swaziland

Today, the Swaziland team go together for a mini-retreat type deal. Our team leader, Justine, sent the rest of us out with a little assignment. In 6 envelops there were pictures and instructions. Each envelope contained a place to go and something to pray for in Swaziland. We went to the hospital to pray for the AIDS epidemic. Did you know that if something is not done about the AIDS crisis that Swaziland will be extinct in 50 years? I didn't know that either and it completely shocked me. Then we went to an elementary school to pray for the schools and children. We stopped at a church to pray for a pastor of one of the churches there. Next, we prayed at a playground for the orphanages. Finally, we prayed at our Christian Ministries building for the Bible college in Swaziland. Seeing the people's faces made the trip seem so much more real. We now see a need and know specifically what to pray for. We came back to the house we had started out and Justine and Julie, a girl that went to Swaziland last May, had prepared food that we will typically eat in Swaziland. Fried chicken, this corn meal type deal, squash, and bread. To finish our retreat together, Justine asked us to take some time to write in our journals or read the Bible and write about what we saw our role on the team to be and what role does our group as a whole play. I love our group. We have such a wonderful dynamic of being able to goof off and be silly, but then we can be so spiritually deep too. My teammates are awesome. I wish you could meet them all. Basically, I'm really getting excited about going to Africa. I will be leaving 3 months from Feb. 1st. Crazy. I cannot wait to see what God is going to do.