Road to Mbabane

I couldn’t stay away, this blog stuff is like what television has led me to believe about drugs.

No, Lisa just wanted me to let you all know we’re fine. 

Freaked-out. Insecure. Neurotic. Emotional. Right, Mark Whalberg?

Anyway, the trip back was a little longer than we were expecting. Long story short, our first attempt at leaving the tarmac in Jo’berg turned into a six hour tour around the property and a free stay at a local hotel.

The broken A/C and broken spirits were worth it for that continental breakfast. Yowza. 

We then had to return in the morning, rebook our Jo’berg-Dubai and Dubai-Los Angeles flights, but we made it. Safe and Sound. Seriously, thank you so much for your prayers. What a tangible proof of God’s provision, right?  

“Bye-Bye” is universal.

Maybe it’s just a whiff of existentialism, maybe it’s the influence of Slaughterhouse 5, maybe it’s the time change, or maybe it really was just a few minutes ago that we landed in Manzini, ready to start our time here.

Bags are mostly packed, several goodbye speeches have been made, and our confirmations are printed. Save the will to endure 40+ hours of travel, we’re ready to go home.

Riddle your brain this one: We’ll knock out over 40 hours of travel in about 28.

Today was much more interesting than I think any of us were planning on. I suppose that’s ultimately a good thing, because with such few days here, it would be a shame to waste any. Yesterday afternoon we were informed that the church service we would be attending today was going to be run by none other than… us. Cool.

Ryan and Amy led worship, Cody testified, and some lanky kid preached on the prodigal son. It ended up being a really fruitful time. We were invited to the pastor’s home for lunch afterward, and it was so much more than any of us were expecting. Google “Mafuteni Ranch” in Swaziland, and you’ll find the home of Harry and Mollie Laurens. We were spoiled out of our minds with freshly grilled chicken and Boar Wurst, along with a plethora of other weirdly German and Swazi dishes. The company outdid the food, a feat not easily accomplished, and it was the perfect ending cue to this trip.

Reflecting on the significance of these past two weeks, on our significance in these past two weeks, leaves me with few words.

In the midst of dealing with some extreme poverty, hungry bellies, and people desperately in need of God, we have had full stomachs, have been well rested, and have had ample time to ourselves for personal growth. Who was this trip for?

It’s easy to walk away from a situation feeling like a small drop in a big, big bucket, but too many times have we been affirmed by Bongs and the team to walk away feeling defeated. We have been given the incredible opportunity to be a part of YFC’s rebirth. We have come here to be the push over the edge that they needed to keep going, and we have been able to impart prayer, insight, encouragement and friendship into people who desperately needed it.

You can’t help but ask what has gotten the Swazi people into the predicament they are in, why so many good people are living in such abominable conditions. The conclusion I’ve come to at the end of many of these questions is simply that they, like me, were born. Turns out that my delivery room just happened to be in the States, and I’ve been given an incredible life because of it. It should then be my responsibility in turn to give all that I can to help. That doesn’t mean emptying my bank account, I don’t think, but it means being available as a resource, and I believe that as a team we were very successful in that regard.

We have made great new friends—within our own team and YFC—we have made great memories, and hopefully we’ve learned a decent amount in the process.

Introspection is so in right now.

Thank you for your prayers, and I know that they will continue as we travel for an absurd amount of time. We can’t wait to share pictures and stories with you all—you can expect a post within the next week or so with a link to the pictures. Talk soon.

With Love,

Team Swaziland           

At one point during my multi-hour waking-up process, which has become standard on this trip—starting at whatever ungodly hour the sun shows up and ending with Weston coming to the top of the stairs informing me that I’m delaying breakfast—I rolled to my side and out of my window saw something of a makeshift cattle drive. In the plots adjacent to the YWAM property, there are seemingly free-roaming cattle: grazing, defecating, and otherwise minding their own business. This morning, however, we awoke and found someone had left our gate open, and four rogue steer found themselves grazing on corn inside the boundaries of our Swazi home. The cattle drive was being performed by none other than a select group of Californian Undergrads; those with true grit and otherwise John Wayne-ian resolve.

Well, they were at least Undergrads. And one guy who works on the property. I had a good laugh.

We’re all quite baffled as to where the past two weeks have gone. Today marks the last day of ministry here in the Swaz, and it was defined by going to a youth group meeting tonight in Mbabane. Yesterday we ran the first and last day of our two-day camp. I know the math’s a little funny on that, it’s never been my strong suit, but due to a lack of resources and an executive decision on the part of YFC, we cut the camp short. It was, however, a really special time.

While trying to run a camp for about 50 local kids, it makes for a challenge when only 2 members of the camp “staff” speak their language, but after doing our best to break that Fort Knox of a barrier, we had a lot of fun.

I’m told that the louder you speak, the easier it becomes for someone to understand your English.

We ran different stations where the kids got to play soccer, or color, or even learn a Bible verse. It was an opportunity for them to feel loved for an afternoon, and another opportunity for YFC to reach out to the community.  

One somewhat encapsulating moment—a tangible metaphor for what we are doing on this trip— was an encounter with a little boy who spent most of the day with Heather. When we visited a care point in Manzini on Monday, this same little boy approached Heather and she noticed his chin. He had fallen and scraped it some time ago, and a lack of proper care had led to an infection that was essentially eating the skin off of his face. Heather, being the good nursing major that she is, was able to attend to his wound, and give it all the attention and resources she had to offer. Four days later, she got to see him again, and his chin was noticeably better.

We didn’t come here to heal chins, tend to every wound, and stop every cold. We came here to speak into individuals lives, to show love, and to hopefully in some way share the love of God that we’ve experienced ourselves. If that means taking five minutes to clean up a scrape, then so be it. If it means being here to encourage a man who has a vision for change in his country through his ministry, so be it.

Bottom line, all we can do is love, because He first loved us.        

Our hope is that for the rest of the time that we are here, we remain present in our goal of encouraging and building these precious relationships. It’s clear that we have new friends, not just new contacts.

We’ll be going into Ezulwini tomorrow. I would tell you what for, but honestly our plans haven’t been what we thought that they would be any single day so far on this trip. So just use your imagination. Sunday we’ll be going to church and then we’ve been invited to the Pastor’s home for lunch afterward.

Chloe got the raw end of a deal with some undercooked meat the other night (pun absolutely intended) and was sick for the majority of Thursday, but she has recovered now, showered, and is as active as ever. Ryan is also feeling much better, and Heather, as always, is in great spirits.

A regular Tiny Tim.  

Please continue to pray for our safety in travel here, and soon in the air. Please also continue to pray for YFC.

Bongani, Noxie, and Lelo reiterated to us this morning that our presence here has marked a distinct change for YFC, that may have been the difference between this ministry continuing or not. They are an amazing group of people, and they need all the support they can get.

Not to get too sentimental but Sunday will probably be one of the last posts for the team. I expect a ton of “likes” and “reblogs” ok?

Siabonga,

Team Swaziland

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.

This is not Spain. In fact, the rain does fall on the plain, but it is not limited to said plain. It falls everywhere, and has been falling everywhere since Monday. We’re told that it’s the tail of “Cyclone Dando” that recently hit Mozambique.

Oh my gosh, Mom, we’re fine!

It has not affected our ministry here, though. If anything it’s made it more exciting. Be it tires sliding on the mud hill leaving our property, driving through puddles that almost come up to the door, or landslides that close through roads.

Hey, at least the detours are scenic enough.

One such occurrence of ministry-made-exciting was yesterday when we visited the Sandra Lee Centre here in Mbabane. We had two contacts at Sandra Lee: one was Pastor Mike, who is the Pastor at Checkers Community Church where we visited on our first Sunday here. He’s a New Zealand-born man who, in his mid-sixties, is some kind of hybrid between a character out of “Jurassic Park” and what I imagine Roger Banister to have been like. Our second contact was a large, white man sporting a large, black “Rocawear” hoodie who went by the name of Dennis. Dennis graduated from Nyack College in New York a number of years ago, and then over the course of a number of visits to Swaziland, married a local. He has now been working at Sandra Lee for the past two months.

The Sandra Lee Centre is an incredible compound, almost entirely donated, that houses 28 Swazi children ranging from the ages of 2 to 10. What sets this home apart is that each child was abandoned by his or her family. Not put up for adoption, not offered to someone, just left on the side of the road or in a Hospital, really wherever. No family, no explanation. Sandra Lee Centre has taken them in, and plans to walk through life with them as they grow up and ultimately begin to go off on their own. Sandra Lee has become their family. It was really special to get to visit, teach them some lessons, play some games, and then tell them about why we we’re here, in hopes that this too will be one of YFC’s long-term partnerships.

Oh, yeah, the rain factor: They wanted the five of us guys to move like 12, 400lb blocks down a hill. In the rain. It was basically just an affirmation of our masculinity. It was to help their garden.

Today we drove to Big Bend to visit “Beyond the Game” Ministries. Go ahead and google “George ‘False Start’ Foster.” He’s an NFL player from the States who started Beyond the Game. We discovered this ministry because his wife spotted the van full of white kids in the middle of the Pick N Pay parking lot one day when we were on our way back from Manzini. So there you go, just by virtue of our being here, God provided another partnership for YFC. Love it.

The two hour drive out to Big Bend was delightfully uneventful, and we just sat back and took in Africa. After about an hour and a half we turned onto a clay “road,” and our vantage point left the Caravelle, as the remnants of the rainfall danced through the cracks of the red road, feeling like a low-flying plane over the great Zambezi.

Of course, I’m just romanticizing a whole lot of nothing. I’m pretty sure my left butt-cheek fell asleep while Ryan’s sick body draped over me in a shallow, nap-like state. But the scenery was really beautiful—Kruger-like even—as we drove into the site.

The location itself ended up being in the middle of rural nowhere, amongst homes not unlike those in the cultural village we visited. It had one lone, bright-red building where they were cooking food, and upwards of 100 kids were outside playing soccer, singing songs, and just loving life. We presented for them, played with them, and then YFC broke it down, dance style. It’s really, particularly special to watch Lelo come alive around kids, as if once in their presence he transforms into a superhero of children’s ministry. I’m gonna miss him.

Today is Khumbuh’s (Bongani’s wife, correct spelling, pronounced: “Koom boo”) birthday. We got her a cake, but we haven’t told her yet so don’t say anything. As was flippantly mentioned before, Ryan is feeling sick, like a head cold, but he has been incredible about it. Please continue to keep him and Heather’s foot in your prayers. Tomorrow we will start day one of our two-day children’s camp in Manzini, planned out by YFC. So pray for that too.

We totes miss you guys. It’s nuts to think that we’ll be stateside in a week. Thanks for the emails Mom, they’re really encouraging.

Love, yeah I said it,

Team Swaziland     

So, this trip’s just a tad over half way through now. Let’s take inventory on how we’re all doing…

Family: Clearly they miss us. Mothers emailing children, children ignoring those emails, worry ensuing.

Friends: Most of them probably have forgotten that we’ve gone anywhere, wondering why we aren’t returning their texts, continuation of said friendships to be put up for review.

Potential Employers, Biola Registrar’s Office: I’m sure that our lack of response has indicated that we are no longer interested and will be glad to settle for low-level, junior employment for the remainder of our lives. Oh gosh, we should buy more Dongle time.

Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games Trilogy: Rollin’ in the Benjamins, as almost 100% of our team has read one or more of the books in the series since our first day here. You’re welcome, Suze.  

Significant Others: Ha, we wish.

Yesterday, Sunday, we got to rest, and that was glorious. Church went well, and aside from one slight hiccup with the Golf (the little VW to accompany our Caravelle on expeditions), which included a detour to AutoZone Manzini, it was a quiet day—sunny, quaint, and full of good laughs and good books.

Again, mostly ones about Katniss Everdeen.

Today, in spite of the rain, we visited the first of several care points that we will be dropping in on this week. In addition to the dirt lot upon which we met up with the kids, they had a tin shack with a fire cooking some food, and then one of those cargo trailers that’s in the “harbor” scene of every thief movie.

People just hang out in it, there isn’t a harbor for quite a few kilometers. 

It’s weird to think that in Africa you can take a resource for granted, but it came as a bit of a surprise that they didn’t even have a proper room to fit these kids in under the rain. We just kind of ran into an open building/hall with a leaky roof and no real doors. It did just fine, and Amy brought the heat with the story of Jesus calming the sea.

Well played.

Bongani said something interesting yesterday about foreign aid. I asked him if he thought of Swaziland, if most Swazi’s thought of Swaziland, as a country in need. They aren’t walking around talking about the devastation of AIDS, or the fact that their King isn’t a very nice guy—most people like him. So on the surface, you could think that they might just not know.

That’s silly, though.

In response, Bongani said yes, but ultimately he thinks that foreign aid as it is stifles the ultimate recovery of this nation. “Look around,” he said, “ you could put any seed in this dirt and it would grow, but would you believe that we import most of our goods? We are a nation of lazy people, and that is what needs to be corrected.”

That, and more points, to say that Swaziland doesn’t just need handouts, it needs to be taught the value of hard work and how to be more self-sufficient.

Thinking about that in the context of missions has been invaluable. We shouldn’t be going here to be the resource, to be the great news-bearers who have all the answers. We should be taking the resources and answers that we have been so blessed to have been given, and we should do our best to equip our Swazi brothers and sisters with them, so that they may perpetrate the great commission in this beautiful nation.

Your continued prayers are a treasure.

Talk soon,

Swaz-tacular.

In Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring—at least the movie version (he’s an English major?!)—Gandalf famously remarks, “A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.”

This is not true of the Swazi people. I’m pretty sure they just kind of arrive at some point.

I really appreciate this culture, as punctuality has never been much of my strong suit, but I’m afraid that it might have a negative affect on my class attendance upon our arrival back in the States. As far as what it has done for our trip, it has presented a unique point of growth, and we find ourselves in many ways eating our own words.

Our words being “flexibility” and “quality over quantity.”

Yesterday we once again left Mbabane for Manzini to partner with a local congregation, Living Waters. We were set to attend their youth group meeting from 6:00-7:30, so we left our base after lunch to head over and do some ministry in town. It’s about an hour drive to Manzini when all is said and done, so we got there around 2:00/2:30. We immediately started off in a neighborhood at a local daycare center. Keep in mind, it’s summer over here, so even though kids aren’t in school, this particular place provides care and a meal to children who cannot provide it themselves.

Needless to say, they were stoked when we got there, and we probably spent an hour and a half to two hours singing songs, running around, and just loving on the kids. Then we left the care center and walked around the neighborhood telling people about the youth group service that would be happening at Living Water just a few hours later.

By about 5:00, we had covered a good chunk of ground and decided it was time for a food break. We headed to a local grocery store and stocked up on goodies. Rand translates in our favor for sure, as it’s about 8 to $1. So for roughly $2.50, I got a giant yogurt, a banana, chips, and fat bottle of water. Awesome. Among the team there were items such as cakes, full loaves of bread, coke, and peanut butter.

Sometime around 6:00, we showed up at the Church and discovered that the service would in fact be going until 8:30. Factor that in with the hour drive, and the remaining prep work for the food, and it seemed that our usual dinner time might be delayed a tad.

Thank goodness for Simba Chips flavored with Mrs. H.S. Balls’ Chutney.

The service was good, and Cody got a chance to share his incredible life story. Swazi time, however, ended up getting us home by about 10:30. After a meeting and a sad attempt to make potato salad, the remaining few of us just went to bed.

We somehow managed to make potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, mustard, mayo, seasoned salt, and garlic taste like absolutely nothing. What’s up Rachel Ray. 

That all to say: 1. We’ve turned into 93 year-olds who go to bed at 8:30, and 2. We are learning to be flexible when it comes to time.

Today was really special. It marked YFC Swaziland’s first Youth Outreach Training Conference. Bongani said that it was something that has been on his heart to do for a long time, but it took us being here to really push him over the edge to do it.

“Words of affirmation” is my love language.  

For the first session this morning they had a speaker from South Africa, then Bongani’s wife spoke for the second session. Finally Ryan, Derek, Weston and I spoke on the practical application of the first two sessions in running a youth outreach program. Ryan drew from his Business Major, Derek from being the SOS director and a academic advisor, and Weston from his experience this summer working at a Church. I got to wrap things up with some role-playing scenarios for our guests to get a feel for applying the lessons. It got a little goofy, and we may have gotten a tad sun burnt, but it seems as though the teaching was well received. Bongani seemed very pleased.

Thank you for your prayers, and please continue to pray for the aforementioned requests (see the last post). This upcoming week, our second and final, will be spent going to different care points across Swaziland to play with and love on Swazi kids in need, and continue to establish YFC’s network.

Collectively, we miss you.

Team Swazi

Sawubona! (literally translates: “Hello friends and family from the US!” just kidding. It means “Hi.”)

Thinking back to our arrival at Manzini International, it seems surreal how long we’ve been here. Not that seven days is really much of anything, but I say that to say it feels as though we’ve been here for months.

Maybe it’s the heat. Maybe it’s our keen mastery of at least 3 SiSwati words. Maybe it’s a combination of the jet lag and the change in water (which after an accident the first night drinking some rogue grape juice, we found out its totally chill for us to drink). The bottom line is, we’re definitely adjusted, and now finally have a clear picture of what it is we are really doing here. With just a week and a half left.

If you end up in our spot, here’s a tip: Be flexible.

Today we got to go to Siteki (I think the best phonetic spelling I can muster is “Steggy”). We met up with a local congregation called “Eagle’s Wings Ministry” and from there went around the small town talking to people about why we came to Swaziland and informing them that there would be a meeting at 2:00 that afternoon.

Whiteness begets loquaciousness. 

We were the ones who would be leading that meeting. We sang some songs (there was actually a piano and drums at the church, so we got to employ our Partrich Family-level range of musical ability) the YFC staff laid down some fat dance moves, and then our very own Caitlin Helms brought the Word. We definitely made some new friends, and it’s definitely a good step for YFC in their development/rebirth.

At the conclusion of our debrief meeting last night, we realized that the focal point of our ministry here is really the staff at Youth For Christ. They’re making bold strides in transforming their ministry, and it’s awesome to be a part of. They used to be exclusively known as a dance troupe, and now they have become a ministry that partners with churches all over Swaziland to spread the gospel boldly to youth. We’ve realized that we have become kind of a conduit for their boldness in that transformation, so spending time with their staff, building relationships, and encouraging them with our own stories and laughter has been a key part of our stay.

Blessing the blessers. That’s, like, varsity-Christian status.

Yesterday, Wednesday, we went to Manzini to visit a hospice with mostly patients who are HIV positive or have fully developed AIDS. We got to sing some songs for the patients, Weston preached for a little bit, and then we went and visited individual rooms in smaller groups. I think that was something of an “ah-ha” moment, at least for me. We aren’t doctors. In fact with the exception of the Bio-Chem/Nursing majors on the team, we really don’t even have any kind of medical know how. Us eleven students going to sing some songs and say a few encouraging words to people who are so hopelessly terminal, well, it seems pretty subservient.

The “ah-ha” moment, then, was that we did not in fact pay what we paid to come to Swaziland and sing some songs to sick people and maybe even say some nice words. We came to Swaziland because we believe that there is a God in Heaven. A God in Heaven who sent his son Jesus a couple thousand years ago to die like a criminal as the ultimate sacrifice, and the beat death so that in the midst of our straight up depravity, we could be counted as forgiven. Now we’re here to share that truth, and empower YFC to share it so that this little country of Swaziland might play a big role in the kingdom.

Hugs,

Team Swaziland

PRAYER REQUESTS:

·         Pray against Spiritual attack

·         Safety

·         Rest

·         Heather’s foot (she broke it the day we were leaving)

·         Amy’s back

·         For the ministry that we have already done, that the people would receive the word we have given them

·         Ministry tomorrow in Manzini

·         Saturday, we will be hosting a conference on leadership, expect a blog update shortly thereafter

            “Why are you here in our country?” The customs official at Manzini International Airport asks in a calm, non-assuming, but firm voice. Manzini International isn’t quite LAX. In fact, it’s pretty much just two little rooms. One has two booths in it for passport control, and the other is where your bags are dropped off. They get two flights a day from South Africa so naturally, eleven white (or Hawaiian, Christine) people arriving on the scene is no small occasion.

            We had been trained by SMU very clearly to not mention Jesus-related things in our response to such a question. Some foreign countries don’t take kindly to the idea of missionaries. Weston wasn’t prepared to lie, though. He’s not a very good liar anyway.

            “…Tour…Tourism?” He replies, as if she was supposed to know the correct answer.

            “Where are you staying?” A tone of suspicion has arisen.

            “Uh, Youth For Christ Swaziland is hosting us.”

            “Youth for Christ, eh? So you are Christians?”

            “…Mhm.”

            “All of you, born-agains?!”

            “Yes.”

            At this point, we are sure with our cover blown that roughly 40 hours of travel have gone to waste, we would be detained, and we would have to return to the States failures. Horrified, we just look at each other, waiting for the next move. 

            Then a smile breaks over that precious, Swazi customs official’s face.

            “We are glad you are here. Welcome to Swaziland.”

Well, it was probably time to change our shorts anyway.

            Yes, we are safe and sound here in beautiful Swaziland. Summer is in full force here, but this is not your quintessential Africa. No Rafikki in a lone tree in the middle of the desert; lion babies being declared king, all the animals singing songs and whatever else happens in Kenya. No, Swaziland is a verdant, lush, mountainous place that is still largely undeveloped outside of its humble cities. We met up with our contact, Bongani, at the airport with his two children, and two staff members from YFC: Lelo (lay low) and Wandihle, but we call him Wawa. From there we loaded all of our bags (which, PTL, all arrived safely) into the back of a Volkswagen Caravelle circa 1991 and headed for Mbabane.

            We arrived at the YWAM base that we will call home for these few weeks and were blown away. It’s set atop the most incredible view of Mbabane, just outside the city where you can see the one well-paved road that runs through the country. The house has a thatched roof with a loft where the five of us bros are sleeping. The ladies have their own room on the other side of the house. There is running water, but it’s really just for washing dishes and heating water for tea and coffee. A short walk down the hill finds an outhouse with two, count ‘em, two stalls where we can take care of business.

The flies make for that authentic African ambience.

            Water is limited, so a shower is either bucket-style if you like it hot, and if you like running water it’s cold and quick. Really, all things considered, our conditions are posh.

Mo is on staff with YWAM and he cooks our meals. Highlights have been stir-fry last night, and some oatmeal-raisin cookies—courtesy of some ladies on the team.

            Internet… well, I owe you all an apology. Turns out Starbucks with free wifi aren’t in abundant supply over here. Today, we purchased what’s called a Dongle, which will connect us to the internet, and then we had to purchase a data plan to split between the group.* That said, internet is in short supply, and so I will not be able to update you all as regularly as the team would like.

To recap so far: we’re alive.

            Our first two full days here were spent in somewhat of a recovery. We’re not dramatic, it was really hard sitting on those planes and stuff. Really though, it turned out to be the perfect prologue to doing ministry here. Bongani, his wife Kumbu (the jury is out on the spelling), and his two children Scebile (3) and Bongani Jr. (5) are just the best. So full of life, delightfully sarcastic, and infatuated with Jesus and doing his work in Swaziland. The staff—who in addition to Lelo and Wawa are Tiny, Noxie, and another Bongani whom we call Clark—are so vibrant, loving, caring, and hilarious. We have become fast friends with them all, and I would attribute that in large part with getting the weekend to really get to know them as a part of our team, not just our hosts. They don’t even actually live at this YWAM base, or even Mbabane for some. They have simply given this time to serve us in the midst of their busy lives.

            On Saturday, we went to a cultural village in the region of Ezulwini—aptly named, as it translates “Valley of Heaven,” be that it’s one of the most beautiful places I have seen in recent memory. It was a cool opportunity to better understand Swazi life and traditions, hear some traditional music, see some rad dances, and maybe even get the chance to dance ourselves.

A local woman told me that I have good, natural rhythm. It may have been the greatest moment of my life.

            Sunday we got to visit the first of three churches that we will attend while here. We made a short presentation, sang some songs, and then were dumbfounded by the preaching of a local man, who may have been as wide as the guitar he wielded at the start of the service. It’s pretty great to receive such a powerful word when you think you’re the ones who are doing the giving.

            Monday was our first day of ministry, brief in the end, but super effective. We originally hoped to do some door-to-door stuff, making relationships and getting the word out about YFC, but what ended up happening was completely different. We happened upon a park where we were going to stop and scarf some lunch, but we ended up seeing about fifty local boys swimming and jumping on a trampoline. Yeah, parks in Swaziland have pools and trampolines. We ended up getting to talk to them, tell them about YFC, the gospel, and hand out a ton of Bibles. Our group didn’t waste any time in getting right into the action and it was a really special moment.

            Today was pretty incredible, too. We ended up doing that door-to-door stuff we hadn’t done the day before, and we saw a ton of kids come to Christ, we handed out a bunch of Bibles, and I made a little buddy or two. Oh, and then we happened upon a soccer field and got our butts kicked by some locals. We let them win in exchange for taking a second to hear the Gospel. 

            There’s plenty of stories to tell, but there’ll be plenty of opportunities for their protagonists to tell them better than I could over this silly internet thing.

            This trip has shaped into something really practical. As we can now see a better picture of what our actual “mission” here is, Youth For Christ Swaziland is in a time of rebirth. They’re a para church ministry, and so their goal for the time being is that, with our help, they can begin to establish a more prominent partnership with churches in the area, and get the word out to local youth about the Gospel and about weekly meetings and events. That means strategizing with YFC staff, doing outreach like we did today, and then visiting local churches.

            Almost in passing one morning, Bongani sat us down and put this whole thing into perspective. Lounging in the common area of our house, he looked at us and said, “You know how you know yourself to be someone who laughs and jokes and is joyful, and at some point you can feel yourself not being that person anymore? But you don’t know what to do about it? That is how I have been feeling for the past couple months.

            “Seeing you guys when you showed up at the airport a few days ago, something happened to me, like a fire lit inside of me, and I can feel myself returning back to the way I used to be. I am feeling a renewed excitement for this ministry. And if you take nothing else away from this trip, you can go home knowing that you have blessed me and this ministry.”

You can’t put a price tag on that.

Please continue to pray for us. Pray against spiritual attack, and thank God for His provision of these people and this place. We are so excited to see what he continues to do in and through each of us.

In Him,

Your Swazis.

*The motivation to go to such great lengths for internet when we’re only here for such a brief time is not because we’re overeager to update our Myspace pages. We bought the Dongle because we’ll be able to donate the it to YFC when we leave—a need that they were not afraid to express. 

Well, by the grace of God, we’ve done it. The money has been raised, and we are headed to Swaziland. You can safely expect regular updates now. 

After a hop, skip and a jump over the North pole, we’ve found ourselves with 10 hours to freely roam around Dubai. No lies, it’s a pretty rad place. Given that it’s basically the epicenter of the World’s wealth, it’s probably the best place to go right before a missions trip to Swaziland. Oh, wait. 

Upon our arrival, we were pretty eager to get out and go exploring. I can’t speak for the whole team, but I think sleep was had for most, and we were feeling pretty adventurous.

We were all just stoked to get into the city, but then at the passport check, one of our teammates was about to go through, and like a mom watching her son reach into the cookie jar before dinner, a wag of his finger said, “No no no, not allowed.” After talking to several jovial gentlemen in white robes and headdresses, we were back on our way. 

We took the metro into the city and got off at the Burj Khalifa (no relation to rap’s darling-child Wiz Khalifa, it’s that building Tom Cruise jumped off or whatever) and then after taking plenty of tweet-able pics, headed off to the mall.

Shop. Til. You. DROP.

At first glance you might say, “Wow, this place is really westernized.” Then you walk about 10 yards through the mall and say, “Shoot, I wish our malls were this sick.” We couldn’t get over how all these tippy doobies (typical residents of Dubai) were out at like midnight with their young children, partying it up on a Thursday night. At one point we saw a sign directing us toward an Underwater Zoo (the aquarium was in a different direction, don’t worry), and the likes of Louie and Cartier had their shops up and running. I think we began to fully realize how posh of an environment we were in when we passed “Armani Junior.” 

Kids gotta by stylin’ too.

The food court was another story. I mean, obviously we could have treated ourselves to McDonalds, or even Subway (one place even claimed “tex-mex”) but the lure of local flavor overtook several of us. Hummus, butter chicken, naan, rice, and some yogurt drink called Lassi. OK, a few people got subway. 

On the logistical side of things, we have been just so blessed. Security has been a breeze, and we’ve remained super civil with each other—in spite of sleep deprivation, and for some of us *taller* types, a lack of leg room. God is too good to us. 

Please continue to pray for safety in travel, and yes Mom, I’m drinking plenty of water. Stay posted, and we’ll holla at you from Swazi. 

Cheers,

Peter and the team. 

So much has happened since this team came together in October. We’ve been through a training weekend, team retreat, and we’re now a short six weeks away from our departure. Here’s what has gone down: 

On November 4th, we left Biola to trek a good quarter mile down Imperial Highway to a small church that would serve as training grounds for the next 30 hours. We were sure to be reminded that everything the Student Missionary Union (SMU) staff did that weekend was very intentional.

They had to remind us a few times. 

Walking into the church building, we (each Biola team going out in January) were met by “customs officers” who asked us where we were going and why. Some people were detained for mentioning Jesus. After they searched our bags and we were stuck in a room for 15 minutes, we reemerged to find that we had flown to our respective countries, and some team members had lost their luggage—sleeping bags and tooth brush included. We made do sharing our stuff. 

Through several different exercises, be it feeding each other meals, serving some housing projects in LA, being woken up before sunrise to the sound of Korean chanting, or eating rice with raisins and Tabasco sauce by hand, we were taught that our experiences abroad aren’t meant to be comfortable. In fact, our experiences shouldn’t have much to do with us at all. It’s hard not to have expectations—good or bad—but a huge part of that weekend was learning that we’re going because we believe God is sending us. That needs to be enough, and whatever He does with that is going to be more than satisfactory. 

That’s tough to say when there’s a $3,000 price tag, but in it there’s freedom.

Our team retreat was the following weekend. We started off by going to Skid Row in Los Angeles and going on a prayer walk. That to say we literally split up into groups, walked around the neighborhood and prayed for people. I ran into a very humble man named “Double R” who attributed his homelessness to his drug addiction. Praying for him probably meant more to me than it did him. I’m not on Skid Row because I was born into a good family, and I can’t really say that I really put a lot of effort into making that happen. I’m just blessed, our whole team is very blessed. 

It’s good to be reminded that we’re not so amazing on our own.*

The rest of the retreat we just kicked back and spent some quality time together. We had a lot of laughs realizing how diverse the personalities that make up our team are. We’ve got sassy, maternal, artsy, and some kind of crazy all jumbled into a beautiful group of people. I couldn’t be more excited to see what becomes of the next two and a half months.

We do have a long way to go before we arrive, however. We are still all raising funds, and have been blown away by God’s provision through family and friends. This week we start selling our dank-top tank tops (he didn’t really just say that). I think Biola just found its latest trendy fashion item. 

If you would like to pray specifically for the team, here’s the lineup (profiles to come): 

• Weston Hancock (Leader)
• Jenna Ewald (Leader)
• Amy Parks
• Christine Choy
• Chloe Turner
• Heather Douglass
• Caitlin Helms
• Derek Gutierrez 
• Peter Swanson
• Cody Nord
• Ryan Freudenburg

Please pray that the funds will continue to be provided, and that we will take advantage of opportunities we get to raise/make money for the trip. Pray for Youth For Christ, the organization that we will be working with while in Swaziland. They have a volunteer based staff, whom we will be training for a part of the time that we are there. Pray that we can prepare well for the trip without slacking on the daunting challenge of final projects and exams. Above all, please pray that God will continue to speak to us, and that He will be glorified through this whole experience.

In Him,

Peter and the Team

*although, our moms might beg to differ.