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Now in Swaziland


Posted in Swaziland by Miles Tiegs on 7/18/2009


 

Well we are in Swaziland right now. Our original intention was to come here so we booked our bus tickets. Then we found out that our ministry contact fell thru. Huh. That's only like the 18th time that has happened to us on this trip, so we didn't get to stressed out. We felt like God was calling us to Swaziland and we had bus tickets. About a day and a half before we left I came in contact with a guy that said he had a place for us to stay, and plenty of things for us to do. He said it was kind of an experiment for them too. They have never had a team come for ministry. Not really knowing what to expect we took off.

It turns out we are staying in an old dairy parlor that is converted into a backpackers hostel. It's out in the country outside of Manzini. We got hooked up with a group Christians here that have been helping us with all kinds of stuff. Our ministry is mainly a place called the Remar center. It is basically an orphanage. The kids are pretty much all from the street. There is a lot of hurt and heartache there. We have just been spending large amounts of time there, playing and interacting with the kids, and trying to mentor the older ones. It is a huge thing for these kids to have a stranger come in and show them love and care. Also a big part of our ministry there has been prayer. Since we have been there we have experienced a lot of spiritual attack. So every day we spend a lot of time praying over the place. It has been amazing to see the difference that it makes.
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Mozambique ministry


Posted in Mozambique by Miles Tiegs on 7/6/2009


Our ministry took on a new twist this last month. We were with three other teams in the same ministry. This was great in some ways but in others more of a challenge I guess. The larger group made things harder to organize, but it was nice because people could do things related more to there gifting.
Our month got off to kind of a shaky start. Unfortunately we weren't able to give our ministry contact Jaco, very much notice that we were coming, so there weren't things lined up for us to do when we got there. Thankfully Jaco and his family were very gracious and let us camp out at their place for a few days while we made arrangements for our outreach. We were able to bless them by helping out with chores and work projects around the place while we were working out the details. Let me tell you, when you want to travel in Africa, don't plan on anything going according to plan. Just for example. When we were finally heading out to our village, our bus driver decides that he won't cross a certain river into another province. So we ended up driving another 20 miles up stream and crossed the river in dugout canoes. Then we had to walk a couple miles to the village. Oh, and everything costs more than the quoted price in the end.
We had quite the African bush experience this last month. Sleeping in tents, cooking over a fire, craping in a hole, washing in the river, and so on. It was all quite fun ☺. We had a lot of different ministry opportunities in the village. We were working with the local church there. There was a conference of sorts that we did teachings at. We went and prayed in the hospital. We did evangelism. We played with kids at the local school and so on. It became apparent after a several days that the church we were with was not very well grounded in the Bible and basic theology. So we also spent a lot of time speaking truth into the leaders and encouraging them. This was a very rewarding experience for a lot of us.
Overall it was a good month. I took over the leadership responsibilities for my team at the beginning of the month, so it was a little more challenging for me having to deal with all the arrangements. I think that this is an area that God wants to grow me in. If you could pray for me in that area that would be great.
 
Making a new drain at Jaco's

 
Tenting in the Bush
 
Anna B. watching the sunset at Jaco's
 
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Long awaited update


Posted in Mozambique by Miles Tiegs on 7/6/2009


All right, so I have to play a little catch up here. My Internet access has been limited since leaving Asia. Basically after leaving Malaysia, we traveled down to Singapore and toured for a few days. Then we headed back up to Bangkok and met up with the rest of the squad for debrief. We arrived in Johannesburg South Africa on June 2nd. That was actually quite a climate shock. We went from the 110 plus heat of Thailand to S.A. which is in the middle of winter. Our first night was in the 40's. The beginning of the month was a bit disorganized. Our contacts here didn't seem to be working out. After two days in Johannesburg we headed up to Nelspruit for about 4 or 5 days while we sorted out our ministry locations. We had a good time there spending time together as a squad. From there we headed up to Mozambique for the rest of the month. Now we are back in Nelspruit again for debrief. I would like to keep this more up to date, but our internet access just hasn't been very good. Hopefully I will be able to keep you more updated at our next location.
This is at an island that we visited in Mozambique.
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