As some of you may know, last weekend about 10 members from my team (myself included) tagged along with the youth, from one of the churches we attend here in Swaziland, to a new country: Mozambique. The pastor of the church we go to, Pastor Sambo, is originally from Mozambique and he wanted to take a special trip to support his home church as they had a huge celebration for the first Sunday of April. We were supposed to head out on Friday evening, but as always, plans change in Africa. We ended up leaving at 5:15 am on Saturday and made several random stops along the way. We still aren't sure what we needed to stop for all those times, but usually the bus driver hopped out and ran away then came back ten minutes later. (We have learned to not ask questions and just go with the flow!) So we eventually arrive in Mozambique and major culture shock. I don't know if you know, but they speak Portuguese there and the whole country looks nothing like the rest of Africa we have been too. It was like we arrived on a totally different continent, it reminded me of Havana, Cuba. Craziness all over the place...the city was so alive. 

We got to the church we were staying and fellowshipping at and it was a very big church compared to what we have been attending. It was spacious and very clean and orderly. As soon as we got off the bus, they ushered us into a room where they had prepared fish, chips, rice, beans, milli pop, and some other food for our lunch. We ate quickly then hopped back on the bus and headed for the beach. We swam for about 10 minutes and the Pastor called for us to load up the bus again. He was trying to tour us all over the city in two hours...it was a tight schedule. After the beach we boarded a ferry and road across the river to the other side, where we could buy raw fish!! Again, we don't ask questions, we just go. So we got to the other side, then turned around and headed back. Once we were on the side where our bus was, we hopped back into and rushed to the church for the evening service. We got there late, but somehow everything worked out and we enjoyed the 3 hour service. Around 8 pm they fed us dinner and then we got our sleeping arrangements. Some stayed in the church and some stayed in the pastor's house...Caroline and I were lucky enough to get our own room at the pastor's house without electricity, but with two cots! 

The night was rough, but finally it was time to get up and head back to the church for breakfast. We road in the back of a truck on chairs...didn't workout too well, but it was a clever idea. Then the truck ran out of gas on the dirt road, so someone else picked us up and we finally got to the church. After breakfast, we were ushered into the various Sunday school classes to be presented to the children.  Each class was so full of life and excited that people from North America were in their country. Then the service begun and four hours later it ended. Whew!! I thought an hour and a half was long...but those people really know how to praise the Lord. The thing I will miss when I leave Africa is the worship, although it doesn't vary much, when the Africans worship the Lord, they worship intensely and with passion. No one is sitting down and they all have their hands raised and are praising the one who created them. Then when the pastor speaks, he speaks with such authority and enthusiasm. Even though I don't always understand what is being said, just the way it is said speaks volumes about the urgency of the message of Christ. We partook in communion with our brothers and sisters and then they took up some offerings to end the service. 

All and all it was a phenomenal weekend. Nothing went the way we thought it would go, but the experience we got fellowshipping with this other church was worth everything. Praise God we were able to build stronger relationships with the youth members of the church we attend here in Swaziland. Now that I look back at the weekend, it is very evident that God's hand was in everything that we did!

 

Last Friday, March 27^th, our team went into Mbabane for our family ministry. We met up with a Pastor that we are friends with and he hooked us up with some people that need help getting their church building completed. The church is called "Bride of Christ" and has about 80-100 people attend each Sunday. Our task for the day was to continue digging this trench around the back of the building and move the dirt that we dug up into the building to level out the floor. We worked from 10 am until 3pm...just imagine 18 people working non-stop, which is a lot of wheel barrows full of dirt. We had some people shoveling, some people moving wheel barrows back and forth, and some people patting down the dirt. As the day went on, every job began to get tiresome even though we switched off every now and then. Somehow, it seems that the wheel barrows multiplied throughout the day, but the people who were shoveling did not! It was a great experience to be able to serve these people in that way.  

However, I think the best part of the day was when some of the members (a couple girls) came to pitch in. They went to that church every Sunday and wanted to see it done as much as we did, so they got dirty with us and helped out. One of the girls' names was Landiwe and she and I hooked on to each other as soon as we met. She had brought her three-year-old son with her, Thando, and he was just so precious, running and jumping all over the place. Landiwe was my wheel barrow person as I shoveled mounds and mounds of dirt into her wheel barrow. She and I got to talking and it turns out that she just got saved a year ago and she was raving at how her life is so much better because of Christ. It was so refreshing to have this conversation with a girl my age. As I was talking and working along side of Landiwe I realized that I had been talking and working along side Christ. Have you ever had those moments when you feel like it was Jesus you were interacting with instead of the person you saw on the outside? Well this was one of those times for me. The pure joy that Landiwe had could only come from Christ and just her selfless ambition to jump in and so more work than we did, spoke volumes about her servant heart. I loved spending those moments with Christ, it was so phenomenal. And Christ is continuing to use this young lady as means to speak into my soul. Ever since that day in ministry, Landiwe has called me everyday to just say hello and ask me how I am doing. Then she finishes every conversation with "I love you" (and Swazi's never make phone calls longer than they need to be because it uses up their airtime, so it's a huge thing that Landiwe uses her own money to call me and tell me these things). It breaks my heart every time because I can just hear Jesus in her words! There is no way I could go somewhere and just meet someone for a few hours and love with no questions asked...that is ALL God. Here I go to Mbabane thinking God is going to use me to bless these people and this church, but in reality he used Landiwe and the others to bless me. I just love it when God surprises me and throws me for a loop...it reminds me to keep myself out of his work and his plan!!

So don't forget to look for Jesus today...he could be sitting in the cubicle next to you, or eating at the table across the way, or talking on the cell phone passing by, or at home cooking you dinner, or any number of other places. I feel like so often Jesus is right there next to us, but we are too busy to notice. Don't be too busy today, look for the hundreds of blessing God gives you each and everyday...I don't know about you, but that is something I don't want to ever be too busy to accept.

"May God show us his favorand bless us!May he smile on us!

Then those living on earth will know what you are like;

all nations will know how you deliver your people.

Let the nations thank you, O God!

Let all the nations thank you!

Let foreigners- rejoice and celebrate!

For you execute justice among the nations,

and govern the people living on earth.

Let the nations thank you, O God!

Let all the nations thank you!

The earth yields its crops.

May God, our God, bless us!

May God bless us!

Then all the ends of the earth will give him the honor he deserves."