Busy, Blessed, and Broken-Hearted

I don't even know where to start. I'm sitting here on the bed, while Mary-Kate is packing, contemplating how to steal her passport so she can't leave! Haha, Actually we are really contemplating how we managed to fit in so much stuff into one week. It felt like we did more in one week then I've done in the whole 4 months I have been here. It was actually really awesome! We started painting the girl's home, spent time with the kiddos (Ayanda, Johannes, Tenele, and Andile), went to the school MYC has called Enjabulweni to hand out pen pal letters from Mary-Kate's students in the States and have the kids write letters back, and we bought other material for the girl's home so that the workers could continue to work. We did so much more as well! Here are just a few events that really stuck out to me this week:

1. Just having Mary-Kate here all week has been wonderful! She has such a love for these kids that just rubs off on you! She truly shows Christ to them. She showed Christ to me this week! I know it was good for her to come and spend the week here in the place she loves, but it was such a blessing to have her here and to share this passion for these kids and the girl's home. She is such a go getter and it truly motivated and encouraged me to keep pushing on and to do what I need to when she is gone! I have a pretty long to do list and I am so excited to get these things going so that the girl's home can be open by the end of January!

2. We spent a number of hours at the school through MYC, Enjabulweni. Working with the boys homes I haven't had much interaction with the girl's in Swaziland but going to the school some the week before Mary-Kate came and then while she was here gave me the opportunity to build some relationships with some of the girl's! It was actually really cool to see how they open up to you and share their lives with you by simply taking the time to listen to them. It was just cool to invision what it might be like when the girl's home is actually open.

 3. I really realized my love for these kids (Ayanda, Johannes, Andile, Tenele, and Lucia, Tenele's daughter) this week and how hard these kids have it. I saw Tenele's Mom kick her out of the home and tell her that this life wasn't for her and that she was a whore. I saw an interview with Ayanda where she smiled the whole way through trying to keep herself from crying while she talked about her life. Also, I saw the silence of the boys, being strong and hiding their feelings and needs from those around them. Lastly, I witnessed them experience rejection by someone who they thought cared about him. One of them even asked if that person hated them. Their pain became ever so real to me this week. Yet, living through all of this they all have such wisdom about life. I seriously sometimes wonder: Where does all this wisdom come from? These kids have much more wisdom and even joy then I do! I've learn so much from them and I am at least 5 years older then them if not more. Just with all the events that have happened and with what they've gone through in life they know so much more about life then I do! I used to think that I could teach them something being older but no they have taught me so much more than I can ever teach them about life! I am truly blessed to have them in my life and to be called their Auntie!!! (Mary-Kate is their mom!) 

The main room where girls will eat and study

4. Last but not least, the girl's home! I feel like so much was done at the girl's home this past week. We got to paint, the toilets were put in, the showers were tiled, and the main room was tiled. So it is coming along and we have an open date for January when the office reopens! So pray that the open date doesn't get moved back so that we can start having girl's move in and start out at a new school at the beginning of the year!

painting :)

Love Week 20

It's funny how God works sometimes. I'd shared in a past blog when I had been sick and God just revealing my selfishness and lack of love for people through that. Well I think God is definitely changing my heart. He has been filling me with his love this week. He's being revealing his love to me as something I can freely accept. I am reading through the psalms and the ones this week have been all about how God is faithful to his people and how his love is great. And then I read a dear friend of mine's blog, Mary-Kate, about being broken and how the children here in Swazi and in America all want the same thing. They want to feel wanted, worth something, and loved (I think that is most people's desire whether we want to admit it or not). Sunday night we had a camp fire with the younger boys at the Enjabulweni home. I really enjoyed the evening and you could tell the boys did too! They just want to be loved and know that someone cares about them. And having something as simple as a campfire and spending time with them is all it takes. It astounds me sometimes how easy it is for people to just write off these boys as trouble makers or pests or having no future, which then makes them think they have the right to treat them like they are worthless. But these boys are so full of love and joy! They remind me almost every time I spend time with them how much love and joy for life I lack! It was just an encouraging week and crazy just how God has filled me with his love for these boys! Yes, they can be a handful but that's what makes me love them more! They are creative and use the resources they have around them to make games or art. For example, one of the other volunteers told me that they made a golf club out of sticks and were using a ball of some sorts to play golf. They use bricks as their soccer goals and were playing soccer with a half flat basketball. And they don't complain about it! This is their life and they are living it the best way they know how! They are such an encouragement to me and makes me want to be more like them!

The workers finishing up the storage cage.

On Wednesday, we had a girl's home meeting to discuss the roles of MYC verses Hosea's Heart. It went really well and when Mary-Kate, co-founder of Hosea's Heart, arrives on the 17th, Saturday, we will have another meeting to finalize the roles and have a legal document drawn up just in case anything were to happen. It seems like Hosea's Heart will have a good amount of say on what goes on and the home can be generally run how the volunteer present wants to, which for the time being is me! :) They want the home to be run by volunteers with Swazi houseparents. Hosea's Heart will provide the year long volunteer each year. Below are some pictures of the continual work on the home. We are said to be opening the home towards the end of January when the schools are back in session!!!! (That is when I will move into the home as well.)

The Study/Dining Room floor being retiled!

Trusting God-Week 19

This past week was busy! Here's just a little run down of my week: Monday we tutored in the afternoon some of the older boys. I helped some of them with English which was cool. Then, Tuesday two of the older boys came to the office because they had left school and needed to bring adults with them when they returned back to school because of the things they had done. The first boy had threatened a kid because he gave him money for a phone but he never got the phone. So, the school was going to handle it but wanted us (MYC) to be aware of the situation. The other boy who had come to the office told us that the principal grabbed his ears and punched him in the stomach for no reason. Though, we found out that the boy was late. When we talked with the principal he stated that he was just joking around with him wanting to know why he had been late to school. The boy is a shy, quiet boy and doesn't normally get in trouble. The principal though was quick to defend his actions and make sure we knew he had done it “jokingly.” However, the principal seemed to really be defensive about his actions and we hadn't brought it up. So, after our conversation with the boy and then with the principal, the boy apologized for being late and for anything else he may have done and the boy was able to go back to school thankfully! Then, Wednesday and Thursday I worked on writing up a Child Protection Policy for MYC. Wednesday afternoon, I helped tutor the older boys again and then in the evening I helped tutor the younger boys. Which was so much fun! I really enjoyed it! It's been nice to have more interactions with the boys and have some of them come and hang out with me! Thursday evening, I went to a bible study, which was really good! We talked about Colossians 3:1-17. It talks about focusing on heavenly things verses earthly things and clothing ourselves with love, tenderhearted mercy, etc. It was really good to be reminded that I am here to bring glory to God and do his will. I shouldn't worry because God has everything under control! He will give me what I need to accomplish his will! It was a really good reminder. The rest of my week was spent in the office and then just relaxing this weekend! This morning in church the pastor talked about having the power of the Holy Spirit and trusting in God. I thought it went right along with the bible study and with how I have been feeling lately! God has really been giving me what I need to hear and using my fellowship with Christians to speak to me! It has been really nice finally starting to have that connection and support with what I am going through spiritually!
The girl's home is coming along. Most of the kitchen is done the bathroom is close to being done, the ceiling and roof are done, and they were working on the floors for the main area and the bedrooms. It is exciting to continue to see the transformation! 

The pretty much finished kitchen!!!! :)

The ramp is now complete :)

        

Blessed (WEEK 18)

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One of the workers fixing the roof !!

This week was a good week! I felt productive and busy and just had a positive attitude overall this week! I worked on reports this week for the boys who didn't have birth certificates! That took up a bunch of my time because you needed to go through their files and get information on them and then write the report, which then goes to the Social Welfare Department in Manzini for it to be processed and passed on to the right people. It was a lot of typing and reading but I actually enjoyed it and learned more about each kids situation as I did it. Also, several afternoons this week, one of the younger boys would come to the office and visit me! He and I made paper airplanes and other paper things one day, played cards another, and read a book. I believe he is the youngest boy in our care at Manzini Youth Care. He is a cute little boy but he would stay with me the whole afternoon then walk home with me! It seriously made my week a lot better being able to interact with him and spend sometime with the kids. We didn't get to tutor this week because our car broke down the end of last week and it wasn't fixed until Tuesday morning and then Wednesday when we went there was no one there. But it gave me time to work on some things for the girl's home. I wrote an article for Manzini Youth Care's website that will be posted and I made an agenda of things that need to get done and need to be decided. So in the next two weeks we can have a meeting to decide how things will be run. The girl's home is starting to look better and better each time I go! It was cool to see all the changes since the last time that I had gone and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel finally. There is still much to do but it seems to be finally moving along at a steady speed. However, saying that, we are working on transferring the money that has been raised in America to here because currently MYC has used all it's funds here to renovate the home. Hopefully, we can get the money from the States to here and they can continue to work!

The Kitchen

On another note, this Wednesday I went to a bible study held at the home of an american couple I met at church. It was such an uplifting time! It made me feel very blessed to be apart of it. There were 3 Americans, a South African, a Swazi, and a lady from Zimbabwe. It was really cool to talk about the bible and have discussion with others who grew up in a different culture than I did. It was really encouraging and God really blessed me with the opportunity to join them. So hopefully I can continue to be blessed and go every Wednesday!