Crazy memories, Ordinary people, and an Extraordinary God.

We’ve reached our halfway mark in this journey, and over debrief this past week we were encouraged to celebrate. 

We went around the group and shared our favorite moments from the past month and a half. Some were serious, some were funny, but all of them were a celebration of what The Lord has shown us in this beautiful place.
It’s important to live in the present, to let go of the nostalgia of past experiences in some ways, but it’s also important to reflect on what you’ve been blessed with, and just remember how gracious our Heavenly Father is with His children.

So here’s some of the funnest, most humbling and life changing moments I’ve had so far, most being shared with my team. I hope you enjoy a few crazy memories from some normal young people, serving a pretty extraordinary God.

A few nights ago a storm came through. It started in the far distance, and I sat outside watching what I thought was heat lightening get closer and closer to our homestead. I know Sarah loves storms like I do, so I invited her outside with me and we sat in awe as the storm rolled in. We could see the outline of the mountains with every strike of lightening, and all of a sudden we heard it. At first we thought a car was driving up our road, and then we realized it was the fat drops of rain falling about 100 yards away, then 50, then 10, and you get the picture. We ran inside, thinking we were the only ones that just experienced the coolest rain ever, and then Rachel, Tanner and Shad ran in behind us, all so amazed by what we had just seen and heard.

One of my favorite days in Manzini was spent at a hospital/rehabilitation facility called The Hope House. There were so many precious people we met there, but a few stuck out to us. One of those was a young boy about 13 that has HIV and struggles with stomach problems. The first day we were there Lungelo was sitting on his bed in his underwear, and couldn’t get up. He was hurting so badly he didn’t speak at all, and we just said hi, introduced ourselves and left. We continued to visit him every day, and day by day he became more and more active. He would show us drawings, make paper frogs, and talked about his favorite things. One of those things was that he loved to dance… So dance we did. On the last day Sarah turned on some one direction, and Joanna, Rachel, Chelsea, Sarah and I had the opportunity to dance with Lungelo. We laughed, and I cried, and everyone who got to experience it has mentioned it as one of their favorite moments so far.

Almost every Saturday we get to go to a nearby resort type place, to use their dining area for wifi (to talk with you people back home!). The tricky part with going here, is that we have to use public transportation… And we aren’t talking your university bus system. Here in Swaziland they have what we call kumbis. Kumbis can be nice sometimes, like a 22 passenger bus, and sometimes they are supposed to be 10 passenger vans that we pack 20 people in anyway. Either way, it’s not really the kumbis that are the problem. It’s waiting on a kumbi with enough space for 8 people (we split into 2 groups to make the process “easier”). Some waits have resulted in huge successes, with one picking us up in a matter of minutes. Melanie has even made a pretty good rap or two waiting on a kumbi, but some days aren’t as successful as others.
One of the first weeks we were here, we caught a kumbi to Nisela in about 20 minutes on the way there, but that afternoon, in 100 degree weather, we sat on the side of the road for at least an hour and a half. Each kumbi that went by was full, and we were losing hope that we would catch one at all. I was about to resort to a game of red rover with the oncoming cars, when we finally said: ok we can’t do this anymore. We said Lord, we are tired, we are thirsty, and we need to get home, please send us a ride.
We sat for a second, and no cars came over the hill… And then we saw it. A kumbi is coming, and it’s a big nice one. It’s headed our way, and passes right by. Then, just when all hope (I’m super dramatic I know) is lost, we see a familiar car… It was some of the ministry partners on their way back from Manzini. We jumped up and down and screamed and I cried of course and they thought we were crazy. So we packed 12 people in a 7 passenger car, and went on our way.

Beach day in St. Lucia was without a doubt one of my favorites. Just ask Rachel, Sarah or Alexis. It was a wild day, full of adventures, sunburn, and The Lord’s protection.

The men on our team (Shad, Garrett and Tanner) are seriously the best, and deserve the most respect in the world. They’ve lived in pretty close quarters with thirteen 18-24 year old girls for the past 2 months. They have been the sweetest most protective brothers I could have asked for when we came halfway across the world, and we try to thank them as often as we can for what they do for us. Shad once saved me from a drunk man asking to marry me on the way to church, and always makes sure that we aren’t alone on the sidewalk while he uses the ATM. Tanner is our legendary snake catcher, and once saved us from a bat that tried to come in the girls room. Garrett…. He’s the bug master. One of my favorite bug stories is one where I was in need of assistance and Garrett came through for me. I’m from Georgia, and we have lots of crickets there. They’re in my yard… Sometimes we fish with them (and sometimes I let them go because I feel bad for them) so anyway, I like crickets. They don’t hurt you… So when I saw what I thought was a cricket one day on our team house wall, I said aww Garrett you wanna catch this guy and put him outside?? He suggested we kill it, so I said I’d catch it “because it’s a little cricket and I don’t wanna kill it”. It then proceeds to fly into my face, and I yell “kill it!!! kill it!!!!”, Which Garrett did, and saved the day. Thanks guys. Y’all are the best.

8 of us had the opportunity to be called “teachas” for 2 weeks in Manzini in February, and each day during lunch we would share stories of our students and teachers. Garrett and Joanna had to get use to their students running to go “wee” at the fence and sprinting back into their classroom every day. Sarah and Kenz had the most wonderful stories of redemption in their hearts of their students, who they learned to love more and more each day. Em got a renewed love for teaching, and Chelsea got to go deeper with her teacher she was helping. Joy and I had the opportunity to dance and sing with some pretty awesome 4-6 year olds, as well as being the clients at “beauty shop” each day at recess.

We’ve had some scary moments: drunk men proposing marriage… getting lost on our 5 hour hike… but none as scary as the first time you have to light the stove by yourself with the gas on full blast. -RIP finger hairs-

These past weeks have been full. Full of loving and hurting and joy and lessons.
We have laughed so hard that at least 4 of us have actually peed on ourselves (I won’t mention who, you know who you are). And many a night has been spent in our backyard on the top of the container, star gazing and praising the huge God we serve. We’ve played games, we’ve dug toilets, weeded gardens, and washed feet. We’ve seen healing with our own eyes, and had hurt right in front of us daily. It’s been in some ways a very long 50 days that we’ve been in Africa, but I feel like every walk to the railroad tracks is just as beautiful as the first, and every hand you get to hold is so precious and new. The Lord has blessed us so much, and I pray that He continues to pour His love on us and this place forever.