Thursday, August 14, 2014
.JPG)
Friday, August 1, 2014
July 2 - Mafutseni, a slow day on the field
On July 2 our team visited the CMC church at Mafutseni. The Mafutseni location was the first daughter church planted by CMC, and the closest, which made for an easy travel day. It is also the smallest site, less than one acre with a single building which we used for the clinic.
There is very little natural shade at the Mafutseni site so I arranged the clinic line to utilize what shade the building itself offered. I had the line begin at one door and wrap around the building. A half hour later I saw people entering by the opposite door. Investigating, I learned that as the sun moved, the scant shade on the side of the building where I had placed the line had disappeared and it was now growing on the opposite side. I made a mental note for next year.
Since the "exit" of the clinic was now where I had originally placed the "entrance," we had to move the prayer team.
The prayer team is a group mainly composed of pastors, including Pastor Van Moore of Vision of Missions Tabernacle Church in Philadelphia -- a founding member of Swaziland Relief. The goal is to have every person who goes through the medical clinic also see the prayer team afterward. "The nurses treat the body and then we treat the soul" is how one of the pastors described it (he then amended his remark to acknowledge that it's really God who treats the soul, the prayer team merely acts as intercessors). To keep the prayer team comfortable, we set up under a tree near the road. It is winter in Swaziland when we go so there was no foliage but the tree's branches offered enough shade to make the team reasonably comfortable in the intense sunlight.
Now on most of our field days this year I found myself hustling around, checking on the team, and offering assistance where needed, but it was a slow day at Mafutseni, so you can see me taking a turn at the prayer station. (Blue shirt and khaki pants, with my back to you.) I also presented my Zacchaeus puppet show to a small group of children who had gathered.
Our vans were overfilled for the trip back (I don't recall how that happened) but I took the opportunity to hitch a ride with my good friend Lelo, who had dropped by after work (just in time to interpret for our puppet show). It was nice to chat with him on the 30 minute ride back to St. Juliana's.
-Mdu
There is very little natural shade at the Mafutseni site so I arranged the clinic line to utilize what shade the building itself offered. I had the line begin at one door and wrap around the building. A half hour later I saw people entering by the opposite door. Investigating, I learned that as the sun moved, the scant shade on the side of the building where I had placed the line had disappeared and it was now growing on the opposite side. I made a mental note for next year.
Since the "exit" of the clinic was now where I had originally placed the "entrance," we had to move the prayer team.
The prayer team is a group mainly composed of pastors, including Pastor Van Moore of Vision of Missions Tabernacle Church in Philadelphia -- a founding member of Swaziland Relief. The goal is to have every person who goes through the medical clinic also see the prayer team afterward. "The nurses treat the body and then we treat the soul" is how one of the pastors described it (he then amended his remark to acknowledge that it's really God who treats the soul, the prayer team merely acts as intercessors). To keep the prayer team comfortable, we set up under a tree near the road. It is winter in Swaziland when we go so there was no foliage but the tree's branches offered enough shade to make the team reasonably comfortable in the intense sunlight.
Now on most of our field days this year I found myself hustling around, checking on the team, and offering assistance where needed, but it was a slow day at Mafutseni, so you can see me taking a turn at the prayer station. (Blue shirt and khaki pants, with my back to you.) I also presented my Zacchaeus puppet show to a small group of children who had gathered.
Our vans were overfilled for the trip back (I don't recall how that happened) but I took the opportunity to hitch a ride with my good friend Lelo, who had dropped by after work (just in time to interpret for our puppet show). It was nice to chat with him on the 30 minute ride back to St. Juliana's.
-Mdu
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)