Swazi Mission 2

Been a while since I have waffled but must give God the glory for this trip we did last week. 14 of us set off from cold Jozi to a warmer Bulembu, Swaziland. The team was excited and ready for action. We were met by our family, the Nevilles, and quickly found ourselves at Bulembu Babies. Just enjoyed having babies on laps and giving out love to them. They are doing a great job there. Then in the evening we had team time and got ready for the ministry of the week. Having Audrey as designated chef was awesome and we will never again do a mission without this. Meant Joanne and I could be fully focussed on ministry and the team of kids we had to disciple. Tuesday, Wed and Thursday we ran a holiday program in the morning and afternoon, for the two sides of Bulembu children. This was a great format, halving the 160 kids, to make it a little easier to handle. We were able to get our team facilitating small group activities and it was more relational. Was great to see that the kids are growing under the care of the Bulembu Ministries. We ministered on God's heart for them, their identity in Christ, and them having a heart or the world. Ministry was powerful and the worship times really broke things. We went up against religion, desiring to see relationship with Jesus, not just compliance. Really saw chains breaking in the spiritual. Tuesday and Thursday evenings we did movies for the kids, and on Friday for the older teens. This was powerful as we first did a treasure hunt getting prophetic words for teens God had picked out for us to pray for. God really touched lives thru this and stretched our team again to walk in faith. The Wednesday nite we joined the kids and teens at the royal rangers forest camp for a fire nite. This was a drama with a fire display and again some deep ministry. Friday morning we had all the kids join us for a games morning followed by a talent show which was very enjoyed. Our team then went and hiked up Mount Mlembe which is the higest point in Swaziland, where we prayed for this beautiful people.
On Saturday morning we went to look at old neglected buildings over the hill but still in Bulembu property, and then cleaned up and packed out. we had our last meal and headed out for South Africa. I was so proud of our team. They all worked hard and were a pleasure to spend time with. We had good times of prayer and sharing and lots of laughter too.
Having left the Swazi border the pajero ran out of petrol. It has no petrol gadge and used crazy amounts of fuel. We tried sucking petrol out of the avanza and toyota but couldn't get it right. Bulembu had no reserves, so Audrey had to drive all the way down the mountain pass and then back with a 25litre drum. This put us three hours behind schedule but all was fine. Then an hour and a half from home we stopped for take aways and whilst in Steers/Toilet two guys broke into the pajero and stole our lap top, projector, two cases full of Pardey clothes, and two kit bags. We waited for the police so we could get a case number and we are now waiting for insurance to hopefully pay out for the laptop and projector but the clothes not covered. Makes you so angry but we chose to rejoice and to pray that the 3 Bibles stolen in bags would be used to bring these guys to salvation. We finally got back to the church at 9:30pm to parents excited to see their missionaries. On the way home I needed to put another R100 in the pajero and had a great time with Lovemore, the petrol dude, who I think will come to church because of this. So all the hold ups were so I could be there at just the right time.
Slept well and then we were up early on Sunday to report back at Jozi Kidz and to start our three week series on missions! Thanks to all who prayed for us and helped us in any way to do this trip. It was a great time and the Nevilles called us to say how the orphans of Bulembu were so impacted, which is all that really counts. Hope to go back soon to do a Victory Weekend for their teens, and Joanne has some Christmas party and shoe drive planned, so could be two more trips as a family this year.