Mbabane, Swaziland - Week 1

We were super excited to have the opportunity to attend River Valley church in Swaziland, as this is one of the many church campuses of our home church in MN. We’d met with the pastor and his family when they were in the States last winter and were excited for some great fellowship and worship. We arranged our trip so that we could attend church here three weeks in a row.

RVC Swaziland starts with the RVC countdown and music we are used to back home!

RVC Swaziland!

After church we went to Pastor Mduduzi’s home and visited with his family. We were excited to meet their newest addition, Joshua, who was only a week old.

A common driving scene - sharing the road with livestock!

Boys couldn't get enough of sweet Ruella!

Mom couldn't get enough of 1 week old Joshua!

Enjoying a visit with Mduduzi, our RVC Swazi pastor, and his wife Memory

Rounding up our missing bags ended up being a long endeavor as our South Africa SIMS weren’t working in Swaziland as we were told, we drove to the wrong airport and then rushed an hour to the correct airport in the middle of nowhere, only to learn that indeed our bags were there, but they were closing and the person who had access to them had left 15 minutes earlier. So we move into day 3 with no bags.

Monday was a quieter day, Dad and G woke up early and returned to the airport to bring back our bags. We were grateful that everything was intact. We spent the day doing school and then went to a movie and out to dinner.

Tuesday we headed to the Children’s Cup Discipleship Training Center and met with the new group of students who were embarking on this 6-10 month program. We were so blessed to participate in their time of worship, which consisted of Spirit led singing – it was very powerful to all sing in unison and to hear so many beautiful African voices. We then each split up with a group of the students and studied some verses in the Bible and then took turns sharing with the group what we’d learned.

G reading the Bible and sharing with the group.

That afternoon we went to the Children’s Cup care point next door. Children’s Cup currently has 19 established care points in Swaziland. The care points serve local children through sponsorship which provides for basic education and medical needs as well as one Feed My Starving Children meal a day, and also equips the Swazi teachers and cooks who work and volunteer at the care points. Many of the children who attend the care points are orphans (meaning that they have lost at least one parent and sometimes both parents, which is labeled double orphan), many of the children are also most likely HIV positive as Swaziland is said to have the highest percentage of HIV per capita in the world. We played with the preschool and young elementary children, helped distribute food, and read books to the kids. It was awesome for our family to see the Feed My Starving Children manna packs being made in the large kettles and the children enjoying the food, as we have volunteered back in the States with packaging these manna packs. To be part of the distribution, half way around the world, was impactful for our family.

Reading books to the preschoolers

Serving meals to the kids

Little ones filling their bellies

This princess was all smiles and high-fives!

G playing with kids on the slide

We visited Nandos for a late lunch with Mduduzi - this would quickly become our "go to" for fast food during our time in Swaziland as they had great peri peri chicken and a refreshing lime, vanilla and mint beverage. For dinner we went out with Zinty and Lue and learned about them and their new community center they are working on nearby. Dad especially enjoyed visiting with Lue, as he’s from Zimbabwe and enjoyed talking about the economy and the impacts of their battle with hyper-inflation several years ago.

Dinner with Zinty and Lue

Wednesday afternoon we drove to another care point with the Discipleship Training students and participated in a kid’s club and more meal distribution. It was drizzling and the red clay ground quickly became mucky. Of course it wasn’t long before our youngest two were covered in this red clay. Mom joked that this was her day at the spa as she received a “facial” from the steam that rose from the large pots of Feed My Starving Children food she was dishing up, and then we brought lots of red clay home with us as it was almost impossible to clean off. The ground was such a mess that the vehicles were having a challenging time driving with the potholes and narrow roads. Our van kept getting stuck but Dad managed to maneuver us well with only a minor scratch in the rear from when our back slid into the care point gate.  That evening the older boys stayed home and studied while Mom, Dad, G, and SJ went down the mountain for a traditional African meal.

This smile captured our hearts!

Our oldest dishing up meals for the children

Mom and G scooping up Feed My Starving Children meals

SJ getting her hands dirty washing the dishes

Thursday we visited the Children’s Cup main office and met a lot of the staff and learned about how they track and help the children medically. We learned that most people don’t want to be tested or have their children tested for HIV because of the stigma that goes along with actually knowing they have the disease. However, there is a clinic about an hour away that is funded by Baylor University and it offers free testing and medication for those who are infact HIV positive. Children’s Cup takes children whose parents have given their approval to be tested and who need the medication to this clinic so that they can receive the medical help they need. That afternoon we headed to a new care point where we helped the medical team weigh, measure, and distribute medication for the children.

Our oldest helped with the medical team.

Reaching to bring smiles! 

G named this sweet boy "Lil' Barnie" and they were inseperable!

SJ quickly made friends with the girls. 

Dad was quite the hit with the kids!

Thursday evening we went to Krista and Stephen’s house for dinner and were treated to an amazing home-cooked meal and adult conversation while we enjoyed hearing about their call to Swaziland and work with Children's Cup.  Meanwhile the kids were thrilled to have other children to play with. The boys ended up spending the night and had so much fun getting a night away!

SJ being dressed up by the girls - so sweet!

Boys loving being boys together!