Filed under: the6ofus | Tags: Africa, christmas, orphans, parties, puppets, waterslide
in Siswati, Christmas is pronounced “kiss-ee-moose-ee” . At Cup in Swaziland, we’ve just begun 8 consecutive days of Christmas parties for over 5,000 kids at 19 different carepoints! We’ve got a great staff here of about 50 people, about 100 Volunteers from a local church – Healing Place Swaziland … and about 45 American volunteers in town too to help in the effort!
We try to have a great time with orphans and vulnerable kids here at Cup every day, but we pull out all the stops on Christmas – the celebration of the birth of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ of Nazareth – the Son of God!!! If there was something to get excited about – this is it! Enjoy a couple pics…
Christmas in Summer is HOT!
Puppet Show complete with Mary, Joseph, Angels, Shepherds, Wise Dudes and the Baby Jesus!
Filed under: the6ofus
So this year we tried something a bit different … instead of eating a bird for Thanksgiving, we gave birth to a bird business…
day 1 chicks - 34 more days to the roaster!
This year we’ve had the opportunity to help one of our friends here, Lungile Shongwe, to start a business. She’s a single mom in her young 20’s who wants to work from her rural homestead…rather than live in town. Not to mention that if she does it right, can easily make double an average town income with half the living expenses…
...foundation of the chicken house in August...
But all that takes the opportunity to get started … for about $1500. Not too much to us, but almost a years wages here! So how many of us have a year’s salary saved up to invest in a business opportunity? So God used us to help out as a catalyst for a small chicken farm. And wouldn’t you know it, the day that our 200 chicks were ready was 11.00am Thanksgiving Day [just another day here] … and if you don’t take them, you miss out for another few weeks…
Our day was flexible anyways, so we bought all the stuff and the chicks and made the 1.5 hour drive out to get the chicks settled in the chicken barn we built/finished last month. Thanksgiving ended up being full of birds for us! Thanks for praying with us for Lungile to learn a lot and succeed as she seeks to start her business and be a godly young woman working hard to provide for her daughter and family from home.
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We LOVE Thanksgiving – don’t You? As Americans living outside the US, it’s not hard to miss Christmas the way we celebrate it at “home” – because wherever the Gospel of Jesus has gone Christmas is celebrated! So as crazy as it sounds, Santa has been up in the grocery store here in Swaziland since October!
Thanksgiving, on the other hand, is a distinctly American holiday. In other words, t’s not easy to find a turkey here in November… Other cultures do different versions of celebrating their harvests, of course, but there is something very special about celebrating the goodness of God and His provision in your own life and story.
So here in Manzini this year we will be celebrating 5 years of God’s provision for us in Africa through friends like you. Thank you for your partnership and commitment to seeing the Gospel of Christ made real to many. God’s given us 2 more boys here in Africa, and given a world of experiences to our family that we could’ve never had before. In ministry we’ve seen Him move greatly and provide for the gospel and love of Jesus to change the lives of many.
Crystal and I are also thankful for the way God has grown and taught us so many things here in Africa that we did not know before. He has given us the gifts like – genuine love for those who are hurting, greater compassion, understanding life as a minority [we are here], better value of time and patience, and so many other good things that we did not have when we arrived in 2004…
So friends we want to say thank you, and thank God, this Thanksgiving as we celebrate. We rejoice in the Lord in all things, as we come to Him with thanksgiving, and as we trust Him to be faithful to help us in what we ask! Philippians 4.4-6
Filed under: Africa
Crystal praying thursday with the women [bomake] who cook at the new CarePoint in Mnsunduza.
Filed under: Africa
Graduation time is SO MUCH FUN – no matter what culture you are in! We are so proud of our kids and teachers who have worked so hard to make it to graduation this year! This year we dressed in Swazi traditional dress for the occassion – it was great, and the kids and parents love it!
Crystal and I are ‘missionaries’ over 2 Cup CarePoints – Madonsa and Mbekleweni. We were able to celebrate with the graduating classes and their caregivers as the children completed their first 2 years of schooling. The children are graduating out of our school into a local primary school. They usually enter 1st-3rd grade depending on how they score on their entrance exams. Schools are not yet free here [although the govt is talking about it], so please pray with us for school fees for all of our graduates!
As we look to our conclusion with Cup in January and return to ministry in the States, we celebrate all that God is doing though Children’s Cup to bring transformation of the Gospel to a generation of kids made vulnerable by HIV.
Filed under: the6ofus
Crystal and some kids at the Cup Graduations
Filed under: Africa
Makhosanzana and Teacher Sindi
Even at 12 years of age, Makhosanzana is a beautiful young girl who stands almost as tall as her Cup teacher Sindi Mduduli. She has a beaming smile and is one of Cup’s SwaziStars at Ngwane Park CarePoint, and she is growing in the Lord week by week!
Makhosanzana got saved at the CarePoint through Kids’ Club 2 years ago. She had been coming to eat occasionally before, but has been at the CarePoint every day since she met Jesus! She will tell you that her favorite part about the CarePoint is the KidsClub and the SwaziStars Bible study … because “God changed my life through them!”
At KidsClub in Swaziland, 40+ teachers at Cup’s 19 CarePoints have the chance to use fun and stories to share the gospel of Jesus and the truths about issues of life/health/hygiene/relationships with thousands of kids twice each week! And many children are being transformed by the power of Jesus and the forgiveness of sin in His blood!
Recently, Makhosanzana’s mother met Teacher Sindi along the road and thanked her for all the changes in her daughter’s life – “she’s a different girl at home and she is doing very well in her schooling!” Many kids don’t study and pray for God’s help. But not Makhosanzana – “…she studies hard, and prays to God for help, and she is doing very well,” says Sindi.
Makhosanzana wants to grow up and marry a godly man and have children of her own. She dreams of becoming a teacher, so that she can give to others what God has given to her through her Children’s Cup teacher, Sindi.
Would you pray with us for Makhosanzana, that God would grow her up as a godly woman here in Swaziland, and that He might use her as part of a transformed generation? And also for her teacher, Sindi that God would provide all that she needs and that she might continue to be used by God to have an impact on more kids in her area?
walking with people in the pain of the problems of life:
…simply devastating.
realizing that solutions are farther off than expected:
…tragedy indescribable.
coming to grips with the aspect of my ego in the desire to provide solutions:
…utterly paralyzing.
being reminded of Grace for egomaniacs and blind men:
…re:boot the thinking, one more time…
Filed under: Africa
…that is, my last 7 hours today … not my last 7 ever…
I woke up feeling like a train ran over me, and it seems the family flu has caught up to me. So Dayquil and Advil it is for breakfast, with a skip the gym morning, and a few extra cups of coffee.
So now you know that anything I write about needs to be taken with an understanding of my physical and emotional condition. I’m a wreck.
8.15am – Mancoba calls me from our CarePoint to tell me that one of our cooks has died in the night. Of the 8 of them, I am not sure who he is describing. I told Him I would see him after lunch.
9.00am – my team shows up for Discipleship team meeting. Good stuff, looking back at this year, and ahead to next. Talking about the transition into Danny’s [new guy] leadership as I transition out for our end of time with Childrens Cup in January.
By 10am we are reviewing our camp from the last weekend with a group of 200 youth, and the conversation turns to the guys/girls discussion time re:sex/love/relationships. The girls were especially interactive and frank, and here was the headline question:
“I hear what you’re saying that we shouldn’t give away our bodies so easily to any guy, but you also say we should obey our parents. It’s spring – the fields need plowing- and my mom tells me to go find an older man who will sleep with me and pay for our fields to be plowed…what should I do?
[long pause - let that sink in]
It’s now 4pm, and I’m still nauseous. If it were one girl, easy, let me pay for the field to be plowed. But according to the 5 Swazi’s I’ve talked with this about since 10am, this is the norm. My teachers said any man can buy a girl for sex from almost any family for an $8- bag of rice, or a $15- fee to plow the fields.
1pm – another meeting, I have no idea what it was about.
2pm – at Madonsa, the cook who died, left her husband and 2 kids, who both come to the CarePoint. She was young – mid-30s, and very healthy looking. I never expected it to be her.
She had the most beautiful smile, always with a hint of mischief as she served. I miss her already.
She had not tested for HIV, even though some teachers had urged her. She was fine, and then went to hospital sick, and died two weeks later.
3pm – As I left the CarePoint, beautiful children chased my car down the ‘road’ calling out my name in Siswati, which means “our hope.” And the tears welled up as I bounced thru the potholes… Oh Jesus, whom have I but You?
I have buried 2 staff members and 1 student in 6 weeks. [this is just at our 2 CarePoints -Cup has 19 total in Swaziland alone]
After 5 years here in Swaziland it hurts more than ever.
I want to be angry. I want to sleep. I want to run. I want to fight. I want to yell. I want escape. I want to curse. I want to weep. And the weeping comes…
And I’m not even the one effected by all of this. I don’t have a mom selling my body for 4 days of rice. I don’t need to sell my kids for food. I am not going to get HIV from a sexual partner outside of marriage. I did not lose my mom or wife today.
Truth is, my last 7 hours would be like a dream for most of those kids ….
Filed under: the6ofus
Don’t miss the 40days of prayer video today!!
I love my man Dixon!!! i want to move to Zim just to get more of that action! if you’re tuning in today, thanks for praying for us … but you should know that being a missionary is not a hardship – it’s an honor and blessing! God is great and provides everything you need if you obey when He calls you. as for us, God has been TOO kind and good!
i had a great day today – some stuff like your life, and some stuff not:
6.30a wake [up too late last night]
7.00a- battery dead in my land rover – i’m not sure if it;s the alternator or not … grr.
7.30a boys to school
8.00a- gym [there's only one in our city]
9.00a – government meeting to discuss $150,000 grant Childrens Cup was just awarded – Praise God!!!
11.00a – watched my boy Wyatt performing Swazi cultural dancing at school
noon – in my office – 10 emails and a bit of coffee and Word time
2.00p – out to Carepoint for playing and Bible club
4.20p – drove Carepoint staff home, stopped 2help a friend buy some pain meds as he is in late stage HIV
5.30p- office @home for a few more mails
6.00p – family movie night with old school Treasure Island
2 hours of holding kids at Madonsa today made my week- thanks for the honor of being a missionary here with Cup in Swazi.
Godspeed, Lad
