So much has happened over the last couple weeks since my last blog, I will try to say everything that I remember, but then again, I don’t have the greatest memory.
So first of all after we were done with Cambodia, we finished up and took a four hour bus ride to the border of Thailand and Cambodia, and then made our way into Bangkok Thailand, where we stayed the night. The next day we got to explore the entire city of Bangkok, which was really fun and most of the time we just went to one of the malls, and I found an ice-skating place, which was fun because I wanted to be cold again because I haven’t felt it in so long. Thailand has these wheeled trikes that they juice up and he goes so fast and they love to go fast in them, which was the main type of transportation for tourist. We also ate a lot of different foods that we got to try out and I also got to get a good Shake shack burger again. it was just really fun pouring Bangkok and just seen all the man-made things and all of the nature gardens within the city. that night we went to the airport. But getting there was not the easiest first we waited on the bus that never came so eventually, we took one of those took with over our luggage, and if you would see them, you would know that we should’ve not all fit in that thing, but we still jam pack and went to the train station from the train station. We had a hassle of finding the right train to go to the airport and eventually we found the right train and made it to the airport just on time. We flew out of Bangkok around one or two in the morning and arrived in Johannesburg South Africa. From there we had a four hour bus ride to our hostel where we were staying which we got to that night.
During the dBrief, I had a realization for the first time on the race, I know I should’ve had this sooner, but the realization was that as we were worshiping one night, I really just thought to my seven was like I’m gonna miss this and I wish that we had something like this at home. It is just so beautiful when 40 or 50 people come together, and just sing their heart out to the Lord, and really mean it and just give the Holy Spirit room to move, and he really does. I wish we had some worship nights like that night at home. They are just so powerful and so moving. One of the main highlights that I have in South Africa, after worship, was a Safari we went on. we woke up really early one morning to catch the sunrise in the safari, there is a picture that I am going to pay putting on here so go check it out, but it was so so so beautiful. we pulled up to watch some lions eating a cape, buffalo wild a pack of hyenas were just surrounding them waiting for them to leave. And we also just drove around for about eight hours seeing a different kind of birds, different kinds of animals like hippos giraffes elephants, a lot of elephants, even some rhinos, and a lot of other different kinds of animals. One of my favorite nights in dBrief was a night where us guys got a whole bunch of steak and then had a barbecue and just hung out with a group of guys again and it was so much fun. One of the other days we went. Zip lining and to a big swing. We went on a zip line which was over 150 feet tall and really long I don’t know how long, after that we drove way up into the mountains into the clouds, where the big gourd was where we went to go on this big swing. When I got there, I told my friends like yeah there’s no way I am doing that and I actually FaceTime my mom before I did it and showed her what I was about to do and not to have it which made it kind of funny. I love you mom. So what it was with a platform out over the cliff and you stand on the tip post at the edge and they just push you backwards and you fall so far down and then just swing way out. It was really thrilling. Also I have pictures of this and video so go check it out. One night at DB. I got to talk to this guy JJ and he was really curious about the gospel which made it so much fun to talk to but his other friend just wanted to talk about different slang south Africans and Americans differ in. So the conversation would start off with JJ asking a really in-depth question I would give an answer to him and like make him think about it and then his friend would be like oh we call this a pavement and you call it a sidewalk. It never really got anywhere too serious, which other sometimes it was good, but I pray to the Lord that he will continue working in JJ‘s life, and that he will continue to reveal himself and that he would be able to just continue to be curious about what this thing is and that eventually he would come to get to know the living God.
From South Africa debrief, we drove to Nsoko Eswatini where our base is. First impressions of it is that it is out in the middle of nowhere, which is kind of awesome because you can actually see the Milky Way galaxy and the sun in Africa are beyond amazing and gorgeous. February 29 was our first day of ministry. We started off at 10 to go to the CarePoint, which is right beside our base, I got to split a fight because two kids were bullying this other kid and I eventually just got the opportunity to speak life into both of them, and asked them why they were fighting and they eventually forgave each other and hugged it out with was so cool to watch. Also, one night the Lord woke me up, I kind of believe if I wake up in the middle of the night with no loud banging or something I believe that it is the Lord and so this night I was wondering why, and then there was something going on in the room so I started rebuking it And my chest and my body just got tight and eventually I said, in Jesus name you have to leave and my body just kinda let go and I just fell into this peace like I’ve never fell into before. I just went into my bed, so relaxed, and just so full of the Lords peace. So I had two days of ministry at the CarePoint, where a whole bunch of kids come to get fed and just do hang out at the playground that is provided and get water. After that the next week, I started working with this guy named Nelson, he is one of the coolest guys and his story is just amazing how he got to Swazi. He really lost in the states to gain so much here in Swazi, spiritually, and physically. it is so obvious that the Lord’s favor is upon him first he had to let go. So I started working with Nelson, and we make beehives because it is a whole business thing to make beehives for the farmer so he can pay for the clinic that he runs and manages with his wife. I got to see a couple of snakes, something to know about the snakes in Eswatini is they are all very poisonous. The most dangerous one is the black mamba which can kill you in about 15 minutes then we have the puffeater or something like that which is a snake that when you get it, fends your blood so much that you bleed out of every single hole in your body until you die within about 40 minutes. Then there’s this other snake that bites you and then you die in about 45 minutes to see one of these baby snakes we just killed them because it’s not good to have them around because we’re not trying to let anyone die. Just a little bit about where we live as well is to get our food we travel two hours, which is the entire other end of the country and get a whole bunch of food and then stock up and bring it back about once a week. I had the privilege to be part of a deliverance on someone which was such an honor to be part of help the kingdom of light continue to pour into people and bring out the dark within them. Some of the older kids at CarePoint have a religious studies in their school which is about the Bible so it is really cool to watch them and then they come through the CarePoint and just ask us questions about the Bible in about what stuff means by the Holy Spirit we answer them with what we think is right and what we think the spirit is leading us to. Swaziland has some of the best thunderstorms, one night we were all just outside, watching the lightning go beside us, and it was just so loud and so much fun, just to see the power of God‘s nature, and the power of the Lord, our God.
March 9 we headed to Manzini which is the place where we get food but instead we were going to stay there a week because we get to see your parents for that week!! We set up our tents and just chilled out and went and got food in the city that night. The next day we were just waiting around and to be honest it did not feel real at my parents were in Africa really close to me because i’ve been going so long. I’m not kidding when I say this, but that week was probably one of the top weeks of my entire life. It was just so much fun to invite my parents into the ministry that I’ve been a part of and just to see how they reacted to kids and just how they loved on the kids and it was just so beautiful to watch my very own be involved in ministry across seas. It was also really cool to your stories of my family back home how everybody’s doing and what’s going on and everybody’s life of my family back home. It just gave me peace about home. Some of my favorite nights happen in the evening though, so every night there were about 10 of us, that said, a testimony with something that happened during the race. Each night of them was so so powerful and it was so evident that even during worship during testimony that the Holy Spirit was moving throughout our med, and actually one of the parents accepted Christ as their savior at the end of the week. Praise the Lord!!! On the final night of PVT (parent vision trip) we did feet washing with our parents which was just so cool and just talk to them about life and what was happening and just again just were so open with each other which was so refreshing. I told my parents at the end of the week that some people are going to come out of this train, but I am coming out refreshed because what we had was just so filling up to my soul and my mom also agreed with that because it had been such a good week the Holy Spirit has been so evident in our life. It was also really cool because my parents got to experience pretty much a lot of what I’ve experienced, like delays, or change of plans last minute, and stuff that you don’t think is going to happen, but ends up happening because you have to change plans. When my parents showed up, they had the same that they told us expectations is your enemy and flexibility is your friend. in other words, if you’re expecting something and not wanting to be flexible and you will not be having the greatest time because you always need flexibility on the mission field because a lot of things don’t go as planned. Also, another thing about PVT was that it was just so cool to meet other peoples parents and just see how some people grew up and some peoples parents just made sense. So that was one of the best weeks of my life.
This past week has been pretty relaxed because we have a three day weekend pretty much because Monday we just had a teaching and then we went out as a team. We started playing a lot of games of wiffleball and just a lot of card games. It is also just so cool that we don’t have Wi-Fi or data here too much so on an evening, everybody will be intentional with each other and talk to each other or play a whole game with each other this is so cool because no one‘s really sitting on their phone and just out of it . Except for today was not chill, it is March 20 and today was a day like no other. Today we were just playing soccer with some kids and everybody’s just started running towards the woods/bushes. I have some of the kids near me what was going on and they said that there was a fight going down so we asked the leader if we should go help stop it or if it’s just a thing that happens and no one does anything. She told us to go so we went over and all these kids were just in a big circle because two girls were looking for blood trying to fight against each other. It honestly was just such a disturbing seeing because it was so sad to see all these innocent kids just want to see blood and want to see things that the devil loves to enjoy and see and they were just giving into it so I talked to some of the kids I knew more better and I was like yo why does people stop and they’re like no no one can stop it because there’s too many people I was like well we’re gonna stop it so we got in the middle of them and like some kids started punching Banks and Malachi and Ben, but no one punched me which was nice. All these kids were looking to see and it was just so sad to see. Eventually we got in between them and honestly we could’ve saved the life. Finally a teacher came out with a big old stick ready to spank some of the kids and they all dispersed when they seen her they eventually went out to the road where they were supposed to walk home and they started bickering again but then the teacher came out and split them up and they just went on their way. Supposedly there is a scheduled fight again for tomorrow. I will try to prepare myself for that. Well, that is all my testimony/stories/adventures, I hope this finds you encouraged and just in the loop a little bit with my life.
Doug, I loved reading your blog again! Yes, it was awesome being there with you, and being involved in ministry with you! Continue to be the hands and feet of Jesus!