Life in Swaziland

Hi guys! Today is all about my experience on missions in Swaziland! :) Yes, I journeyed to the kingdom of Swaziland while in SA! That was during the second week of being on missions. Swaziland is about seven hours away from SA, so it was a pretty long road trip. I'm forever thankful to God for the opportunity to travel all the way to Big bend, Swaziland to hold a camp for the youth there. 

Swaziland was way warmer than Jo'burg, especially during the day time, so I was very happy about that.  We were blessed to stay with a great host family in their cozy home too. :)

This was in the heart of Jo'burg where we had to get our transport to Swaziland.

We passed through Mbabane and Manzini.

Swaziland is pretty much a mountainous place with vast lands in between quite small settlements. The houses are smaller and the streets aren't so busy like in SA. However, you'll find the landscape beautiful if you're crazy about nature like me. hahah

Water was much needed during the long drive there.

I shared the sweet, life giving message of Jesus with a Japanese guy who's lived in SA for a while. He was sitting by me on the bus to Swaziland and it was his first time going there too. It was easy to talk with him. He didn't act weird like how some people can get when you start talking about Jesus. He was receptive and even ended up giving me this SA/Swaziland backpackers guide book to help me around for the rest of my stay. I pray the seed I sowed in his heart thrives and grows by God's grace. :)

Me infront of our host family's house.

One of the meals I had there. Rice with soup and chicken and veggies. The red thingy is beetroot, and I'm a lil embarrassed to say I couldn't eat it. lol We had spinach with one of our meals sometime and I couldn't eat that too. Oh well, you cant blame me. My taste buds were not having it and it was my first time tasting those veggies so...

This was at the 'Life with purpose camp' we held at a church in Mahlabaneni, Swaziland.

We had a lil musical chairs at the camp and it was fun. And yeah, that's me on the left in the grey top. heheh

We were having a discussion on relationships/dating. This was fun too. ;)

Life with purpose camp! Yaaay!!!

Saying the opening prayer at the 'Sermon on Sofa' ministration we had on a Sunday morning at Sisekelo High School.

The students.These were the ones who lived on campus.

Praises and worship time

Dance ministration time. Yeah, I made sure to remove my flats. I didn't want them flying from my feet again. lol My socks alone worked pretty fine.

Deep in worship.

A group snap with the students.

Right after Sisekelo High, we went for church service where we had the camp, and this is Nokwanda and I after service. She's the eldest daughter of the pastor- Ps. Walter. It was he who helped bring together the youth for the camp. It was totally fun hanging out with their family in their home that Sunday evening. We played a game called 'the chocolate game' and it was laughter & eating of chocolate throughout. Saying goodbye to them after all the fun was hard to do. But we did and hurried back to our host family. I really miss them. They've been such a blessing to us, the missionaries. :)

This was the next day, Monday. We were on our way to go visit the wife of the home we stayed in at her workplace to say goodbye before leaving for SA.

She's the lady in the white top. God bless her and her husband for receiving us in their home. Oh, Swaziland fact 101: most of the residents in Big Bend work at 'Ubombo Sugar.' It's apparently one of the biggest sugar producing companies in Swaziland. Big Bend has lots of sugar cane fields around, so it's no shocker.

Don't you just love this? The deep blue sky gives the photo a cool touch, right? Right. I should probably start considering photography as one of my passions. ;)

This shot was on the way back to SA.

That's a billboard featuring the king of Swaziland. It's pretty far back though.

 

This is one of my absolute favorite shots of the landscape in Swaziland.

At the border, about entering back into the cold of SA. lol

The sun setting beautifully when we were nearing Jo'burg.

Good people, thanks for tuning in up till this point. :) May you be inspired to go out there to share Christ with people of different cultures. I'll be back with more. ;)

Have a God-filled weekend! xoxo,

Delali.

Go forth!: My South Africa missions trip

Sawubona!!! I’m excited to be back to my good ole blog. I know, I’ve been a lil MIA. Well, it was for a very good reason. Remember I was talking about going for missions during summer time in some of my blogs? Yeah, I went for a three-week missions trip in South Africa! :-) I returned a week ago, and like usual, I had to take some time off to rest before getting all busy with blogging. Lol Oh, and ‘sawubona’ is an isiZulu word in SA which means ‘greetings’! (Putting my SA vocab to good use, eh? ;) Anyway, I have a lot to update you guys on and it’s going to be mostly pictures in the subsequent blogs. Cool? Good.

 

Yurp, I got the window seat. ;)

To be part of the trip is such a blessing and an answer to a prayer I said to God. He is such a faithful God! My going on the trip is a testimony in itself. I’m so thankful to all the people who supported me. I pray for God’s blessings over your lives. So much happened and my experience throughout the trip is one I’ll always remember. :)

 My dinner on the plane. Main dish was noodles with chicken. Yum, yum!

The chocolate pudding was delish!

 

The sun rising in Jo'burg.

 

The view of Jo'burg from my window before landing.

Finally at OR Tambo Int airport after the 6 hr flight.

The Potter’s House church in Boksburg hosted us. (God forever bless them & oh, btw they have no connection with T.D Jakes church.) We ministered in schools, in the streets, we held camps, we had a number of Jesus marches throughout some communities and did a number of awesome things.

The Potter's House, Boksburg

The street infront of the  Potter's House- Commissioner street

South Africa is such a beauty! The streets are artistically designed, the buildings are beautiful, the food is quite healthy and in abundance, there are quite a number of parks around and some amazing lakes. We went to Swaziland to minister there during the second weekend of my stay in SA and it was such a lovely time. I met some amazing people in Boksburg, Johannesburg and in Big Bend, Swaziland. I soaked in all of the things and scenes, never wanting to miss anything. Haha

One of the malls

Posing while the others waited at the counter ordering our meal.lol

One thing though, SA was extremely cold cos it was their winter time. The temperature could drop especially at night to as low as the negatives. It was that cold! I could layer up with four tops, two cardigans and a jacket, but the bitter cold still got to me. Wheew! The sun would come up during the day alright, but the wind blowing is terribly cold that you don’t feel any warmth from the sun. So the sun was more of a light giving element than a warmth giving one. There were times when I saw vapour pouring out of my mouth when I spoke. I began to think how bad it could get if it had snowed. I really missed the warmth back in Ghana. Smh 

We visited Care Bible Church and I met Serena there.

The change in weather even made me ill. It made most of us ill to be honest. I suffered a fever for a number of days. I had chills, headaches, tummy aches, I was nauseous, I threw up a couple of times, I lost appetite. :( But by His stripes, I was healed in time for the Swaziland missions. Isn’t God awesome?!

The beautiful man-made lake which was near where we lived in Boksburg.

On the contrary however, Swaziland was way better. We stayed with a host family there in Big Bend for a weekend. It only got cold in the early mornings and evenings there. Day time was as warm as Ghana. 

By the lake. 

South Africa honestly taught me never to take the sunshine back home for granted but to be very grateful for it. To feel a little warmth in SA was great joy for me. I knew SA was going to be cold but I guess I underestimated how cold it could actually get.

Apartments overlooking the lake.

There were a number of things I observed which were a bit of a culture shock like the fact that they still drive on the right. That took a little getting used to, considering that we drive on the left in Ghana. The oranges there are actually orange on the outside, unlike the green-looking yet sweet ones in Ghana. And their oranges are seedless! Like, you find no seed in them. That was surprising to me. 

Also, one of their common dishes is rice with soup! Lol I’m used to eating rice with stew/sauce so that one too took a lil getting used to. Meat/chicken is always in plenty though. Truth is, they love meat! Haha

One of the cute houses on the way to Reigerpark.

Yeah, that's a glass gate on the far right of this house.

In terms of morality and spirituality, there’s so much work to be done. Most of the youth smoke and drink...it’s so sad. Some mothers even smoke and give the cigarette to their babies to smoke too! I still can’t process this bit. Too horrible! The gay guys aren’t embarrassed in the least about their sexuality. They’re so open about it and even dress like females. Smh 

Advertisement for abortion is found everywhere on their streets! I was so shocked when I saw them... I just pray the Godly seeds we’ve gone to sow in the land will grow by God’s grace and the people held captive by the devil will be set free in Christ forever. A teenager getting pregnant and giving birth is no big deal there. It’s more like the norm. Hmm, it’s so sad. 

Cool building huh

There was an incidence that really surprised me. During the last Jesus march we had, a guy and a girl were busy smoking through some pipe thingy right before our eyes. They looked on at us with our Jesus placards, music and all but they couldn’t be bothered. Some of us went to talk to them, they seemed to listen but they continued smoking anyway. I stared at them for the longest time, wondering how they got to this point in their lives where the life giving message of Jesus meant nothing to them. My heart broke and still breaks for them. All I can do is keep praying for the lost in SA. Please do too.

So basically, this is the sum of my experience on missions field in SA. I’ll blog more about it using more of pictures. :-)

Jesus loves you, yes you! Keep believing. xoxo

Delali.