in Swaziland. Siblings caring for siblings.

As the day ended the kids entered the building and sang and prayed before eating, and you could feel the Lord. At that moment, I knew I was exactly were He wanted me, and it was amazing!

Several of us got to see our special friends that day, and tears were shed and memories were made.

Marilyn and I with our special friends
(they're brothers) and their precious sister!

Jennifer and Abi meeting theirs!

At the end of the day we were off to our home visits. Marlena , Amy, Nhlanhla (pronounced "Shlan-sla"), and I went up for a fun walk up a hill carrying bags of food. Nhlanhla picked on us and said we had to carry food like the Swazi woman...I tried. Huge fail.

On our first home visit we met a precious family. They were grandparents taking care of 4 grandchildren. Some of the children's parents died, or the father left. The mother of some left and married another man. This is common. The grandfather was from South Africa and had learned English in school, but when he was little he fell out of a tree. He lost his hearing and became mute. Later his hearing came back but he still couldn't speak. He could understand us very well and would sign to his wife so she could translate for us. They were amazing and had so much faith. The grandfather kept putting his hands together and pointing to the sky saying this is a gift from God. The grandfather wanted to take a picture with the food, and that sweet little girl was so scared of us white folks.

I left that day overwhelmed by what I had seen (and still am). The dried up river and children caring for children. Why do we have so much and they have so little? Why are they struggling and starving and we have so much? We have homes with air conditioning, an overflowing refrigerator, and multiple cars. And we have the nerve to complain about what we don't have. I was disgusted with myself and what I take for granted. I realized the only difference between me and them was where we were born. That one little difference can change everything. I prayed, "Lord, you know why we are here. This problem is so much bigger than I ever imagined. Let us be your hands and feet. Help us show your everlasting love. Use me wherever you need me."

That day was full of so much hard stuff and it had just begun. It was an amazing day and I can still hear children singing beautifully praising the same Father we do.  

Swazi Team Trip 2013: Day 2 - London!

I won't spend much time on this day, though it was very amazing. We had an 8 hour layover in London, so enjoyed several hours seeing the Westminster area of the city.

Though we had such a great time, and I am thankful that the bonus layover was included, there were definitely mixed emotions when I pondered this part of the trip. We witnessed firsthand a country that is much older than our own, with architecture that is breathtaking, and a bustling city that is governed by a royal family and Parliament. A new prince had just recently been born, the royal family is enjoying great popularity, and being there, seeing Buckingham Palace, Richard the Lionheart's statue, and the Tower of London all added to make it seem like we were in a fairy tale world.

9 hours away we arrived in a land that has been populated for much longer than our own, with thousands of folks living in primitive huts, ruled by a king who governs the last remaining absolute monarchy in the world. The number of people living with positive HIV is staggering. The king is rarely seen but greatly loved by his people, though he lives in luxury while the Swazi people are starving and dying.

Talk about contrast. I found myself just shaking my head, wondering how we live in a world of such great opposites. Why some have so much and great opportunity while others are lacking even basic necessities is a question that is painful to ask, but constantly on my mind.

Swazi Team Trip 2013: Day 1

We left for our team trip after church on August 4. We were prayed for at the end of our worship service and received lots of hugs and words of encouragement from our faith family. Everyone grabbed quick lunches, and then we said goodbye to our family we were leaving behind. Having done this last year, I didn't envy those who had to hug children and spouses. We had dropped our little boys off already with my parents, which made things much less emotional. We were so grateful for the borrowed van that held us all and our many suitcases and bins as we drove to the Atlanta airport. We made it through security simply (well, Marilyn and Ronda were checked a bit more extensively) and had a short wait until we boarded that evening around 9:00. Though we all planned to try to rest on the flight and make the most of the dark atmosphere, sleep was elusive for most except in short segments. It's so hard to get comfortable sitting up, and ten hours was a long time to sit awkwardly. Thankfully the flight was smooth, food was decent, and we woke to breakfast and the sight of Great Britain below us. Super exciting!

The beginning

In November we launched our commitment to the Lesibovu CarePoint. That meant that as a community (not just local, but anyone, anywhere can be part of our connection to this CarePoint) we were committing to a 5-7 year relationship with the people of Lesibovu. That agreement means we will visit annually, invest relationally and financially into the area, to enable them to be more self-sufficient at the end of that time, while also sharing that God's love for us all was the factor that bound us together.

For months prior to our trip, most of the team was able to participate in a great book study ("Follow Me: A Call to Die" by David Platt). This book was such a challenging study and many evenings we were left a bit speechless after watching the videos that went along with it. To hear that evangelizing by praying "the sinner's prayer" with people to accept Christ and "invite him into (your) heart" wasn't necessarily right was hard to take. We realized that really, we should be witnessing through our lives and sharing that accepting Christ means asking Him to change us and enable us to be willing to give everything up for Him, even (especially) our lives. We also have to be willing to apply that to our current, pretty comfortable, Christian lives and it has been eye-opening and life-changing. Denying ourselves and our pursuit of temporary pleasure/wealth/comfort to find fulfillment only in Jesus - That isn't the definition of being a Christian that most of us grew up with. It rocked many of us to the core, I think. Our study of the Word and discussion time shaped our view of the upcoming trip and enabled us to see it as not just a cool short-term ministry opportunity, but a time to really give, to share without regret or hesitation, and to apply it to our lives here in middle-class, comfy America. We also are grateful to take advantage of more local opportunities to serve and witness and share our lives. This was not just about Africa. It was about changing our thinking and way of life in every area.
 I think that I speak for everyone when I say I don't think we are the same people as we were before the study. I think of what we learned and the teaching we heard, and know that many conversations in our home have stemmed from that  book. How we live now that we truly see the Truth that this life is not our own is something we are still working on.

We also met regularly to pray, plan, and grow closer as a team. That time was so valuable as we learned more about each other, our gifts and struggles, and the way God was working in each life to prepare us for traveling to serve others. I am so thankful for the dedication of each person who committed not to just go out of the country for 10 days, but to daily seek God's will for his/her life, and how Swaziland factored into that.

Having never led a team on a trip, and since most of us hadn't even been on any missions trip, the experience was very much a learning process. I am so grateful that we had patient team members, experienced missionaries in Ken and Marilyn, and that God blessed us with cooperative spirits through it all.

The journey

So many times over the past year I have used this word. I think it's perfect to describe much of life. For now I'm focusing on the process of preparing to go on the trip with this team and a huge faith-stretching time as we worked toward buying our airline tickets.

journey

This word can mean "a trip, traveling from one place to another" - sure. While that is what we did, and it was a LONG journey in that way, it was also "a passage from one stage to another."

From the time that Alli and I returned over a year ago, through the Sponsorship launch in May, the planning of the trip activities, the fundraising, the prayer time, the Bible study, the many meetings to discuss details of airline fares and packing lists, the emails and prayer requests and conversations with hundreds of people who wanted to know why in the world we were going to Africa, God took us on a journey like only He could.

Last year I typed up a simple bookmark with prayer reminders on it for our first trip to Swaziland. One request was that we would experience what God had for us, and for people to please not pray for everything to go smoothly, because truly that is not how faith is stretched or grown. There were moments I doubted that request, but knew it was the right thing. Trying to be courageous :-), I repeated that sentiment this time around. Some family members may have regretted that, but I really felt strongly that we were to surrender our plans, and ask God to lead us through what would build us into stronger believers.

Guess what? Everything didn't go smoothly.
Sometimes things just didn't even GO.

We became weary and stressed and pretty discouraged some days. The neat thing was that through that, our team of 9 really bonded and shared the emotions we were facing individually, so we weren't alone. I saw Marilyn quickly lead us into prayer on so many occasions, whenever we mentioned a burden. I heard others open their hearts and ask for wisdom and felt the compassion and tenderness in the room from the team. After Ken realized his job was going to prevent him from going on the trip, we mourned together. We were sad to not have his presence, but we also hurt for Marilyn knowing how she'd wanted to experience Swaziland with him. Then she offered to stay home with him, and give the money she'd raised toward our family's trip and help keep our little boys for us. Such selflessness and love!! We didn't feel it was time to give up yet, though we were getting closer and closer to the time to depart and knew that seats were filling up and we needed an answer or clear direction. When we were pretty sure God was not going to provide for my family of 4 to go, I was told to continue trusting and that the team would wait on us to have the money for our tickets, even when the majority was ready to purchase them already.

Through those trials, the testing of our faith did produce patience (James 1:3). It showed us His plan was much better. One huge example was those airline tickets. LaShea, Marilyn, and James frequently checked tickets prices with different airlines for months. Marilyn called several travel agents to try to find the best price for our dates of travel. We got the same basic quote over and over for months. The price was approximately $800 more per ticket than Alli and I paid last year. That was painful and very hard for our family to raise since we were buying four tickets. As fundraisers closed and we were blessed with proceeds and donations from others, we let ourselves get a little hopeful. Then the money stopped coming in, we had saved and earned all we could by doing extra jobs. We were almost to the 'one month till departure' point. It was clearly time to buy tickets, as far as we could tell, but our family just didn't have the money and we as a team needed to purchase them all together.

Then, on July 5, Marilyn was given the contact info of another agency to try. God was all over it.

She called and was given a flight for nearly $600 per person less than the other estimates. 

We also would receive allowance for three bags each, which would save us potential extra baggage fees. Then, we found out we'd have brief layovers in London each way, so could even explore an additional country most of us had never seen. 

We were so amazed! If we had bought tickets when we felt it made sense from a human perspective, we would have left two of my family members at home. We also would have spent over $4,000 more than was needed as a group!!

To say that we were flabbergasted and astonished is putting it mildly. We cannot explain the fares' cost. We couldn't even find the same price online anywhere on the British Airways site. All we know is that we had a large need and God filled it. "Exceedingly abundantly more than we could ask or imagine" - that is what God did BEFORE we ever left Alabama.Ya'll just wait to see what else He did!

And we're back!

We have been home from our trip for over a week now. I am working on posting summaries of our time there, as well as encouraging other team members to post their thoughts as they process their experience. Hopefully we will have many instances of God's amazing power and provision to share with you that will encourage you wherever you are in your spiritual walk. I know that my own faith was strengthened through numerous ways He showed His plan to be better than ours, over the months leading up to the trip and even the whole time there. If we had ever doubted who should go on the trip, or how He would guide us in our planning, He confirmed repeatedly how we were to work and serve, which was a beautiful thing to see.

A quote I just read this week really summed up the emotions I know Alli and I felt after last year's trip, and that I suspect several team members this year do as well.
“You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart will always be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.” ~ Miriam Adeney
When folks ask if we are glad to be home, it is hard to answer. Of course, I am so thankful to be home with the rest of my family, and in the comfortable routine of my life here. However, I find myself wondering which children came to the CarePoint today, who was more reserved and needed extra hugs, if the weather was mild enough for those without shoes, and if the little ones made it safely who walk alone to and from Lesibovu every day. Those children were not just fun kids to visit. They're part of us now. We feel connected in a precious way that can hardly be described.

quite the view from our first stop in country

 We are still very grateful for all of you who gave your time and resources through fundraisers and events, to support us and encourage us when at times, just the sheer thought of buying plane tickets was fear-inducing. I cannot wait to tell you what God did and the way He led us through some valleys of uncertainty and discouragement, to a mountaintop (literally) of rejoicing. I am teary right now, just reflecting on it all. So stay tuned for stories and testimonies from our team, and enjoy a few photos of lovely Swaziland.

The mountains...

gorgeous impala

church near Mbabane, the capital

our last day