Friends - in case you've been checking often, you'll see we've had issues getting updates on the blog site. It's not because we're holding back though. The place where we thought we could have Internet access has been unavailable. Thanks to our missionary friends, the Petersons, we've had access a couple times including tonight.
OUR VISION: For New Hope Church, in partnership with Adventures in Missions (AIM), to build a relationship with the Nsoko Center Church that will have a positive long-term impact on the people of both churches and communities.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
The Swazi 14 in Swaziland!
Greetings to our friends and family from the “Swazi 11” in Nsoko, Swaziland! First, our apologies for being late in posting to this blog. Our plans changed and we did not get Internet access until today, Sunday, July 17th.
Our travels while a bit grueling, were uneventful. Both of our flights were quite full. We had (surprisingly) good airplane food including several different meals on the 11 hour flight from Amsterdam to J’burg (the short name for Johannesburg). We finally arrived in J’burg Friday evening (see photo) and after getting our luggage, met Scott and Marcia Borg in the lobby and went to a nice hotel for the night.
We rose Saturday morning to load up and leave quickly for the drive to Nsoko, stopping at a truck stop along the way for breakfast. After some vehicle swaps at Jumbo’s house (see photo of Jumbo and Clara), we proceeded to the big event of the day - visiting with Sheila.
Velma Holding Clara
We met Pastor Peter and his wife Precious on the road into Sheila’s and they went along to meet her. As we arrived, Sheila came out of her old house with her grandson on her back. She was clearly overwhelmed by the large group, but as Marcia talked with her, she began to relax and talked to us. As we took photos of the new house, we could see that construction was proceeding. The roof is on, window frames are set and the work is proceeding in “Swazi time”.
Sheila shared that her two children need to find work. She also shared that her children ask her for money that she can’t afford to share. She told us that she just knows to hang on to her faith in God and depend on Him.
Sheila's House
Today (Sunday) we had our first experience of a Swazi church service. The singing was amazing! Wonderful accapella songs lined in siSwati and English. Pastor Bheki called the New Hope team forward and we each introduced ourselves and offered greetings. There was more singing, and then I (Jay) was invited forward to present the book of stories. I read the introductory letter as Pastor Bheki translated and the congregation cheered. Vern then preached a message from Romans with Bheki again translating. The congregation welcomed the message with “Amens”.
Church Service in Nsoko Church
Following church, we went to Pastor Bheki’s for lunch with some of the church leaders. We heard the story of Pastor Bheki’s coming to Nsoko and his work planting other churches. He introduced the church leaders. We prayed together, cleaned up from lunch and went to visit Gogo Nomsa’s house (where we will be doing some work this week). Gogo Nomsa told us of the loss of her husband, about her children and grandchildren and shared some stories of her life - we’ll bring that story back in our book from the Nsoko church to New Hope.
Nomsa's House
I’m out of time for tonight. We will post again in a couple days (maybe Thursday) when we are back at the Nisela dining room.
Our travels while a bit grueling, were uneventful. Both of our flights were quite full. We had (surprisingly) good airplane food including several different meals on the 11 hour flight from Amsterdam to J’burg (the short name for Johannesburg). We finally arrived in J’burg Friday evening (see photo) and after getting our luggage, met Scott and Marcia Borg in the lobby and went to a nice hotel for the night.
We rose Saturday morning to load up and leave quickly for the drive to Nsoko, stopping at a truck stop along the way for breakfast. After some vehicle swaps at Jumbo’s house (see photo of Jumbo and Clara), we proceeded to the big event of the day - visiting with Sheila.
Velma Holding Clara
We met Pastor Peter and his wife Precious on the road into Sheila’s and they went along to meet her. As we arrived, Sheila came out of her old house with her grandson on her back. She was clearly overwhelmed by the large group, but as Marcia talked with her, she began to relax and talked to us. As we took photos of the new house, we could see that construction was proceeding. The roof is on, window frames are set and the work is proceeding in “Swazi time”.
Sheila shared that her two children need to find work. She also shared that her children ask her for money that she can’t afford to share. She told us that she just knows to hang on to her faith in God and depend on Him.
Sheila's House
Today (Sunday) we had our first experience of a Swazi church service. The singing was amazing! Wonderful accapella songs lined in siSwati and English. Pastor Bheki called the New Hope team forward and we each introduced ourselves and offered greetings. There was more singing, and then I (Jay) was invited forward to present the book of stories. I read the introductory letter as Pastor Bheki translated and the congregation cheered. Vern then preached a message from Romans with Bheki again translating. The congregation welcomed the message with “Amens”.
Church Service in Nsoko Church
Following church, we went to Pastor Bheki’s for lunch with some of the church leaders. We heard the story of Pastor Bheki’s coming to Nsoko and his work planting other churches. He introduced the church leaders. We prayed together, cleaned up from lunch and went to visit Gogo Nomsa’s house (where we will be doing some work this week). Gogo Nomsa told us of the loss of her husband, about her children and grandchildren and shared some stories of her life - we’ll bring that story back in our book from the Nsoko church to New Hope.
Nomsa's House
I’m out of time for tonight. We will post again in a couple days (maybe Thursday) when we are back at the Nisela dining room.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Blog updates during the Swazi 14 trip...
We just got the news that we will have low-bandwidth Internet access available at our accommodations during the trip. We will try to post often!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Nine Days and Counting...
The "Swazi 14" have been working to prepare for our trip now for weeks. We meet together for the last time before the trip this Sunday to pack our VBS materials, notepads, medical gift kits and all sorts of other items to share with our Nsoko church family.
The anticipation has been building. But the vision of this trip - loving the kids, meeting the families and spending valuable time with our brothers and sisters in Christ has never been more clear. We want to share our lives as peers in the Kingdom - laboring side-by-side.
Also during this trip, we'll be looking at opportunities to provide some home improvements (cement floors, home repairs, roofing, etc.) to the extent we can. A couple of engineers in our group will be looking at sustainable building opportunities - ways for other churches to send housing "packages" - predefined materials sets to build better housing.
Not only is this trip coming into focus, but a whole set of related ministry opportunities is coming into view:
—> One more thing - during the Swazi 14 trip, watch this blog for updates (as often as we have Internet access)!
The anticipation has been building. But the vision of this trip - loving the kids, meeting the families and spending valuable time with our brothers and sisters in Christ has never been more clear. We want to share our lives as peers in the Kingdom - laboring side-by-side.
Also during this trip, we'll be looking at opportunities to provide some home improvements (cement floors, home repairs, roofing, etc.) to the extent we can. A couple of engineers in our group will be looking at sustainable building opportunities - ways for other churches to send housing "packages" - predefined materials sets to build better housing.
Not only is this trip coming into focus, but a whole set of related ministry opportunities is coming into view:
- After this trip in August, we'll be doing a training/test build of a new kind of housing - earth bag housing - to see if it would be another viable way to help with the desperate need for low-tech, inexpensive yet livable housing in Swaziland. We will work out ways to minimize the tools and expertise so that we can take this to Swaziland on a future trip.
- The House of Cards project (http://newhopehouseofcards.blogspot.com/) has been quietly bearing fruit. As second house is nearly funded and the vision is expanding. After a blog entry from a missionary, inquiries began to come in from other parts of the US. When an AIM (http://adventures.org) missionary couple visited in June, we discussed how to expand the distribution of House of Cards publications - even with the idea of possibly producing them in Swaziland as a possible employment opportunity. (We'll explore that option with the folks on the ground in Swaziland during Swazi 14 trip too.)
- The AIM Timbali Crafts (http://timbalicrafts.org/) ministry is also getting a boost. A talented "crafter" from New Hope will be ministering with others from AIM to the 90 Swazi women who find employment and healing with the Timbali project in Swaziland in August.
—> One more thing - during the Swazi 14 trip, watch this blog for updates (as often as we have Internet access)!
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