Operation Christmas Child

This past Monday we were given the awesome opportunity to help distribute shoebox gifts from Operation Christmas Child to four schools in rural Swaziland areas. I have been on the other side of Operation Christmas Child before, assembling the gifts for a boy or girl in a certain age range, fitting them inside gift-wrapped shoeboxes, and dropping them off at a collection point. I knew that my box somehow got to a child in a developing world country, along with the message of salvation. Yet I never imagined being able to see or be a part of the gift-giving myself!

In Swaziland there are several NGO’s who distribute the gift boxes, and The Luke Commission is the last who fills in gaps that have been missed by others – mostly in very remote areas. When we started driving with our friends from The Luke Commission, I didn’t really know how remote we were going to get. We started up this mountain with our vehicles pulling two large trailers full of the gift boxes, and it was so steep that at some points I thought we would roll backwards! Each of the four schools we visited became more and more remote, and I began to see how they could have been looked over.

The children lined up neatly and quietly and came through lines according to age to receive their gift. Many of them gave shy smiles and said thank you in English. Then they sat on the grass together and listened to Dr. Harry give a short explanation that these are gifts from Jesus, and told them this was a reminder of Jesus’ biggest gift. Harry said, if you’re excited about your gift, tap on your boxes – the noise was nearly deafening! The children broke out into wide smiles and even cheered, some holding their boxes up in the air. Still, nothing could have prepared us for the explosion of joy that we witnessed as the gifts were opened!

Never before have either of us witnessed an event that brought so much joy and rejoicing. Each child received a toothbrush and toothpaste, an age appropriate gift, some candy, socks or underwear, and hat, scarf, or mittens. There was nothing expensive or extravagant in any of them, but I don’t think there could have been any more excitement if there had been. We were told this would be a once-in-a-lifetime event for these kids, something they would remember and talk about for the rest of their lives.

I was reminded again of Jesus’ words – “blessed are the poor.” It is a blessing to have such joy over a simple gift! It is a blessing to be able to receive with such open hearts, hearts that are excited and enthralled with a gift, although from someone they might not even know.

Recent Readings

Following in the footsteps of the last On-Site Coordinators (Will and Karis Stemen) we have been able to do some reading over the past months (OTHER THAN THE BIBLE). Michaele is much quicker than I so she has taken on larger books. She has read “The Invisible Cure”, “The State of Africa” and Desmond Tutu’s “No Future without Forgiveness” and is now moving onto “Compassion” by Henry Nouwen. I have read “The Invisible Cure”, “Dangerous Wonder”, “Compassion” and parts of “the Next Level” by Scott Elbin. I am now debating whether to jump into “The State of Africa” or re-read “The Screwtape Letters” by CS Lewis… but I will probably end up reading both at once and taking forever to complete both of them…

I wanted though to share some thoughts from “Compassion”. It is a book discussing the centrality of compassion (suffering with) in the Christian life. Especially as God is allowing us to be in places where there are many opportunities to “suffer with”. The book highlights three ways that we are to have compassion.

1. Patience - This is a spiritual discipline of waiting on the Lord. Waiting until the Lord is telling us to move. It is a patience which, instead of charging ahead because I am uncomfortable, waits to work in his time and in his direction.

2. Prayer – In order for us to know how and where God wants us to be and how he wants us to respond we must be in prayer daily and momentarily to hear the direction of God over the noise of culture and pressures of our world.

3. Action – From the book “Prayer without action grows into powerless pietism, and action without prayer degenerates into questionable manipulation. If prayer leads us into deeper unity with the compassionate Christ, it will always give rise to concrete acts of service. “
In a place where I am obviously a foreigner in a foreign land I naturally want to take action to validate my time and my offering to God, and yet I have a desire to act on his prompting and in his direction more than I am drawn to act for the sake of action.

I am being reminded that the only lasting action here will be that which is to bring the love of God to these brothers and sisters.

And for those of you that know me you know that patience in the face of opportunity is something very hard for me.

I pray that where you are you can have the Holy Spirit given fortitude to take action when he directs and even more so to wait when we are being asked to wait.

Correction and Update on Dr. Hynd

Thank you for so many prayers and well wishes for Dr. Hynd. We have spoken to his family and he is on the mend -- praise God! In fact, it seems the original prognosis was too dire. Dr. Hynd is still resting with his leg elevated, but there is no foreseeable possibility of amputation.

Please continue to pray that his recovery is both quick and complete!!

Vote of Thanks

We have found that during official events, when a dignitary is speaking there is a very elaborate introduction before his or her speech. Following the speech, the hosting organization will present the dignitary with a gift. Then the speaker will again get up and offer a “vote of thanks” for the gift that they have received. Then the hosting organization representative will get up and offer their own “vote of thanks” for the vote of thanks that the dignitary has offered, and then extend the thanks to the rest of the people that assisted in the preparation of the event.
So in the gracious manner of the Swazi culture (and I am sure many other cultures as well), we want to offer our vote of thanks to individuals and groups that have played a critical role during the last team as well as our stay so far.

We want to first of all thank all those that pray for us on a routine basis. While we cannot hear your prayers from here, we know that God is granting the requests that you are making on our behalf.

- We especially thank our local church -- West Side Church of the Nazarene -- for their encouragement and prayers (know we are praying for you and thinking of you every day!)
- To the people here in Swaziland that have made us feel so welcome including people from the national board and the four districts (DS’s and other pastors), Valerie Young, all of the hospital staff and administration (COE, Administrator, CMO, RMO, chief matron and community clinics matron), and any other Swazi that has smiled when we try to communicate in siSwati or ask many questions about the culture.
- To our families -- your encouragement and prayers have allowed us to be here and encouraged us to follow the leading of God no matter where that is.
- To each of the guests that we have had in between teams (Evelyn, JaNena, Bill and now Shane) -- our time with you has been exciting and uplifting as we have learned from each of you (Up and down the river..Kruger Elephant attacks, Al Denson, Salticrax)
- To each of the churches that we were able to speak at -- Your prayers for us humble us and generous financial support has made it possible to serve our Lord in this beautiful country.
- To our BFC family -- We thank you for the embrace that you have provided to us (Barbi, Pat, Pastor David and Christi). As we represent you in country we are reminded of your support and prayers on a daily basis. Can’t wait for the next group of BFC’ers to come across the ocean!!

Please Pray for Dr. Hynd

Last Saturday (over a week) Dr. Hynd tripped and fell on his knee while he was doing a survey of the building progress at his ACTS II clinic. While he thought his knee was only bruised, there was actually a small cut. But because he didn't know about it, he didn't do anything to wash it out. Now, over a week later that cut has become incredibly infected and has spread to his whole leg below the knee. He is currently on antibiotics and has someone coming to give medical care for him at home. If the infection cannot be restrained it could result in an amputation or death. Please keep him and the Hynd family in your prayers!

They feel like the enemy is trying to take him too soon, before any of the work of the ACTS II clinic can start. Thank you for surrounding this servant of God in prayer!