Week 4

So this past week was a good week! We hung out with the kids, went to some carepoints with an NFL player's wife (Chanita Foster wife of George Foster who was just traded to the Colts), we went on a safari, took a trip to South Africa to renew our visas to stay in Swaziland, and hung out as a team. It has been an eventful week and a very much go with the flow of things! I don't even know where to start to describe this week. It was the last week with all 6 of us here together. It was great and sad and all sorts of emotions. It will definitely be sad when those 5 wonderful women of God leave and I am still here! But God has great plans for this girls home and I am more then willing to be used by Him to do his work! So some about this week. Monday a few of us got to hang out with Chanita Foster and see the care points and school she has started over here. She is a great woman, very powerful and knows how to get things done! Then on Wednesday Mary-Kate and I went with Tenele (read Mary-Kate's blog for more information on Tenele...you can get to it by Hosea's hearts website) to her mother's home to see if she could possibly move home or had other relatives that she could move in with because where she is living now is not a good situation. Her mother and step father were very willing to have her come home so this tuesday I with the social service office will be taking Tenele home to her mother's home. Thursday we went on a Safari! It was a lot of fun we saw giraffes, zebras, rhinos, and some other really cool animals! Yesterday we had to go to South Africa and we hung out with some of the kids. It was a really good day just spending it with the team and the kids. God has really used this time with these girls to prepare me more for staying here for the year. They have been a huge blessing on this trip and I can't believe they are all heading home on Monday. Each one has had such a big impact on my life that I will never forget! I know God has huge things in store for them and I am excited to see where God takes them! I am sad to see them go but know God has great things in the states for them! I will be praying for them as they return to the states and integrate back into their normal lives!!!! And we will see where God takes me as I continue to live in Swaziland and work to get the girls home started!

Eish!!!! (WEEK 3)

Eish (ee-shh) is a Swazi expression for if something not great happens and you just react to it by saying eish. Sometimes it's used for example: some of the girls from the team and Tenele were playing a card game and Tenele would say eish when she was nervous about what the other person was going to lay down or if they were going to go out before her. I have picked up this expression, so if I were to stub my toe I would say eish. Well that expression explains my week! EISH!!!! Except for the first part of the week was really good we took 6 girls, some of them being prostitutes, out to lunch at KFC (the only American restaurant around). They were great girls and surprisingly shared a lot with us with just meeting most of us for the first time. To hear some of their hearts and their desire for help and to change was something I won't forget! I am glad I will be able to continue those relationships and be here for them when the rest return home. They will still have us supporting them even though not all of us will be here. It was also awesome to watch my teammates love on those girls! It just made my heart full to know how much love God has given them for the people of Swaziland it was a blessing! Tuesday we had a meeting with the head director at Manzini Youth Care, Father Larry, and Sister Judith about the girls home. It was amazing! God is sooo good and when he has something planned things just fall into place! In the meeting most of the talking in the beginning was Father Larry and sister Judith. They shared what they wanted in the home and how they thought it could be run and it lined up exactly with what we were thinking! It was God all the way! They are eager to get it started and wanting to start renovations as soon as possible, which is awesome because we have this joke within our team about American time vs. Swazi time. American time is fast past, on time, whereas Swazi time is slow, go with the flow and whenever I get there I get there! We are all exciting about what God will be doing here with the girl's home and know He has great plans! I know I am more then honored to be the one to stay for the year and help get it started!!!
So for the Eish part of my week....we went out to eat on Tuesday for lunch and did some souvenir shopping. Well I don't know if it was what I had for lunch or what but Tuesday night was not fun! Sorry in advance for the details but if you don't want to know you don't have to read the next few lines! ;) But I got really bad diarrhea and was vomiting! From Tuesday through Friday I can't even start to think how many times I went to the bathroom! It was a sickness I wouldn't wish on anyone, even my worst enemy! But God revealed a lot about myself through it and just the prayers from my team and my Swazi friends made me realized how blessed I am by these people and how much they have faith in Jehovah-rapha, the God who heals. Even though it was not fun to go through coming out of that sickness is so relieving! Friday I finally went to the clinic and received medication for everything! So by Friday evening I was feeling much much better! I still am gaining back my strength from not eating for 3 days but God is good and is truly Jehovah-rapha, not just physically but emotionally and spiritually! So my prayer is that You will know God as healer! That you would let Him touch your life and heal your wounds and scars, whether it may be a physical, spiritual, or an emotional scar/wound/sickness. So even though most of this week was an eish kind of week I know God used it to glorify him and teach me things that maybe I wouldn't have learned otherwise!

Week 2

This week was a rough week but God definitely did some awesome things this week too! Four out of the six of us girls got sick. Either with colds or stomach aches/issues. I've had a cold all week! And if you know me, I don't do well when I'm sick. All I want to do is curl up and sleep all day and just relax. Well, since I couldn't really do that, God definitely helped me through and I pushed through. It was for sure a growing week! But on a better note, we did some fun things this week! We went and saw the girl's home on Monday, which was exciting to see. It needs a lot of work but has great potential. We met with a girl that Mary-Kate and I had met on our first trip to Swaziland, Titi, about the girl's home and being a house mothr and maybe even helping out before the house was ready. She was so willing and so on board, we knew it was God at work. Wednesday one of my teammates and I went with the guy from MYC's social services to an orphanage and helped him with his monthly updates of the kids there. I got a little glimpse of what I will be doing for the year I'm here. It was super exciting. Thursday, we too the morning and were silent until lunch. It was time to spend with God, to listen to his voice. I reread some of my journal from the past year and a half. God has truly been faithful in answering my prayers. He has been preparing me for this trip even before I knew it! It was awesome to see how He had been working in my life. God really does have everything under control! We/I just need to trust in Him and He will take you/me where you're meant to be!

WEEK 1

Update from Swaziland: I got my bag back on Monday! Praise God for that! This has been a good week! We've hung out with kids, which I love! I played soccer with the boys some too! We talked with the organization, Manzini Youth Care, about the girls home which was super exciting. We're starting to get the ball rolling! Right now, MYC is going through a director change so we have to wait until this week to talk to the new director about more details. I'm finally starting to see what I'll be doing for the home and things are coming together. Which is awesome! I will have a lot of say and power in this project so my prayer is that God will guide me as I do His work! It's going to be a new experience a new territory but with God's guidance it'll go exactly how it's supposed to go! God has been teaching me to rely on Him this week and I just never realized how much I rely on others. It has been very eye opening to just see how God can work when you let Him in control and let Him lead!!!! Keep letting Him guide and you will do wonderful things!!!!!