It’s not every day I get the chance to say “ok go wee wee outside and run back!” followed by 16 four year olds running across the yard to the fence, squatting and standing all in a row doing their business and running back in.  But really, this week I did.  Nor is it common to march about a dirt field (called the playground) with a trail of children behind, clapping my hands above my head in a preventative measure so as to not become a human jungle gym.  But yes, this week I did.   Manzini ministry has looked different for everyone this week, but...

I physically hurt when I think about the child whom I met in the Philippines that seemed as though he was ready to collapse from not having food, nor water. I mourn when I see the child outside our base in swaziland who chews on plastic because of his pain from hunger; he watches me eat my third meal today. I weep for the family in Guatemala that lost their 12 year old daughter. I can only imagine the anguish and pain that her dad felt as he could do nothing but watch the river overtake her. I hurt, I mourn, and I weep. They say that to weep Means you are weak. They say if you mourn You...

The A TEAM, that’s what ya call us (aka the agriculture team). While in Manzini we have been given the task to create a garden at a care point with squash, cucumbers, corn and more veggies. Throughout the week you could say we have had a few set backs: equipment breaking, rain, you name it. Personally for me, it had been a tough week, feeling almost worthless.  While sitting under the tree at the care point, preschool must have just ended because right when I looked up there was a stampede of 5 years olds coming for us. Oh the joy in their eyes. We danced, we sang, we shared life...

     I look up and the young African man in front of me is slouched in his chair with his head down and hands his in his lap. It would appear that it is not just the white people who get hit by the drowsy feeling during these long church services. Then all of the sudden he lifts his head up and says “amen” along with much of the congregation. “Oh, we were praying. Of course.”      This was about an hour and a half into the three hour service. It was neither the first, nor the last time during the service when I realized I had utterly no...

Something that I feel more on ‘mission trips’ than anything else is probably anger. It is an emotion that I feel more than any other. It bothers me. It bothers me a lot. A lot of the times I get mad because I feel like its not right for me to get mad. Like its not the Christian thing to do. Like we’re supposed to put this smile on and say hold on to this hope that Christ has set for us. Don’t get me wrong, we must hold on to the hope and glory that has been prepared for us, but in all reality, how am I supposed to smile at a child who is staring at me as I eat my...

Something that I feel more on ‘mission trips’ than anything else is probably anger. It is an emotion that I feel more than any other. It bothers me. It bothers me a lot. A lot of the times I get mad because I feel like its not right for me to get mad. Like its not the Christian thing to do. Like we’re supposed to put this smile on and say hold on to this hope that Christ has set for us. Don’t get me wrong, we must hold on to the hope and glory that has been prepared for us, but in all reality, how am I supposed to smile at a child who is staring at me as I eat my...