First Round of Photos!!

The long awaited photos are up.  I spent half a day yesterday narrowing down the best of my photos and the ones that I absolutely wanted to print and share.  Then I looked how many were in my album of must-haves--and it was 571!  Ouch.  So I painstakingly narrowed it down to 500.  These are the first 125 of my 500 best.  There are pictures of scarves and stickers interspersed throughout on happy cooks, teachers, and kiddos.

Loving Swaziland

I am staying very busy and not having much opportunity to post (or sleep), but I wanted to say I am having a fantastic time with the kids here, and the cooks are LOVING their scarves. When I say "Make, I have a present for you," they smile and clasp their hands over their hearts. Then I let them choose the scarves they want, and they hold them close like a treasure. I have some pictures, but so far no luck posting them from here. When I get back I'll share all my photos and videos with you.
Today we bathed the children at the care point in wash tubs and massaged their clean skin with cocoa butter lotion. They just loved the adoring attention. What a beautiful day.
And, to top it all of, there were monkeys swinging from the trees when we got back to the property where we're staying this afternoon. Wow.

Sanibonani! Hello from Swaziland.

We have finally arrived at Emafini, the place where we'll be staying in Swaziland. It's beautiful. We have a nice view of the mountains from our room, and it smells like jasmine when we walk outside. My good friend Beth is rooming with me, and we even have a kettle so that I can boil water to make coffee in the morning. Life is good.



We began travelling at 5:30 am Thursday morning, and it is now 6:30 pm Saturday evening, so getting here was quite an undertaking. But now that we're here we ae very excited and can't wait to dig in to work. Tomorrow morning we'll go to Healing Place Church--Swaziland and then maybe do a driving tour of some of the areas where we'll be working.



Monday we intended to do some painting at one of the Care Points, but today the king decided to declare Monday a holiday in his own honor, so stores may not be open to buy paint. In that case, we'll switch gears and fill in a septic tank overflow area with large rocks for drainage. This is at one of the Care Points that is not yet fully sponsored and still needs a good bit of work. Apparently the septic system is right where the children like to play soccer, and there's a danger one might fall right in. So we will fix that up and then paint whenever we can get materials.



Tomorrow I hope to begin posting photos from the tip. The connection speed seems ok here, so hopefully I can post something new every day.



I already showed the missionaries the scarves and stickers that we collected, and they are really excited. They said we'll be showing the kids and ladies so much love by handing them out. I think the work we do here is going to be really impactful. Please continue to pray for us. This team is ready to work. I can't wait to report back to you on everything that happens.

Open House

Thank you! Thank you! to everyone who came to our Children's Cup open house.  I had a great time and was so excited to share more about Swaziland with you.  Here's a great photo of the girls getting into Swazi culture.

I'm off to Swaziland tomorrow morning and can't wait to send updates via my blog.  Check here for photos of kids with the stickers you donated and ladies wearing the scarves.  I'm so thrilled to be taking so many scarves there and more stickers than I can ever imagine being able to hand out! :)  If the photos aren't up right away it's because the downloads are too slow in Swaziland.  I promise I'll put them up as soon as I can.

ALSO--Check the team blog for news at fromthefield.wordpress.com.  There should be new posts every day letting you know what kind of activities we're up to.  Please keep us in your prayers.  

You Are Invited

To a Dessert Open House

Wednesday July 16, 7-9:00 pm

at the home of Jill Markey, 1555 Drury Ct.

We will be enjoying desserts and coffee as we come together to make a direct impact on the lives of women and children in Swaziland, Africa.  Please invite your friends and bring your daughters.

Sticker Drive, Scarf Collection and Financial Contributions

By Kids-For Kids Sticker Drive: Ask your children to purchase a pack of stickers that you will bring to the Open House. We will take the stickers to Swaziland in September and give them to children at the Children's Cup CarePoints. I'll post pictures of the Swazi kids with their stickers here on my blog, and our St John's kids will be able to see the very stickers that they purchased in the hands of happy Swazi kids. This is a great opportunity for our kids to see a vivid example of how they personally can make a difference.
We're also collecting hair scarves for the volunteer cooks who work all day feeding children at the CarePoints. Many of these women are widowed moms with babies on their backs or grandmas who have stepped into the gap to raise children left behind by the death of their parents. As part of their traditional dress, they wrap their hair with large scarves. We're collecting scarves (bandana size or larger) to take as gifts for these women who have so little.  Bring the scarves to the Open House, and we'll put pictures up in late September of the women who receive your loving gift.
Finally, we will be accepting financial donations for Children's Cup's life-transforming ministries. Any funds raised will be a direct investment in the lives of Children's Cup kids: providing food, medical care, education, etc. A little money goes a long way in Swaziland. With a relatively small investment on our part, many children's lives will be transformed. And you will be able to see photos of the direct impact of your kindness and generosity posted here on my blog while I'm in Swaziland and receive updates after my return.

"A capable, intelligent and virtuous woman . . . She is far more precious than jewels and her value is far above rubies or pearls . . . She tastes and sees that her work is good . . . She opens her hands to the poor, yes, she reaches out her filled hands to the needy.” Proverbs 31

Each Children's Cup Child:

• Receives a hot, nutritious meal each day.
  
• Receives basic education.
• Receives monthly medical evaluation/growth tracking and basic health care as needed.
  
• Is offered AIDS testing.
• Is offered access to life-saving ARVs (medicine for controlling AIDS symptoms), if needed.
• Is offered access to ARVs for parents, if needed, as well.
• Receives AIDS prevention education.
• Receives monthly hygiene packet including soap, toothbrush, tooth paste, vitamins to ensure better basic health.
  
• Receives basic hygiene education.
  
• Has the opportunity to attend weekly Kids' Club meetings for spiritual development.
  
• Has the opportunity to attend Camp.
  
• Is given a Christmas gift.
  
• Is given hat and gloves for the winter.
  
• Has the opportunity for leadership training through our Dynamics Program. (older kids)
  
• Is offered vocational training. (older kids)