Swaziland

This morning I got up a little early and thought about what it was that I could speak with the youth about in Sunday School, if Bongani just happened to turn the class over to me. Thank God I prepared because that is exactly what he did! I started the discussion on the topic of God not looking at us on the outside, but looking at our hearts and our intentions...who we really are. With the Bible verses that I used to make my point, we got off on a tangent...go figure. Surprisingly, it was the college students in the class that took us off into another direction. They were the main people to talk, but the youth seemed quite interested in the whole discussion.

I asked the group, "so what can we do to change our hearts to make it good and pure?" We got off onto the subject of submission and a gentle/quiet spirit and several other things like that. It all related to the subject, but it was going deeper, I suppose and focusing on a certain area of our hearts. I chose two of the youth to speak in church on what they learned (they do that here) and then we were off to church. It's cute because the little kids memorize a verse to tell the congregation. Another group may sing. The youth stand and testify on what they learned. Many more people stand up and testify. Different choir groups get up and sing and much singing there is. I don't understand half the songs that are sung, but I see the joy in people's worship. I had Sibo write down some of the songs for me so that I can study them and hopefully be able to sing along next week. Up until now it was more of me just moving my mouth and trying to get the words right...the words that I don't know what they mean. It's all good. I have two faithful translators.

Today in church, Umfundisi Ma Mazibuko spoke on honoring your parents. Over and over she said "honor your father and mother and it will go well with you." So pretty much after church today, I missed my mom (Mama) and dad (Baba)...or as Favored would say "Dah dah! Dah dah!" I hope my kids are as adorable as she is. That reminds me that I need to take a picture of her so that you can all see what I mean.

Esther told me today that there is a woman she knows who will hook me up with this person that teaches basket weaving (and other skills) to handicapped people. They're with the Catholic Church. The students here were like, "Why do you go with the Catholics?" I said, "Because YOUR people will not teach me to weave baskets...so now I have converted and am a Catholic." Sense the sarcasm.

I was told this morning that I speak siSwati better than Nhlanhla who is a Zimbabwean himself and his heart language is closer to Zulu or siSwati than English. I guess Linguistics paid off ;) I really liked that class though...THANKS DR. LO!!! Whenever I say something with a click or something that they know is hard for an American to say, they laugh. I ask, "Why are you laughing at me?" They say, "Because you are pronouncing very well." So I’m thinking,...ok...so why do you laugh? Maybe because they are happy or something. I just say "Thank you" and go on clicking. Nhlanhla demonstrated this morning how his heart language has more clicks than siSwati and how they are more defined. You see, siSwati clicks are more relaxed than even Zulus, supposedly. So today Nhlanhla demonstrated his clicks and I was like, man, I didn't know a mouth could make that noise.

Prayer Requests:
-This week to go smoothly.
-health

Praise:
-nice, warm day.
-God is good.