Dear friends,

It’s May and we are living out of boxes. It’s crazy, but we are attempting to buy a house.  Yes, a real house, not a doll house or a dog house, but a real people house.  It’s not that I (allan) never thought we would, it’s just that it represents settling down to me… and I’m not that person. I want us to be ready to go at a moment’s notice! But as we spent time in Swaziland last year, we felt God confirming that our job, as a family, for the foreseeable future, was to establish the AR office and mobilize more teams to serve and be discipled in Africa. We feel our mission is clear and it makes sense for us to be here right now.
So we are going for it. Jumping through hoops and signing loads of papers (it’s really not like on HGTV where people seem to walk in and sign on the dotted line).  No this has had all sorts of interesting obstacles but God is carrying us over the finish line. Please pray for us that this be a smooth and timely finish. We have 2 weeks left at our current rental.  Then you can all come over and help us move!

In other news the team in Africa is doing great. With every phone call they make us proud. They are learning invaluable lessons on thankfulness, the problem with pride and self-righteousness and what it means to be humbled and see God at work. They are falling in love with the kids in Swaziland and representing Jesus well by serving tirelessly at the orphanage, in the prisons, at youth camps and in the local community. Read their blogs and be inspired. See their latest pics above.

I often feel more than a little pang of jealousy when I hear about their adventures. And it’s not so much their exciting new experiences in Africa, but rather the substance of what they are going through. It’s the personal transformation taking place in each one of them; I love to be around this, and to play a part in how people grow. That’s the stuff I miss. And yes, we know with certainty that these things are not confined to Africa. Annie and I are attempting to do this as we serve in our local church. We believe that what happens in our work abroad must also be happening here. It will look different, but we continually strive to know what it means for us specifically in our daily lives to be disciples whom are making disciples, because that is what all of us are to be. Even right now as we continue to look for admin staff to join us, we are looking for interns whom would want to be discipled in this process of joining our “office staff.” So pray for us as we are on mission here in the U.S.

Prayer Requests

1. We are about to begin a focused support raising effort as we have not done this in 5years. We hope that some of you reading this would consider coming on board with our mission and supporting us monthly. Our supporters are vital to the work that we do. Find out more here.

2.  We are still looking for a reliable van or minivan here in the U.S. so we can hit the road. There are many conferences, churches and campuses to visit as we recruit volunteers for next year.

3. Thank the Lord for all that He is doing through the ministry. Thank Him for the current team in Africa, for the many folks whom are blessed by their efforts and praise Him for the grace He pours on us each day as we join Him in establishing His Kingdom.

It really is a privilege to be able to do what we do. We love to share these things in person and we love to encourage people with stories of God’s redeeming love. If you have a few minutes we would love to chat over the phone, grab some coffee and share further with you.

Thank you again, so much, those of you who pray for us and support us.

Follow close, follow hard
Allan, Annie, Judah and Skylah

Last Words-

 “I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.” (Eph1:16-17)

It’s a wonderful month in the Christianity calendar. We celebrate the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I thank all those who support us and the AR leadership for giving us the opportunity to go to Kruger National Park to recuperate and relax. It was a great time just to be off the ministry and have a vacation. We really enjoyed it. We had our Passover meal as a team together and prayed together… it was just amazing.

We thank God for more ministry opportunities. I was invited to preach at a certain church in Mbabane, the capital city of Swaziland. I enjoyed the time and the message which God gave me. It was entitled “Be a journey Finisher”. As it was the Feast of Passover, I relate it more to the journey which Jesus Himself walked, that He suffered rejection, persecution, sorrow and pain but He didn’t give up on what He was purposed for. I want to encourage you that how many things you started in your life and you didn’t finish them because you suffered discouragement and rejection here is Christ example that finish regardless of what you go through. Paul he even quote the scripture were he said I have finished the course or race.
I had a time of Solitude were I was seeking the Lord through Prayer and Fasting. I just want to share with you some of the things which the Lord put on my heart. God put our motto in Africa Revolution that Love your Neighbor that what did Jesus said about that. I learned from Leviticus 19 the Lord spoke to Moses about it and in Luke 10 he spoke about it. Do we love our neighbors like we love ourselves?
The kids here are on school holiday so it’s a wonderful opportunity of spending more time with them and playing with them. There is much of soccer as we play with other churches as part of fellowship it’s so amazing and interesting. They are getting to know more about HIV and AIDS teachings as we are mentoring them and speaking in to their lives.
We had a great 1 day Youth camp in Bulembu this was amazing time to see young people gathering together not being ashamed to share the gospel. This is the ministry which we are believing and hoping that it will grow to an extent that we will reach the entire Kingdom of Swaziland.
God bless
Shalom/

I’m sure you’ve had that slightly awkward Thanksgiving day conversation that starts out “Everyone say one thing they are thankful for…”
I’ve always heard that practicing thankfulness is healthy and good. The advice is pretty common. Counselors sometimes advise people to write down three things that they are thankful for each day.
However, though the advice is common, the actual practice is rare. Complaint is much more common than thanksgiving. Don’t believe me?
Listen to your own thoughts for an hour. How many times do you point out what could or should be, what’s lacking, instead of giving thanks for what is?
Listen to those around you. Do you hear more gratitude, or grumbling? More appreciation, or bellyaching?

A story.
This past week we were traveling back to Hawane from Bulembu. The Bulembu road is notoriously unfriendly: 18 kilometers of unpaved dirt and rock carved into Swaziland’s most mountainous region makes for slow, uncomfortable travel. At times, we drove slower than walking, navigating the ditches and bumps, trying to minimize the bruises to our backsides. On this particular drive, our van was overloaded and four of us crowded onto the middle bench. I sat on the outside, one cheek on, one cheek off. As we bumped along the road, I held on, trying not to slam into the door with each bump. The one cheek on was getting quite sore.

Finally, our painful journey ended as the dirt road gave way to pavement. Not for the first time, I complained silently about having only this single vehicle for our group. “A 4-wheel drive vehicle sure would be nice right about now.”
As our wheels contacted pavement driving into Pigg’s Peak, we passed by several ladies walking towards Bulembu with bags of groceries. I hadn’t noticed any homesteads, so it’s likely that some of them will walk several miles to get home. I silently swallowed my complaint. Our drive was just 45 minutes, with my own bags stowed conveniently in the trunk. But these ladies will walk for an hour or more carrying heavy bags of groceries. And they make that trek every week. I asked God to forgive me for my attitude and I thanked Him for providing us with a vehicle, even if it does wear out my one cheek on the Bulembu road.
Why does my heart default to complaining?
Owning a vehicle is rare here in Swaziland, and is a sure sign of wealth. Not only are they expensive to purchase, but they are incredibly expensive to maintain. One of the ladies on the farm shared that half of her living expenses go towards gas for her truck. Half.
A lady from the UK who helps manage the orphan care at Bulembu did not have a car for her first three years in Swaziland. She had to ask for rides and send her grocery lists with others, hoping that they brought back the right items. She was sometimes unable to catch a ride for weeks at a time, able only to travel as far as her two feet could carry her. She said that time helped her to identify with the Swazis she worked with, to better understand their way of living.
In a place where vehicles are so rare and valuable, surely I would be thankful that we have a vehicle rather than complaining. Without the van that we have, we would not be able to do many of the things on our schedule. Surely I would start off with gratitude.
But like many of you in the West who will read this, my heart has been trained to want. It’s the lifeline of our advertising, our entertainment, and our materialism. It’s a message I have heard hundreds of times a day, every day, for many years. More is the heartbeat of our economy. And it runs in my veins, as well as yours.
What I am learning now is that I already have more. I have much more. More to be thankful for than I ever realized.
Elizabeth and I have our own room. We even have our own bathroom. Many people here share a room, if they even have a roof over their heads.
We have electricity, most days, to take a hot shower, even as the winter approaches. Many homesteads are without electricity or running water. They will carry water from a water pump to be heated over a fire in order to bathe.
I have a laptop that I can write this blog post on. Computers, like cars, are a rare sign of wealth. Most people do not have them.
When I mentally recall just the stuff that I packed to bring with me to Swaziland, not even counting what we left behind in storage, I am struck by how much more I have, and how much I have to be thankful for.
But my thankfulness shouldn’t stop with mere stuff.

A few years ago, a man named Ermi from Ethiopia stayed overnight at my apartment in North Carolina. He grew up on the streets of Addis, the capital city, and God rescued him from street living. He now runs a home for homeless boys to help them transition off of the streets. He begins each day at 4:30 in the morning with a time of prayer. The night he stayed at my apartment, he asked if I would like to join him for prayer in the morning. I agreed, though I was thankful that there would only be one morning of waking up at that hour!
The next morning, at 4:30am sharp we sat in my living room, and as I struggled to keep my eyes open, he began praying.
“God, thank you for waking me up this morning. Thank your for my breath.”
He paused. He breathed in and out deeply a few times. A minute or so passed. It hit me that he was truly thankful to God for his very breath, and he was experiencing it the way one might enjoy a beautiful sunset. Wow.
Are you breathing right now? As you read this, are you thankful that God woke you up this morning? That you have breath in your lungs?
Ermi continued praying, thanking God for his heart, the blood coursing in his veins, ears that allowed him to hear, eyes that allowed him to see.
This man who had spent many of his years homeless, sitting in a cozy apartment in America, was deeply thankful for even his breath. When I asked Ermi later what he thought of America, he gave me an almost pained smile. “It was very kind of people to fly us over here, but I’m ready to be home. I’m ready to be with my boys.”
Ermi knew where he was meant to be.
What I’m learning, in countless ways, small and large, every day, is that thankfulness is a choice, not a feeling. It’s an attitude of the heart that I must choose. Trained as I am in a culture of more, if I don’t consciously choose thankfulness, my heart will complain.
May you know that you already have more, and may you be willing to be slightly awkward as you choose thankfulness.

-Jess

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” – 1 Thess. 5:18

 by Jessica Russell and Antje Radtke
“Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.” – Philemon 1:7

Antje and Jessica, friends of AR volunteers Jess and Elizabeth, enjoyed their  international adventure together, from North Carolina to Swaziland! After going through nearly 2,500 images of their trip to South Africa and Swaziland, they narrowed them down to share a glimpse of the incredible trip this month. Enjoy!

At home in North Carolina, there are a lot of trees. Tall trees. As a result, we don’t get a lot of what I call long views. Views that stretch for miles and miles. Views where you can see the sun sitting right on the horizon. Views across valleys and hilltops, fields and houses. Views like the one we now enjoy out our back window every morning. Views like along the MR3 as we drive into Mbabane from our house in Hawane. Long views.

Since arriving in Swaziland, I’ve noticed a funny thing. My eyes are adjusting to the long views. I can see more than I could see when we had first arrived. I can pick out a group of men crossing a field a half mile or so away. I can spot a herd of cattle, grazing on the other side of a valley. I can see detail in rock formations topping a hill several miles away, or a tree atop a ridge in relief against the blue sky. My vision for the long view is adjusting, improving.
Moving to a new country is requiring a lot of adjustments, often in ways that I didn’t expect. One of the things I’m learning here in Swaziland is how to take the long view. Real change, whether in nations, in families, or in us, calls for taking the long view.


Poverty
Poverty will not be wiped out in a single year. Poverty is not simply a lack of material wealth. It is cultural attitudes, oppression and exploitation, and societal sins like greed, fear, and hatred. Coming from the West, the lack of material wealth is the most apparent problem to and so appears easiest to address. However, even solving for the lack of material wealth in isolation is futile.
One of the things that I’m starting to be able to see through experiences here in Swaziland is that everything has an upkeep cost. The law of entropy is blind, punishing the possessions of the impoverished and the wealthy. Physicists tell us everything is falling apart. “Creation is passing away,” as the Bible says. The difference in America is that when it breaks we just buy a new one. Even if we can’t afford it right now, we put it on the credit card and pay for it later.
You might think that you can help solve for the lack of material wealth by giving some of our stuff to those who are living in poverty. But the infrastructure is not present for a gift to be well-used and maintained. Does it require batteries? A pack of batteries cost as much as several days worth of food. What happens when it breaks? There are no repair shops except for the most common and basic items, and even then parts are scarce and repairs are expensive. Every day that I walk down to work in the garden, I walk past a broken-down tractor, and then spend the rest of the afternoon hoeing and planting with a hoe by hand. Part of what sustains the material wealth in the West is the ubiquity of Wal-Mart and Amazon.com. Anything you need, you can have it shipped to you in mere days. Not so in countries dominated by poverty.
And lack of material wealth is the easy and obvious part of the problem of poverty. It’s important to see that material wealth is just a surface symptom, a red herring, an effect rather than a cause. Truly addressing the complex roots of poverty requires thinking long-term. When you commit to working to end poverty, you need to take the long view often, realizing that every day is an investment in a future that you may not even see.

Family Patterns
Nations aren’t the only ones to struggle with poverty. Often our families are impoverished in one way or another, and the roots are no less complex than a nation bound by poverty. I’m starting to see more clearly that the weaknesses in our families are rooted not just in our parents, but in our parents’ parents’ parents. A pattern was set many generations ago, be it a way of speaking to one another, a strategy for disciplining children, or a way to handle money. That pattern is either a blessing or a curse to the generations that follow.

For a long time I misunderstood the concept of blessings and curses. When the Bible talks about blessing nations and cursing people, I had in my mind some sort of spell or supernatural punishment from God. What I’m coming to realize is that God is way more sophisticated and powerful than simple miracles. God designed the world, and He knows how it works, not just it’s physical laws, but also the psychological and emotional laws that govern it. When God warns about curses that befall people, He isn’t saying “don’t make me angry or I’ll strike you down.” Rather, He is saying “my child, trust me, I know what’s best for you. If you get involved with those things I call sin, I know the irreparable damage they will cause to you and to all those around you, including your children and your children’s children.”
God designed the world to work a certain way, which He reveals throughout the Bible. And the crazy thing is that those blessings and curses show up in people’s lives regardless of whether they acknowledge Him as the creator. “For He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust,” it says in Matthew. I’m starting to see how every day I’m establishing patterns which will either bless or curse those around me and those blessings or curses will live long after I’m gone.
Taking the long view in our families means asking ourselves every day, “is the pattern that I’m establishing today a blessing or a curse to my family?” This is a critical question to ask, because it’s not just our spouse or our children that will be effected, but the generations to follow. That’s a weighty responsibility. But that’s what it means to take the long view.
I love the views in Swaziland. Staring across the beautiful landscapes with rolling hills fills me with peace. And I love the way that God is opening not only my physical eyes, but also my spiritual eyes, to see things in a way that I’ve never seen before. Each day, I wake with expectancy, knowing that He has something to show me today. And that is truly a blessing.

-Jess

Bulembu is a small town in Swaziland with a heart and a vision. Today it is redefining and rebuilding itself. Abandoned by the mining industry in 2001 the future looked bleak. The people were left with nothing and driven out. As AIDS ravaged Swaziland, children and babies were abandoned daily, but a team of entrepreneurs and social developers saw the potential in Bulembu’s spirit. Today Bulembu has a vision to create a totally self- sustaining transformed community providing health, orphan care, education, comers, and hope.”

This weekend we had the opportunity to spend time in the community of Bulembu. The road to Bulembu was rough… VERY rough. We bounced around, swerving from side to side attempting to avoid the big ditches the rain water had created. As we entered the community the road smoothed out and the feeling of hope engulfed us. Abandoned by the mines, Bulembu was left with no hope, but Bulembu ministries had a vision. A vision filled with hope. They saw the few resources God blessed them with and used them to overcome the disasters of the past. They have a water plant, a bakery (which is delicious!), and a honey factory (bees and all) as well as around 300 orphaned children. Bulembu Ministries has renovated pre- existing buildings, using them to meet their current needs. They are currently in the process of renovating a kitchen where only 5 workers feed nearly 300 children 3 meals a day. Lining the mountainside as you enter the community are colorful, old row houses previously occupied by the mineworkers. The ministry is renovating them now to house the quickly growing number of orphans they take care of. The stories of the children (especially in the baby homes) grip your heart, making you want to promise the rest of your life to serving them and loving them.

Saturday morning Warriors for Christ held a large youth event in Bulembu with Potter’s Wheel Church, CLC (the kids from Hawane Farm), Bulembu, and a few other neighboring youth groups. The vision for the day was to just see a new outpouring of Christ, to experience him in new ways, unlike past years. For the first while we just played games with the kids, having fun and getting to know them. After lunch, over 300 youth gathered in the cinema for praise and worship. As we worshiped we got to experience how different youth groups worshiped. There was dancing and clapping and stomping, I was getting nervous the old wood floor of the cinema was going to break through. As the worship progressed one of the W4C leaders got up and spoke to the children, encouraging them to not let the mountains in their life block their view of their Father. As the kids felt the Holy Spirit moving them they began coming down front for prayer. There was so many kids coming down front they began to not only fill the alter area but the isles. One by one we prayed with the kids. As we prayed for one, another would get up out of their seat and join the group down front. As the children laid their fears at the feet of Jesus and left them there, you could feel their renewed spirits, exactly what the vision for the day was. The Holy Spirit was mending them in unthinkable ways. His presence was unmistakable.

Sanibonani! (Sah-nee-bo-NAH-nee):  Hey y’all!

A brief update on our gardening efforts and the constant highlight of my week:

Around the farm—the 1000+ little seedling plants we worked so diligently with Sherri to plant last month are finally huge and ready for harvest!   Bitter spinach (like mustard greens), Swiss chard, broccoli, and cabbages are all being harvested and taken to the local supermarket called Pic-N-Pay, where most people do most of their grocery shopping (including us).

The garden plots that belong to each of the kids’ houses here at Hawane farm are also doing quite well.  All the homes at Hawane get a small garden plot to tend to, and then once produce is ready to harvest, it gets put together and divided up evenly among the homes for the moms (bomake—boh-MAH-geh) to use in preparing meals for the kids in their house. I must say the house that I call “mine” (because theirs is the home I visit weekly, sometimes for dinner but most often to share friendship), is one of the best. Make Nomvula (prounounced MAH-geh nom-VOO-lah, meaning Mama Nomvula) and her girls’ garden is one of the biggest and most productive of all the Makes’ gardens.  J I’m so proud of them.

Aside from their great gardening (which takes a LOT of dedicated work- all done by hand, and without chemicals, machinery, or pesticides, mind you), I can also say they are one of the best homes because of their collective spirit.  On any given night, though I usually visit on Thursdays, I can find them together around their oval wooden table eating dinner.  Some are quiet like Anele (age 9) or Nothando (age 12), others tired from a long day at school like Ncamile (age 15) or Lindo (age 17, and head prefect –aka-top girl in the high school and thus responsible for setting a good example and keeping order in the whole school, Monday – Saturday), but it is usually only a matter of seconds before Celiwe (age 16), Setsabile (age 14), or even Make herself have everyone cracking up and nearly rolling with laughter, all the way down to little Phiwa (age 5).  After a dinner of rice, beans, and sometimes mincemeat (ground beef) or chicken pieces, someone clears dishes, and someone else begins to wash them, while we might play a game together (last week I brought/taught them UNO) do some Swazi singing and dancing, tell jokes, talk about the real facts about HIV/AIDS, or work on homework until 8pm.  Then we take turns reading the daily selection from a devotional book that they read once in the morning and once in the evening, give a brief synopsis of what we read with some take home points, and then pray together, African-style—all together, out loud, all at one time.  After devotions, if Phiwa hasn’t already collapsed on the couch, she goes to bed and the rest of the girls continue with homework, or if they are finished, they study for a while before bed.  Sometime in there between clearing dishes and forcing myself out the door, I manage to collect about 43 hugs, a few braids in my hair, and more love than I thought possible from 8 of the coolest women in the world.   It just so happens that March 29^th this year, my birthday, was on a Thursday.  I can’t tell you how delighted I was to not only have Antje and Jessica (great friends from home) visiting IN PERSON and bearing tangible gifts and cards from people at home who love us, but also to get to be doing our regularly scheduled activities for a Thursday, which included visiting Make Nomvula and the girls J Salanikahle! (Sah-LAH-nee-GAH-hle): Stay well, y’all!

One of my favorite Southern African phrases is “Are you winning?” The locals use it to check your status on a project. For example, I was building a fire for an evening of marshmallows and chatting around the fire. I didn’t have fire starter or decent wood – so I spent a good hour feeding paper, cardboard into damp wood the refused to flame. Sonelli, our security guard, passed me a couple time during my frustrating hour, finally calling out “Are you winning?”   – At the time, I was not but I finally got the reluctant wood to yield.

The last few months have been a lot more difficult than I anticipated. Not being able to get a scone or any other pastry with my morning tea, when it is clearly stated on the restaurant menu, has been the least of the difficulty. (Sorry still venting from my T.I.A blog post) In Hebrews it says [there are witness of our faith surrounding us, therefore put aside all distractions and sins that easily ensnare us and run the race with endurance that lies ahead, keeping your eyes on Jesus, the perfecter of our faith...] Heb 12:1 What I have realized is that I’m further behind in the “race” than I thought before I got here. I thought, ” hey, I haven’t killed anyone, I’m (generally) a nice guy, and I’m flying 10,000 miles to work with orphans and widows.” I can’t be that bad but God has been exposing some dark truths about Dwayne that will take some time to clean up. The team and I joke that we don’t get the luxury of cutting off obvious sin issues like adultery, or murder but now God has been cutting us open and excavating parasites like pride or self-righteousness. Going back to Hebrews, right before the verses I quoted, the author lists example after example of people throughout the bible that were willing to endure hardship and fully commit to God’s purpose for them. They put aside their wealth, safety, comfort, pride, etc to allow God to do a complete work within them. (Jam. 1:4)

I pray and ask for your prayers that I would remove those distractions and sins that would take my eyes off Jesus and allow God to continue doing the hard work of perfecting my faith.

As we began doing ministry; praying with people, sharing the Gospel, teaching the students, etc. I felt an overwhelming fear of being not properly equipped. I thought that I didn’t know enough scripture, or have enough life experience to speak into these people’s lives. But God has been revealing that it’s really pride that holds be back from trusting him in those situations. I find myself thinking I don’t know enough because I’m scared of being bad at something. I’m scared of being wrong or saying that wrong thing. (It’s self-preservation that hinders me from fulfilling God’s calling) As God molds me and trains me I’m learning to trust God in those situations. Salvation doesn’t come through me but it’s only by God’s grace.

Are you winning? I love that question. I don’t think I am but I think in this race I will never win. I think this race is about learning, growing, enduring. “Some men were tortured, not accepting release, so they might gain a better resurrection, and others experienced mocking and scourging, were stoned, they were sawed in two, they died by the sword, they wandered about … destitute, afflicted, and mistreated.” (Heb. 11:35-37) I don’t think my current difficulties are anything like what the disciples were put through but I think this verse does highlight is following God’s plan for your life will not be easy. So I thank God for a tough year ahead and I pray for strength.
Dwayne

“for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and took Me in; I was naked and clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me. Then righteous will answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You? And the King will answer and say to them, Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren you did it to Me.”
– Matthew 25:35-40

In the month of March, I saw the Lord at work in my life, in the lives of team members and the people that we have been ministering too. Just as from the above passage, the Lord has been reminding me that it is not all about me and it is all about Him and His Kingdom.

There is a day that we went for the Hospital visitation, it was great day because many of the sick people were giving there lives to Christ. As we go by the patients beds, they are very happy for us to pray together with them. As I approached the second last bed, this old lady who was being visited by her daughter told us she did not need prayers. The reason was simply she was with her daughter, at that moment I wished that the ground could open and I be swallowed up, I was embarrassed. We had no other option but to proceed to the next patient who welcomed us and we encourage her and she encouraged us and we prayed together with her. Being that it was the last bed we had to wait for the other team members who were finishing up. Just before me I saw the Lord working in the life the old lady who had refused us to pray together with her. She went to this lady that we had just prayed with her and begun asking what we were telling her. This other lady talked to her and later on they called me so that I could give her a tract of the gospel.

This has remained me that it is not about me, but that I am doing it for my Lord Jesus Christ

I say praise be to God for using us in every area of the ministry which He entrusted us with. It was a great time of ministry in this month. We went to South Africa to attend a 1 day Youth camp for a certain Christian College and we had 120 youths. We went there with Max Lucado’s equation which is MI=HP+CC+CP meaning M-Maximum,I-Impact=H-High,P-Potency+C-Clear,C-Communication,C-Close,P-Proximity. It was a great opportunity of speaking in to the lives of these young people. I also used the testimony of how the Lord saved me from the Hi-jacking incident. It really impacted them and made them to see how great is our God.

We ministered through worship and games and about 15 Youth gave their lives to Christ. Most of them recommitted their vows with God and we saw the restoration of young people to the heart of worship. It was a worthy 3 days of investing in to these lives and you can see the change of their lives compared to the way they came.
The discipleship been a wonderful time of sharpening each other as we know that iron sharpens iron. The spiritual maturity of every team member is my greatest joy of my life. I had a lot of meetings to prepare the 1 day Youth Camp which is to come in the following month of April. This is the ministry we are hoping is going to change the young people of Swaziland by equipping them to be Warriors of Christ Jesus.

I went to the Women’s Prison called Mawela Wela south of Swaziland to minister with the team. I ministered about “The journey between the dream and its fulfillment” and about 10 inmates gave their lives to Christ. Let me also encourage you about this message The journey between the dream and its fulfillment that we look at Joseph how much he suffered to get to his fulfillment it was not an easy journey but he didn’t give up. You can have a dream in your life no matter how hard life can be to you its just part of your dream don’t give up. In a journey there are road blocks, breakdowns etc but they mustn’t ruin your dream or journey. Paul he said I keep on pressing towards the mark for my price in Christ Jesus Phillipians Ch 3v14. Challenges and trials must not make you give up but hold on God will take you through.

God bless
Shalom