March 30th a Miracle

March 30^th a Miracle

MIRACLE…. In Swaziland

On Thursday night of this past week I was driving into town to see some friends and go to the government offices about my visa. I went and hung out and saw I had a flat tire so I decided to stay the night at my friends place and just leave early Friday morning for work. So Friday I woke up and left the house at 5:30. The road to the farm is a dirt gravel road that I have travelled many times. There are always cows in the road, goats, sheep and you have to drive slow and carefully. So I was going about 30 miles per hour which is average speed on the road and all of a sudden a baby calf jump from above me into the road to catch up with her mom on the opposite side. I hit the brakes, fish tailed lost control of the car and before I knew it I was on the edge of the road leading down a hill, the car flipped three times before landing into a tree. I got out of the car searching for my phone which had fallen out of the car. I phoned for help. I was 30 minutes from the farm and 30 minutes from the police station so they both arrived around the same time. Every window in the car was broken except the one next to me. I came out of the car with out one cut, with out one scratch, bruise or any other serious injury. I was in awe of Gods protection of my life and realized how real angels are and how they truly were there with me protecting my life. There is not explantation for me surviving that accident. The car was so far from the road down the side of the hill you couldn’t see it. I had to walk back up the road for the police to even see where the accident was. I kept thinking to myself why me God why me. All I wanted was my mom. I was wearing my seat belt and I just walked away. I thank God every day for my life.

There has been time to process the Lords protection over my life and in the last few weeks I have seen a clearer picture of my purpose here.

Pslam 116 was read in church and I felt that it spoke so clearly to me about how God views life and death. How he is the one that knows the number of days we have on this earth. How we are His tools in a mighty plan and He will always love and protect us until our time here on earth is finished.

Pslam 116 (NLT)

I Love the Lord because He hears my voice

And my prayer for mercy. Because He

Bends down to listen,

I will pray as long as I have breath.

Death wrapped its ropes around me,

the terrors of the grave over took me.

I saw only trouble and sorrow.

Then I called on the name of the Lord.

Please, Lord save me. How kind the Lord is.

How good he is. So merciful, this God of ours.

The Lord protect those of childlike faith.

I was facing death, and he saved me.

Let my soul be at rest again, for the Lord has been good to me.

He has saved me from death,

my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.

And so I walk in the Lords presence as I live here on earth.

I believed in you, so I said, I am deeply troubled, Lord.

In my anxiety I cried out to you, These people are all liars.

What can I offer the Lord for all he has done for me.

I will lift up the cup of salvation and

praise the Lords name for saving me.

I will keep my promises to the Lord in the presence of all his people.

The Lord deeply when his loved ones die.

O, Lord I am your servant;

Yes, I am your servant, born into your household,

you have freed me from my chains.

I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving

and call on the name of the Lord.

I will fulfill my vows to the Lord

in the presence of all his people in the house of the Lord

in the heart of Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord!

Thank you for your prayers, your encouragement and love. I am doing much better and the soreness and bruises are almost completely gone praise the Lord.

March 20th ( posting late I know....forgive me)

March 20^th

NOSIPHO

There are moments here when you forget you are in a foreign country and this has now become your home, the norm as we might say. It would be normal to be woken up by chickens, to have cows on your front porch, to see poisonous snakes about once a week. I guess you could say its normal when taking care of ten children to meet their physical needs, you bath them, feed them, send them to school, try and have them do their chores admits all other mom duties you have for that day. The moms of the farm in my opinion have one of the hardest jobs. How do you show each of the 10 or 11 children individual attention that they need at this vital time of their life as they grown, blossom and mature. I want to tell you all about one little girl named Nosipho.

She is in grade 3 in my class and is eight years old. She is full of energy at times too much energy and my patience was always tested. There are students sometimes where they are in your class to teach you and refine you in your character. However over time this little girl with a hardened face, her smile was so expensive because you would see so few of them. Finally started to soften I was able to see who SHE is and that she too wanted that physical touch for someone to love her deeply, to her a hug, affirmation that she is doing a good job. I sat down with Mary Jean who gave me her background story and Nosipho came to the farm when she was 3 years old, was sick, had worms, couldn’t walk and was malnourished. Now if you saw both photos you wouldn’t believe your eyes in what an amazing drastic difference these last 4 years have made in her life being here on the farm.

New Life Homes is amazing, now yes there are troubles and hardships no matter where we go in life. However to see this children start to love, start to feel free from the abuse that haunts them you just see them blossom and it literally brings me to tears. I cannot express how much I love Nosipho and the other kids here. They all have their story, some of them know it and some of them can’t remember it which maybe Gods blessing to them.

Two Months have passed

March 1^st,

HAPPY RABBIT DAY EVERYONE. Can you believe two months have already flown by. I am entering my 9^th week here in Swaziland and I am on a midterm break. We have a long weekend which I made plans to leave the farm and have a little get away. So last night was my first night away from the kids and what a restful sleep it was. I slept like a log in a nice comfy bed, white sheets, a fan, nice shower and was so thankful for a small break from the farm life.

On the school side of things my students are doing great. I did some midterm assessments in Math and English. One student got a 98% the rest were averaging in the 80s and my two really struggling learners were in the 50s but I knew that was going to be the case ahead of time. As time goes on I am feeling more and more confident about the classroom setup and routine. I am also becoming more comfortable during those days that things just do not pan out the way you think that they will and you have to throw the idea out the window and start fresh.

These students are amazing; I guess you could say that I am biased since they are my kids. However each one of them is so unique and carries so much strength as they have overcome so much. I am almost a proud parent when I see them succeed and they want that affirmation and I do my best to give it to them the best ways I can. When they get a good grade on an assignment, or are behaving nicely and even remembering to speak English in class and not siSwati. We have a sticker wall and each student has a animal and can put a sticker on it. Once the animal is full they are able to claim their prize which changes every few weeks.

There is this student His name is Mamba. Now Mamba is sort of the leader of the class and he could use this leadership for good or for bad and some days I am not sure which Mamba I am going to get ha-ha. However I have seen SUCH a change in him, his shell is less hardened, he smiles, sometimes he lets me give him a hug but that’s rare. But watching him open up, for him to laugh, to be praised for good marks, to have him sit in his seat and listen were NOT the notes I got from reading his file. I almost tear up thinking about him and the many others in my class like him who are hungry to learn but have behavioral issues due to their circumstances. For my first year of teaching I feel like after each day I have just survived it and have to go home rest and get ready for the next one. Taking each day and even each moment at a time.

So for some funny African stories. Well last week as I was greeting the class a cow came up onto our Veranda and I went out to shoo it away and their it comes right into the front door of the class not one bit afraid of me. So the boys went and pushed it out the door haha and that was how I started my Monday. Last week we had two unwelcome visitors a 2meter long python snake and then a 2.5 meter black mamba snake. The Black Mamba is actually the scarier one because it is said that once you are bitten you have about 15minutes to live. Now when I saw them they were already dead however as I was teaching the farm worker guys were out there in the chicken houses trying to kill them. So that was an interesting afternoon. Now I am bit more fearful of the snakes so I do my best to just stay inside after dark or have someone walk me to my house even though it isn’t far I just don’t trust myself to be able to see the snake before it sees me.

On Tuesdays I have found a wonderful young adults group that is through the church I am going to here in town. So on Tuesdays I drive 1.5 hours to go to the bible study and then 1.5 hours to come back. Some people tell me that I am crazy for driving that far but I tell them that the time I am able to spend in the word with people my own age is like gold. It is totally worth the drive and God has really blessed me already through friends I have made with just encouraging words and I am also meeting up with a few of them this weekend. We are going to hang out and go swimming. There are moments when you are on the farm surrounded by kids, workers, moms and wish I just want one person to hang out with after my day, to ask me how was school, to talk about life, who is where I am at in life. When I was in Portland I always had that and never realized what a blessing it was I always had my friends around. I always was going to coffee, visiting friends, going to college group, talking to people in class, I had people everywhere. So coming here and realizing I am without that, truly has made me rely on the Lord for strength and conversation. He is becoming more and more of my true best friend. Ha, he is the one I now vent to about my day, He is the one I go on walks with after school is out when I need a break and He is the one I seek advice from. Now I don’t think having my friends in those spots was wrong but I am now seeing what it truly means to seek the Lord in all things and bring everything to Him in prayer.

Thank you so much for your prayers, encouragement and support. This adventure has just begun and God has been showing and teaching me so much while I have been here. These Orphans need to be shown the love, grace and compassion as they grow and mature. I am still memorizing Psalm 23 as well as having my class memorize it as well. We are working towards a victory of memorizing it before the end of first term which is April 18^th.

Blessings,

Courtney

Valentines Day

I am sorry that it has been so long since my last update. Life here on the farm is in full swing of things now that school has been up and running and Peter is back from the states. We are in our fourth week of school can you believe it. I was just thinking about when I wrote about my first day. Things are going well at the school my students work very hard however they are your typical 10 year old boys. They are all over the place however they have the thirst to learn that you can't force anyone to have it must come from them.

The weather here the past few weeks has been warm during the days and then at night it gets stormy and raining which has caused a few problems with the road, since it is made out of mud lol. I have been able to drive more on my own, going on little trips to town and back. The 20min away town not the large city. I also went for the first time to a young adults bible study that meets on Tuesday nights. It was such a breath of fresh air to be among people my own age. I love the farm, the kids, the moms, Peter and Mary Jean but sometimes you just want to chat about life with those who are your peers. So I am going again today, which I am pretty excited about.

This past few days have been really rough on me. These kids here are amazing but most of them are troubled and act out and lash out. So there are times where they just lash out at me or others and you think what did I do to deserve being treated like this. But then I remember where they have come from and that they struggle to act in a certain way or to react in ways I would expect a typical child too. I also am learning about boundaries and trying to take best care of myself which means having to tell the children to go away when I just need some quiet time.

I was so down cast and sad mostly because I was just overwhelmed by the kids and the things that were happening. I mean in one day several things happen all ending with a soccer ball smashing into my window. All you can do is laugh really because getting mad won't solve anything.

A good friend of mine was really encouraging me and told me to read Psalm 23 and Romans 5:1-11. Now I have read those both before, several times over again. Now he says memorize them. Well my mom can attest to this I have a difficult time memorizing anything so that is my goal for the rest of this term. To memorize both of these sections of scripture.

Romans 5:3-5 "we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

Now in youth group and bible college you hear that section of scripture alot, but now that I feel that in some ways I am suffering I realize what that truly means. God is refining my character he is building me up into the woman of God that He wants me to be. I may not be able to do it perfectly at first but he will give me plenty of opportunities to keep on trying to give these kids unconditional love, hope, acceptance and joy.

Happy Birthday DAD ( Feb 14th, can't believe your turning 30 hahaha jk) LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!!

My Classroom Photos

Wow what a week

Friday January 20, 2012

Wow what a week I will share with you a few stories of this past week. Well ,it has been raining for several days and apparently we were getting some aftermath storms from a cyclone that was hitting Mozambique. The roads got all muddy and no one could really go anywhere. So each night I had different groups come to my house we baked chocolate chip cookies, had juice, some fun food and then watched a movie. We had girl’s nights and a boy’s night. Now imagine 20 people crowded around my laptop watching a movie trying to listen amidst a storm crashing down outside ha-ha. We had a good time.

This week I have been preparing my classroom for my students I have desks and a chalkboard!! How exciting, so I have been making posters and things to hang up around the room. I even made all of them name tags for their desks. I am now teaching grades 3,4,5 which is a lot however it is only 12 students so that is nice to have a small class. God has blessed me so much while being here. There is a Zimbabwean lady who is teaching the older grades and she has given me a lot of advice and encouragement as I start to start planning for a whole year for three different grades at first it seemed a bit overwhelming but now I think it will be ok.

So yesterday I only worked for half the day and then decided I wanted to take public transportation into town. So I took two of the children with me since they can speak SiSwati and knew the shops. Well this is how that journey went…. We walked 30 minutes to the “bus stop” which we then waited 1.5 hours for the “bus” to come. This bus is really a 12-passenger van that packed in as many people as possible ha-ha. So when finally got a ride to town we still had a 30min or so trip ahead of us. Well we made many several stops and we were going up this hill through the valley and the van just stops in the middle of the road. We have broken down. I think to myself oh gosh its getting late I have these two kids seriously we are in the middle of no where. Well we only needed gas so they walked to call someone to bring us some and 20 minutes later we were on our way again. We left the house at 12pm in the afternoon and finally arrive in the town at 3:30 ha-ha and we had to leave by 4ish in order to get a van back. So we quickly walked around getting a few groceries I picked up a few things for my house and meanwhile I am the only white person in sight. Several children run up to me to touch my skin, I had a few marriage proposals as well. The children I brought with me were very protective and told them all to go away. But it was so much fun to go and explore a town and talk to the people making various things. I loved it. Now getting back was much easier there is a van station where you get on. So I think we had over 16 people in a 12-passenger van so you can imagine it being packed full. We arrived home and boy was I glad to be back.

This morning on the farm we had an order of 150 lettuces to be taken to the shops. So at 5am several of us got up and headed down to the nursery and everyone had their job, some cut the lettuce, some put them into crates, some washed, some counted and then we all bagged them up for transport. I was apart of the washing crew with some of the housemothers and older boys. They had so many questions for me, what do I think of their King, how do I like Obama and I am thinking to myself its 5:30am I haven’t had coffee and we are talking about politics what the heck ha-ha. But it still was a good time. I am enjoying myself here and even though my role is to teach I love being apart of the farm too. Some days when I have to get a lot done up at the school I send the kids away (usually they are playing in the classroom while I work.) and by the end of the day I run around trying to find them all because I miss them.

Thank you for your continuous prayers and support while I am away. Things you could be praying for…

1.) Life is busy on the farm, please pray that I make time for the Lord every day.

2.) That I will not stress about Curriculum and I will just work hard and know it’s my best.

3.) My relationships with the children and the house mothers will develop

4.) I want to have a high school girls bible study at my house. The girls are VERY shy around me so please pray that they will come and it will be a good time in the word.

Praises!

1.) My health has been great.

2.) I am getting sleep.

3.) I am learning more and more of the children's names

Jan. 13. 2012 Update

Sunday Jan. 8. 2012

I arrived in Johannesburg at 6:00am my bags made it, I made it and I met Mary Jean right as I walked through customs. We then had a small breakfast at Mug and Bean at the airport where I had my first cup of coffee YAY. The trip to Swaziland from the airport is about 4 hours. The climate was hot and muggy such a difference from my bay area winter.

As Mary Jean (MJ) and I drove to the farm it really was out there away from a city. However as we pulled up the kids ran to the car mostly to greet MJ and then met me. Now by this time I hadn’t really slept in two days, it was hot, there were several bugs, I felt very isolated and I questioned if I could really do this for a whole year. However that night I slept as hard as a rock and woke up happy and excited to be there. I was able to spend a lot of time with the kids and mothers, which helped me, adjust and not feel like an outsider. MJ spent a lot of time telling me about the children’s stories and backgrounds and about Swazi culture. So many of them have been abused and honestly you can see that they just want attention, to be known and to be loved by someone.

The house where I am staying is sort of in the middle of it all I share a 3-bedroom house with another teacher who works with the preschoolers. I have not met her yet she is still on holiday until next week. For being in Swaziland I feel like a princess I have my OWN room and have a twin bed sort of like a dorm room styled room. I have a cub bard for my clothes, table, fan and curtains. The curtains I think might be my favorite part because they block out the sun and bugs!!

MJ took me to the school and I was able to see my classroom, boy so many resources it was amazing. The walls are fairly bare but that will be fixed in no time. This week will be nice to just get adjusted to the time change; we are 10 hours ahead, as well as unpacked and have my room organized. Next week will be a prep week where I can decorate my room, look over the curriculum and sort of map out the year in long term goals for the students and short term goals.

So much has happened in the past few days I feel like I could just keep on writing but how do I even describe it all. Firstly God has been so faithful to me, smooth travels, quickly meeting up with May Jean, lots of sleep on my first night. I honestly could not have dreamed of a better start of this adventure. The culture shock has been difficult at times and God has just been right there beside me. Also adjusting to the water and the food I normally get a stomachache pretty easily when it comes to those things but God has protected me from that too. I feel so protected I feel all the prayers thank you so much.

Now how the farm is sort of setup: There are four large houses for the children each with a housemother. There is then Mary Jean and Peters house, my house, the school and then the farm. I will be taking pictures and posting them when I can. Now house 2 does not currently have a mother so they have different women from the village stay during the day with the children and then someone else stays with them at night. Mary Jean and I stayed there last night what a treat that was. At first I was thinking oh it will be nice to be in my bed in a nice quiet room but I felt that it would be a great bonding time to be in the house. So we had dinner, I read some books with the younger ones and we also colored. Coloring is HUGE here they love coloring books and crayons not something that they always get to do outside of school. I also was able to learn several of their names, learning all of their names are going to be one of the hardest tasks in these first few weeks.

Each house has anywhere from 8-11 kids in it boys are usually upstairs and the girls down stairs. The house mothers are not only taking care of those children but they are also working on the farm. They are all such hard workers and really care for the children in their homes.

Today the big task was to put my kitchen together it was pretty empty, no dishes, no cooking pots etc. So there is a storage container that had boxes of things that other missionaries who had moved away recently had left behind which was an extreme blessing to me that I didn’t have to go out and buy several of those things. So some of the girls came and helped me bring things back to the house, we washed and put them away. It is now almost lunchtime, which is the main meal of the day so I better am going. I miss you all so much. I am safe and sound!!!!!

Friday, January 13^th

This week has been a whirlwind as I have been getting settled. I have seen my classroom it’s wonderful I am so excited to start school. Our first day is the 24^th of January, which is a Tuesday. Mary Jean and I sat down today to talk about curriculum, discussed the student’s abilities and gave me the 411 on the school. It was so insightful I am starting to prepare for the year it’s wonderful.

Yesterday we went into town which was I think 1hour and 45 minutes away. To even get off the property is about 30 minutes on a bumpy dirt road. So going into town is quite the trek. We got to buy desks for the students a donor purchased them for the school so that is very exciting the kids can’t wait to use them. I was able to get a wireless Internet connection that I can use here at the farm. The connection is limited so I won’t always be on but maybe once a week. I also bought a few things for my room and house. Our last stop was the grocery store so many items I hadn’t ever seen or items that I knew what it was but the packaging was different so I wasn’t sure if I was buying the right thing ha-ha. Well everything here takes time and is a process so trying to get things done quickly is not always easy.

For the past week I have been sleeping at house 2 currently they do not have a housemother they are looking for one to come and stay there with the children. I have loved it there are 11 kids in the house and the ages range from 4 to 19. Being there at night and in the mornings has helped me bond and build relationships with them. Some of the children shy away while others are eager for attention and will jump right into my lap and want me to read to them. The other night I brought over my laptop and we watched a Bugs Life, which they had never seen before, and it was so fun to sit with them and they thought it was hilarious that the bugs could talk.

The weather has been very hot here; we did have a storm on Wednesday night where the thunder and lightening was so intense you could see the bolts right out side of the house. The bugs are terrible but I am still being bitten it must be my sweet blood that attracts them.

The house moms left yesterday to go into town as well to buy school uniforms, shoes, socks etc. Well that is large job there are 35+ kids that they need to buy for and make sure they are getting the correct size and if there uniform is fine from the previous year then they do not get a new one. They typically have two pairs of shoes one for school and one for playing, working etc. They wear the shoes till they are unwearable and the clothes until they are unable to anymore either to small or holes. They also take pride in their things so they take good care of the items they are given so that they last for a long time.

The kids here are so fun and joyful you walk along in the farm and they are in the trees, playing in the water, playing games, coloring etc. It is their holiday so they often find fun things to do during the day. However they all work on the farm in their own gardens where they get their food from, or they help with the cows, planting seeds, doing chores etc. They work so hard and love to help.

The view here is amazing; everything is green, lots of trees, hills and mountains. As soon as I am able to I will upload pictures.