Because there’s no way I can simply summarize all that happened the last two weeks in Swazi, here are the snippets of when…

*In the midst of a country that I love with a mission that I am called to, I was reminded by a high school girl from an AIM mission trip team that “teachers have an incredible platform.”  She reminded me of why I’m not currently living in Swazi–that there is also a mission I am needed to fulfill at home in the sheltered world of my high schoolers that also need to be freed from their chains.

*When I got home one day after ministry, Tenele ran to greet me and pulled me into her room to tell me she had to show me something… then out popped Eilidh, who had come to visit Swazi for two weeks! (For those of you who don’t know, she’s my Scottish bestie, the one who removed all my “skin maggots” when I lived here, the one who started the dream for the home with me, my encourager, my other half on the other half)

*Our last bible study as a team, we read the story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet.  Then we washed the feet of all the girls and Gogo as well.  The look on Gogo’s face as we offered to wash her feet was the pure and holy joy of a girl lost in the beauty of a field of flowers!  Ayanda ended the evening with preaching of her own.

*On the last night that our team was in Swazi, we built a fire and roasted marshmallows, which the girls at first thought was crazy…After all, why would you put sweets in a fire and ruin them?! But after they tasted the warm melty mushy goodness, they couldn’t stop eating them! We finished the night singing acapella songs as the flames died down.

*Musa took Sandy and I to cross the border to renew our visitor visa but the border control guy was in a bad mood and threatened to “lock us out.”  Luckily Musa was with us and all was well.  We proceeded to watch a cow transaction (a man has to pay cows to the family of his soon-to-be bride) out in the African bush at sunset. Incredible.  Then watched night fall and the Milky Way light up the sky like never before!

*Sandy’s wisdom is beyond words, as is her listening ear. She processed through a lot with me, even got me to cry…in a good way.

*Dressing up the girls in robes (which was a Packer quilt of course…can’t get much more royal than that!) and crowns as we acted out the story of Esther!

*When I convinced Tenele to call Garret by his nickname, Harry.  Then hearing all the other girls start calling him that, too!

*Reading to Sindi and Sebe before bedtime and Sindi snuggling up in my lap.

*Nonhlanhla coming to kiss me goodnight.

*Tenele and I crying together as we talked about my upcoming departure.

*Watching helplessly as a warthog (Pumba!) mauled our bags of bread during a picnic at Mlilwane… then Tenele, being the fearless one she is, standing up as she is holding her breastfeeding baby in one hand, picking up a giant rock with the other and chucking it at the warthog, nailing it directly on the nose, and saving our meat and cookies!

*Watching the garden grow…more importantly, watching the girls grow the garden!  And one evening at sunset sitting in the garden with Lucia as Tenele and Nonhlanhla read their new SiSwati bibles together.

*With one night left before my own departure, I decided to soak my dirty, soiled feet in the same green wash bucket that we washed the girls’ feet.  When Sindi entered the room and saw my feet, she immediately got down on her hands and knees and eagerly and tenderly washed my feet.  What a gem!

*Tenele telling me almost every day that I’m beautiful.

*Playing peek-a-boo with Lucia, and hearing Lucia recite my name for the first time!

*Looking at Tenele and seeing Jesus in her face, in her smile, in her words, in her eyes, in her heart.

*Tenele telling me that she’s helping Nonhlanhla and that she told her, “Even though you don’t have parents, Nonhlanhla, you have the Father in heaven.”

*Marcia seeing the home for the first time and reminding me how blessed I am to see the fruit of my labor. Then speaking a simple yet profound phrase that has finally defined what I have been trying to define all along –who we are as a non-profit: “Like Ezra and Hezekiah, you have rebuilt the ruins.”  Both literally (physically rebuilding the house structure) and figuratively (rebuilding hope and restoration in the girls themselves) we, as Hosea’s Heart rebuild the ruins.

Yes, God is present in moments like that.