Sanibonani!

I don't even know where to begin!? Today is Wednesday, October 8^th. We have officially been gone a month! Our trip is halfway over TODAY (wow, that just hit me) and I'm writing my FIRST blog. Wow, sorry friends and family.

I want to start off telling you that Swaziland is absolutely amazing. I'm loving it! We are blessed to live in a big white house right outside Manzini. There is a gate and barbed wire fence around our entire place along with bars around all the windows and doors on the first floor, as there is around EVERY house in Swaziland. South Africa has the highest crime rate in the world and Swaziland isn't too far behind. Still, we feel incredibly safe where we are at and there is no reason to worry.

I guess I should start at training camp; it was incredible. After I got over the heat and humidity, fire ants that swarmed our clothes and tent, red staining clay, showers from a hose, and rain it was GREAT! The Lord not only COMPLETELY healed my back but also starting healing my heart (which I found out really needed some healing). Our team also really got to know each other in an intimate way. We spend basically every second together and it is a blessing that everyone gets along!

Once we got to South Africa we stayed at Alabanza (means praise) which is a place for missionaries to stay when they are passing through. The people we met there were amazing and truly inspiring.

So now here we are, in Manzini, the biggest city in Swaziland. Every morning we wake up, have breakfast, and spend an hour or two with the Lord. I sit on the balcony of the house and look at the magnificent mountains right in front of our house. It's incredible. And the sunsets. There are no words...

From here, Swaziland could be the most beautiful place on earth. From here. Up close Swaziland is filled with garbage, poverty, starvation, and disease. It is a place full of sin. The life expectancy is only 30 years old.

The statistics sound horrible, don't they? Just wait until you meet the children. It is one of the hardest things to see-to work with the children and know that only a handful will make it to my age. The children are INCREDIBLE! I still feel like they are more of a blessing to me than I have been to them.

We are working at Gugu's school a few times a week teaching the children. Gugu is a woman who heard the Lord tell her that she needed to start a school for the orphans and for the kids that cannot afford it. So she did. She doesn't get paid or any consistent support. She just trusts the Lord will provide. The other teachers there do the same. Their faith is truly an inspiration!

After the school we go to Mongonini. It is one of the care points we work at. About 125 children come there for a meal, discipleship, and medical care. Our small team, consisting of three other girls, two boys, and three leaders, then do a "VBS" (vacation bible school). We usually prepare a few songs we are going to sing, a teaching or bible story, a memory verse, a craft, and closing prayer. The children never cease to amaze me. Still, it is sad to see them wearing the same raggy clothes day after day, week after week. Some of them only get one meal a day, and rely on the Mongonini care point to provide that. Many don't have parents. The ones that do have parents can't provide for them.

Another ministry we do is at the hospital. I would like to share a direct journal entry from Thursday, September 25^th. It is a little "rough" but it is straight from my pages...

Wow am I blessed! What a day! It all started with the hospital. Alllie asked if anyone wanted to go in the woman's ward. Nikki, Liza, and I gladly accepted. There were two small rooms with "serious" patients and one big open room for the rest of the women. The first room we went to was a 16 year old girl that suffered "from a headache" or so her mother said. She was sleeping so we just decided to pray over here. Then we went to the next room where we ended up staying the rest of the two hours we had at the hospital. Zanelee. A 25 year old woman who started to cry when we came in. She was very open with us and said she suffered from TB and being HIV positive. She cried then telling us her brother had just died. I had Titi translate that my brother died too and we both started crying. It was an immediate connection that only the Holy Spirit could have known. She invited us to sit down. She was eating hospital food at the time. Her legs were so swollen (from AIDS?) and she said it was very painful. We prayed for her. Then we asked her what her favorite verse was. She said the 23 Psalm. Allie read it to her while Titi translated. I had just written it in my journal at training camp (Papa Larry said I need to know it and make it my soul's cry). I took time writing it and made it look "pretty." Immediately I knew I should leave it with Zanele. Then Liza, obviously hearing a word the Lord, asked her if she could put lotion on her legs and Zanele said yes. It looked like Jesus washing his disciples feet. It was so beautiful! Titi left for the rest of the group so we starting speaking to each other in English. She spoke English pretty well. We found out she had another brother and three sisters. Both her parents are dead. She has three children: Siphesuhle, 10 years old; Thabiso, 7 years old; and Sandiswa, 5 years old. PLEASE BE PRAYING FOR THEM AND ZANELE! The children are living with their father right now and do not know she is at the hospital. No body visits her. She is very sad. Yet, her face was glowing by the time we left. Nikki let her listen to her iPod which she loved! She then told us to sing "Amazing Grace." We sang it for her and wrote down the words and then she read it and sang it with us. It was incredible!

Allie and Liza brought some food to her from the market outside (bread, oranges, and bananas) and I gave her a protein bar I had in my bag and she loved it. She told us she loved us (very early on). She said she really wanted to come to America with us. We told her to eat to get strong so she could come. It was heart breaking to see one of God's own children suffering like that. She has no money, no clothes, no love, no hope. How devastating! But we told her how much Jesus loved her. We wrote down some of our favorite verses for her. She loved them. She belongs to the church of Zion which is a big part of Swazi culture. It involves some kind of Christianity and ancestral worship. We totally bonded with her over those couple hours. We prayed for her again before we left. We prayed for the pain to go away, for her children to be taken care of, for her TB to clear up, and turn her HIB into a negative test (in Jesus' name!)! I believe the Lord really spoke through us to her. But I also believe Jesus used her to speak to us, and directly into my own heart. I shed some tears on our walk back to the van not because I was sad for her but because my heart was so touched. I will never forget Zanele. I love her. She is my "cici" now (means sister).

End of entry.

We have been back to the hospital numerous times to see Zanele. The Lord took away the pain and swelling in her legs but her feet are still hurting. She has trouble keeping food down some days and I've held a bucket for her while she's vomited (more than once!). Yet, whenever we come in there her face lights up and she immediately tries to sit up and talk to us. She is such a blessing and has such a big heart.

Another one on my heart is Nothando. I found him yesterday. He is a baby in the children's ward that is three or four months old but weighs only FIVE pounds! He came in completely malnourshised and is slowing getting nursed back to health. His mother is in the hospital with severe emotional disturbances and is HIV positive. In fact, she is in a bed right next to Zanele now but I do not think she even knows she is missing her child; it is devastating. Please pray for Nothando and his mother!

Yesterday was the first day I had enough guts to go into the children's ward. It was too painful. It reminded me of Joel too much. Last week when I walked by the children's ward there was a little boy laying on a cardboard box outside. He didn't have parents and the nurses didn't pay too much attention to him. He was completely malnourished and had sores on his mouth. When I went to the hospital today I found out that he had died right after we left that day-right after I finished praying for him.

I still don't know the Lord's reasoning behind these things. I don't think I ever will. Some of the girls witnessed a baby dying last week that was really hard on them. Today when we were visiting Nothando another baby died. It is so sad. And yet is so normal in this land...

 As you can probably tell right now our days are filled with "heavy" things. My eyes have been opened up to reality. As much as I miss home and some specific people there (you know who you are!) I am sad our time is already half over. I know I just need to trust the Lord that He will provide and take care of the people when we are gone.

I have so much more to write and tell all of you but it will have to wait. I feel like Mom right now-she always has so much to say (Love you!). It is dinner time. Nikki and Liza made chili tonight! Even though we are in a third world country we have been getting more than enough to eat (hello carbs!).

I can't wait to see you all. I miss you ALL and think about you a lot. I wish you could all be here to see this and experience this with me. I have been journaling numerous times a day so I am not leaving ANYTHING out-you will have to see it when I get home!

And thank you, Kris Engel, for such a perfect note and verses you wrote out for me before I left. They have been my rock.

"I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength."

Philippians

For now, I'm out. Please continue praying for our team. We will be leaving our beautiful house on Sunday to go camping in Nosoko for a week and working at the care point there (among other things).

I love you and may the Lord bless you all!!!

Sala Kahle!

Juliana XOXO!