Hello family and friends of team Swazi!  I know you guys prey on the computer waiting for the next update about your kids so here you go.  Today is a beautiful day here and the team is out at an orphanage loving on kids.  It makes my heart smile to see them fully engaging with these kids and loving them out of the overflow of their hearts.  Later this week you'll hear more stories on here from your kids, and tomorrow afternoon we'll bring the entire team into town to email home.  I know you look forward to hearing from them.

One of the team’s favorite ministry locations is the
homestead area located just behind our house.  Several times a week we
spend the afternoon hours in this rural area. We can be found trekking up the dirt paths of the mountain leading to
people’s homes, talking to people on the roadside, playing with children who
always seem to find the visitors, yielding to the cows that roam freely,
getting to know our new friends, and fully embracing the Swazi culture. God has simply dropped this ministry in our
lap…it was such an unexpected surprise.  The team is engaging and
investing in people – focusing on building relationships.  During this
ministry we split into 3 groups and each group returns to their specific side
of the mountain to visit with the same families several times a week.  It’s
fun to watch these relationships develop and to talk about what we saw as we
process at the end of the day. The
students have started taking ownership in this ministry and we’ve heard on
occasion references to their “Swazi family.” Praise God for him crossing our paths with these incredible people. 

One of the other ministries that has impacted our team
greatly is the hospital. On Saturday we
visited the government hospital in Mbabane
and have gone back a few times since then to volunteer in the children’s ward. 
The team has been completely wrecked by this!  The Lord has opened up a
door for us to simply love on His children at the hospital, both the kids who
have family and the abandoned children. I was specifically struck at one moment on Saturday afternoon. As we were all sitting in this back room
holding the abandoned babies, all got quiet as if a wave of silence swept
through the room. I looked around to see
all of our students holding babies tight against their chests with tears in
their eyes. It was at that point that the
reality of this hit everyone in there.  Soon it was time to leave and we
all reluctantly put the babies back in their cribs. As we walked out of the hospital in silence,
everyone was inwardly processing in their own ways.  It was a tough
thing. That night we had a great time of
debriefing all of this and sharing our hearts.  We’re all wrecked for
sure!  But the team is choosing to be vulnerable and real and to walk through
hard things together. In this God is
glorified!!