And so it begins ...

Up early this morning.  

4 am.

My is cat in the hallway wondering what is going on.

I have to meet the team at 4:45 am to board a bus for JFK airport.  Our flight leaves later this morning.

I know that some members of our team, those who live further from our rally point at New Life church in Glenside, are already up and on the road.

So begins our day of travel.  Two buses and a plane.  We will arrive in Swaziland late Friday afternoon.  Please pray for our group as we travel.  With a 15 hour flight ahead, I assure you that getting there will be considerably less than half the fun.

This also begins my regular updates.  Thank you for agreeing to come along with me on this trip (electronically, that is).  I appreciate all of the support that has surrounded me as I prepared to go.  I'll be in touch as time and internet connections permit.

Swaziland Trip on Facebook

As you know I am heading to Swaziland, Africa soon.  I leave on Thursday June 30th.  During our trip Swaziland Relief will be posting photos and reports of our relief work on Facebook when internet wifi is available.  If you would like to receive these reports on your Facebook News Feed then please follow these two quick steps below...

1) "Like" the Swaziland Relief Facebook page if you have not already, here is the link:

https://www.facebook.com/relief.swaziland

2) Send a friend request to my friend Ken Stracuzzi since he will be making the posts, here is his link:

https://www.facebook.com/ken.stracuzzi

I will also be posting as usual on my own blog (www.comfortforswaziland.com) and Facebook as internet conditions permit, but following Ken will give you a more consistent and broad picture of the trip.

One week to go!!! 

School's out forever

Well, not for me.  However, since school is not officially out for the summer in the district where I work, I will now have time to turn my full attention toward preparing for my trip to Swaziland.  And to updating this blog, which has been neglected for weeks.

When I titled this post "School's out forever" I was referring to my indvodzana (that's siSwati for "son") Mancoba.  I met him in 2007 when Swaziland Relief made its first trip.  A few years later, when he was in "form 5" (equivalent to a senior in high school), Mancoba asked me if I could possibly arrange a sponsorship for him to attend college.  In him I saw a young man with great potential and determination but meager means, and after discussing it with my wife, we decided that we would help to fund his education.  Our relationship has grown since then and he now calls us "Babe" and "Make" (pronounced "Bah-bay" and "Mah-gay") which means Dad and Mom in siSwati.  

So it is with great joy that I announce to you the graduation of our Swazi son, Mancoba, from Mancosa University in South Africa.  We are proud of his achievement and look forward to seeing what he will now accomplish with his business degree.

Follow the blog at:  http://www.comfortforswaziland.com

or on Twitter:  @Comfort4SWZ

Zindwendweni - a report from the center of the drought

Last summer the Swaziland Relief team visited Zindwendweni, a remote village deep in the bush in Southeastern Swaziland.  We performed our usual routine:  medical clinics, clothing distribution, prayer chapel, and classroom visitation.  I meet some students who loved mugging for the camera, and when their teacher came along they begged me to take their picture all together.  I promised the teacher I would send him a copy of the photo.  

Once I got in touch, we corresponded back and forth for several days.  Below you will see an edited transcript of our conversation (I removed personal information).  

There are two things I'd like you to know from reading this text conversation:

1)  The donations that you made to the container are anticipated and greatly appreciated.  Thank you again to everyone who donated!

2)  As I mentioned in a previous post, the situation in Swaziland is grim.  This year, for the first time, we are taking a special offering specifically targeted to purchasing food to distribute in the most needy areas in Swaziland.  This offering will be collected at the June 4 service at Bridge Community Church in Glenside (meeting at Westminster Theological Seminary's Van Til Hall) but you can also donate online on Bridge Community Church's "donate" page.  If you do so, place your donation amount in the "Designated" box and write "Swaziland drought relief" in the memo.

Blog:  ComfortForSwaziland.com

Twitter:  @Comfort4SWZ

Facebook:  facebook.com/comfortforswaziland

A container full of blessing

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

- Acts 20:35 (ESV)

I want to take an opportunity to thank everyone who donated clothing, shoes, coats, accessories, linens, medical supplies, and toiletries, as well as those who gave financially, to make this year's Swaziland container a success.  On Monday, May 16th we loaded the container with over 700 boxes in less than 2 hours.  The truck left around 11:30 a.m. bound for the port of Baltimore.  There, the container was placed on a cargo ship that set sail on Friday May 20th.  The voyage to Africa is expected to take a month.  It will then take another 10 days for the container to ship by rail to Swaziland, where our summer team will receive it on (hopefully) July 3rd.  

After we finished loading up the container, we took a moment to lay our hands on its sides and pray a prayer of blessing on those who donated and those who would receive.  We know that the container has always been such a great blessing to the people that have received from it.  We hear it year after year.  And we know that it is also a blessing on those who contribute to it.  

But as we prayed for Bill, the truck driver who drove the container from Glenside to Baltimore, I was struck with an idea that is my prayer request of you:

Let's pray that everyone involved with the container will be blessed!

We've prayed for God's blessing on the givers.  We have prayed (and will continue to pray) for His blessing on those who will receive the donations.  We prayed for Bill, who drove the container to the port.

I prayed for the crane operator and the dock workers in Baltimore.

Let's pray for the crew of the cargo ship.  Let's pray for the dockworkers in Durban, South Africa.  Let's pray for the railroad workers.  Let's pray for the truck driver in Swaziland. Let's pray for those who will unload the boxes and those who will drive them to the remote places where their contents will be distributed.

We probably won't see directly how God answers those prayers.  But we know that there is no limit to God's ability to bless.  A blessing on a merchant marine will not take away from anyone else's blessing, so will you please join me in praying for everyone who will play a role in getting this container to its destination?  

The grim situation in Swaziland

Dear friends, please pray for Swaziland.  The situation there is dire.  Thanks to the severe drought coupled with governmental mismanagement, the growing season was a near total loss.  You can read this report from AllAfrica.com for more details.

On a personal note, I received this Whatsapp message from a friend in Swaziland who has worked with the Swaziland Relief mission team over many years:

  

Currently we are working to fill a 40 foot cargo container with clothing and medical supplies to be distributed this summer.  We are also working on a plan to obtain and distribute food to people in grave need.  Please pray for these plans as they are being made.

Also, if you have any clothing items that you'd like to donate, you can drop them off on Saturday May 7 from 2-5 pm at New Life Church in Glenside, and again on Saturday May 14th from 10 am-2 pm.

Seeking prayer and support

Spring has arrived!  As I write this it is just about the end of the third marking period at the school where I teach, and my students are all abuzz with their plans for the summer.  Although there’s still a whole quarter of the school year remaining, I can sympathize.  I, too, am already thinking about summer, which for me this year means a return to the Kingdom of Swaziland.

We will once again distribute clothing, food, and medical supplies in the various villages where we have done so in the past.  This year the distribution work is more urgent than ever, since there has been a severe drought in Swaziland that has badly hurt the local economy.  

This year I also plan to extend my stay a week so that I can spend some one-on-one time with my African “son” Mancoba, who works with an organization called One Heart Africa in Swaziland and neighboring Mozambique.  I look forward to meeting his family and visiting Mozambique for the first time. 

As the trip activities take shape, I’ll let you know more. You can follow my blog or Twitter; the addresses are printed below.  If you’d like to be added to my email list, reply in the comments below and I'll add you.

I would deeply appreciate your prayers as I prepare to go.  A few specific prayer requests are:  

1. finishing out the school year  
2. raising support for the trip  
3. traveling, including long plane/bus rides and at least seven border crossings  
4. spiritual and emotional preparations  
5. for my wife while I am away for three weeks  
6. the building and maintaining of relationships in Africa  
7. that I would put God first in all these endeavors!

If you are willing to contribute to my support needs this year, you may make a check out to Bridge Community Church with “M. Sander-Swaziland 2016” in the memo line.  You can also donate online at www.swazilandrelief.org

This year I also created the little tcard below.  I boldly hope that it will find its way onto some of your refrigerators, bulletin boards, or perhaps into your summer reading books to remind you to pray for me, the Swaziland Relief summer team, and for the kingdom of Swaziland.

Thanks for reading my blog, and thanks in advance for your prayers and support.