February 3, 2008

Ministry this past week didn't look like I thought it would. We were totally prepared with lesson plans to start teaching this week. We showed up at the care point Tuesday morning and it was deserted. There weren't any gogos or children. Since it was the first day school for the children who are old enough and can afford it we figured that it had a lot to do with that. We decided to stick around for an hour more to see if anyone would show up. So we prayed a little bit over the care point. After about thirty minutes a little boy showed up and hung out with us. His name is Bongmusa. He is ten years old and in grade five. I recognized his face from the previous week at the care point. The previous week his hair was grown out a little more and he had lots of white twigs on top. This day his hair had been cut really short. I guess he had it cut to start back school. He told us that he didn't go back to school that day because he had eaten too much fruit and gotten sick. He is a very precious boy. He read out of a children's bible I had brought. He reads very well. He also drew us a picture of Chris Brown and colored it. It could come across funny and cute, but it stinks that children across the nations are being influenced by the rappers of America and MTV. We learned that he lives with his mother and siblings. His dad never comes around, and there are too many siblings to count.

Wednesday some of us went to a session to hear Tom Davis speak. He is the author of a book I just finished reading, The Red Letters, it is a really good book I highly recommend. I was going to go to the hospital, but I decided to just stay back and spend time with the Lord.

Thursday we didn't have to take public (which is transportation in kombies). I really don't mind taking public. You learn a lot from it actually. It was a blessing though to not have to walk to go take public. Anyways our leader took us to the rural area where our care points are. When we got to our care point and there wasn't anyone there again. It was kind of discouraging, because we want to be consistent and build relationships and we can't do that if no one is there. But that is life in missions- plans change. We ended up going to the gogo's meeting where they cut the material to make the purses. We were able to participate in the songs and teaching the teacher taught that day. It was kind of frustrating though, because this big group of white people pulled up in this nice van. I'm sure they are nice people with good hearts, but it just stunk because they made it seem like a show. It was as if they were being paraded around and given a tour of the ministries like a drive thru movie.

Friday Lindsey and me went to the care point again. We ended hanging out with the two gogos. It was a very hot day so we shared popsicles and a newspaper. There weren't any children until after school, because the gogo had arrived late that morning. No gogo… no food equals zero kids. Please pray for consistency with the gogos.

Saturday was our first family ministry day. Our whole team went to the hospital together. Lindsey and I went to the maternity ward first and only stayed a few minutes. We ended up going to the waiting area and met this man and his wife Esther. The man is elderly and in a wheel chair. It is very rare to see older swazi-men because Aids has wiped out a whole generation of men. We were able to share a banana with him and pray with him. He said he was there because he had very bad bladder problems. He was skin and bones, so he could very well have Aids. We ended up getting directions to his home in a town outside of Manzini. We plan to visit him on Wednesday.

Monday and Tuesday of this week we attempted to go to our care point again and once again there wasn't any gogos. Please pray for us.