Small Things

Diane and I had the pleasure of hosting a team of 36 from the USA a couple of weeks ago. Mission of Mercy (a child sponsorship organization) in which Children’s cup is in partnership with was the state side host. I must say this was one of the best teams we have had here in Swaziland. We knew this was going to be a great team to work with when one of the members was creative with a zip lock bag on the four hour bus ride from Johannesburg, (not many chances for public restrooms). Everyone was very eager to minister in whatever way needed. They ministered in so many ways they sang, danced, moved tons of dirt and rock by hand, painted walls of care points, painted faces, created and painted murals, built a soccer field, laughed and yes there were many tears and they just loved on the many children. The one common word I heard during the week was “Small things” this was in reverence of what they were doing during the week – small things. But the cool thing was and is, we all serve a BIG GOD! And He takes even the smallest of things done in His name and makes them really big. Children’s cup’s theme bible verse is Matthew 10:42 “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple. I tell you the truth he will certainly not lose his reward”. Many seeds of faith were planted during the week, many seeds were watered and we know of at least ten souls harvested to the glory of God and to Him we give the honor and thanks. Thank you “MoM team 36”.
We also are staying busy ministering in whatever way God allows. We have been given responsibility of another care point – LudzeLudze, although this has been a feeding site for many months now the building is brand new. This is one of the care points the MoM team worked on. It is located in a small poor village/community, the children have lots of need and we have seen how most all of them are so receptive of the love and hope we try to show and give them (Hopes name is Jesus), they like to play games and all the other stuff kids like to do. At present this care point does not have a formal built area for cooking the daily meal so the volunteer community cooks prepare the meals in the open near the only tree that is close to the care point. We ask that you help us pray for this care point the children and this community.
Another prayer request is for Longcebo an 8 year old little girl we saw during one of the medical clinics that we hold at the care points. Longcebo has a very large heart murmur and needs open heart surgery to correct. Jessie (our missionary nurse) and I have been working with the Swazi and South African government to get all the paperwork necessary so we can take her to South Africa for the life saving surgery. We hope this can take place in the next few weeks. We know God’s hand will be on Longcebo.
Hope you all enjoy the pictures.
As always a BIG Thank you and God bless you all for the prayers and support.
Donald & Diane

Some Pictures

Sewing Classes and other things

In the picture above: Nontobeko Shabango, Nokwethu Lokotfwalco, Sphcsihle Bhembe, Thembi Mncina, and the teacher Dudu Mbetse. These are the young ladies that we are teaching sewing to. They have begun to make projects now, one of which are placemats for them to sell to some of our incoming teams. These girls are really energetic and wanting to learn new things. Pray that we will be able to teach them to sew and then they will have a way to make money once they are too old to come to the CarePoints. We currently have one electric sewing machine and a couple of hand crank ones. For some of you who don’t know what that is…..you have to crank the handle for each stitch you make..it is really tiring and hard to guide the material with only one hand. Some of the profits made from the sales of items they make will go back into replenishing the material and thread to be able to make more projects. Pray for this ministry to the teens.
Yesterday we had a serve day at our CarePoint. It was the last day of school for the children for 3 weeks, but the CarePoints will stay open each day to do the daily feeding. The two teachers and two cooks traded places for the day and we were there to help with the cooking. Pray for our cooks and teachers. The teachers are paid a little but the cooks do this daily as volunteers. It really takes a lot of work to prepare the food. There are 2 large black kettles set into a concrete structure and you build a fire under them and they cook for several hours. The menu yesterday was sugar beans ( almost like pinto beans) and mealie (which looks like cream potatoes but has the consistency of grits). Donald built the fires under the pots and I served the mealie and pintos to each child. We ate with the children and I have to say the Pinto’s were absolutely delicious..although I am not big on the mealie. We had a good day playing with the children. Donald had one child that stayed on his back like riding a horse for quite a long time. I am posting some of the pictures of the children from yesterday. Please keep them in your prayers also..they are so precious. For several months the lower part of the property at our CarePoint has been under construction from the city. They finally finished and filled in the holes so now we were able to plant a garden, everyone chipped in..we planted onions, spinach, beets and lettuce. This will be good to add to the beans and mealie once they are ready.
I have posted a picture of Donald in his official Birthday hat that Children’s cup makes you wear when you are in the office all day ( the guy with him is K.B. who works with the cooks discipleship)..sorry to say the children did not sing to him this year but everyone got a real kick out of the hat..

This month we have started 40 days of prayer. Please remember to pray for these children, their health, their spiritual wellbeing and the ministry that Children’s Cup provides to them each and every day.
Please check out this link.. http://fortydays.childrenscup.org/
God Bless each of you…Love in Christ, Don & Diane

Just a little peek at our week

This month we have started 40 days of prayer. Please remember to pray for these children, their health, their spiritual wellbeing and the ministry that Children’s Cup provides to them each and every day.
Please check out this link.. http://fortydays.childrenscup.org/
Last week we gave a party to the teenagers that danced at the conference that was held in May, I know, it has been a couple of months but they enjoyed it anyway. They are beginning to be asked to dance at various churches in Swaziland. They are very good. We had cake, cheesy poofs and juice. All in all I think they enjoyed it. We also gave them a gift of the green (for the girls) and black and white (for the boys) hoodies. I think they really liked them.
We visited a CarePoint being newly built. We have a Mission of Mercy team coming in a week and a half for which Donald and I will be the missionary host. They will be painting a mural on the inside / outside of this building. Hopefully it will be ready for the children to use… the food is being prepared under the trees at the entrance and the children eat under the trees.
4th picture: Healing Place Church held the first ever HIV/ AIDS testing for anyone in our congregation that would like to know what their status is without going to a “clinic” in the area.. The ones in the picture are Pastor Ben and wife Susan. All in all there were 87 people tested and only 10 were positive. This is great, now they know their status they can start medication which will help with the effects. I will let Donald blog about this..he knows more about it than I do.
All in all…I know God is working here..as the first pictues states ***
Jesus is here..and anything can happen!!!
Thank you all for helping us to fulfill God’s plan for our lives.
We love you all and thank you from the bottom of our hearts. May God Bless each one of you..
Donald & Diane

Swazi Children/ same but different

Looking at the pictures I posted above you would think these are normal everyday children. But as the title states, they are….. but just different. Even though, they are making crazy faces, laughing and singing there are some of these children who are experiencing issues that should only be for adults. These children seem to be able to laugh and play though everything they may be going through in their home life. Most of these children have experienced death at a very early age, they have lost one or both of their parents to the disease that has run rampant thought-out Swaziland. Some of these children only get their meals and comfort by coming to the CarePoint. They are taught about God and his love. It is so cute that they stand at your car see their reflection make faces and watch themselves.
God is Good!!!
That is how they continue to play and be children. Here is a view of what it is like when you walk into a CarePoint .
The children run to meet you and take your hand, rub your arms, touch your hair, look up and smile, giggle and pull you along with them. They will stay around you like you are “candy”, when you sit down they will come and sit on your lap. They will try to talk to you in SiSwati and English. Wanting to be played with, and loved on. This is just a small part of what God has called us to minister here in Swaziland . Thank you all for helping us to continue his work.
This month we have started 40 days of prayer. Please remember to pray for these children, their health, their spiritual wellbeing and the ministry that Children’s Cup provides to them each and every day.
Please check out this link.. http://fortydays.childrenscup.org/
God Bless each of you…Love in Christ, Don & Diane

Thaudeka

Thaudeka was a precious 12 year old Swazi girl we have gotten word that she has died. Thaudeka died of complications related to AIDS. She contracted AIDS from her own Dad. He raped her because he had believed the lie that if you raped a virgin you would be cured from the Aids virus. It is very hard to understand how a Dad can do such a horrible thing to his own child, but sin does horrible things. I would like to say this is a rare occurrence here in Swaziland but I cannot because this happens frequently. It is very hard sometimes not to become very angry and judge mental but I am reminded of what God says in His word that vengeance is His and we are to Love our neighbor. My anger and sadness turns to gladness when now I think of the splendor and happiness that Thaudeka is feeling right now as she rests in the arms of Jesus. No more pain, no one abusing her, no one touching her in ways no one and especially a 12 year old girl should be touched. But now feeling the tender loving touch of our Lord and savior Jesus. Thaudeka’s dad died of Aids sometime ago, I also hope he is feeling the same as his daughter but chances are he never understood the terrible sinful thing he had done and never repented, and now he is felling pain that has been increased a thousand times over to last throughout all eternity. Please pray for the vulnerable children her in Swaziland and for us to show them the Love of Jesus. On a brighter note God is at work, lives are being changed, people are being saved spiritual and physically, we conducted two community clinics a few weeks ago with a visiting medical team from South Carolina (man it was good to hear some southern slang) 410 patients were seen in just over four hours and all that agreed to be tested for AIDS were HIV negative! To God is the glory. The odds are one in three people here are HIV positive so this tells us God is honoring the work that is being done. Thank you for your prayers and for your support that helps us help others. Until our next post uNkulunkulu Busisa (God Bless).

AHH...

Well, finally get some time to write. There is so much to write about since the last posting for which I appologise. The last couple of weeks have really been busy. As I mentioned before we had around 84 people which came from the US to help Healing Place Church put on a conference for the pastors here in Swaziland. The focus of the conference was to minister to and help the pastors. The culture here is different from in the U.S. Pastors here do not come together anytime as a group, they do not have an ongoing relationship with their congregation or the community. This conference was to help empower them and bring them together so that maybe in the long term they will also help with the issues in the communities. During the conference I was in charge of the budgets for the groups and making sure they had accommodations each night and dinners. It was fun..but there was a lot to do, and Thank the Lord it came off without many problems. I have finally wrapped up all the receipts and other items to where today is a rest day for me. Kristin Evans and I were responsible for the costumes for around 20 CarePoint teenagers to do a dance each night. ( I made the skirts) I am going to try to post the video on this blog..(hopefully it will work) We were fortunate enough to go with Greg & Kristin’s group when they visited a game park so we were able to see the animals up close and personal. Thanks to TLC church in Memphis Tenn. For their hospitality ! The sun is shining today; we have had about 3 days of rain and cold temperatures. We have burnt a lot of wood trying to keep the dampness out of the house. We have not been having any heat at all until now. It has just been 2 pairs of sox, 2 shirts, flannel pj bottoms and a scarf. Reminds me kind of like frosty the snowman...ha ha. Soon we will be back on a normal routine and visiting our CarePoint more in the coming weeks so I will have much more to write about. This coming Wednesday, June 17th will be our 30th wedding anniversary and how blessed we will be to be spending it in Swaziland. Time sure does fly...and I know I am getting older when you read this you will know also. I finally caught my sister-in-law on face book the other night and she said “ just read that Leslie had her baby” well, I thought and then responded “Leslie who?” and she came back with “ ha ha very funny, your cousin Leslie” well, I had totally forgotten .. When we received the news she was expecting we were in the middle of trying to sell everything and wrap everything up to move here and I totally forgot. So, maybe it wasn’t totally old age...ha ha . Congratulations Leslie.. Going to say bye for now. Will write again soon. Oh, wanted to tell The AWANA class at Piney Grove Chapel thank you for all your cards. We will write and mail you some replies, I know AWANA is over for the summer but wanted to let you know we got them..Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers and thanks to our good friends Tracy and Daniel for the Potato soup recipe..um um good..and try to post a picture of a friend we had visit…yuck..I hate spiders.. Love you all.. Diane

See-ahh-bone-ahh

That is the way we as Americans pronounce the name of this child. He is at our CarePoint (Moneni). Today we visited our CarePoint and he came directly up to me speaking SiSwati and pointing his little hands towards 2 stray dogs which had found their way into the CarePoint fence. I guess he was trying to tell me about the dogs, so I in turn looked him in the face and said ruff-ruff…dog..(Since my SiSwati is not good at all ) he also repeated the sound I had made for the dog. The rest of the time I was there he stayed next to me and constantly looked at me and said ruff-ruff and chased me around holding his little bowl of rice which he had not eaten. School is out for the next couple of weeks but the CarePoint still feeds the children. Each child brings a stick or piece of wood which helps when cooking the food the next day, and in turn they receive a bowl of rice and beans or Pop depending on what is cooked that day. (The piece of wood is not required to be able to eat, it is just helpful). This little boy is just one of many sweet children at this CarePoint and as we continue to serve here and oversee this CarePoint I will continue to try to post pictures and tell some stories about the children. Please continue to pray for them.
Thanks to you all...God Bless


The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
Romans 8:15-17

Something interesting

This Friday, April 24, 2009, is another serve day for the Children’s cup staff and missionaries, it is the last day of school for 3 weeks. Our role in this day is to help the teachers and cooks do their everyday job at the CarePoints we oversee. Ours is called Moneni. This will be a good day for us to see exactly what goes into one day’s work at the CarePoint. I will try to post pictures and write another blog after we go.
Over the next few weeks we will be very busy. I have mentioned before that we will be hosting a large group of pastors the last week of May into the first week of June. Pastor Ben has put me in charge of the financial side. I never realized how much it took to schedule and bring in groups of people. I have to make sure that the meals, rooms, transport, game park visits are paid for and missionaries have enough money for extra items that may come up. This will be a really busy time for all, but am looking forward to it. Ben has left for the US this week for an ARC conference being held at a church in Clayton so I have sent a CD containing a power point presentation for our church. He should deliver it to Amanda this Saturday night when the original mission trip group gets together in Dunn for a reunion. Wish we could be there to see the old gang..(ha ha).. but Amanda is going as our stand in and will be able to be with them for us and to meet Ben for the first time.
Speaking of the old gang..we will have “ company” here at our house this coming July 4th. Brett Asher, one of the men who went with us on the original mission trip in 2007 is coming back to Swaziland for a visit and will be staying with us..We went yesterday and purchased a bed so he will have something soft to lay on instead of the hard cold tile floor. I asked him to bring a set of sheets because the sheets you buy here are like sandpaper, I told him that I did not think his wife, Pam, would appreciate him coming back home to her with no skin. He agreed!!
It is getting colder here. Last night I had a shirt, sweater, flannel pants and 2 pair of socks and was wrapped up on the couch with a heavy blanket and that was just right. And they tell us it is not as cold as it is going to be in mid June and July…(not looking forward to that). So Brett, if you are reading this blog, you better bring some “long johns”. We found what is the equivalent of an electric blanket, it is the opposite, instead of it being like a blanket it is like a fitted sheet that goes over the mattress and under the sheet and has duel controls for each side. That is really good because you can cut it on before you get into the bed and the bed is warm for you, the nights before we found this the sheets were like ice and it was hard to get warm. Thank you Lord!!
Just a short note: I found a vegetable that we call yellow squash, it is named yellow pity pats here and it looks like a small yellow ball. I quickly bought almost all they had and came home cut it up and cooked it with onion…yep, taste like our yellow squash…but the sad news is that I went back to the market the next day and “no pity pats.. So much for the almost home taste. Last night I ate Lamb for the first time. Donald put it on the grill like steak and it was rather good. Most meats (with the exception of Chicken) have a funny flavor and are very hard for me to eat. Maybe it was because I did not know what to expect for the taste of the Lamb, but it was good. Bread here is different also, it is baked daily at the grocery store and you cannot keep it (even in the refrigerator) for over a day or two because it starts to grow green mold, they do not put preservatives in most everything they make so it doesn’t last as long but it is better for you. It is the same with cheeses. The eggs sold here are brown and are not cleaned up when you get them, it is like they just take them from under the chicken and put them in the container for the store, they are date stamped though…(I would rather them be cleaned). Sorry to ramble on but just wanted to give you some insite on the life here in Swaziland.
We received several cards from our friends at church this week and they are such a blessing and encouragement to us. Thank you all…for your prayers and your support. ( and thank you for taking care of our family) We could not be here if it were not for all of you…God Bless and will blog again soon..

Easter Week in review

Today is Easter Sunday, How precious what this day stands for. We have had a long week here in Swaziland, The church started 7 days of serveolution. Each day we did something different for the community to show God’s love in action. The Second day two groups of church members went to a “homestead” to rebuild the mud and rock walls of a house for a poor woman. Homesteads are outside of the communities and are usually built of rocks dropped in-between sticks and packed with mud. They also mixed bags of concrete and concreted the floor which was once red mud. The third day is Sunday, We will not have a church service instead we will be going out as a group to clean up the local “kombie” rink. A group painted the concrete walls orange and the remainder of us walked and picked up trash from the ground. We received “thank you” from a lot of the locals. Third day was to cook and feed around 250 people. We all gathered at Pastor Ben’s home and cooked rice, beef stew, butternut squash and carrots for carrot slaw.( both of which had to be peeled by hand) We served it into containers and carried it out to a service station and offered it with “Love from Jesus” to the people, some of which were afraid to take it because food is not so freely given here in Swaziland. Day 4 began with low clouds and rain and looked like our plans for the day would be called off, but no, it gave a better reason to have your windshield or windscreen as they call it here, to be washed. Groups went to two different petrol stations and washed windshields for anyone stopping to get fuel for their car..in the Love of Jesus. Then “hot dogs” were cooked and served to all the employees and others who worked at the stations. Day 5 was taking packets that consisted of a wash cloth, tooth brush, soap, and toothpaste to patients in the local government hospital. I was head of the Make group of ladies; Make is pronounced Mog-gay which means Mother. So us older women –Makes- were in one group. They were the most wonderful women, they started singing the moment we got into the kombi( small minivan) and did not stop the whole way there and even the whole way back. Please pray for the people in the Government hospital, most of them are sent there to die, But, us Makes helped to lead 2 women to the Lord. So there will be two more souls in heaven. Day 6 consisted of cooking meat and rice and delivering it to the local bank branch and to the police station to also let them know that Jesus loves them. This brings us to Good Friday night. This night we showed the movie “the PASSION OF THE CHRIST” Can you remember how it was the first time you saw it?? Having to read sub-titles in English and trying to see the movie?? well, it was the same movie…so the Swazi’s had to read the English subtitles also, but like the Bible says, my word will not return void, we had 20 to accept the Lord Jesus as savior.. He speaks in all languages. Today is Easter Sunday. Our service was a little different than past Easters for us but good none the less. Pastor Ben really got everyone’s attention with the real coffin he had brought on stage. This one was an actual one used for burial here it reminds me of the old Dracula movies just a oblong box with only a small draping of material inside the box and a small pillow. There are bolts with fancy wing nuts which are used to screw down the flat lid over the body no fancy wheels or draping, no vaults in the ground.. just a plain white box. It made a good representation of how if we are saved there is nothing to be afraid of because only our flesh will be there and our souls will be with Christ.
I hope each one who reads this blog will realize how much we can be a witness even without a sermon.
Bless you all and hoping you have a blessed Sunday and remember what EASTER really means. We are really thankful to be a part of God’s family..Thank you all for your prayers and support. Love you ALL!!