July 10 - spending a day in "Jersey"

On Friday, July 10th the Swaziland Relief team journeyed to another remote location where we had never gone before.  As was the case with Phangwini, I didn't know the name of the place until the day we actually headed there, so for purposes of identification (and in place of calling it "the place where we are going Friday) I dubbed this region "Jersey."

The name of the place is actually Nsubane, and it lay to the southeast in the shadow of the Lubombo plateau, which forms Swaziland's eastern border. 

There was no discernible village, just a few buildings including one small grocery and one general merchandise store.  The place was quite desolate.  There was evidence of the drought conditions that Swaziland is facing in the dusty fields bereft of any remaining grass and in the skinny cows that still attempted to graze on what meager plants remained.

In spite of the desolate conditions of the land, the people we met in Nsubane were joyous and welcoming.  I have often remarked that when we travel to the various regions in Swaziland, we are greeted "like rock stars."  Let me show you what I mean.  When our truck and vans pulled up to the building at Nsubane where we were going to be holding our clinic and distribution, we were greeted by a half dozen (or more) women who were dancing with joy!

Once we unloaded we followed our typical routine of setting up the clinic and the distribution.  Again we had a yellow and white circus tent to use for the distribution, and a cinderblock structure that housed the clinic.  We used one of our 22 passenger vans as the back "wall" of our distribution center, see the picture with the "shoe department" ready for action.  I also took a shot of our nurse Katie and our "pharmacist" Jason looking out of the clinic window toward the Lubombo plateau in the distance.

Before beginning the distribution and clinic, we held a service.  Pastor Angelo preached a powerful message of God's love and hope, and over 20 people came forward to receive Christ at Bishop Nelson's invitation.  The picture shows the people who came forward being prayed over by Pastor Harry Washington of Vision of Mission Tabernacle church in Philadelphia.

There were no other buildings nearby and no shelter handy from the intense sun (the sun is quite hot in Swaziland, even in winter), so we improvised for the prayer chapel by moving our other 22 passenger van to the side of the clinic building and placing chairs in the shade of the van for our chapel.

I spent most of my time in the prayer chapel in Nsubane (when I wasn't taking all these pictures).  Many people came for prayer for healing, blessing, encouragement, and protection.  One of the most moving moments was when a woman brought her son who was suffering from some kind of paralysis or weakening of his body (I'm not going to pretend to diagnose).  Each member of the prayer team took a turn holding this boy and praying for him.  Here is a picture of Pastor Van holding the boy.  You can also see his mother holding him in the photo with Pastor Harry praying (pink shirt and red skirt in the foreground).

I prayed for his healing, knowing that God can heal by medicine and by miracles.  He did not rise and walk that day, but I still have hope that he will rise and walk some day, if not on this earth, then in the world that is to come.