A SWAZI SUNDAY, Part I
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Yesterday I started posting my diary entries from last year's trip to Swaziland, Southern Africa, with Children's HopeChest. Today's entry describes how we spent our Sunday in that beautiful mountain kingdom.
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1/27/08 11:53 pm
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Today was a day filled with with extreme joy yet extreme grief.

We attended Pastor Walter's church and what a time of rejoicing, worship, and truth it was.




The singing was joyful and spirit filled. I loved watching and participating. We were only able to stay for 1.5 hours before we had to leave. I think all of us wish we could have stayed much longer.


We ate Kentucky Fried Chicken wrap-ups on the way to Kevin Ward's ministry farm, Hwane Farm. It is a beautiful orphan care facility ...with a school, homes for the orphans... a small clinic, a gift shop selling handmade crafts...and sustainability projects such as a catfish pond......rabbit hutches...
...a piggery, agricultural plots, etc.

Kevin Ward [in the white shirt above] is a white Swazi citizen whose family has lived here for a long time. He was a pastor of Mbabane Int'l Baptist Church a few years after the Davidsons [my head missionaries] left. He is now the pastor of another church [Potter's Wheel ].

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I also met & spoke to his wife. She and I agreed that we must have met sometime because she used to attend MIB Church when I was there.

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It was then that I had my lowest moment so far of the trip. We were discussing different things about Mbabane including that the preschool is still going strong----when we started talking about people dying of HIV/AIDS and the subject of my maid Fikile came up. I shared that I was worried that she had died because I had not heard from her in years. Kevin's wife [Helen] said that it was quite likely considering her age and the circumstances in S'land.

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I lost it at that point and started weeping. In the van I totally lost it and just wailed with grief. Sweet Mair prayed a powerful prayer for me. It was a comfort and so was the presence of the other folks in the van.

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By the end of the day, well even before, the joy has returned but I still hurt for all my lost loved ones. [Because with the death rate as it is, surely many I know from my missionary days have passed away. In fact, I've been told by my former supervising missionary that one family in our church had died from HIV/AIDS.]

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PRAYING FOR THE PASTORS

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THE CHILDREN WHO NEED THEM

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Simply put, Lord you know who they are and where they are. Pastors, we need them. So many opportunities for churches to be planted, but we need pastors. Help us find them, grow them, train them, send them, speak to them, and bring them to us.

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In Jesus’ name.

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In addition to the prayer that was originally posted at the Children's Cup website, I'd like to specifically remember and pray for these courageous and passionate pastors in Swaziland:

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Pastor Kevin Ward of Potter's Wheel Church and Hwane Farm & Children's Homes

Pastor Peter Langa of Enaleni Emmanual Wesleyan Church and Carepoint

Pastor Walter of Timbutini Wesleyan Church and at least 2 carepoints that I know of.
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To read more about Pastor Walter and the ministry God is doing through him, visit Seth Barnes blog at Radical Living in a Comfortable World.

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Thanks for praying today. Feel free to leave a comment with a prayer or thought you would like to add. And if you haven’t signed up yet, send an email to mailto:pray@childrenscup.org?subject=40 to let them know you’re praying.

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