The 20 or so teenage guys who you play soccer with every afternoon. They gave you a new name and accepted you even though your skin was white and you weren’t as good at soccer. How do you say goodbye to them?      The great grandmother who can’t walk a kilometer to the church because of her asthma. Your teammate bought her a hymnal so she could worship at home and she is forever thankful for it. How do you say goodbye to her?      The five year old who’s English is restricted to colors, numbers, and a few animals. He...

“God spoke in a dream and said it was time for me to have a relationship with Him”.  –These words, humbly spoken, came from sweet Go-Go Jele who shared how she had come into a relationship with Christ only a year prior.    This Go-Go lives by herself in the hills of Swaziland.  With no family to care for her, she lives on her own and depends on God to provide for her everyday needs. Such a sweet voice, beautiful, blue eyes, and such a loving heart.     In the shade of her mud and stick home on a straw mat we sat.    We saw her go in...

     Work projects are not always the most exciting ministry we do. The African sun doesn’t go easy on our light skin (who knew it was so hot in Africa?!) and the work is usually pretty tough. However, it’s really rewarding getting to help out the people of the community in a really tangible way. One of the big projects that our entire team has pitched in on has been in the community garden. We’ve cleared a large new plot of land of all the weeds and installed a new drip-irrigation system. This last week I was out there pulling up some more weeds. While I...

  It hurts to hold a 5 year old who is sick with the flu running a 102º Fever with no adults, much less parents, to take care of her.   It hurts to watch a lady who is paralyzed on one side of her body and can`t walk crawl outside of her house so we can clean up her filthy home.   It hurts to sit next to an 18-year-old girl who is 8 months pregnant and sees no reason to have hope.   It hurts to see older kids at a CarePoint dragging a younger girl by her arms threatening to beat her.   It hurts to hear the oldest Gogo in the community has lived her whole life...

Something I am consistently reminded of is that love is a choice. Love is not easy. Love is not something that we simply acquire. Love is not some special feeling that we get. If love was simply a feeling that we got, then what do we call it when we don’t ‘feel’ love? I am going to take a step here and call it ‘obedience.’ It is very clear, as Jesus teaches, that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. I think it would be safe to say that loving our neighbor can be a tough task. Forgiving others of their sins that are against us is tough, and because it is a...

Something I am consistently reminded of is that love is a choice. Love is not easy. Love is not something that we simply acquire. Love is not some special feeling that we get. If love was simply a feeling that we got, then what do we call it when we don’t ‘feel’ love? I am going to take a step here and call it ‘obedience.’ It is very clear, as Jesus teaches, that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. I think it would be safe to say that loving our neighbor can be a tough task. Forgiving others of their sins that are against us is tough, and because it is a...