Well, as I said in the last blog, these last few weeks have been
absolutely insane but they’ve been wonderful :)
One day a few weeks ago we went to Mbabane with our supervisors. We
had been given some money from the CHIPS leadership to buy sewing
materials for the ladies. We were expecting it to be slightly
expensive to get four sets of sewing materials. Barbara had a doctor’s
appointment so while she was there waiting to see the doctor, Kim and
I decided to go to explore the big city to see what we could find. We
found “Mr. Cheap” which is a fabric and sewing shop. We ended up
buying everything we needed for wayyy less than we thought we would.
Chalk one up to the Spirit!
I wanted to acknowledge the birth of Murray & Amy’s daughter,
Addelaynie Mae Smart. I was awakened early in the morning to a phone
call and it was a great way to start my day knowing that I’ll have a
beautiful little girl to spoil when I come back!
We had previously been having trouble getting into the schools to do
the True Love Waits presentations. One day we pra*ed specifically
before we went out that we would be able to get into the schools…and
the Father answered us. Usually here it’s a good day if you get one
thing accomplished in a day, right? Well, we had visited two schools
that gave us positive responses by ten in the morning! We were so
encouraged by that.
One evening we had Bhekie over for language and to help us with the
children’s Word study that we do every Saturday. He and I were talking
about how much time we have left here an how the time had gone so
fast. I was talking about how much I was going to cry when we leave
and Bhekie said, “I really don’t know what I’m going to do, Brandi. It
took me a while to get over the team coming here (the team from Euto
B*ptist) and they were only here for a week. I just don’t know what
I’m going to do when you leave. Let’s just not talk about it.” I’ve
been thinking a lot about that lately. My heart is completely torn in
two. Of course I miss those at home and I’m excited for all of the
things that will be happening when I return, but when I think about
the fact that I may never see these people again, I cry. I’m crying as
I’m writing this! Haha My heart gets so easily attached to people…its
completely different than being on a short-term team. In that
situation, you may meet people and talk with them but you don’t really
know them. I can call these people my friends and even my family. It
will be so heartbreaking to leave them. But I do trust the Father that
the work will continue after we’re gone and that we didn’t labor in
vain. :)
We had our “mid-term retreat” during the first week of November. We,
along with Heather and Sienna from Mbabane, went to Kruger Park in
South Africa with our supervisor, Wayne. It was so wonderful to get
that time away as well as be able to appreciate creation on such a
huge scale. It is spring (which means mating season!) so we were able
to see some baboons and springboks mating as well as two “honeymoon
couples” of lions! We saw all of the big five (Elephants, Cape
Buffalo, Lions, Cheetahs, Rhinos) as well as many more animals. I
developed a new-found love for bird-watching. :D They have these birds
called Birchell’s starlings that are such a glossy turquoise color.
They’re gorgeous!! Anyway, it was awesome. :)
As soon as we got back from South Africa, we had a HandsOn media team
coming from Johannesburg, South Africa, to follow us around for a few
days. We really enjoyed the time that we were able to spend getting to
know the three girls who are close to our age and their supervisor. It
was rather odd being followed around by cameras all the time, though.
During the time that the team was here, we had scheduled a children’s
HIV/AIDS study. We planned it knowing that it would be at our
homestead (where our father is the leader of a congregation) so that
hopefully our father would be there to hear. I was given a lot of
boldness by the Spirit and confronted the falsehoods about HIV/AIDS,
including that its cause is NOT demon possession. I can do nothing but
lift this up and hope that the children understand and don’t let
adults they trust feed them lies from the enemy – and that the adults
learned something themselves.
We served the kiddos chips and biscuits afterward and a couple of our
youth girls, Bavumile and Beketele, helped us get all of that
together. Bavumile had never told me her name but she was my favorite
girl from Mafucula and I felt awkward after knowing her for so long.
She jokingly said, “I hate you because you don’t know my name.” and I
said, “Shame, I know! I’m sorry…I can’t believe you’re my favorite and
I have never known your name.” and she was like…”I’m your favorite?!”
:) Then she told me her name. And believe me, I didn’t forget! Then
she instructed me never to wear cutex (fingernail polish) again
because that’s what prostitutes wear. I made some melodramatic, “YOU
THINK I’M A PROSITUTE?!” answer and of course she stumbled to say
because she’s my friend she didn’t want people to think I’m one. While
we were serving the children, she said to me in her sweet broken
English that, “She loves me too much.” (Not SO much, TOO much ;) ) I
told her that I love her too much too! Its things like that that make
me never want to leave.
We also had a True Love Waits presentation at Vuvulane High School
that same week! Kim, Bhekie, Sifiso, and I all took different parts of
the presentation and it went really well! We had around seventy five
students and twenty three of them signed the commitment cards. We took
their contact information so that Bhekie can do some follow-up with
them even after we have gone back to America.
My birthday was on the 7th of November, which is typically pretty cold
in America. Definitely not warm enough for a pool party. So I decided
to take advantage of the fact that it’s so stinking hot here and have
a pool party for my birthday! Kim and I, along with a few of our
friends from Tshaneni, got together at the pool and had lunch
together. Hilary and Courtney brought a cake from Manzini and they got
me gifts as well. Everyone was so thoughtful and we had a lovely
afternoon relaxing in the swimming pool!
Make Tsabebze from Mafucula had been harping on us that her Sunday
school kids wanted to visit the Vuvulane congregation to know what
their meetings were like. So we finally made a plan to be able to do
that. Wayne transported all the kids from Mafucula to Vuvulane and we
had a special time with them. It was nice to see my kids twice in one
weekend…and for all of the kids to be together!
Things have been going very well with the sewing ladies. We continue
to take them out twice a week for their lessons and just spend time
with them. We had a little bit of a problem with the price that the
teacher was asking and we couldn’t get her to come down so we just had
to stick with that price…but we’ve now found out that when we leave
they will start with a different teacher who will be so much
cheaper…and they won’t have to worry about transportation because it
will be in their area. I am so thankful to know that progress won’t be
halted by us leaving. They are doing so well and I want to see them
continue to do so.
I have contracted tick bite fever which is a very common ailment here
so it definitely isn’t serious but it isn’t enjoyable. It makes me
very tired and weak most of the time and gives me terrible headaches.
It is so frustrating that this is happening just as the end of our
time when we need to be going out with a bang! I just try to push
through it – I haven’t missed any event because of the illness…I just
don’t enjoy things as much! Haha I have been taking medicine and will
hopefully be better in a week or so.
We received a call about doing yet another TLW presentation for a
local youth group so we’re excited about that and about getting the
national presenters even more involved with us!
I got a really cool opportunity to speak with my fellowship at home
via a conference call on Brandt’s phone. I was so blessed to be able
to update them and hear from them as well. It completely made my day!
Points to Lift Up
• Please remember our friend Heather. She’s been having some health
problems and she’s currently in Jo’burg undergoing some tests.
• That the Father would bring more people here to be able to pick up
where we left off…and also that national believers would step up and
do what they have seen us doing.
• That our time here would finish strongly and go smoothly.
• That my health would improve. It is very frustrating to have very
little energy with all the things that I need to/want to do.
