Thank you for all who prayed for us and the team during the last weeks. It was a wonderful ten days of service and learning and transformation. The two major projects were the finishing of a church building at Ndubazi, and the painting of a nearby school. The compassion team also led school assemblies and VBS’s for nearly 2,000 children by the end of the week. The medical team spent time at the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital, visiting clients of the HIV/ AIDs Task Force, and at a clinic day with The Luke Commission.
Joy is a nurse who was a member of this team. She shared very honestly one night that the whole trip seemed like a roller coaster to her. Sometimes she felt like she had nothing to give, other times she was overjoyed that she was able to be present and serve. I think she spoke for all of us.
Some of the places we’ve been – both with the team and by ourselves – are so hard and heartbreaking that we feel overwhelmed with hopelessness. It is sometimes a struggle to see where God is working in the middle of so much pain and suffering and chaos. And it is intensely uncomfortable to watch it all and feel unable to fix it. Yet I firmly believe, and it has been confirmed in the past week, that until we are uncomfortable God is not able to change us.
I praise God for the Ndubazi Church of the Nazarene having a roof and plastered walls. I praise God for the Nyamane school having fresh paint, new school supplies, and a beautiful mural. I praise God that nearly 2,000 children saw His love in the songs, games, crafts and faces of ten Americans. I praise God for the encouragement brought to doctors, nurses and pastors of our Nazarene institutions.
But my heart swells with excitement and gratitude when I think about the unseen, but much longer-lasting, effects of this week. I was able to witness the transformation of hearts and minds. I was able to see people being broken and others being healed. I was able to watch God shape and mold his children to look more like Christ, and to see the world a little more like Christ sees it.
I know the Swazis are grateful for our presence and the work we’ve done. I know they feel they need us. However, I think our whole team has been reminded this past week that we desperately need our Swazi brothers and sisters. We need the lessons God teaches us through them. We need the opportunity to serve and see Jesus’ face in those who are sick, hungry and without clothes (Matthew 25:35-36). And we desperately need the experience of going to give, and coming back having received much more.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
BFC March GO Team
Tomorrow (Friday March 12) a team of 21 people arrive from Bethany First Church to spend 11 days in Swaziland. We have been working hard to get everything ready for them -- all the housing and transportation logistics, project plans and costs, and all the events the team will be a part of. This will be our third team since we've been in Swaziland, and it's nice to feel like we know a little bit about what we're doing this time! Although of course this past week has still had many unforeseen adventures and obstacles in leading up to this point. But hey, it's Africa! That's what makes it fun.
While the team is here, the majority of their time will be spent in the Shiselwini area, the South District of the Swaziland Church of the Nazarene. Outside a large southern town, in an area called Ndubazi, there is a small church of 36 people who have been meeting in a small structure made of something a little thicker than cardboard. Several years ago, a member of the church bought a kombi (mini-bus used for public transportation), and has used the profits of this small transport business to build a proper church building. With these funds and congregation coordination, the foundation and walls are finished.
Our team has the awesome privilege of helping this group of dedicated believers finish their church building! They will putting up the roof, finishing the floor inside, and helping with finishing of doors and windows. Their pastor is a retired woman minister who goes by Gogo (Grannie) Rebecca. She has a fiery spirit and a radiant smile bursting out of her small stature and aging features. She keeps saying we are a blessing for their church, but I know each of us will be blessed after working alongside her for one week.
Other members of the team will be doing painting at two local schools, school assemblies and Bible clubs. We will also spend a day visiting HIV positive clients from the Task Force. It's going to be a full, tiring, but wonderful week.
Please join us in prayer March 12 - 21:
- safe travels as the team goes throughout South Africa and Swaziland
- safety for the construction crew as they work on the roof
- pray that deep relationships will be made between Americans and Swazis
- pray for the Ndubazi community and church, that they will be reminded of God's great love for them this week
- pray that the Holy Spirit will have ultimate authority to move and change his people, even if it goes against our schedule
While the team is here, the majority of their time will be spent in the Shiselwini area, the South District of the Swaziland Church of the Nazarene. Outside a large southern town, in an area called Ndubazi, there is a small church of 36 people who have been meeting in a small structure made of something a little thicker than cardboard. Several years ago, a member of the church bought a kombi (mini-bus used for public transportation), and has used the profits of this small transport business to build a proper church building. With these funds and congregation coordination, the foundation and walls are finished.
Our team has the awesome privilege of helping this group of dedicated believers finish their church building! They will putting up the roof, finishing the floor inside, and helping with finishing of doors and windows. Their pastor is a retired woman minister who goes by Gogo (Grannie) Rebecca. She has a fiery spirit and a radiant smile bursting out of her small stature and aging features. She keeps saying we are a blessing for their church, but I know each of us will be blessed after working alongside her for one week.
Other members of the team will be doing painting at two local schools, school assemblies and Bible clubs. We will also spend a day visiting HIV positive clients from the Task Force. It's going to be a full, tiring, but wonderful week.
Please join us in prayer March 12 - 21:
- safe travels as the team goes throughout South Africa and Swaziland
- safety for the construction crew as they work on the roof
- pray that deep relationships will be made between Americans and Swazis
- pray for the Ndubazi community and church, that they will be reminded of God's great love for them this week
- pray that the Holy Spirit will have ultimate authority to move and change his people, even if it goes against our schedule
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Sunday February 21
Sunday 2/21/2010
5:30 am : Woken up by a phone call from Brent’s dad telling us that our first nephew, Graham Rylan Howe had been born and was healthy.
8;50 am: About ten minutes before we leave the house for church, Brent received another call from our landlady and friend, Val, asking if we could help out Elvis. Elvis is a groundskeeper on the mission and we have a good relationship with him. He’s getting married in a few weeks, and Val said he needed help picking up the cow.
9:15 am: Brent and Elvis hook up the trailer to the B3. (The new name for our vehicle: the Blue BFC Bakkie [Bakkie is pronounced “buckey” and is Afrikaans for a truck]).
9:30 am: Brent, Michaele and Elvis head out to Luve where Michaele is preaching. The cow is apparently not far from Luve, so we planned on picking it up after church.
10:15 am: We attended Sunday School, Michaele led NYI, then Brent played guitar for worship and Michaele preached. We visited with the pastor and his wife, drank some Coke and ate some biscuits.
1:30 pm: Head to Dvolkolwako (about 45 minutes from Luve in the opposite direction of home) to pick up the butchered cow for Elvis’s wedding feast, which is not until March 6. On the way we found out that the cow had been wounded and so needed to be killed early.
2:15 pm: Arrive at the homestead where the cow was butchered. The skin was laid out over a large metal tub, still freshly bloody. One leg could be seen beside the skin, which was just a bone all but the ankle which still had hair and the hoof. Beside it were the horns, which had been removed from the skull. The rest of the cow was lying in pieces on the ground under a tree. Michaele took pictures as Brent tried to be helpful yet really wanting to keep his distance. Three members of the homestead bagged up the meat in any kind of plastic bag available, and loaded them into the trailer. Not wanting to watch too closely, Michaele played with three toddlers who were fascinated by the camera.
3:00 pm: Leave Dvolkolwako, picking up one more passenger from the homestead who needed a lift. We drive to Matsapha, passing our house on the way, in order to drop the meat off at Elvis’s fiance’s places, which has a deep freezer.
4:15 pm: As we’re getting close to Matsapha, we realize that the cell phone network is down so Elvis cannot contact his fiancé to let her know we are coming.
4:30 pm: Arrive in Matsapha and wait on the side of the road until a plan can be formulated.
4:40 pm: A man in a pick up truck (bakkie) pulls up and says we can put the meat in his truck. Elvis says this is a good plan. But we offered to take the meat wherever it needed to go, so we follow the bakkie up a winding, washed out dirt road into a densely populated area of Matsapha.
4:50 pm: After having driven too far past the drop off point, Brent spends 10 minutes trying to back up with the trailer and turn around in a narrow, crowded street.
5:00 pm: Even though we thought the meat was going to be put into someone’s house, it’s actually transferred to the back of the bakkie we had followed. Needless to say this could have been done earlier, without the crowd watching and on a much better road.
5:05 pm: Michaele and Brent head home alone, since Elvis needed to stay and sort out the meat situation.
5:30 pm: Arrive at home, tired and hungry and laughing.
8:00 pm: Saw our nephew on SKYPE for the first time and got to talk to Matt and Beth for a while.
.....We decided to wait to later to tell them what we were doing during Graham’s first day of life.
5:30 am : Woken up by a phone call from Brent’s dad telling us that our first nephew, Graham Rylan Howe had been born and was healthy.
8;50 am: About ten minutes before we leave the house for church, Brent received another call from our landlady and friend, Val, asking if we could help out Elvis. Elvis is a groundskeeper on the mission and we have a good relationship with him. He’s getting married in a few weeks, and Val said he needed help picking up the cow.
9:15 am: Brent and Elvis hook up the trailer to the B3. (The new name for our vehicle: the Blue BFC Bakkie [Bakkie is pronounced “buckey” and is Afrikaans for a truck]).
9:30 am: Brent, Michaele and Elvis head out to Luve where Michaele is preaching. The cow is apparently not far from Luve, so we planned on picking it up after church.
10:15 am: We attended Sunday School, Michaele led NYI, then Brent played guitar for worship and Michaele preached. We visited with the pastor and his wife, drank some Coke and ate some biscuits.
1:30 pm: Head to Dvolkolwako (about 45 minutes from Luve in the opposite direction of home) to pick up the butchered cow for Elvis’s wedding feast, which is not until March 6. On the way we found out that the cow had been wounded and so needed to be killed early.
2:15 pm: Arrive at the homestead where the cow was butchered. The skin was laid out over a large metal tub, still freshly bloody. One leg could be seen beside the skin, which was just a bone all but the ankle which still had hair and the hoof. Beside it were the horns, which had been removed from the skull. The rest of the cow was lying in pieces on the ground under a tree. Michaele took pictures as Brent tried to be helpful yet really wanting to keep his distance. Three members of the homestead bagged up the meat in any kind of plastic bag available, and loaded them into the trailer. Not wanting to watch too closely, Michaele played with three toddlers who were fascinated by the camera.
3:00 pm: Leave Dvolkolwako, picking up one more passenger from the homestead who needed a lift. We drive to Matsapha, passing our house on the way, in order to drop the meat off at Elvis’s fiance’s places, which has a deep freezer.
4:15 pm: As we’re getting close to Matsapha, we realize that the cell phone network is down so Elvis cannot contact his fiancé to let her know we are coming.
4:30 pm: Arrive in Matsapha and wait on the side of the road until a plan can be formulated.
4:40 pm: A man in a pick up truck (bakkie) pulls up and says we can put the meat in his truck. Elvis says this is a good plan. But we offered to take the meat wherever it needed to go, so we follow the bakkie up a winding, washed out dirt road into a densely populated area of Matsapha.
4:50 pm: After having driven too far past the drop off point, Brent spends 10 minutes trying to back up with the trailer and turn around in a narrow, crowded street.
5:00 pm: Even though we thought the meat was going to be put into someone’s house, it’s actually transferred to the back of the bakkie we had followed. Needless to say this could have been done earlier, without the crowd watching and on a much better road.
5:05 pm: Michaele and Brent head home alone, since Elvis needed to stay and sort out the meat situation.
5:30 pm: Arrive at home, tired and hungry and laughing.
8:00 pm: Saw our nephew on SKYPE for the first time and got to talk to Matt and Beth for a while.
.....We decided to wait to later to tell them what we were doing during Graham’s first day of life.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Kings and Kingdoms
A few months ago (hard to think that it was only a few months) as we were preparing to leave for Swaziland, we were packing and our neighbor came over to talk to us. He was kindly cautioning us to think more about this decision to move to Africa and volunteer. At the time I (Brent) was impressed by God to remember that He has risen up and deposed Kings, and He has more than enough resource and power to take care of us. At the time that was the message that I felt that God wanted me to be speaking and living.
Since then our Lord has been proving himself daily. First and foremost He has proven himself by using the people of God to provide for us and pray for us. We have received more in prayer and financial support than we could have ever imagined. God has thus far given us favor with, and a great love for, the people that we have worked with both in Swaziland and in America. Also our God has protected us as we have crossed many miles in Africa and crossed the borders so many times.
This past week has involved a lot of challenges here on the ground as well as questions beginning to arise for when our service here is over. Yet at the end of this week, I feel that God wants me to say out loud…and proclaim to those that will listen (or read), that our God is the one who created the universe. Our God knew these brief days that I would be on this earth before I was born. And the one true God whom we serve has raised and deposed kings in a moment’s time. Our God can and will take care of each of us as we serve Him and wholeheartedly surrender ourselves to His direction.
Please be praying for
- Wisdom as we plan for many teams to arrive in Swaziland over the next few months
- A new passion to serve and to “wash feet”
- Open eyes to see what God is doing here
- An increasing faith in our Lord that the more we lean on him the stronger we are
- God’s guidance and wisdom as we begin to think about what is next
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Naledi Child Development Center, Soweto, South Africa
Bethany First Church is embarking on two focused initiatives starting in 2010 and the future years of their partnership with Swaziland. The first is partnering with Nazarene churches and institutions to reduce the HIV infection rate in the country, through the wide sphere of influence the Nazarene church already has. The second is to partner with these same groups to support the care of the growing number of children left orphaned and vulnerable in the wake of the AIDs pandemic. It is estimated that now there are at least 15,000 households in Swaziland which are headed by children because there is no adult left in the home. It is projected that by 2012 Swaziland will have an orphan population of 200,000 – a full fifth (20%) of their national population. In light of these staggering statistics, Bethany First Church is looking for ways it they can support those people and groups who are caring for this growing orphan population.
Last week, Barbi Moore (Director of Global Outreach for BFC) was with us in country and we traveled throughout Swaziland and Johannesburg on a fact-finding mission regarding these two areas. We looked at what is already being done, what needs to be done, and most importantly, what our Swazi leaders want to do in the face of this present crisis.
Some of our meetings were with regional leadership in Johannesburg. As we learned about the Child Development Centers sponsored through Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, we were curious to see this comprehensive model in action. Faith, the director of the Child Development program invited us to tour one of the Child Development Centers in Soweto.
Driving through Soweto was an experience in itself as we had never been to this remnant of one of the largest townships in South Africa. The number of people everywhere was like being in the middle of New York City at rush hour! We arrived at the Naledi Church of the Nazarene and were greeted by Pastor Pule and Thandi, the Coordinator for this Child Development Center. We talked for half an hour as they shared how God had led their church to become the literal “FAMILY” of God to the children in their community that no longer have earthly family. Once we were finished sharing together they led us to see the Child Development Center in action. We met a GoGo (Grandma) that has taken up the call of God to cook for these children each day. She also takes on many other responsibilities for these 40 plus kids.
As we moved from the kitchen to the sanctuary we saw that the worship room had been transitioned into a learning center with children in different age groups who were getting help on their homework and even being instructed in some cases by teenagers who used to be children cared for by this Child Development Center.
I will never forget what was said by Thandi when we asked her what she would say to anyone considering starting this type of program in their church. She said “you only need passion for these children.” She went on to say that there are many days she finds herself doing things that she may not be equipped for, but it is in those days that the passion that God has given her for these kids sustains her.
As you read this post please..
- Pray for those in Africa who are leading the way with their churches and creating the “family of God” in their communities for children who have little or no family left through these Child Development Centers
- Look for opportunities to pray for, affirm, and support those children that you know that are in need.
- Ask God to give you the strength to use what you do have as a platform for God’s Passion to sustain you and help you do something new.
To see more information on the Child Development Centers and Child Sponsorship through Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, visit: http://www.ncm.org/learn/childdevelopment/
Monday, January 18, 2010
Lost and Found
Our return trip to Swaziland was pretty uneventful… until we arrived at the Matsapha airport in Swaziland and found only one of our four checked bags. This was on Saturday morning, and being the weekend our options were already severely limited. So, we registered the missing items with the airport baggage staff (who also serve as the check-in staff and runway traffic control [you know, the guys with the orange sticks directing the planes]). We were told to call them at 3pm to check if our bags had arrived on a later flight.
We tried calling the airport after 3pm, but no one answered. We’ve learned that the best results come from in-person conversations anyway, so we drove the 15 minutes to the airport. However, once there, we found that the last plane had come and gone by 2:30, and the whole airport staff promptly left.
Sunday morning we decided to get to the airport for the first arrival from Johannesburg. We thought we could quickly pick up the bags (we were hopeful they were there), and be at church no more than 15 minutes late. Of course things went very differently. The bags were not there, and apparently the airport’s computer system had been down and so the report of our bags had not yet been filed. We found the staff to be incredibly helpful, however, and were invited into their back room to make phone calls to all kinds of people in Johannesburg. Between the four of us in that office, we spent an hour on the phones trying to get information from various airlines and offices in the Johannesburg airport. All to no avail. And we didn’t get to go to church.
Back at home, with no real prospects, I (Michaele) was feeling incredibly discouraged. All the nightmare stories of stolen bags were coming back to me, and I just kept remembering more and more items that were stowed away in those three bags. Not willing to give up, I continued to call all the dead-end numbers we had tried earlier. I finally was able to talk to one person who was very helpful, but still had no news about where the bags were located.
Brent gave up and took a nap, and I got online and started emailing everyone I could think of who might be able help – baggage claim service, customer service, and friends I knew would be passing through the airport on Monday. I also left a pretty despairing status on my Facebook account regarding our lost luggage. Within a few minutes, I had received a message from Dr. Filimao Chambo, Africa’s regional director for the Church of the Nazarene. He said he would be traveling through JoBurg airport that night (Sunday), and he would check on our bags for us. Saying a prayer and thanking God for this small glimmer of hope, I sent him all the information on our lost luggage.
Last night, over a late dinner, Brent and I tried to remind ourselves that God could take care of this, even though it looked like our bags might be gone for good. We also reminded ourselves that there were worse things in the world than lost luggage, (though we had a tough time considering it as the luggage lost was full of presents for our Swazi friends). We went to bed at peace with the situation, feeling wholly out of control, but aware that God could handle it.
This morning we received an email from Dr. Chambo bringing the awesome news that he had located our bags!! Somehow, they were in a storage room for domestic luggage with one of the airlines who had said they had nothing to do with our bags when we had called them. Since they could offer him no guarantees that the bags would arrive safely in Matsapha, he took the bags with him. They are safely at his home in Johannesburg and we will pick them up when we go there for scheduled meetings on Friday! When we looked at the time stamp on Dr. Chambo’s email to us, we realized that even as we were trying to encourage ourselves over dinner the night before, God had already taken care of it.
This story is a great reminder to us of several things. Even in the most seemingly insignificant circumstances, God is at work. And in the areas in which we feel we have absolutely no control, God is at work. Even when we give up and go to sleep, God is at work! We are also reminded that in Africa, relationship is everything. Processes and systems have their place (but not usually in Africa when emails and telephone calls and customer service fails, a face-to-face means everything. Dr. Chambo was able to accomplish in person what we never could have in a million phone calls.
Although a bit anxious and frustrating, our first 48 hours back in Swaziland have been rich in lessons and many reminders of why we’re blessed to be in Africa!
Friday, January 15, 2010
Back to Africa
36 days
3 countries
9 airports
5 states (excluding lay overs)
10 different beds slept in (excluding plane seats)
11 flights
4 pieces of checked luggage, weighing in at just under 50 lbs. each for a total of 200 lbs.
4 carry-ons (weighing more than our shoulders should carry)
Traveling home to see family and friends for Christmas...
PRICELESS!!!
Thank you to all who made our month at home such a wonderful time. We are feeling richly blessed with friends and family like you. The next months will be full and busy, but we're excited to jump back into life in Swaziland. Thank you for your continued prayers and support!
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