Day 6- Community Day

Yet another cozy breakfast! Although I was probably a little annoying as all the toast I was eating managed to rip the roof off my mouth. I tried no to complain, but it got the best of me at times! We were off to the carepoint in bummy clothes (yay for pants!) because we had to paint the bathroom and storage closets there. The night before I learned we were painting bathrooms and not the classrooms.

First of all, I despise painting anything. It used to be "therapeutic" for me, but I soon learned how slow and not perfect I am with it. And then we have the whole bathroom situation. I don't even like going in my own bathroom...and the bathrooms in Africa are NOTHING like our bathrooms. But I really prayed about it that night- I wanted to have a cheerful heart, and in the process God told me to specifically paint around the toilet. Oh yes. So I obeyed with joy and really had a nice time painting. We did a pretty fine job if I say so myself. I'm just glad I wasn't the tallest in the group who had to paint the tops of the walls (sorry, sarah!).


even though we didn't finish until friday-here was the end result!

We ran out of paint, but were able to finish it on Friday morning. We drove over to the same shopping center of King Pie to have one of my all-time faves- KFC. There is no McDonald's or Wendy's in Swaziland, but there are plenty of KFC's! It was nice to have a familiar lunch with the tastes of home. They had ice cream there too...Christy warned me that their ice cream was different. It tasted like cake icing but was cold like ice cream. To most, that sounds wonderful. To me (the one who eats the cake around the icing and leaves the icing on my plate), it wasn't thrilling me. But I did get it and enjoyed it, but I do say American ice cream is WAY better :)

Back to the carepoint where we began our community walk. We were just walking behind the carepoint to the "houses" there. I don't think I can paint a picture, but I can try. First of all, the Swazis do not believe in trash cans. There is garbage on the ground everywhere. The houses are made of rock, mud, tin roofs, old rusted trailers, some cement-basically whatever they can get their hands on. These are all one room. Maybe 8'x8' or so, not exactly the size we imagine raising our families in. No electricity, no running water, clothes lines wherever they can fit them, maybe a mattress, some trinkets, no other furniture. Are you getting what I am saying yet?

Our first stop was at Ntombikayise's house. She was one of the only students from the carepoint who was not able to go to school because she had no school fees for the year. She and her sibling live there with their grandma (i think), who was very ill with open sores, etc. The cook, Phindile, was our translator, along with the 2 teachers, Celewi and Phindile. She shared with us how difficult things were and she had no money for medical needs or school fees, food, etc. We brought them a nice warm blanket and some mealie that should last them for a little while at least. We also as a team decided to pay for Ntombikayise's school fees with the offering we had brought with us. (But we waited until the end of the week to let them know.)

We prayed over her and after many tears shed by all there, we walked to our next stop. I really wanted to be strong there, try not to patronize them, but really me heart truly broke for her and her family. In one of my fave songs "hosanna", we sing "break my heart for what breaks yours, everything i am for your kingdom's cause." Our hearts were truly breaking.

I hope to figure out how to upload my video footage on here.... my words are not good enough to describe what all happened that day....

After a 7 minute or so walk, we arrived at Nora's house. Her husband "grandpa" was born in 1914 and was laying on the ground upon our arrival. We were immediately smacked with the smell of old urine, but it didn't matter. It took a couple ladies to help put grandpa in a sitting up position against the wall-his back pain is tremendous. The two of them raise their 23 grandchildren alone- every single one of their children are dead. I can't even fathom it at times.

Jennifer and the gals really felt led to pray for him, for healing, and for their family-and what an intense time of prayer. What amazes me is that despite their horrific living conditions and life situations, they have an insane amount of joy. You could immediately tell they loved the Lord and truly trusted Him. Grandma prayed for food since they had none left, and in we walk with some mealie. She was jumping up and down shouting "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!!!!" I cry as I even type this. Why do we struggle so much at times to find that joy when we have so much? Leave it to grandma to really put things into perspective. I loved our time there- I walked out being the one encouraged.

We walked down the large hill for oh 10 minutes down to the house of the boy who was escorting us around, Senzo. ***ok, i am now balling my eyes out as I type this, praying, loving from afar-let me type this out Lord!*** Senzo is 15 years old, raising his 2 sisters Eliza and Fikile alone. Their parents are dead and they have no other family around. Like I mentioned before, you don't go to school if you do not have money. So at 15, Senzo has a 3rd grade education. He is too young to have a job, so he helps cook at the carepoint. This does not pay, but it at least feeds him and his sisters once a day and gives him a sense of some kind of belonging.

It was obvious Senzo had a hard life-a hard heart- he would never smile and just seemed angry. I mean who wouldn't be angry???? Can you blame him??? We laid hands on him and Tenae started praying for wisdom, provision, smart choices, and open doors. We said amen, but Annie knew she had to pray more.... She put her hand over his heart and prayed over it. She could physically feel a change in his heart and beat. We just wanted to pour every ounce of love we and God had for him. We then gave his gifts of a blanket and mealie.

Forget about bringing home a little baby--I want to bring home Senzo and his sisters! I pray God brings them a parental figure to just love on them. Please join me in that prayer. Since that point, I was coined "stalker mommy". Everywhere we went, everything we did, I just talked about Senzo, buying things for Senzo, verbalizing what I am buying for Senzo and sending from the States. I just want to do everything for them. Children's Cup currently does not have a sponsorship program, but Christy gave me the ok to send stuff for them to her and she would give it. I plan to mail stuff once a month to my new son and daughters :)
the teachers and my "son" senzo.

Christy and my "daughter" Eliza.

It was such a heavy time for our community walk. Covered in paint, dirt, dust, and tears we drove home. I took a shower and put on my jeans, a nice top, and my heels. Tenae and I went to worship practice at Healing Place Church while the others went to dinner at Natalie's house. Practice was pretty cool. They were so welcoming of me and Tenae to join them. With us, there are now 6 all female vocalists to sing on Sunday morning. During practice, they all picked their parts, so I went ahead and sang tenor (which is something they never have). I was really excited to do it! I thoroughly enjoyed finding the 3rd harmonies to a song in siswati and a song in shona (zimbabwe). We even get to do dance steps for the siswati song!!!!! Our set list in addition to the first 2 songs is: "Everyday", the chorus to "I Stand In Awe", "When I think About the Lord", and "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever". At least I know 3 of them. And Tenae has such a lovely voice! I've never heard her sing and was really looking forward to worshiping with her.

Patrick, Carl, and Jordan gave us a ride home and we warmed up our dinner of butternut squash soup and yummy shrimp pasta. Annie and Molly joined us to hang out and God showed up. We chatted until almost midnight! Off to bed......