Well, with tears in my eyes, our Swazi team left this past Thursday to go to Swaziland until 2 Wednesdays from now, when they will reunite with us for Thanksgiving. I ask that you would keep them in your prayers.

More sad news about people leaving, we do have 4 people going back home to America, where they are called to continue to minister to family members and friends. One of those people is my good friend Chelsea D. who left yesterday. On Sunday we will have 2 more of the "America Team" go back home, Martha and Kelsey, and would really ask that you keep them in your prayers while they travel, and as they reconnect with friends and family back home and get resituated in their lives. They have all been amazing people on the team and great to know and will be greatly missed, but I know that God has better purposes for them back home. (I do want you to know that none of them have been kicked off, there is no disciplinary action or anything like that, it is just that the Lord has called them back home).

Martha and Me with Fish Eyes

So I'm trying to decide where to start this week's updates. Last weekend I guess. It was missionary boot camp x 10. It was a very hXc weekend, where there were a lot of sweat, blood and tears shed. It was a weekend of "team building," finding out how far our limits were, and learning where our rolls are in the team, strengths and weaknesses. It started out at 4:23 am Sat morning, being woken up and told to pack a backpack with clothes and a sleeping bag. Then not really knowing what the heck was going on, we were told to get out of the house and down to the barn, and stand in lines in our teams. Then each team (Swazi and Kenya) were handed 2 live chickens. We later named ours Fried and Battered, while the Swazi team named theirs Lunch and Dinner. After receiving our chickens, we walked up to the Eco Park, which is basically right across the street from Alabanza and just a walk up a big hill. Once we got to the eco park, everyone minus 2 on each team were blindfolded (while holding the chickens) and were told to walk up to where our campsite would be. It took us a great long time, doing some pretty big opsticals (I was one of the un-blindfolded and had to help direct our other 13 teammates and make sure they didn't trip over any rocks, fall in pits or fall off the dam). After getting to our campsite, we were told to make a sleeping arrangement with 2 tarps (big ones), which we did fairly well in an hour. Then the rest of the weekend began until 8 am Monday morning. We ran, push-uped to our max, trusted each other more than we would have liked, relied on God's strength to sustain us, were sore, sleep deprived, hungry, cold and wet. It was a tough weekend, but God got us through and I believe we grew together as a team, there is no doubt that hardships bring people together.

Eco Park Overview

Eco Park Overview Otherside

We had 2 days of recuperation after that, to process, catch up on sleep, and get any hard feelings out so we could continue in ministry. We had a few debriefs in our teams, and as our family (what I call both teams together), before Swazi left.

Thursday we had the option of going to either Atteradgeville or the hospital. I decided to go to Atteradgeville, hoping to see Mangy/Angie again, I haven't seen her yet, but am still praying that before I leave I will have the opportunity to see her again, and hopefully see her standing on the street corner preaching the word of life. Going both Thursday and Friday, I went with my teammates Michael and Michelle J. who have basically been in A-Ville the whole time for ministry and knew people around who they saw on a daily basis. We started out going to a lady's house named Lydia. While we were walking they told me that conversation didn't get too deep based on her limited English skill, but after a few moments of awkward silence she would bust out in song. Which was exactly what happened. Lydia is on older woman (I think 58 but looks way older) who has had a stroke on her left side and is basically bed ridden, so she is always joyous to see visitors. So after introductions and explanations of why Michael and Michelle had not been there for a while, and things got quiet, she started singing, which although would not win her any award on American Idol, she is bringing some smiles to God's face. So we prayed for her, then continued on to another lady's house whose name is Sarah although goes by Serena for some reason, who is also another older lady who has had 3 strokes in the last year, but is still alive and although not everyday can move, she is willing in heart to talk with us and always wants to hear a Psalm. It is really amazing how much just sitting and talking with people can mean to a person. Every time we leave from her house, she starts tearing up from how much she appreciated that we care enough to come and see her, which really does strike a chord in my heart, that something as simple as that can show Jesus. After that we said hello to a few street kids, then went looking for one the guys Michael has gotten to know but wasn't there, but his neighbors were and were very curious as to why 3 white people were in their town asking to see Sepoo (Michael's friend). We told them that we are here to share Christ's love in anyway, whether sitting and busting it out, or helping out in the house or whatever. These guys knew the bible, and I wouldn't be surprised if they knew it better than a lot of American churchgoers, but they got caught up on very legalistic things, that we discussed with them for almost 2 hours. Michelle got hammered pretty hard for wearing earrings. I think the second day we got through to Joshua, the main guy we were talking to, that Christianity is about freedom, and that Christ abolished the law, and we were set free from it.

Another pretty awesome thing happened yesterday, the Cresh that our team ministers at in A-Ville won 2nd place in Safety and Best Cresh out of 40 or so Creshes around the area, which meant that a new playground set was brought today and put up for the kids there. When we got back to check up on them Mama Martha (the lady in charge) ran up to all 3 of us (a very large black woman running at you is a scary site) and grabbed all 3 of us in tight hug and kept saying "We Won! We Won!" we looked over to our other team members that had stayed at the Cresh wondering what the heck was going on. They then explained to us what had gone down. It was very exciting to see how excited she was and the other women who work there were, and the kids who were all over their new playground equipment.

Another really cool thing that went down this week is 4 ladies who are becoming great friends with our team from A-Ville and the Cresh (3 very strong Christians and one who were praying God will change her heart) came over to pray for us on Tuesday, for 4 hours. They led a very nice time of prayer and worship. And then walked us over all of our grounds and prayed over it all and the house and with all of us. These ladies are amazing, and I'll try and get a picture up next week of some of them. They are prayer warriors.

I'm trying to think what else might be of interest to you. Last night we had a nice campfire and made S'mores while we debriefed. The 3 guys are the only ones in the house right now, which is quiet enough now that we can sleep in. Please pray for us, as we really need safety and pray that God keep anything/anyone off the property that shouldn't be there. We check the house every night when we come up before going to bed, making sure windows are locked and everything is in place. I would also ask that you continue to check out whether or not you can help me get a plane ticket for after Christmas to go to Kenya.

Oh yeah everyone on the team: We have Luke, Michael, Michelle J., Amber, Carrie, Allison, Nicole, Melissa, Denise, Abby, Tessa, Teresa, Joie, Chelsea G, and moi. The link to the rest of the teams blogs is http://fym07.myadventures.org/index.asp?filename=africa-blog-pages incase you ever want to check up from a different perspective of what's going on.

That's about it for now. Once again, thank you. I love you. God loves you, and God Bless.