Review 1

Well there is a lot to be said about my trip out to Swaziland, and it will take me a while, so probably more than one post. First off i want to thank my Uncle Bruce who sent the three of us ( Robbie Barbara and I). It truly was a once in a lifetime trip for me( hopefully not though :)

Last night as I was telling a lot of my family about the trip more things hit me with a realization of how bad some things out there were, but also how amazing the work that Children's Cup was doing. On the first full day out in Swaziland there was an appreciation brunch for the cooks at the care points. I thought it seemed fitting to have a brunch for them because they cook everyday for the kids at the care points. Every day these women grab 50kg (over 100 lb) sacks of corn and sit over an out door fire and cook for over 200 kids. These women essentially are caring for 200 children each! 200 OVC children ( orphan vulnerable children) when they themselves might be barely hanging on. Every time We showed up at the care points they were glad to see us, always doing the same things: cooking, cleaning, taking care of the kids. They are a huge part as to why Children's Cup works, these incredible women of God. It was an honor to be there to help thank these women for all the hard work they do for the children.

Shortly after the brunch Barbara Robbie, Pat and I left to go to the Manzini Hospital. After I read a blog from one of the Cup team members saying it was pretty much the saddest place ever I wasn't sure what to expect. As you would expect it is nothing like any American clinic or hospital you have ever seen. Immediately it feels sad, and broken. People are hurting everywhere and the condition of the hospital is so poor and and the care meager it made your heart ache. We went to the children's ward to visit a little girl named Pepe who Cup has been working with to help her ( she is 9 I think and has AIDS) On a bright note she was up and eating and moving around and apparently looked much better that week than she had a week prior. While that was a bright spot when we got into a much larger room with many kids it was so sad to see them all there with sores and bandages knowing that many of the kids there were dying of AIDS. I ended up sitting down next to a baby just a few feet in the door that was sleeping and just prayed. I didn't want to go any further into the room, it was to sad for me. Last night as I was talking to family though I remembered looking at my Aunts pictures and seeing all the kids at the hospital were smiling. I didn't remember seeing that while i was praying, but i was so happy to see it in the pictures. The kids have hope and it reminded me that they will be someplace better away from their broken and infected bodies and this broken world. At the time I was glad to leave the Hospital, but I was glad I saw it and more happy to see the pictures of kinds with hope left and some happiness in a very grim world.

Pepe




happy kids!

After a crazy first half of the day we left for our game parks and sightseeing part of the trip. Obviously that was a awesome part of the trip and I saw so much. The animals were amazing, our guides great and the food usually pretty good. It was a perfect beginning to a trip and kinda needed after a long flight and a very busy week prior to leaving with working both jobs and getting everything I needed ready to go.

That's all for now, busy life. Thanksgiving was great and it was wonderful to be back home with family and friends. I am so thankful for the opportunity to go to Swaziland and work with the Cup team out there. They are amazing and live their lives an great calling.

Pictures

Being back at work and suffering a little jet lag I haven't had time to upload pictures for everyone to see. However, my cousin Robbie has and here is a link to his website that has a bunch of the pictures listed. I have been thinking a lot about the trip and what effects it has had on me. It is a lot to think about and decompress but I will try to get some of my thoughts posted this weekend. Happy Thanksgiving all!!

Cousins Africa Pictures

"...in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God"
I Thessalonians 5:18

Home

Back home safe after multiple flights to get home. It was an amazing trip and I will unload it more when I have some free time. I will also be working to update some pictures on the site soon.

Busy

So we have 1 fort almost built a second one in process, and have been running around like nuts for the invasion event. We designed, painted and hung some banners in Mbabane and Manzini yesterday. Rob , Pat, Barbara and I all have some nice sunburn and things are going really well. We have had dinner with all the different families with Childrens Cup and it has been a lot of fun to hear all of the stories and history of how they came to be where they are. All of a sudden time is at a crunch, and were rushing for everything. Keep us all in your prayers for energy, organization, and getting some things done before te event. Love all.

ps we will get some pictures of the fort up sometime i hope.

pictures

Sorry so few pictures, it takes a long time to post them and we don't have a lot of that. These are from the trip to south africa with the Kloofing through a canyon, game ride, and some sightseeing/hanging off of cliffs.

Invasion event and work

Hi everyone, back in Swaziland and preparing for the youth event. We are working to do some organization, publicity and logistics stuff for the event that can all be prayed for. The event can best be described as an all day music, speaking event and game day for the youth of Swaziland. It's a beginning step to reaching a lot of the youth that Childrens Cup exists for.

Yesterday it was a little rainy but we went around to 3 of the care points to see some work that rob barbara and I are going to try to do doing. Two care points are being setup now to build forts so the children can play and the third is being eroded away by heavy rains and were going to try to fix that. The rain has slowed us down alot since it rained all night and is still raining to today but we are all in the office and Pat is catching up on some of the work here.

The conditions of Swaziland are very different in regards to housing and developement. Some areas look nice and have more or less regular housing, and the only difference is the electric fences and razor wire on the walls. Other areas though are jsut broken. There are houses made out of pallets, dirt, rock whatever can be found. Up by one of the care points we saw houses that were smaller than my den back home. Yet despite the housing or the dirt roads that most people would consider some serious off-roading the people are joyfull.
The attitude of most the people we have met or talked with is joy, happines and being content. Unfortunatly I think most of that masks so many of te problems plauging Swaziland. Ben Rodgerswho we are staying with said that the HIV infection rate of the children here is 10% and he expects that he 20-40 ages are as high at 60%. Aside from the disease, the number of orphan children, abused children and wives and completly broken families are amazing. Its difficult to understand how broken the home situation is because to many is what is "normal" and not discussed as a problem.
Childrens Cup is working hard not just to give a better life tthe children, but also to get communities, churches, and the adults here to take possesion of their lives and future. By working with them to build care points for food and education and not just giving it to them the people have a sense of ownership over what is going on and its the beginning of the culture change that is needed. Pat was explaing to us yesterday that the care points that are doing the bests are the ones that have taken hold of this shift and are workin for their community. Its all about what we can give out of ourselves to others. Our reward in heaven is standing with the people we have worked with and changed their lives by telling them about Jesus. As Ben put it last night: we all have something to give. At the very leat we have time, money, skills. knowledge, friendship. There is no excuse not to give of ourselves.

Post Safari Update

What do you do when a Rhino crosses the road? Chase it. At least thats what we did. We saw a whole bunch of stuff this morning, including giraffs, rhinos, zebra, impalas, and even some elaphants. We tracked some lions for while but we couldn't find them and decided to lok for other stuff instead.

Today we leave the first game park and head south to one more and stay overnight before we head back into swaziland tomorrow to start all of the fun stuff with the kids. Rob and I havebeen charged with building a fort for the kids near one of the care points. Maybe we are a little cocky from our tree building days but we just wanted to know how many floors he wanted :)

Thats all for now, going to clean up before we head out.

Safari

Wow. Rhinos are a lot bigger up close. So we went n our first safari yesterday, by the way its 5am here. And we leave for our second one in an hour. Its beautiful again this morning but will probably give way to 100 plus degree heat later. We did see some Rhino, antelope, gazel, water buffalo, and this morning we are hoping for some elaphant and loins but like our guide said this is a game park, not a zoo and nothing is guaranteed. Its been fantastik so far and we are really hoping to see a bunch more. Thats all for now. Love all

Sabie, and South Africa

This place is amazing. We traveled north on tuesday into south africa to stay in Sabie, a small town where we did some hiking, it was a beautiful ride. The Landscape is so different, a cross between arizona dessert and utah mountins, with rainforest spots on top of the mountains. So the drive was nice, just had to watch out for cows in the roads. We made it into Sabie with no troubles and settled into our backpackers lounge where we stayed for two nights. Wednesday we hiked though mac mac pools river area and gorge. Truly anamazing time. Jumped into a few ponds, swam up the river, went into a few massive waterfalls. Very fun time. After the hiking we did some wandering around in Sabie and got some good food. We met a german guy named Johannas who was good company and a great talker. Today we did some more sightseeing and saw a whole bunch of different views, waterfalls, and beautiful overlooks. We got to the Game park a few hours ago and it is an amazing place with awsome custormer service!! Thanks Uncle Bruce!! This afternoon we head off into the park for our first of two tours through. Were all very excited to see all the animals and the beauty God gave us to have. Thats all for now, maybe able to pot some pictures later. Love all.

Were here

We all arived just fine last night and got picked up at the airport. The flights were long and fun. Barbara and Rob both got some sleep and I got maybe an hour. We had an authentic swazi dinner last night with the Rodger family and it was quite good. Today we packed up some of our stuff for a little touristy stuff were going to be doing, including a game park and some river rafting. This morning we had a appreciation brunch for all the care point cooks. It was really neat to see all the different people come together in one spot to celebrate the work being done.
We stopped by the childrens ward to visit Pepe a child that pat has mentioned in his blog. She is doing better. Its a very sobering experience seeing the hospitals here and the level of care they recieve to that of what we get in America. We are truly blessed with what we have.
The weather is beautiful and we are excited to be here and ready to see more of South Africa and Swaziland. Love you all.

DC Here I come

Off to Washington DC. I will be there with mike and mere for the weekend with robbie and barbara joining us on saturday. Next post from the capital

Going to Swaziland

Wednesday night, heading out for dinner with some friends from my small group. It's a little odd thinking of what the next 18 some odd days are going to have in hold for me. I did some more packing, organizing and second guessing making sure i have everything i need for my departure on friday. Nerves are kicking in a little bit, but the excitment of whats ahead is way too cool for anything else to matter.
I feel beyond privledged to not only be going to swaziland, but also to help work with Childrens Cup to reach people and teach about Jesus' amazing love. Before I get into swaziland i spend a few nights in Washington DC with my brother and sister in law which will be a great to see them and also a helpful transition away from work and into whats ahead of me.
Quick prayer requests: Saftey in travels and while in swaziland, Love- for a completely new understanding and fulfillment of love for others. That I can fall right in line with whats going on at Childrens cup and help in whatever ways i can. And lastly for my family that they would be comforted while I am gone, and excited about what i am doing.