Heaven On Earth

Well, all my good intentions to blog went straight out the window. Once our work week began, time got away from me.

Every day we would go out to the children's home with our team and work on projects. Some people painted buildings, walls, some people planted gardens, some dug trenches and others took down large quantities of dry, overgrown grass. There were kitchen crews and baby caretakers and things were a buzz each day that we drove in with our fully loaded vans of workers. The children were so excited to have the activity going on at the homes. We worked on two separate orphanages in Swaziland. Matthias and I were at Emmanuel and the other team went to one called El Shaddai. Emmanuel is what we call a phase one home. They recently moved in to their new dwelling and now comes the process of getting them established and sustainable. El Shaddai is a phase 4 home and nearing it's completion on being a self-sustaining home, with income and food sources.

We spent the week with our little sponsor girl Elizabeth. Her Siswati/African name is Nobuhle which is pronounced: No -bool-lay. There are some cool Siswati sounds that come from the 'hle' combination but I will reserve that for when you hear me speak her name.
She is an angel. Words cannot begin to express the love we have for her in our hearts. It was difficult to leave her there when we left. She is a beautiful little soul and her smile lingers in my memory.

Every night we would have a Young Hearts meeting. Young Hearts is a group of youth that choose to serve in Africa or have a heart for Africa. The youth on the trip, gathered every night after dinner for some sharing about their day as well as singing and laughing. It was such a powerful way to end each night there and I believe everyone left that place transformed. We had a group of Taiwanese youth that spent the week with us. A bunch of high school kids traveled over for the first time and they were absolutely amazing people. It was hard to say our goodbyes when the time came to leave and I know that Young Hearts has been ignited with a fresh fire on this specific trip. My role with Heart For Africa is to work with the youth and connect them so that we can fund raise and create possibilities for the children in Swaziland. I believe great things will be birthed from our time together there. GO YOUNG HEARTS!!! WOO HOO!

Matthias and I are decompressing. It takes a bit to re-enter our culture after being saturated with third world issues. The relationships forged and the moments that were breathed in are all jumbled up in our hearts and to make sense of most of it will take some time. I know from the last couple of trips over there, things surface when we least expect it. A certain amount of strength is required to work with these little broken vessels. There is a tenacity of heart we call upon in this experience and when we are able to fully let down in the silence of coming home, things bubble up that were held back during the time there. Not sure if that makes a lot of sense to you, but it does to me. If you have served somewhere that suffering occurs, you may know what I am talking about.

Coming home reveals a tender heart. The soil of our souls has been plowed by love and the seedlings are in a fragile state. We experienced a bit of heaven on earth and want to hold it close and savor it a little longer.

I will be posting pictures on facebook this week so stay tuned for more to come.

Thanks for loving us and caring about the work done there.