Christmas Party ~ Swaziland
WoW, this was a busy and very full Swaziland weekend!!
We’ve left for Swaziland Thursday afternoon and managed to cross the border with all the Christmas decorations and other Christmas goodies without problems.
One of the highlights of the weekend was the visit to Imanuelle early Friday morning at the Manzini Market Place. It was wonderful to hear his voice over the sound system! He is sending his greetings and blessings to everyone at BLAZE TEAM and is hoping to see us at his church very soon. Before we left, we gave him a copy of Scared and also a BLAZE Volunteers T-shirt.
We then left for Thembeni care point to decorate the hall. Finally we’ve met Kriek, Jumbo’s wife and one amazing woman. I’ve also forgot how big the hall was and realized how much Christmas decorations we need. But we managed with what we had. And afterwards Kriek said it was the first time that they actually had a Christmas tree. One of the funny moments was the little ones trying to sweep the hall, the brooms were almost bigger than the children so we had to take over sweeping-duties! We made a new friend, Cynthia, she is studying to become a nurse and is working for Children’s HopeChest. We also visited Bheveni late afternoon to check up on the vegetable garden. Well, the pumpkins-are-a-growing!! The other vegetables we are not so sure about, but we are praying and I know that God is blessing the vegetable garden, because He promised that He would. Anne and Wandy at Nyanza also said that we could use some of the compost pile at Nyanza for the vegetable garden.
Saturday morning early we left for Thembeni again to put up the last decorations and was met with the news that Kriek was in an accident Friday afternoon. Luckily she was driving a very BIG 4 X 4 and wasn’t hurt seriously except for a few bruises and a sore body. Looking at the photos afterwards I could really see God’s protection and His greatness, it could have been so much worse. The rest of the team joined later in the morning and we had fun with the 600 children at the Jumping Castle, the playground and with the programme in the hall. One of the highlights was the American team teaching the kids how to make their own little Christmas trees which they could take home. While the children lunched, we sorted out the Christmas presents which were a bit of a challenge, but in the end everyone received their present, sweets and a piece of cake. I think the cake was the children’s highlight, they did not want presents but cake and that wish came true. I just once again realized how fortunate we are; daily we are eating sweets, cookies, drinking cold drinks and enjoying ice cream, but still we manage to complain about our luxuries …
Bernard and the rest of the Saturday team left at around 15:00 so that they can reach the Border Post before 18:00. The rest of the group finished up at around 17:00 and we left for Nyanza for a shower, something to eat and to contemplate about the day. We all agreed that we have so many blessings that we sometimes just ignore or forget about, that the Body of Christ is powerful and amazing and unites people from every country, race and gender for the Kingdom’s good. To bed early, again 
We left for home Sunday morning and reach Trichardt at around 17:00, tired but happy.
I wish to thank every person that supported and joined the Swaziland team with prayers, hard work and donations.
