I have 15 minutes left at the internet café before my money runs out and I get kicked off, so this will be the quickest update ever.
We’ve officially been in Swaziland now for ten days now…craziness. It doesn’t feel like that much time has passed. I’m glad I waited until the second weekend to blog here about it though, because if I would have done this last week it would have been a totally different post.
Last week I was scared of the city. I was scared of the people…of the culture…of everything, really. I guess there isn’t a way to prepare for something like this, so when I get here I was in this total state of culture shock and it was a really uncomfortable place to be.
Now, over a week into the journey I have a completely different attitude regarding absolutely everything.
The country is breathtakingly beautiful. I hope the pictures we bring home can do it justice…at least a little bit…because the landscape is stunning. It’s also littered with poverty. The kind of poverty you only see in pictures. We spend a lot of our ministry time down at this care point by the city dump, which is in walking distance from our home, and it backs right up to one of the city slums. Sometimes we will be down there playing with the kids and a giant dump truck will drive into the dump to drop off some trash, and all the older kids just take off for the dump. The little ones go out and stand on the hill and watch their older brothers and sisters dig through the trash and wait to see what they bring home…Then they all sit around and share whatever it is they find…rotten meat, yogurt so old it’s hardened…we’ve just about seen it all. It’s surreal. You don’t really know how to respond to things like that.
I think God has shielded us in a lot of ways up to this point…so that we can continue to work, and to love, and to be Christ’s body. It’s hard…and when the brokenness comes I’m kind of afraid of what it’s going to look like…but I trust that when it comes God will protect us in and amongst it. Because he’s still good. Even in the brokenness, he’s still good.
I didn’t really mean to go off on a rant like that…I really just wanted to write to say that things were good. That the country is stunning, the people are truly beautiful…inside and out…that our team clicks so well, and we all feel like family…that we have a puppy and she’s awesome…that ministry has been amazing…that we’re all learning some Siswati to come home and teach you guys…that I still haven’t seen a giraffe but I’m hopeful that day is coming…and that above all else, God is good.
Grace and peace,
~Staci
