Women’s Camp July 07

“We Love Because
He First Loved Us”

“We Love Because He First Loved Us.” 1 John 4:19. The topic of God’s love is, of course, pretty broad and HUGE, but at our women’s retreat here in Swaziland last weekend, we saw it demonstrated in some very specific ways, as we looked at the important truths found in that little piece of scripture.

The retreat was held at a huge house AIM has rented in the city of Manzini to house teams and also events like our retreat. It’s only about 20 minutes away from the rural area where the 30 women attending come from, but with a nice bed all to themselves, indoor plumbing, electricity, and no piles of clothes waiting to be hand washed, I think it seemed like a weekend away at a 5 star hotel to them. The women were especially excited about the big bath tubs, and after the first night one of the women told me she had woken up at 3am, and was so excited that she got up and took a bath right then.  🙂 

My friend Marcia taught on Saturday morning about the difference between our love and the pure love of God. She shared how we can’t really love until we’ve been filled to over flowing with God’s pure love. The women’s response was great, and we ended up skipping the rest of the morning’s activities just so we could talk and pray with more of the women individually. Many women wanted to talk and pray through unforgiveness in their lives. In a country where women are commonly mistreated, abused, cheated on and abandoned, you can imagine that this would be the case. I was encouraged to see women recognizing the further hurt unforgiveness was causing in their lives, and their desire to get rid of it! 

Sunday Sphiwe Ngwenya, the Director of the Bible Society in Swaziland came and spoke to the women. I didn’t understand hardly a word she said, but I was just so happy to have a Swazi woman there, speaking to the women in their own language, and I could see the women were too! Many of these women are hungry to hear God’s word, but most don’t have a Siswatti Bible. We had scriptures written out in SiSwatti and hung all over the house for the weekend, and several times I saw women walking around with a notebook and pen, writing down every word.

(ABOVE LEFT: the women got a chance to go “shopping” courtesy of clothing donations from South african churches. ABOVE RIGHT: We did face masks w/ the ladies (which was very funny) and learned that Ellie is petrified of black women w/ bright green face masks on!)

(ABOVE LEFT: team building exercises w/ the ladies. It was hilarious watching them trying to work together to walk on the giant “skiis” ABOVE RIGHT: They learned to do a little baking Sat afternoon. My mom’s banana bread recipe was a huge hit. 🙂

The weekend was good. We laughed a lot. The ladies were blessed w/ a restful weekend, new clothes, KFC chicken (they LOVE IT!), and even a big paycheck from bag sales (about $70/ea!) We heard great truth about loving God and loving others. The women left with huge smiles on their faces.

In spite of a wonderful weekend, my heart has been heavy for the ladies. Our attendance at the retreat ended up being only 30, when we’d expected about 50, because so many women had to stay home to attend funerals. One of the women that is HIV positive, seems to be showing signs that her body is giving way to AIDS. She has 3 young children. I found out that another woman’s husband is sick and weak. I cringe when I hear this (which is often), knowing that the husband more than likely has AIDS, that the wife is also probably headed in the same direction, and that there are sure to be more children left as orphans. Some days it feels like this country is in a tail-spin that can’t be reversed. BUT, in the midst of seeming hopelessness, I’m so thankful that God allows me to be a part of even small things like this weekend…to see him bringing joy and hope and love to these women, and to be reminded of just what a powerful thing the love of God really is.

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NOTE: Ellie and I will in the U.S. late Oct through the holidays this year. I’m working on getting our schedule put together. If you know of any churches or groups that might be interested in us coming and sharing about our work in Swaziland, please let me know. We are hoping to get connected with other churches or individuals that might be interested in supporting us and our ministry in Swaziland. THANKS for getting the word out!

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We’ll end this extra long blog with a couple cute pictures of Ellie:

ABOVE: Ellie insisted on wearing her pink rain boots while riding her pink motorcycle!
(cool boots and bike courtesy of Katy. Cool sweatshirt courtesy of Heidi) BELOW: Ellie and I often go to a little cafe’ about 30 min from where we live that also has a cool little playground. She loves it.