Well, as some of you know, a couple
weeks ago (March 12) two of my teammates and I had the opportunity to meet the
men in the King’s regiment, here in Swaziland. So rewind to the beginning of the story…
The Swazi team got this vision of
praying big this semester and really wanting the opportunity to be used by God
in big ways for the Kingdom
of Swaziland. We prayed over doing a team fast, along with
team prayer for the king and his country. We started this at the beginning of the semester and we were fasting one
day a week and praying occasionally. It
got to the point where most of the team was not fasting, but we still had a day
that we didn’t officially make dinner for the team. Well, one night we decided to talk about it,
since some people still had this vision for Swaziland, but others seemed to
have lost interest. We had a meeting one
night for people who really wanted to commit time to fasting once a week and
praying everyday for big things to happen. About 7 of us got together and decided that we still had plenty of time
and that we want to show God that we truly care what happens to the people here
in Swazi. We fast every Sunday and have
prayer throughout the week. Monday-Friday we pray together from 7:30am-8:00am every morning. Saturday’s we pray in the evening together
and Sunday’s we pray for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening as a
group. We thought that it was important
to cover this vision in prayer every single day, not just the day that we set
aside to fast. (If you would like to
jump on board with us, please feel free to do so…it is not limited to just the
people here.)
forward…so we began this revamped fast/prayer thing Tuesday, March 10. That morning we begin to pray for God to open
doors for us to be able to have a conversation with the King or someone who has
great influence on him. We asked God to
give us opportunities to have intentional conversations that may also lead to
the King. We really are praying for the
heart of the King to be changed so that he can see the hurt and turmoil his
country is in. Well, sure enough, the
very next morning, Alene, Jess, and I were at one of our school with the three
other Cherish girls getting ready to start teaching. The man who owned the school, Mr. Mavuso, was
there disciplining the kids that had received marks the previous day. When he finished, he walked over to our car because
he noticed the three Americans observing him. We got out of the car and began a comfortable conversation with
him. Long story short, he owns 5 schools
in Swaziland
(making him extremely wealthy), and is part of the king’s regiment. During the conversation he mentioned how he
knew the king and was in communication with him, so we casually asked him if we
could meet the king. He said “of
course!” So we had to get traditional
Swazi outfits to be respectful of the king and his country. Mr. Mavuso gave us his phone number and we
planned to meet the next morning to go to one of the palaces in hopes of
meeting the king and one of his wives.
We show up
at Engabezweni in our Swazi outfits and Mr. Mavuso brings us back to where the
regiments are. There are two, one for
younger men, and one for the older ones. We first went into the living area of the younger regiment. They live in huts surrounded by a large
circular fence made of thin tree trunks. When we got inside, we learned more about the culture than any book
could ever hope to tell us. The men sat
on tree trunks, while the women sat on the floor as a sign of respect to the
men. Every time we gave them a gift (Mr.
Mavuso bought beer to give them and gave us some money to give them), we had to
kneel in front of them and put it in a wooden tray they had sitting out. Every time we did something wrong, they would
all laugh at us, so it was rather nerve wrecking, but fun nonetheless. After we got several marriage proposals, Mr.
Mavuso took us to the other regiment, where the older men lived. It wasn’t far from the one we went to first,
just a short walk across the royal grounds. When went in there and the older men went crazy. They were asking us questions and telling us
how we were beautiful and wanted to marry us. They were so cute in their traditional Swazi outfits, sitting outside
their huts with their cell phones :0) The man in charge of everyone explained to us how things worked and how
the men slept in their huts and a whole bunch of other random information. After some small talk about where we came
from and why we are in Swaziland,
they took us to see the hut that the king sleeps in when we stays with
them. It was in the back corner and we
got to go inside and learn all about the huts and how they are perfect for
living in. Apparently the king normally
brings women there to sleep with and while he is present, there are three
guards guarding his hut as he occupies it for the night.
When it was
all said and done, we found out that the king was at a different palace that
day (no one ever knows which one he is going to, just when the palace has a
flag of a lion raised, than it means the king is present.) We were not able to meet with him or the queen
that day, but Mr. Mavuso said that he is going to make an appointment so that
we can meet one of his wives, the one that resides at the palace, and then
after we meet her, we will bring donations for the men in the regiment since
they are volunteers and don’t have any money. The king apparently loves it when people donate food and clothes to his
regiments, so with that act, he will WANT to meet us and then we can set up a
time to meet with him, instead of hoping that he shows up at the palace the
same day we do.
This was a
very long story to affirm that God is doing big things here in Swaziland. We feel so privileged to be chosen and the
one’s to possibly have this conversation with the king and to build this
relationship with Mr. Mavuso. Please,
please pray for things to work out. For
Mr. Mavuso to follow through on making the appointments and that Satan will
have no power in preventing any of this from happening. Please pray that the 7 of us can be effective
in our ways of reaching out for the heart of God in this place. Pray for a united spirit and dedicated heart
in reverently seeking the Lord’s will in these circumstances.
Thank you
for all who prayed for the meeting, I know it is going to happen; we just have
to be patient.
“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a
door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which
I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim
it clearly, as I should.”
Colossians 4:2-4
