Sanibonani from Swaziland! We are at the end of day two… Which is an interesting feeling in that, as we discussed as a team tonight, each day feels like an all encompassing experience that leaves us exhausted (feeling like we’ve been here longer), energized (feeling blessed for the time we’ve been given), and excited (wishing we could stay even longer). I, personally, have been astonished by the amount of information I have consumed in just the past couple of days. I have learned so much about this community, these caregivers, and, through the aforementioned, about Christ; and we still have 6 days to go! Tonight, we discussed as a team what we hoped to accomplish in the remainder of our time here. For me, it would be that I continue to learn, as much as I can, about what God is doing here in Swaziland and what my role in His plan would be. I would ask that friends and family continue to pray for our team, as well as for the caregivers and community members that we are encountering. They truly serve others the way Christ served others, and we can only hope to bring back their zest for that commission.

In Him - Lauren Annin (Tibusiso – my Swazi name)   

Sanibonani Swaziland
In just a week a group of men and women from Fresno will be traveling again to Swaziland to serve with the caregivers from Shiselweni Home-Based Care.  We will be helping to assemble and deliver wheelchairs from Free Wheelchair Mission.  We will be taking over bras and caps that have been collected by many of our friends and family members in Fresno.  These aren't really needs, but rather just offered as gifts that will bless the SHBC caregivers.  What is needed is adult diapers, and our friends have also helped us gather up many packages of these for us to take.  We will also be making jewelry with the artisans (and caregivers) from The Bambanani Project.  We'll be bringing home many of their pieces to sell here in the US, helping them with a sustainable income.

We will try to post a few entries and pictures on this blog from teammembers while we're gone.  We'll appreciate your prayers for effective work and relationship building.  Check in throughtout July for updates.  Sala Kahle for now!!

Remembering Maria

It seems fitting to remember Maria Mavuso during Passion Week. Maria went home to be with the Lord last month. She was a simple, uneducated widow who lived in desperately poor circumstances. Unlike some of the other SHBC volunteers, Maria spoke almost no English, so our previous mission teams weren't able to learn much of Maria's story. It turns out that she, like other SHBC volunteers, also had AIDS. We can only speculate about how she acquired the disease, but a likely scenario is that her husband, as is often the case with Swazi men, had multiple sex partners and brought AIDS home to Maria (and possibly other wives).

If I were in Maria's situation, I would probably stay home in bed, immobilized and victimized, allowing my family and friends to care for me. But Maria didn't allow her poverty, lack or education or AIDS to keep her from serving others. Every morning Maria got up, walked miles to collect firewood and water, then started a fire and cooked for hours so the Dwaleni orphans could have a nutritious mid-day meal. And in addition to these community orphans, Maria went to her simple home every evening and cared for two more children who had been orphaned by AIDS.

This Easter, as you think about the challenges you face which might be preventing you from living sacrificially, consider Maria and the sacrifices she made in spite of her desperate situation. When I think about Maria and the way she she lived, "being Jesus", she encourages me to do more of the same.

Mission work St Patrick's way

In the late 4th or early 5th century, Patrick was growing up in an aristocratic family in what is now northeast England. At about the age of 16 he was captured by Celtic pirates from Ireland and sold into slavery. For about the next six years Patrick was a cattle herder for a prosperous tribal chief. During these years Patrick experienced three profound changes. First, during days in solitude in the beautiful wilderness he encountered God and became a man of prayer. Second, he developed a keen understanding of the Celtic peoples. Third, he came to love his captors and developed a deep hope that they would have reconciliation with God.


One night, after six years of captivity, a voice spoke to Patrick in a dream saying, “You are going home. Look! Your ship is ready.” The voice directed him to flee for his freedom the next morning. He awakened before daybreak, walked to a seacoast, saw athe ship, and negotiated his way on board.

A mutiny in the body?

"At the central railway station in Madras, India, lay a beggar woman more pitiful than the others I saw there. She had positioned herself alongside the stream of passengers hurrying to catch their trains. Businessmen with briefcases passed by her, as did wealthy tourists and government officials.



Like many Indian beggars, the woman was emaciated, with sunken cheeks and eyes and bony limbs. But, paradoxically, a huge mass of plump skin, round and sleek like a sausage, was growing from her side. It lay beside her like a formless baby, connected to her by a broad bridge of skin. The woman had exposed her flank with its grotesque deformity to give her an advantage in the rivalry for pity. Though I only saw her briefly, I felt sure that the growth was a lipoma, a tumor of fat cells. It was part of her and yet not, as if some surgeon had carved a hunk of fat out of a three hundred pound person, wrapped in in live skin, and deftly sewed it on this woman. She was starving; she feebly held up a spidery hand for alms. But her tumor was thriving, nearly equaling the weight of the rest of her body. It gleamed in the sun, exuding health, sucking lie from her."