So it has been a couple of weeks since we have been able to blog. We are staying at the Swaziland YWAM base with no internet access. By the time I am able to post this, we will most likely be gone from Swaziland. We leave on a couple days to Mozambique and it is hard to believe that time has gone by this fast.
Our time here in Swaziland has been very blessed. The base is located on an old farm in the beautiful hills of Swaziland. The people here in Mbabne are very open to the gospel and take an intrest in you when you speak a bit of the language. However, it has been quite the experience being offered cows as a gift to marry the girls in our group. I think Wikus has been offered cows for the girls almost everytime we go into the town! We have been shrugging it off and telling the locals we only accept elephants! Our living conditions are interesting as well. The base here has an issue with getting water so we aren't alowed to use the inside toilets. We must use a long drop pit toilet located down a hill close to the trees. While the walk there is pleasent, it also can be rough when its raining, which it seems to be doing a lot. The rain also makes it extreamly hard to wash and dry our clothes. A plus side to the rain: BEAUTIFUL THUNDER AND LIGHTING STORMS. We have also had the wonderful and new (for most of us) experience of bathing from a bucket. Because of the lack of water on the base, we are allowed ONE BUCKET to bath with per day. Now this has been a facinating task! We can only use one bucket per day and only ten minutes in the bathroom. We have adapted well to this cycle, fellow missionaries be proud! All in all, it might sound like we are suffering to some of you, but the thruth of the matter is that this place is wonderful. The nature and alone time with God has been incredible and we have been able to really intereact with God. The staff from the base welcomed us like family and hasn't treated us any different since the arival. We have also had the privelage of sharing the base with an outreach team from YWAM Durban. Its a team of all girls and we have really been blessed with their friendship.
Our ministry in Swaziland has been wonderful as well. We have spent a lot of time working around the base doing practicle things such as cut firewood and electrical work. The girls of our team have been put on a project of refurbishing an old house that will soon be made into a boys dorm for future teams. It has become a super awesome bonding experience and we are very proud of all that we have accomplished there. In the community, we connected with a couple of people and a few of our team members were able to provide these families with bibles that they had been promised from other visiting teams. The children flood the streets here and are very interested in talking with us. We have teamed up with Checkers Church to do a youth event similar to a mini DTS with the staff of the Swazi Base. So far we spent a whole day playing with teens and kids from the community, building relationships with them that mean the world to us. Its incredible how these kids minister to us as we are trying to minister to them.
We have also had the wonderful experience of visiting an orphanage ran by the pastor and his wife from Checkers Church. We spent a whole afternoon with these kids. We got to play games, sing songs and make braclets with them. We spent one morning visiting a government hospital and for most of us this was a very hard experience. The government hospital isn't in the best shape and it was heartbreaking visiting the men, women, and children that were sick and staying there. We are very greatful for the opportunity to pray and spend time with the patients. The Swazi people all seem to be very relationship oriented and very appriciative that we wanted to just spend time with them.
We spent our day off visiting a traditional cultural village where we learned a lot about the lifestyle and community set up of the Swazi people. The huts were incredible and we got to experience a whole show of cultural dances where we were asked to join in.
Over all our time in Swaziland has been very blessed. Unfortunatly, we never saw the king, but we have enjoyed the nature and the Swazi culture. The base here is beautiful and feels just like home, but now we are off to Mozambique!
