Another Glorious day in Swaziland

Today was a beautiful day. It started as usual before 6:00 am. It was overcast and cold. I grabbed a cup of corre and did my day’s lesson for bible study and then prayed the Lord would give me just a little more sleep, which HE did and I’m eternally grateful for that. My plans were to go to a little society called Maliyduma to give the children some of the Jesus Loves Me bears that the children in vacation Bible school in Round Rock, Texas made for the children in Swaziland. But Sphiwe stopped by early in the morning and asked if I would pick him up from Salukazi where he was preaching at 9:00 and then take him to Maliyduma where he would be preaching at 11:00. Of course I said I would do that. When I arrived at Salukazi the service was still going on. Mater of fact he was just preparing to give his sermon and then they had Holy Communion. My camera battery died after the first picture and of course I had left my camera case with the spare battery in my car. But I was able to take a picture of Sphiwe (ah, excuse me, I must now call him Rev. Madi) blessing the children at Salukazi. The children were so beautiful. The little church was full. The woman in front of me had a little girl that was probably 8 to 10 months old. I kept smiling and making faces at the baby. After a bit the mother handed her back to me! This is the first time someone has handed me their baby! I was in heaven. The little one was fascinated by my hair. She was so beautiful I wish I could have taken a picture of her.

When the service at Salukazi was over, we hurried to Maliyduma. We arrived at 12:00; only an hour late. Thank goodness they had started the service so they were ready for the reading of the scripture and sermon. They then baptized a baby and girl about 3 years old followed then had Holy communion.

At Salukazi they used grape soda for the wine during communion. At Maliyduma they had a small tin coffee cup with water in it which Rev. Madi blessed and then used for the baptism. You make due with what you have. Things don’t have to be fancy to celebrate the Lord’s supper or the sacrament of baptism. The people came up to the benches which were moved to represent an altar. They kneeled on the hard concrete floor. It’s very humbling.

After communion I took the children outside to give them the bears which they loved. They sang a song for me. They were so beautiful. I gave a 25kg bag of maize and 10 kgs of beans to the ladies that cook for the children. After that they fed the kids.

Maliyduma would like to build a carepoint so they could feed the children every day. Prayers are for the discernment of whether or not this is what God wants to be done and then for the funding to come and build it which I would guess would be around $10-12 K.